Genesis 40 Series, Part 10, Verses 5-8

Hello, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Today is study #10 in Genesis 40, and we will read Genesis 40:5-8:

And they dreamed a dream both of them, each man his dream in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison. And Joseph came in unto them in the morning, and looked upon them, and, behold, they were sad. And he asked Pharaoh's officers that were with him in the ward of his lord's house, saying, Wherefore look ye so sadly to day? And they said unto him, We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph said unto them, Do not interpretations belong to God? tell me them, I pray you.

They both dreamed a dream that troubled them. Interpretations belong to God, as Joseph told them, and then he will interpret their dreams. We are looking at the Bible’s information regarding dreams, and in our last study we looked at Jeremiah 23:27-28 and also verse 32. We saw that the Lord connects dreaming dreams with false prophets. We will turn back to Jeremiah because there are a couple of similar passages. It says in Jeremiah 27:8-10:

And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith JEHOVAH, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand. Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon: For they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish.

Jeremiah is a true prophet, and God did speak to Jeremiah and He moved Jeremiah to say the things we read in the book of Jeremiah or the book of Lamentations. Yet there were many others who called themselves prophets. It is not something the Bible hides but it reveals throughout scripture that the true prophets of the Lord are few. Prophets that were operating under the power of Satan (a liar from the beginning) are numerous. We can look at Elijah’s encounter with the prophets of Baal, and there was a great contest between them. Jeremiah said, “…the God that answereth by fire, let him be God.” So the prophets of Baal were jumping around and cutting themselves all day long but they could not bring down fire from heaven. Then Elijah had them pour water on the sacrifice and the firewood, and he called on the true God. There is the true God, and there are true prophets of that true God, but there are also many false gods and false prophets of their false gods, even if they may call themselves Christians in our day. They have a god that they carved out of their own minds, and they have their own doctrines as they pervert the scriptures. It is just like people in ancient times that chopped down a tree, carved an image, and decked it with gold and silver, and then worshipped it. But today men are much more advanced than that. “Oh, we are far wiser today.” No, they are not because what they do today is carve their gods out of their own minds or the minds of their theologians, and each denomination has its own version of their false gospels. They differ from one another, so obviously there are thousands of falsehoods that are never corrected.

Again, there are many false prophets, the emissaries of Satan, and do not think that there are not multitudes of them. We read in 2Corinthians 11:13:

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.

By the way, how do they transform themselves into the apostles of Christ? Do they change their physical appearance? No. Then what is it that causes this transformation into an apostle of Christ? They do it by transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ through their doctrine. They take the name of Christian, and they join a church, and the churches make that super easy for the ungodly people of the world by their abundance of false teachings. They beckon the world: “Come, walk down the aisle and make a decision for Christ.” You might be saying, “Well, the Lord Jesus wanted the ungodly of the world to hear the Gospel message.” But it is one thing to say during the church age, “Come, we are teaching the true Gospel of the Bible,” which is that man is a sinner, desperately wicked and dead in trespasses and sins, and unable to do anything to get himself saved. Then after teaching these truths, point out that they are in a precarious situation to be in their sins and subject to death at any point in time, and they need the Saviour. Again, it must be pointed out that they cannot do anything to save themselves. “You cannot walk down the aisle. You cannot say the Sinner’s Prayer to get saved, and you cannot accept Christ. Yes, you can physically and intellectually do these things, but that is not true salvation. True salvation is the work of God.” Then we can share scriptures like John 15:16: “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you…” We are not born of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, as it says in John 1:13. It is of God. God will have mercy upon whom He will have mercy. It is all of God. The Bible says, “Salvation is of the Lord.” It is not of man. 

Again, we are talking about a scenario that would have happened during the church age, and the church could have been filled with hundreds of people. The true Gospel could have been preached to the whole town on a Friday or Saturday, and then you could have waited for the whole town to come to the Sunday service, and maybe one or two would show up. You did not lie to them. You see, the truth attracts few, and that is because many are called but few are chosen. If a church had been built that way, it may not have been filled 100% with the elect, but more than likely there would have been many elect because the ungodly non-elect cannot stand the truth. They would not flock in masses to a church where the true Gospel was proclaimed. 

For example, if they were told that speaking in tongues is a sign for the unbeliever and it is evidence of Satan working in that congregation…and the same is true for “falling over backwards.” It is not a sign of having the Holy Spirit in salvation, but it is rightly called “being slain in the spirit” because it is an indicator that the Spirit of God is killing these souls that have fallen into the snare of another of Satan’s lies. If they were told the truth, it would have emptied out the churches. But, again, it is too late now because the church age is over.

