Genesis 40 Series, Part 18, Verses 10-13
Hello, and welcome, everyone, to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #18 in Genesis 40, and we will read Genesis 40:10-13:
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.
It is curious that after three days the butler was going to press the grapes. What is another way of saying that? It is a “wine press,” and in the bible a wine press identifies with the wrath of God in Judgment Day. It says in Revelation 19:15:
And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
Earlier in Revelation 14, it says in Revelation 14:19-20:
And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
Joseph interpreted the dream, and Joseph is a type of Christ, and the “dream” is the Gospel, and Christ expounds the Gospel, revealing the hidden information. The dream is like a parable, and Joseph interpreted it. Christ would speak a parable, and the disciples would later ask Him the meaning, and Christ would give the interpretation, the understanding of the parable. There was hidden truth in the dream, and we see that three branches are in view, and God says they are “three days.”
In our last study we were looking at the “three days” of thick darkness that was one of the plagues the Lord sent upon Egypt, and that definitely represents the wrath of God. The figure of “three days” often identifies with judgment in the Bible of one sort or another, and the context will tell us. For instance, let us go to Matthew 12:38-40:
Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
In the book of Jonah, the mariners came to Jonah as he was sleeping. The sea was tempestuous, and they feared for their lives. Finally Jonah told them that they must cast him overboard, and then the sea would be calm to them. The sea represents the wrath of God, and Jonah was a picture of Christ in this instance, and casting him into the sea would satisfy the wrath of God against the mariners. It is a historical parable. The sea was calm once the whale swallowed up Jonah. Christ took the wrath for the mariners, typifying the elect, and then they had “smooth sailing,” but they owed their lives to Jonah as he sacrificed himself for them.
So Christ is saying that as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. If we read Jonah 2, the language the Lord moved Jonah to speak about being in the whale’s belly identifies with “hell.” We read in Jonah 2:2: “…out of the belly of hell cried I.” That is because “hell” is the “grave,” and so too is the phrase, “heart of the earth.” Christ said, “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” It began Thursday evening in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was not literally in “the heart of the earth,” but spiritually He was in the throes of death beginning then, as God began to pour out His wrath on Christ, and Christ was in great agony as sweat like great drops of blood fell from Him.
Jesus had told the disciples, “After three days I will rise again.” In John 2 the Lord made this statement in John 2:18-22:
Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body. When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.
He said that if they destroyed this temple, in three days He would raise it up. Then we are informed that He was speaking of the temple of His body. But what is the temple of His body? Yes, it is true that the temple of His body did rise early on the third day.
By the way, the solution to the “three days and three nights” is that He began to suffer Thursday night in the Garden of Gethsemane; Friday night He was in the tomb; Saturday night He was in the tomb. Then early Sunday morning, the third day, He rose from the dead. Again, He said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” It does have application to Christ’s resurrection, and yet it also has spiritual application to another temple consisting of all the elect. We read in 1Corinthians 6:19:
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghostwhich is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
Individually, your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, but it applies collectively as well, as we read in 1Corinthians 12:12-13:
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
Then it says in 1Corinthians 12:27:
Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.
Every saved man or woman is part of the body of Christ, and we are therefore the temple that He built. The word “temple” and “house” are synonyms. Remember it says in Hebrews 3:6:
But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we…
It could just as easily have said that Christ is a son over His own temple. Christ has built His house, or His temple, and He has completed it.
Again, He said, ““Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” So there is the implication that the body of Christ, the elect, will be raised on the third day. And going back to the butler in Genesis 40, the butler came out of prison on the third day. The prison can be a picture of the world. There are certain verses that make us wonder about the references to three days in the Bible. Let us go to Hosea 6. People have called on our EBible Fellowship Open Forum program and asked about this verse. I thought I had understanding, but I never really understood it, and by God’s grace I do believe I understand it now. It says in Hosea 6:1:
Come, and let us return unto JEHOVAH: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.
To “heal” and to “bind us up” has to do with salvation. Then it says in Hosea 6:2:
After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.
