Genesis 40 Series, Part 15, Verses 10-15
Hello, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #15 in Genesis 40, and we will read Genesis 40:10-15:
And in the vine were three branches: and it was as though it budded, and her blossoms shot forth; and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes: And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand: and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand. And Joseph said unto him, This is the interpretation of it: The three branches are three days: Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore thee unto thy place: and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manner when thou wast his butler. But think on me when it shall be well with thee, and shew kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house: For indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews: and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon.
I will stop there. We started looking at the butler’s dream that he told to Joseph. He begin to describe the vine, and in the vine were three branches. Then it says, “…and it was as though it budded, and her blossoms shot forth; and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes.” The vine had three branches, and out of the branches came fruitfulness. I think we can sum that much up for now (with the language of budding, blossoming, and clusters bringing forth ripe grapes) that is a picture of being fruitful.
Remember that we know this interpretation is the good one because the butler is going to be restored to his butlership. He will get his job back working for Pharaoh. We can speculate that a possible scenario is that someone had attempted to kill Pharaoh through poisoning of food or drink because the butler and the baker were put in ward. The word “butler” means “cupbearer,” and he was the chief butler in charge of all the drink tasters, as he would not have been able to be available 24 hours a day to taste the Pharaoh’s drinks to make sure they were not poisoned. So there would probably have been a few underlings, and it may have been one of them who was involved in a plot. But he was the chief of the butlers, and he would have been investigated, as well as the baker who was in charge of the food. Both were thrown into prison together.
According to the interpretation, it was three days, as it says in Genesis 40:13:
Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore thee unto thy place: and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manner when thou wast his butler.
There would be three days from the point of interpretation and the butler would be restored. But when we read on, we find the baker will be hanged. We can further speculate that after an investigation, it was determined that the poison was in the food, and not in the drink. So they restored the butler, and they hanged the baker. That would seem to be a reasonable explanation, but God did not give us those details so it is not necessary for us to know, but I think it helps with the overall historical setting of what was happening.
As far as the dream of the butler, we read in Genesis 40:10:
And in the vine were three branches…
We know the three branches represented three days, but what about the vine? The first thing he saw was the vine before him, and in the vine were three branches. The first passage that came to my mind (and probably to many of you) is John 15:1-2:
I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
It is Christ speaking, and He is the vine. Also notice that He said, “my Father is the husbandman,” that tends to the vine. Then we read, “and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. “ What did we notice in Genesis 40 concerning these branches? It says in Genesis 40:10:
… And in the vine were three branches: and it was as though it budded, and her blossoms shot forth; and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes.
It was fruitful. So the vine could be Christ, and the three branches could not only represent the three days, but they could identify with the people of God, as it goes on to say in John 15:3-6:
Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
Again, this is the Bible. This is not a man’s book. Yes, men were used by God to scribe the scriptures, but they were moved by the Spirit, as it says in 2Peter 1:20-21:
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
The Greek word for “private” is “id'-ee-os,” from which we get our English word “idiom,” and idioms are difficult for non-English speaking people who come to America and try to learn English. We have a great many idioms, such as expressions like, “That is cool!” They are looking at the definition for the words, and they think of “cool” as temperature. So they have to learn the idiomatic expressions in our language in order to get comfortable with English.
Likewise, concerning the Bible, it says that no prophecy of the scriptures (the whole Bible) is of any “id'-ee-os” or private, interpretation. It is not one’s own. For example, an American idiom belongs to Americans that have expressions like, “That is nuts!” But they are not speaking of nuts like a squirrel hunts. So the Bible is not according to each individual’s private interpretation. As we are learning in Genesis 40, interpretations belong to God. The secret things belong to the Lord JEHOVAH.