Again, it said in 2Corinthians 11:13-14:

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

Satan does not come in a red suit, with horns and a pitchfork, and with some dastardly beard. But he comes as an “angel of light,” and “light” points to salvation in the Bible. The light of the sun is a picture God bringing the Gospel light unto salvation, so Satan and his emissaries come as messengers of light: “I am going to bring salvation to you – I am going to tell you the truth.” But it is the same lie that he told Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden: “Ye shall not surely die.” We see the countless wars and killing that have taken place physically upon the earth, and worse yet, the spiritual killing, but Satan says, “Ye shall not surely die,” and it was no doubt said with sweetness as if Satan wanted the best for them. Satan wants men to think that he has their absolute best interest at heart, and that is why his emissaries tell people, “God loves you, and He has a wonderful plan for your life. All you have to do is accept Him!” And they would not have anyone doubt that lie. But this is what God says about the free will gospel as He speaks to the false prophets in Ezekiel 13:22:

Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life:

What strengthens the hand of the wicked? The lies. The “hand” represents the will of a man. The wicked are of their father the devil, and they love to hear the lie: “Tell me more about this instant pudding salvation where I can get myself saved in five minutes. I want to hear more of that!” When these lies are preached, people flocked to them in droves. But here is what God says about their lies: “…and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life.”

Does that sound familiar? Does EBible Fellowship promise anyone life? No, and most people do not like us because we speak “nothing good,” as far as they are concerned. It is just like Ahab said of the prophet Micaiah: “…I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.” He was speaking to Jehoshaphat, a true man of God. Ahab had about 400 false prophets of Baal that come out to prophesy concerning the battle that he and Jehoshaphat were about to fight together against an enemy. And they told the king “sweet nothings,” and they said, “Go and prosper. The Lord is with you. You will surely win the battle.” They spoke with one voice. But Jehoshaphat was a true child of God and he was able to discern the “voice of Christ,” and their prophecy did not sit right with him. And yet the prophets were unanimous, and there were hundreds of them, and that fact also should not sit right with the child of God. God tells in the Bible that when multitudes agree, it is not a good thing. It is an indicator that something is wrong because the true Gospel is always the way of “few.” It is the narrow way. It is the broad way to destruction that attracts the masses. So Jehoshaphat sensed that something was off, and he asked, “Is there not here a prophet of JEHOVAH besides, that we might enquire of him?” He was wanting someone that identified more with JEHOVAH than these prophets of Baal. Then Ahab said there was one man, but he hated him because he never prophesied good concerning him. Then Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say so.” So they called Micaiah the prophet, but they first warned him and encouraged him regarding what they wanted him to say: “Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth: let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good.” They were trying to influence him.

So Micaiah said to the king, “Go, and prosper: for JEHOVAH shall deliver it into the hand of the king.” But he must have said it in a way that seemed mocking and insincere. And this was actually a habit of Micaiah whenever he spoke to this evil king of Israel, but Ahab responded, “How many times shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of JEHOVAH?” That was rather ironic as Ahab definitely preferred the lies of his false prophets. Then Micaiah told him the truth that if he went to this battle he would die. And of course that was truth, and it did happen. Ahab was hit by an arrow “by chance,” but it was all according to the perfect will of God. God is in complete control of all circumstances and situations. So there was a man in this battle that perhaps shot his arrow into the air without aiming, and God directed the course of that arrow to find Ahab. It struck him with a fatal wound, and he died. 

You see, God’s people are an extremely minority voice. There was that one true prophet Micaiah, and there were literally hundreds of prophets of Baal. Remember what the Lord says in Luke 6:22-26:

Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep. Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.

It is Satan’s emissaries who came as angels of light. They flatter men and tell them what they want to hear. Men do not want to hear that their spiritual condition is that they are “dead in sin,” and that even in the day of salvation they could do nothing to get themselves saved. Who wants to hear that? On the other hand, here comes the false prophets with their false gospels, and they say, “Do not listen to that. Here is what the Bible says.” They may show you a couple of verses and their surface meaning, but they do not harmonize their verses with the rest of the Bible. But they will insist, “It says right here. All you have to do is believe, and salvation is yours! Now just come to our church in the future.” That is the lie of the devil as he promises life. He promises good things. He promises love. He says that Christ died for everyone. And yet that is not true. Christ died for certain ones.

Again, it says in 2Corinthians 11:14-15:

And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

They are Satan’s ministers, not God’s ministers. Who are they today? It is very important to know. God has helped us because He has ended the church age. In ending the church age, He tells us in Ezekiel 34 that He caused the pastors to cease from feeding the flock. Therefore, at this point in time, if there is a pastor, minister, priest, bishop, pope, elder, or deacon, or anyone that claims spiritual authority in a church, they are not ministers of God. God has ended His relationship with all such ministers, and He has caused them to stop feeding the flock. There should be no churches, no preaching in churches, no Sunday schools in churches, and no mission work of churches. The church age is over, and all their activity is not of God. And if it is not of God, it is pretty obvious where the activity comes from, as it is coming from those who have transformed themselves. They have done the work by taking the name of Christ, and so forth. It is not anything from God.

We have run out of time. In our next study we will move on, looking at dreams in the Bible. It is a subject matter that has not gotten too much attention. Thank you for joining us, and we hope you join us for our next Bible study.