Genesis 40 Series, Part 11, Verses 8-19

Hello, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Today is study #11 in Genesis 40, and we will read Genesis 40:8-19:

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. And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, In my dream, behold, a vine was before me; 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. When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, and, behold, I had three white baskets on my head: And in the uppermost basket there was of all manner of bakemeats for Pharaoh; and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head. And Joseph answered and said, This is the interpretation thereof: The three baskets are three days: Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee.

I will stop reading there. We have been looking at the word “dream,” or “dreams,” in the Bible, trying to understand the spiritual meaning because this is the Bible. Christ spoke in parables, and the law is spiritual. We are to compare spiritual with spiritual, and that is very appropriate when doing Bible study. It is really the purpose of Bible study. If you do not find the deeper spiritual meaning (the Gospel teaching), you have not done a very good job of Bible study. You might learn some history or some nice moral teaching, but where is the Gospel? Unfortunately, in 99% of the cases, people think they have covered it all, and they move on but the buried treasures lie beneath. We must dig deeper to find it.

As we were looking at the word “dream,” we went to Jeremiah 23:27-28 and 32, and Jeremiah 27:8-10, and in both places God connects those who say they received a dream from God to false prophecies. A third place we see this is in Jeremiah 29:8-9:

For thus saith JEHOVAH of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed. For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith JEHOVAH.

Do you see how dreams go hand in hand with prophecy? If we place ourselves in the land of Judah about 2,600 years ago, Judah was being threatened by Babylon’s assaults. We are fearful and troubled, wondering what we are to do, and then somebody wakes up one morning and says, “I had a dream! In this dream God came and helped us.” The person could have dreamed that as everybody does dream, and of course all the people would have been thinking about their tragic circumstances of being threatened by this great enemy’s power. So naturally they may dream a dream about deliverance, and they think it was from God, but it was not actually from God. 

Jeremiah was a true prophet, and he was getting messages from God to tell the people that they had been unfaithful, and God was raising up King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians to bring judgment upon them. “Do not fight against it. Submit yourselves, and go into captivity.” That was the true message, but it sounded very unpatriotic, did it not? It sounded very defeatist. Yes, and that is because God’s judgment was upon them. God was not going to fight on behalf of that rebellious and corrupt nation. This is something the churches do not get because at the time of the end judgment began with the house of God. The churches had been engaged in a spiritual battle against the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of Satan, as they went forth with the Gospel. But what happened at the time of the end during the Great Tribulation which began on May 21, 1988 and went to May 21, 2011? And what was the character of the churches during that time? They were being defeated by the kingdom of Satan. The kingdom of Satan laughed at their mission and whatever Gospel endeavor they participated in. Their so-called Gospel endeavors only prospered due to their corruption of the true Gospel. That is, the only way they succeeded in bringing numbers of people into their fold was to pervert the true Gospel that said, “Salvation is of the Lord.” Instead, they twisted the Gospel, and they said, “You believe. You walk down the aisle. We will (water) baptize you, and you are ready for Judgment Day. You are in the kingdom of God.” They told lie after lie, which is akin to “false dreams.” 

And the prophets of old did similar things, saying things the people wanted to hear. They proclaimed their dreams. “I had a dream. God came to me, and He will beat back the King of Babylon and his army.” And there were instances in the history of Israel when God did that very thing, like God did in Judah with good king Hezekiah. The enemy army of the Assyrians came against the city of Jerusalem and camped about it. Hezekiah gave praise to the Lord, and Isaiah was sent to Hezekiah with the Word of the Lord that he was not to worry because the Assyrians would not be allowed to enter into the city. The army of 185,000 was struck dead by God. You can see how that historical fact could really have played on the minds of people because God had done this before. But that was a different time and a different people, in the sense that King Hezekiah was a picture of Christ with His people (Judah), or of Christ in the midst of the churches. But at the time of the end, Christ departed from the churches, and there was no “good king.” Satan entered in to rule in the congregations at the time of the end, to their destruction.

