• 2024-10-08 | Chris McCann
  • Audio: Length: 19:56
  • Passages covered: Genesis 40:16-23, 2Timothy 2:25-26, Isaiah 61:1, Exodus 16:22-23, Leviticus 24:5-9.

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Genesis 40 Series, Part 31, Verses 16-23

Hello, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #31 in Genesis 40. We will read Genesis 40:16-23:

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. And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants. And he restored the chief butler unto his butlership again; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand: But he hanged the chief baker: as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him.

We have been spending a lot of time discussing the butler and giving the “cup,” and of having his butlership restored, and so forth. Now we are going to look at the baker. We see similar language of the interpretation of the dream and what finally happened when the baker came out of prison within the three-day period, and the context determines which judgment. In this case, it was the birthday of Pharaoh, and I mentioned that Pharaoh can be a picture of God in releasing the butler and baker from prison, and especially in restoring the butler to his butlership. This is why it is complicated when we read of the baker being brought forth from prison and hanged on Pharaoh’s birthday. His head was lifted from off him, and he was hanged. We have to understand Pharaoh to have become a picture of Satan, including the fact that the baker was hanged and his head was removed from him, and also that it happened on Pharaoh’s birthday.

The word “birthday” is only found twice in the Bible, and one is on this occasion of the birthday of Pharaoh, and the other is the occasion of the birthday of Herod. What happened on Herod’s birthday? The daughter of Herodias danced before him on his birthday, and it pleased him, so he said he would give her to half of his kingdom. She went to her mother for advice, and she was told to ask for the head of John the Baptist to be brought to her on a charger. Pharaoh was sorrowful but he summoned the executioner, and John was beheaded. We can definitely see the relationship because only twice in the Bible do we read of it being someone’s birthday. In the case of Pharaoh, the baker loses his head on Pharaoh’s birthday, and John the Baptist loses his head on Herod’s birthday. It is curious. When a word is only found in these two places, you know that God is tying them together.

God is the author of all scripture, and this is something that proves it, as no one would make this connection but God. At the time of the end in our day, the Spirit is guiding us into all truth, and He is revealing a great many things regarding spiritual similarities and meaning. 

Pharaoh is normally a type of Satan. For example, the pharaoh in Exodus was a type of Satan. Moses came to him with the command from God, “Let my people go.” Pharaoh would not let them go. This hard-hearted pharaoh was a picture of Satan, and all Israel was in captivity in Egypt, a figure of the world with Satan as its ruler. Satan is called “prince” a few times in the Bible, and the word “prince” is the word “ruler.” And all the people were in bondage. In case you are unaware, this is the situation with mankind, and it is an awful situation, but this is what sin has wrought for every sinner, as we read concerning the servants of the Lord in 2Timothy 2:25-26:

In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

The sinner is in captivity to sin and to Satan, and that is why the Bible says that the Lord Jesus came to set the captives free. This verse is quoted in the New Testament, but we read in Isaiah 61:1:

The Spirit of the Lord JEHOVAH is upon me; because JEHOVAH hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

Remember what we discussed about “prison.” All sinners are in prison, as it were, and we read in 1Peter 3 that the Spirit of Christ went to preach to the spirits in prison. Many theologians do not understand this, and they come up with farfetched scenarios that are not biblical, and they say, “Christ goes into hell to preach to people after they die.” No. The people of the world are in “prison,” and Christ came with the Gospel to set the captives free: “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” How do they understand those statements? The answer is that people are in spiritual bondage.

And Pharaoh being a type of Satan is the usual portrayal of pharaohs. As we move on in the book of Genesis, we will see a different Pharaoh than the one involving the butler and the baker. The Pharaoh of Genesis 40 will have died, and a new Pharaoh will come on the scene, and he will have dreams, and he will bring Joseph out of prison to be his right-hand man. And that Pharaoh is also a good Pharaoh, meaning he is not a picture of Satan. But in this last part of Genesis 40 concerning the baker, Pharaoh has become a type and figure of Satan as the Pharaoh has his birthday. If Pharaoh here is a picture of Satan and if Herod is also a picture of Satan…and we can prove that from the Bible, based on the way the Bible portrays him. He was an evil man and a king. 

By the way, there were other kings called “herods,” just like there were different kings called pharaohs. The title of “Pharaoh” is often associated with Satan, and the same is true of the earlier Herod who sought to kill the child Jesus, according to the time he ascertained from the wise men. In order to make sure he would kill Him he had all children killed who were two years old and younger. He was a very wicked man. That reminds us of the wicked Pharaoh in the days when Moses was born, and he had decreed that all the male Hebrew babies were to be killed upon their birth, so that is a similar spiritual picture to what happened in the days when Christ was born into the world, and what Herod did at that time. So we can see the relationship. But Moses escaped the Pharaoh’s plot, and Christ escaped Herod’s plot. 

So we have a similar spiritual picture of what happened on Pharaoh’s birthday and on Herod’s birthday. On those days the baker lost his head, and John the Baptist lost his head. We will talk about that in future studies.

Right now let us talk about the baker and his role, just like we looked at the butler’s role. Again, he was thrown into prison. This is speculation but it was probably due to an assassination attempt upon Pharaoh through poisoning. So the chief of the butlers and the chief of the bakers were put into prison, and then there was an investigation. It was probably as a result of the investigation that the butler was restored to his butlership, and the baker was hanged. It does not necessarily mean that the baker personally did wrong but he was the chief of the bakers with oversight of all the bakers. It could have been an underling baker who was involved with the plot, and they found that the poison was in the food and not in the drink. So they restored the butler, and they hung the baker.

And it was determined that a good day to do it was on Pharaoh’s birthday. It would show his generosity and kindness in restoring the butler, and it would also show his justice, and it would be a strong warning to all who would dare to make an attempt on the king’s life. 

The word “bake” is found in Exodus 16. This is how we come to understand words in the Bible. We do not turn to Webster’s Dictionary for definitions but we turn to the Bible for biblical definitions as God uses the word in contexts that begin to give us understanding of the spiritual direction for us to go. We read in Exodus 16:22-23:

And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which JEHOVAH hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto JEHVOAH: bakethat which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.

They would bake the bread that fell from heaven, which was the manna. That is interesting, and we will keep that in mind as we go to Leviticus 24:5-9:

And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake. And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before JEHOVAH. And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto JEHOVAH. Every sabbath he shall set it in order before JEHOVAH continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. And it shall be Aaron's and his sons'; and they shall eat it in the holy place: for it is most holy unto him of the offerings of JEHOVAH made by fire by a perpetual statute.

So it was an offering of bread, and this would have been the shewbread. Remember that David and his men ate of the bread that had been set aside for the priests, just as we read here that the bread was for Aaron and his sons. It was not lawful for them to eat it. Spiritually, Aaron the high priest is a type of Christ, just as David is a type of Christ. The priests are a figure of the people of Christ, the elect, just as David’s men are figures of the elect. So spiritually it was legal for David and his men to eat the shewbread, although on the level of the physical law, it was unlawful. (And that shows the superiority of the deeper spiritual meaning of scripture versus the surface meaning.)

So we see that the bread had to do with temple and with feeding the priests in their service to God as they ministered in the temple, and so forth.

Unfortunately, we have run out of time. Lord willing, we will look more at what it means to be a “baker,” and we will try to understand the role of the baker. Then we will go back to Genesis 40, and I think we will have a better understanding of what is happening on the spiritual level.