To “revive” means to “come to life.” After two days, we will come to life. In the third day, He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight. Do you see the reference to “the third day?” Here, after two days He will revive us, and in the third day He will raise us up, and we will live in His sight. Jesus said many times that in the last day He would raise us up, as it says in John 6:39:
…that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
Then He said in John 6:40:
…and I will raise him up at the last day.
And then it says in John 6:44:
…and I will raise him up at the last day.
And, finally, it says in John 6:54:
…and I will raise him up at the last day.
The preposition “at” can be translated as “in,” so it would say, “in the last day.” And again, it says in Hosea 6:2:
After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up…
That is telling us that the raising up we can understand to be the resurrection in the last day, as Martha said to Jesus regarding Lazarus: “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
Christ is not being specific in John 6, but He is saying, “I will raise him up in the last day,” and that could refer to either the resurrection or the rapture. The difference between the resurrection and the rapture is the physical condition of the one being raised. In the case of the resurrection, the elect had physically died and are in the grave, but the elect that are raptured will be physically alive on the earth at that time. The order is the resurrection, followed by the rapture, but all God’s saints shall rise up in the last day, which is “the third day.” The third day is the last day, and that is helpful to us. We can see it. In John 2, Christ said of His body, “in three days I will raise it up, and in Hosea 6, it says,”…in the third day he will raise us up.”
This has been a problematic passage for me in Luke 12:27-28:
Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?
Two days are mentioned: “today and tomorrow.” And it speaks of tomorrow being the time of casting the grass of the field into the oven, and obviously that is Judgment Day. What perplexed me was that “today” is the day of salvation, and the time when God is saving when a man is alive; and tomorrow it is cast into the oven, which is Judgment Day. We are familiar with these two days, as we refer often to the day of salvation and the day of judgment. However, let us turn to Luke 13:31-32:
The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee. And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.
As we try to harmonize the Bible, this is a good example of why we do not rush to a conclusion. So today is the day of salvation, and tomorrow is the Day of Judgment, but in Luke 13 we are introduced to a “third day.” What is that? The third day He will be perfected, so I thought, “Well, maybe that points to the fact that after Judgment Day comes glory when we are perfected and receive our new resurrected bodies, and we go to be with the Lord.” But there is a problem in Luke 13 where it says, “Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.” So on the “third day” He is not doing cures or casting out devils, and we must try to be consistent with our understanding of these terms, and our understanding of casting out devils and performing cures is that it is always a picture of salvation. So that means that the verses indicating “today” we can understand to mean salvation; and “tomorrow” He is also going to do cures, or works of salvation.
So now do you see the problem? In the previous chapter in Luke 12, our conclusion was that “tomorrow” is Judgment Day, and in Judgment Day God has judgment without mercy. So how can we understand His doing cures? The word “cures” is only found three times. It says in Acts 4:22:
For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was shewed.
Then it says in Acts 4:30:
By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.
The word “heal” and “healing” in these two verses is the same word translated as “cures,” and it definitely had to do with the miracle of healing someone’s physical ailment, and it consistently points to salvation. So it is saying that salvation is “today” and “tomorrow.” Then it said in Luke 13:32, “…and the third day I shall be perfected.” And the word “perfected” we can understand because it said, “I will raise him up.” What happens to the child of God who is resurrected on the last day? He will be raised up on the last day to receive his new spiritual body and be made perfect. What happens to the child of God who is raptured on the last day? He too is raised up to receive his new resurrected body, and be made perfect.
So the third day has to be Judgment Day. The third day is that time when we will be raised up. In Judgment Day we will be raised up at the very conclusion of it, but there can be other understanding of being raised up in a spiritual sense, but the ultimate meeting is the resurrection or the rapture in the last day of the prolonged Judgment Day period, which means that “tomorrow” cannot be referring to the final judgment of the world. It must be referring to something else. What could it be? I hope you will join us, Lord willing in our next study as we look at this question. I believe we will be able to answer it from the Bible.