Again, there was the dreaming of dreams and telling people what they wanted to hear, but it was not from God. God’s true prophets prophesy of judgment. The Bible tells us that. Sometimes people say, “EBible Fellowship teach it is Judgment Day, and the door is shut and nobody is being saved. They are not of God. They are heretics! They are obviously lies of the devil.” But they forget that Satan comes as an angel of light, and his emissaries as ministers of righteousness, and they come speaking smooth things and flattering things: “God loves you! He has a wonderful plan for your life! God loves everyone in the world. What is this about judgment, wrath, and a shut door to heaven? That is terrible! That is from Satan.” 

But the lies are those things that are “sweet” and “easy on the ears.” They cause one’s ears to tickle with sweet music to the wicked souls that want to be told that God loves them because it strengthens their hands in wickedness. They want to be assured of life. “Do this work of faith, and be saved.” But that brings you under the curse of the law because no man is justified by works. But the churches are willfully ignorant of that, and they tell people, “Do this work of faith, and you will have assurance.” They strengthen the hands of the wicked by promising them life, according to Ezekiel 13:22. 

The false prophets normally make statements like we see in Jeremiah 28:1-4:

And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of JEHOVAH, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying, Thus speaketh JEHOVAH of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of JEHOVAH'S house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon: And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith JEHOVAH: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.

Wonderful news! It was good news for everyone. God was going to deliver them within two years, and the awful assault of the Babylonians would be over. God would break the yoke of the king of Babylon, and they would be free. There were repeated assaults by the Babylonians, but he said, “God will break the yoke, and we will be free!” It was all positive, which is the tendency of false prophets.

That is one way to discern a false prophecy. Is the characteristic of their message that they are whispering “sweet nothings” to get me to sign up and be one of their conquests on the church membership rolls? But that is not the character of true prophets. Let us look at the true prophet Jeremiah’s response, in Jeremiah 28:5-6:

Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of JEHOVAH, Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: JEHOVAH do so: JEHOVAH perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels of JEHOVAH'S house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this place.

Jeremiah is saying that it was an excellent sentiment, and he would desire such an outcome, but it was not truth. Then it says in Jeremiah 28:7-8:

Nevertheless hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears, and in the ears of all the people; The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence.

You see, true prophets prophesy against nations, against kingdoms, and they prophesy of war and evil and pestilence. Negative! Negative! Negative! But when most people hear something negative, they say, “That is of Satan.” But that is the Word of God. That is the judgment of God against wicked and evil people, even when they call themselves by His name. God is not fooled by that because He looks on the heart.

Then it goes on to say in Jeremiah 28:9:

The prophet which prophesieth of peace…

They prophesy of peace: “God loves you!” And they tell that to men and women who are at war with God in their unregenerate souls. They are at enmity with God. They hate God and the true Gospel, but they love the lie. “God loves me. OK, fine. I am glad He loves me, and now let me continue on in my wickedness.” 

The true Gospel comes to men and women who are at war with God. And who do you think will win that war if you remain at enmity with God? You will not win that war. You will be destroyed for your wickedness because you are contrary to your Creator, and He will destroy you in His wrath and judgment. “Oh, but God loves me,” the wicked people say. But the Bible says that God loved Jacob but Esau God hated. And this shows to be a lie the statement that God loves everyone. He did not love Esau. It is stated twice – once in Malachi, and once in Romans. “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” Esau was not hated because he was more evil or wicked than any other human being. Jacob and Esau were twins and they struggled in the womb of their mother Rebecca, and she went to the Lord and asked Him why this was the case. And God said that there were two nations in her womb. Jacob was the figurehead of one nation, and Esau was the figurehead of another nation. Jacob was a figure of the nation of the elect, and Esau was a figure of the nation of the wicked. So when God said He loved Jacob, Jacob represented all those He had chosen and predestinated to salvation – all those that God loved with an everlasting love. He paid for their sins, and He applied the Gospel to them through His Word, the Bible, and they became saved. But for the others, Christ did not die for them, and He did not pay for their sins. The Gospel never applied the saving blood of Christ to cover over their iniquity. Therefore God hates them.