God can reveal these things to His people, and once He reveals them to us, they also belong to us. But it is His Word, or His parable, and He will provide His own definitions and spiritual understanding to the Word so that we can know the “mystery” or hidden truths in the Bible. There are certain keys to unlocking the Word, including comparing spiritual with spiritual; harmonizing conclusions with the whole Bible; and looking for the spiritual meaning as we allow the Bible to define its own terms. Again, it says in 2Peter 1:21:
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
The word “moved” is also translated as “bring,” or “brought,” or “bear,” or “came.” So we could say that holy men of God spoke as they were brought along – God moved them to write down or to declare exactly what He wanted them to say. In other words, God dictated the words to them, just as a CEO would call in his administrative assistant, and he tells this person to write down his words, type them up, and send the memo to everyone in the company. And everyone knows that it is not the words of the administrative assistant but the words of the CEO. And modern man understands this concept very well until it comes to the Bible, and then they tend to think that men wrote the Bible. No. In Jeremiah 36 God goes into fine detail of this process. It says in Jeremiah 36:2:
Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken…
That is how the Bible was completed. Again, it is not of any private interpretation, but it is according to the interpretation of God that is already established, and we have to find them out. You see, the dream is according to the interpretation itself, the truths that the Bible speaks of in “a mystery.” Our goal is to find the truth that is already hidden there, and it is not easy. The Bible is the most difficult book in the world! It is the most complex, and it has levels of meaning, and the depths of the meaning is unplumbed. No one has ever reached the fulness of the measure of scriptures, but we just keep studying.
You know, in our evil day we know lots about the depths of depravity, but this is a positive use of depths - depths of good and wonderful things. As we go into the Bible, we can go ever deeper, according to the grace and kindness of God, according to His will for us as His people, and yet the Bible is boundless in its glorious magnificence. He opens to us portals of understanding through parables, as well as through the dreams He recorded for us in Genesis 40, and so forth.
Again, we know that Jesus is the vine with three branches. Can anything else be the vine? We have to ask this, and the answer is, “Yes.” We read in Psalm 80:8:
Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.
This is really a very descriptive statement of actual history. God brought Israel out of Egypt, and after wandering in the wilderness for forty years, God brought them into the land of Canaan where there were “heathens,” or the nations. And God cast them out and planted His vine, national Isarel. So historically, national Israel can be likened to a vine, as well as what national Israel represents, which is the New Testament churches. Because Israel was unfaithful in their day, God said in 1Kings 9 that He would turn Israel into a proverb. So when we say that Israel represents something, that is in keeping with the parabolic nature of the whole Bible. We had better look for the deeper spiritual meaning. Israel is a picture of the New Testament churches and congregations. Israel was actually called “the church in the wilderness” in the book of Acts.
There is often a dual level of meaning when we read of Isarel or Judah in the Old Testament. Of course there is the historical situation, but at the same time God is painting a spiritual picture of the New Testament churches. For example, in the book of Jeremiah there is the account of the assault of King Nebuchadnezzare and the Babylonian army against Judah and Jerusalem, and it is a historical parable that is painting a picture of God loosing Satan at the time of the end to come against the churches and congregations.
So in Psalm 80:8, keep in mind that historically it is talking about Israel, but spiritually it is describing the churches as a vine planted by God, and it goes on to say in Psalm 80:9-16:
Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river. Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it. Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine; And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself. It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.
What did we read in John 15:5-6? Christ said, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” It is not telling us of physical things. It is telling us of spiritual things. And this is telling us of the churches that are likened to a vine that has been planted, and the branches are not abiding in Christ, so they are burned. The wrath of God comes against them, as judgment begins at the house of God.
Notice what it says in Psalm 80:12:
Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?
We will discuss this further next time, but it says in Isaiah 5:1:
Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
Then it says in Isaiah 5:4-5:
What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
He has taken away the hedge of the vineyard. When we look into the Bible regarding the vineyard it adds complexity because God had two vineyards. He had the vineyard of national Israel, and then the vineyard of the New Testament church. There is nothing easy about the Bible because God tells us about the Old Testament vineyard in the New Testament book of Matthew, and He tells us about the New Testament vineyard in the Old Testament in Isaiah 5.
We look forward to our next study together as we open the Bible and look carefully at what God is saying to each one of us.