Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20000423.htm

GENESIS: THE SOURCES OF GOOD AND CALAMITY IN OUR ORIGINS
Part III - God's Ongoing Program Of Countering Man's Apostasy At Babel
EE. Round Thirty - Taking Advantage Of God's Intervening Helps By Faith
(Genesis 41:1-57)
  1. Introduction
    1. Unless one consistently lives by faith in God's Word, he will not be able to perceive some of the opportunities for blessing when events create such opportunities under God's leading.
    2. Joseph's faithful vigilance in trusting God's initial promises kept him aware of God's moves, and thus equipped him to take full advantage of God's opportunities for blessing once those opportunities arrived:
  2. Taking Advantage Of God's Intervening Helps By Faith, Genesis 41:1-57.
    1. Some years before he ended in Pharaoh's prison, Joseph received two dreams from God that predicted he would rule over his family and other nations, Gen. 37:6-11; Bible Knowledge Com., O.T., p. 86-87.
    2. While in that prison, Joseph learned to continue trusting the promise given in those original dreams, for God indicated his original interpretation of those dreams was correct and thus worth ANTICIPATING:
      1. Pharaoh's chief baker and chief butler fell out of his favor and landed up in prison with Joseph, 40:1-3.
      2. There, both men dreamed and Joseph interpreted each of their dreams to mean contrasting future events: the baker would be hanged but the butler restored to his former position, Genesis 40:4-19.
      3. Joseph's interpretations of these two dreams proved to be correct, encouraging him that his original interpretation of his own two dreams in Genesis 37 were correct and worth anticipating!
    3. However, this lesson came with a test of Joseph's faith regarding his waiting for God's timing:
      1. Joseph had asked the butler to use his restoration to pull for Joseph's release, Genesis 40:14-15.
      2. However, once restored out of prison, the butler forgot about Joseph for two years, 40:21, 23; 41:1a.
      3. Thus, Joseph was left trusting his uncertain future to God for another two years.
    4. Yet, in God's timing, GOD worked to provide an opportunistic opening for Joseph's exaltation, and only because Joseph was faithfully VIGILANT could he take FULL advantage of it, Genesis 41:1b-57:
      1. God intervened to create a sudden, great opportunity of advancement for Joseph, Genesis 41:1b-15:
        1. In time, the Lord gave Pharaoh a series of two dreams, Genesis 41:1b-4, 5-7.
        2. These dreams pictured bountiful things being consumed by lean ones, a troubling theme, Gen. 41:8.
        3. At this point, the chief butler remembered Joseph, put a good word in for him to Pharaoh so as to create an opening for Joseph's rise to meet Pharaoh, Genesis 41:9-13.
        4. Joseph was thus hurriedly summoned into Pharaoh's presence to interpret his dreams, Genesis 41:14.
        5. Joseph had the precedents of correctly interpreting two sets of two dreams before, once in Genesis 37 regarding his own rise to power and again in Genesis 40 regarding the contrasting rise and fall of Pharaoh's butler and baker respectively. Thus, the pattern was set for him to discern Pharaoh's two dreams as (a) dealing with a single theme (Gen. 37) of (b) contrasting events (Gen. 40).
      2. Joseph gave glory to God for his capacity to interpret, and used the precedents of interpreting his past dreams to conclude correctly that both dreams dealt with a single idea of contrasting events: 7 coming lean years would consume the yield of 7 good years, so resource management was necessary, 41:16-32.
      3. However, knowing it would take good management to handle this national need, and experienced in his years of managing Potiphar's ESTATE, Joseph JUMPED at the chance to recommend someone to manage Egypt's grain resources, making an job opening for HIMSELF, 41:33-37.
      4. Pharaoh immediately recognized Joseph as the man for the job, and Joseph thus immediately rose to power due to God's opening being grasped by Joseph's faithful opportunism, Gen. 41:38-57.
Lesson: Because of His VIGILANT trust in God's promises of his past, a vigilance NURTURED by heeding God's ENCOURAGEMENT along the way, Joseph could take FULL advantage of God's OPENINGS for advancement once the Lord brought them along for him.

Application: The life of faith involves not only TRUSTING God's promises to us, but of SUSTAINING that trust over years of time so as to be READY to take FULLEST ADVANTAGE of God's blessings once He fulfills His initial promises and opens up promised opportunities for fulfillment in our behalf.