Gen. 11
The little episode of the chief butler and the chief baker in the history of Joseph is full of interest, and unquestionably something may be learned from it.
By no violent transition of thought are we thereby reminded of the two malefactors who were companions in suffering with the anti-typical Joseph, the Lord Jesus at Calvary.
But let us first take a glance at the central figure in each case: Joseph was (1) separated from his brethren by their wickedness, and (2) was the revealer of secrets to burdened hearts, as Daniel during the captivity. Just so was Christ refused by His own, betrayed and sold for so many pieces of silver to the hand of enemies, but was nevertheless in His humiliation, the revealer, as well as the revelation of what was in the heart of God for us. Joseph had done nothing amiss, being himself guiltless and pure, but became (3) the companion of the guilty, and the touchstone in the very scene of his sorrow and shame for exaltation or judgment to them. How perfectly does this shine out in Christ; on the cross one thief continued to revile while the other was secured by grace, and becoming “Redemption’s earliest trophy” as the hymn says, accompanied the blessed One, his Saviour, to paradise.
Joseph, and he only, could supply the solution of that grave question which stood between the two and royal favor, and no sufferings or bonds of his served to divert him from considering the grievous case in which his companions lay. How thoroughly is he at leisure for them, evincing an unsolicited interest and concern for their sorrow, and laying himself out to unfold to each the true state of his case. How beautifully and how touchingly true of Christ Himself, if we trace His precious ways of mercy and compassion towards the sorrowing, suffering sons and daughters of humanity! Dear reader have you ever thought that Christ has leisure for you, that He is really interested in those that draw near to Him, and that He alone is able to lift that imperfectly-concealed load that burdens your conscience, and remove the constant sense of aching void and unrest that oppresses and wearies your poor heart, hide it how much you may? Believe it, dear reader; believe it even now, for His own blessed lips declared “I will give you rest,” and again, “Ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Oh, that now at length you would come to Him who pleads with the weary and the heavy laden, and assures them beforehand of His ability and His willingness to bless!
Each of these companions dreamed a dream.
In the visions of the night God had spoken to them supernaturally, to produce a divine impression or to awaken conscience, as doubtless He does even to this day (see Job 33:14-17.)
Only Joseph could interpret, for Christ alone is the key to every communication, of whatever kind, which God makes to the soul. His gracious word of John 5:21, “He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment” is not a whit more true in blessing to the believer than “the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” is true against those who, because of their impenitence in their sins, are irreparably lost.
In each case it is from the Man once here in suffering and in shame, but for sin not His own, that the final issue must be learned. His sheep hear His voice who says “Come unto me;” the rejectors of His grace will learn at last at the solemn session of the “great white throne” (Rev. 20:11) that their eternal doom is pronounced alone by Him!
Within three days (how suggestive of death and resurrection, the foundation of all that God is doing) their heads were to be lifted up, the one to blessing and the royal favor, the other, (where “from off thee” is added) to utter ruin, these being the ultimate and irrevocable results admitting no appeal. And it is well we should clearly recognize that the cross is the alone basis of all final issues, and final indeed they are, for the cross unfolds both grace and judgment, vindicating God in righteousness because He is light, while in no degree invalidating man’s responsibility, although it be true that God is love! The butler and the baker, like the two Jerusalem thieves, were in the same condemnation and we may reasonably and safely infer that they thoroughly deserved the displeasure of the King. How true is this of every sinner, whatever be the issue of his case.
See now the compassion of Joseph’s heart, “Why look ye so sadly today?” he says; he saw that their agitation was great, their countenances betrayed the depth of their trouble. But, dear reader, the true Joseph reads your conscience and your heart, and though your face may be gay with smiles, and your ways full of frivolity, He knows there is a worm at the root and that often you are ill at ease, especially if God speak in the dark of night to your soul in visions upon your bed! Christ knows the burden of your heart, poor sinner, and He puts Himself before you as the expositor of God’s mind to all who have forfeited His favor!
How pathetic was the cry “there is no interpreter!” How little they knew that a divinely qualified one was at their very side; and hearing their cry how promptly does he cast them upon God. Interpretations belong to Him. “Tell me them, I pray you,” he says. He who stood there a prisoner for God was in no difficulty, he addresses the conscience first as to what would alone satisfy the King, as set forth in the first dream, and then he seeks to draw to himself the heart of the one who has received this divine revelation of grace through him for testimony and service after he is free.
How beautifully does it suggest the grace of Christ to us in His work and in His person, the One who to the sinner says “Tell me,” and whose touching word to the believer when it is well with him is, Think on Me, make mention of Me.
The butler had told his dream at once, waiting not for his companion’s story, for he was truly earnest as well as anxious, and he got his heart made happy by receiving the word. The baker only came forward with his dream, when he found the interpretation of the other was good; really he had no faith in Joseph and probably would never have allowed the dream to escape had not his looks betrayed him. His dream revealed what he was, as well as upon what ground he sought to recover favor; he was careless and indifferent, allowing even the fowls of the air to ravage that which, as typical of his self-righteous religion of works, he purposed to use to render himself acceptable to the king.
The carnal things of man, be they prepared ever so daintily with all the skill of the confectioner, will never be accepted of God; they may attract the birds of prey, but will surely and necessarily be refused of Him. Each of the dreams indicated purpose of heart and revealed to the dreamer what should be the result of the intention he had conceived; one, as it were, significantly attesting that nothing but the blood of Christ will suit God—
“Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to His cross I cling,” the other alleging that God can be propitiated with a present pregnant with oneself and commendatory of one’s own doings. In expressing the juice of the grape, the butler added nothing to it; he presented in the fruit of the vine an unmingled offering of its precious sap and unequaled fragrance, and thus the heart of the king was in figure diverted from the offender and conducted to another and satisfying object, the vine itself; whereas the bakemeats spake only of the maker of them, and brought down added indignation upon the guilty one! In fact, it was Cain’s offering and not Abel’s—a religion of the flesh which, whether rationalistic or ritualistic, God cannot accept, for its principle is not of faith but of works!
How sorrowful a rebuke for our poor hearts is found in the closing verse of the chapter— “yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him.” Surely it speaks volumes of what man is. All had come to pass according to the word of Joseph, and yet is he un-befriended and forgotten!
To sum up the lessons that are before us God accepteth no man’s person, all are alike guilty, having forfeited His favor and incurred His due displeasure; but the blood of Christ gives, through grace, righteous and abiding acceptance with Him while the very choicest of man’s works is utterly obnoxious and ends in irrevocable judgment. Lastly, how the heart of Christ must be grieved beyond expression when we forget the One who, being refused of man, has appealed to those who have learned grace from His lips in the scene of His unjust condemnation, to remember Him who has turned our mourning into joy and gladness!
The Lord grant that you, my reader, may learn the lessons of this chapter very deeply.
1. Christ has leisure for you, have you leisure for Him? “Seek ye him while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.”
2. The anxious, earnest soul who gets into the presence of Christ, having faith in His person as the arbiter of his desperate case, receives a true and a blessed solution of it according to grace.
3. That nothing will atone for sins but the precious blood of Christ which is both the cause and effect of God’s favor.
4. That being saved thereby, the simplest, sweetest, happiest thing is to respond to His invitation and appeal, by thinking of Him and making mention of Him!
May He awaken all who read these lines to the discovery of His fitness for the need, and His value to the heart of every poor sinner who draweth near unto God by Him.
W. R.