And this is the character of the true Gospel of the Bible that pronounces judgment. Judgment! Jonah went to Nineveh. God told him precisely what to preach. What was that short message? “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” It was a timeline. It was a time path to judgment. Time and judgment. The Bible says, “…a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment.” And Jonah carried that exact message. He did not go to the Ninevites and tell them, “God loves you! God has a wonderful plan for your lives. Listen. God loves you all!” Why did he not tell them this good news while they are murdering, stealing, lying, gossiping, and doing all the evil things people do? What do you think would have been their response? They would have aid, “Wonderful,” and they would have continued to do the evil things that people do, and they would have paid him no mind. 

And that is how the world treats the apostate and corrupt New Testament churches, and I am not talking about just one or two denominations. I am talking about all denominations, as well as every independent or house churches, or any church entity at the time of the end. God has ended the church age. He has abandoned them, and He has nothing to do with them. And the world treats their message about God loving everyone by saying in effect, “Oh, God loves me. Terrific. Thanks.” Then they continue in their evil ways with no changes whatsoever, and they continue as Christians in name only. That is not the true Gospel. It is not the message of the God of the Bible. They are lying gospels in the mouths of lying prophets, even though they call themselves bishops, popes, pastors, elders, deacons, and so forth. But they have the same lying nature and character as the lying prophets of Judah who said, “I had a dream. God came to me in a dream. Hear the Word of God, and it is so positive!” 

But do you know what happened to the people of Judah who were told that within two years the yoke of Babylon would be broken from them, and that the captives in Babylon would be returned to Judah? Judah and Jerusalem were totally destroyed. The temple was burned. The walls were broken down, and all the people of Judah went into captivity to Babylon, or fled to Egypt. There was a complete desolation of their nation.

What of the words of that prophet? They were totally false, but Jeremiah’s words from God were negative and they were words which nobody wanted to hear. “Why not encourage us, Jeremiah? Why not tell us good things? This is a desperate time, and we need something that will give us hope, and not this constant and negative preaching of judgment!”

Likewise, God’s message to the Ninevites was that in forty days Nineveh would be destroyed. There was not a word about mercy, grace, or hope. And yet the Ninevites realized that God would not warn them if there was not an implication that He was a merciful God who did not have to send Jonah. So they sat in sackcloth and ashes, and they cried mightily unto God, and God did a great act of salvation in Nineveh, which points to the salvation of the great multitude during the Great Tribulation period.

You see, the message of judgment carried an implication, just like when the message went forth, “May 21, 2011, Judgment Day!” went around the world, and it was proclaimed to the nations with an intense proclamation of the Gospel that was unparalleled in the history of the world. It was a message of judgment, and yet God saved a great multitude of people out of the nations through that message.

So people say, “Well, EBible Fellowship is a false ministry because they are not trying to encourage us, and they are not of speaking positive or lovely things, and I do not like them!” It is just like Ahab said of Micaiah, “…I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.” But what he was hearing that disturbed him was the truth. And the things that EBible Fellowship is teaching about judgment on the churches, judgment on the world, and God ending His salvation program, and pouring out His wrath in Judgment Day on all the unsaved inhabitants of the earth is in keeping with the prophecy of the true prophets of God. 

In our time, prophesying means proclaiming the things from the Bible. God is not giving us supernatural revelation outside of the Bible, but He is giving us understanding of the revelation of His righteous judgment through the biblical methodology of comparing scripture with scripture, and the Holy Ghost teaches. That is what we at EBible Fellowship are doing. But what is so very sorrowful is that so many people are accustomed to the false gospels and lies of the churches that have filled the whole earth that they cannot distinguish the truth. But those who have “ears to hear” the voice of Christ understand.