Genesis 40 Series, Part 14, Verses 9-13
Hello, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #14 in Genesis 40, and we will read Genesis 40:9-13:
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.
I will stop reading there. We are getting into the dream, and we have to keep in mind that interpretations belong to God. Remember what we discussed in the last couple of studies about the butler and the baker dreaming according to the interpretation of it. So God gave their dreams, and God is the one who has the interpretation.
It is exactly like God gives us the Bible, and the Bible needs interpretation. First it requires translation from the original languages of Hebrew and Greek into various languages like English and Spanish, and so forth. Then once it is translated and we have it in our own language, it still requires interpretation. And interpretation was what Jesus said in Mark 4:34:
But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples.
This word “expounded” is Strong’s #1956, and there is a related word, Strong’s #1955. When we look at the two words, we can see how close the spelling is, and the related word is translated as “interpretation.” First it says that without a parable He did not speak unto them, but when they were alone He expounded. We can understand that many heard the Word, but many went away without understanding, but Jesus interpreted the parable to His disciples. This is what Jesus did, for example, in Matthew 13, as He did with several of His parables. He would provide the interpretation or meaning of the parables. The parables were stories. For instance, we read in Matthew 13:24-25:
Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
The kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that sowed good seed in his field, and an enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat. Then we read in Matthew 13:34-36:
All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world. hen Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.
Again, He spoke the parable to the multitude, and then He sent the multitude away without interpreting the parable to them. Then when left with only His disciples, He provided exposition, or interpretation, as it says in Matthew 13:37:
He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;
In the parable it said, “The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed…” It was just a “man,” in general, with no identification. When we study the Bible there are numerous references to “a man,” and that man is often really Christ. I will give another example from James 2:17-18:
Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.
That “man” can only be Christ. He is speaking to professed Christians who say they believe. A man may say he has faith, but Jesus is saying, “I have works.” He is referring to His atoning work performed at the foundation of the world. “You show me your faith without your works, and I (Jesus) will show you my faith by my works.”
He is simply referred to as “a man,” just like in the parable in Matthew 13. Christ is interpreting, and that “man” is the Son of man, Jesus Himself. So He who sows the good seed is the Son of man, and the field is the world. You know, there are fields on a farm, and yet it is not that kind of field according to Christ’s interpretation of that word as used in the parable. In the interpretation, the field is actually the world – the whole world is being typified by this field.
If you go to Webster’s Dictionary and look up the word “field,” are you going to find it defined as world? No. It is not defined that way according to our English language, or any other language. It is not according to earthly definitions. It is according to the heavenly definition, or God’s own definition. It is His interpretation. It is His book. He sets the rules. And Jesus, who is God, is the Word and author of the book. He is the essence of the Bible itself. He is the Word made flesh, and without a parable He did not speak. He spoke often in His ministry, and always in parables. He did not teach plainly, so why do the churches only look for the plain, literal meaning of verses? They are ignorant in their understanding.
Jesus is God, and He loved to teach, and every time He taught He spoke in parables. So if He is the Word, and He is speaking to people, but every single time He instructs them through parables, I wonder what point He was trying to get across to the reader of the Bible? We read in Luke 24:44:
And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
Basically, He is covering the first five books of the Bible, and all the books written by prophets of old, and the Psalms, and He says it was all concerning Him. The whole Bible concerns Christ.
We read in Hebrews 10:7:
Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
The whole Bible is the volume of the book. All scripture is written of Christ, and He is the Word made flesh, and He always spoke in parables. If I were speaking to a child, I would ask, “So what is your conclusion?” And that child might say, “I think that Christ wants us to look at the whole Bible as a parable.” Even a child who is still developing could figure that out. And yet our men of renown, the theologians, would say, “No. We will tell you how to understand the Bible. You have to look for the plain literal meaning.” I would love to be back in seminary class and hearing these things because I would ask, “Excuse me, but is that not just the opposite of what Christ did by speaking in parables?” He never spoke plainly to the multitudes. He always spoke in parables. I would love to hear their answer to that. They are teaching contrary to what Christ taught.
Here in Matthew 13 Christ was also providing the definitions. Again, He said in Matthew 13:38.
The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
Hold it. In the parable it said, “The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.” But in the interpretation we are told that the good seed are the children of the kingdom, and the tares are the children of the wicked one. So the seed and the tares sown among the seed are people – children of two kingdoms.
And it is just a parable, sounding like a picture of what a farmer does, and yet that is not the case in the language of the kingdom of God. It is far, far greater in its depth of meaning. I am sure most of you are aware that the Bible is its own dictionary. Again, if you look up “field” in a modern dictionary, it is not going to tell you that the field is the world. You only find that in the Bible. It is not going to tell you that “a man” is the Son of man. It is not going to tell you that the seed are the children of the kingdom, also known as wheat in the Bible. And it will not tell you that tares are the children of the wicked one. You will not get those definitions from a dictionary.
Another example is “rock.” Moses smote the rock in the wilderness. But according to God’s interpretation of the rock, He says in 1Corinthians 10:4:
And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
A spiritual rock that followed them? Then we are told that the rock of the Old Testament is Christ. It is a parable, is it not? And yet it did not appear in one of Christ’s New Testament parables, but it is biblical history that actually happened, and it was recorded in the book of the Law, the first five books of the Bible. In Exodus we read of Moses smiting the rock, and water coming out of the rock, and nowhere in that account does it tell us that the rock was Christ.
Are you getting the point? It is just like Christ’s parables. The field is the world, and that Rock was Christ. You know, it would be helpful if you took a notebook and began to write down biblical definitions, like “field” equaling the “world,” and the “rock” equaling Christ, and so forth. And you can add to that what we are reading in Genesis 40. Here in the dream there is a “vine” before the butler, and in the vine were three branches, and it was as though it budded. We do not have time to get into defining the vine in this study, but God does interpret what the three branches mean in Genesis 40:12:
And Joseph said unto him, This is the interpretation of it: The three branches are three days:
It is just like when Christ spoke a parable, and then He would provide an exposition to the disciples, representing the elect. So do you see why we are saying that the “dreams” are like the Gospel? And now the Gospel is being interpreted. It is giving understanding of what is impossible to understand on one’s own if God does not grant us understanding of the interpretation. Remember the law is spiritual, We find in 1Corinthians 2:14 that when we compare spiritual with spiritual the Holy Ghost teaches, and in Romans 7:14, we learn that the Law (the Bible) is spiritual.
That is what we do as we teach the Bible. Jesus gives understanding to His people, and then His people teach others. But Jesus “gets the ball rolling,” so to speak, on biblical interpretation when He gives us His definitions. The sower is the Son of man; the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the enemy that sowed the tares is the Devil; and the tares are the children of that wicked one, the Devil. Yes, the Devil has children, if we go to John 8 where Christ speaks to the unsaved Jews of that day in John 8:43-44:
Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.
He uses very harsh language as He speaks to them. They are children of the wicked one.
Also, the three branches are identified as three days. The vine has three branches, representing three days, according to God’s interpretation, and that is how we understand anything in the Bible. It is always according to God’s interpretation. God defines His own terms and words, and our job as Bible students is to find the interpretation. We start with the words, and that is why we use concordances. We compare scripture with scripture, looking to the Lord to reveal additional information about the word. Then we come back to our passage and, hopefully, we will have much better understanding. That is the process that we are going to follow as we get into these few verses, which are the most difficult of the chapter – especially verse 10. There are a lot of words we have to search out and try to understand.