Genesis 40 Series, Part 32, Verses 16-19
Hello, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #32 in Genesis 40. we will read Genesis 40:16-19:
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.
Joseph first interpreted the dream of the butler, the chief of the cupbearers. It was a good interpretation. His butlership would be restored, and he would serve drink to Pharaoh once again. The baker heard this, and so he gave Joseph his dream but the interpretation for the baker was very bad: “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.” Remember that the baker said, “ 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 the interpretation was that Pharaoh would hang him, and the birds would eat his flesh like a dead carcase. That reminds us of a verse in Matthew 24 in the chapter that discusses the time of the end of the world. The disciples had asked Jesus, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” We have found that the end of the world began with judgment on the churches, and then it transitioned to judgment on the world. In Jesus’ explanation, we read in Matthew 24:28:
For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
The carcase is the focus of the eagles, and as fowls of the air they would feed upon it. We could go to a number of places to show that this “carcase” is the New Testament corporate church at its end. It was God’s judgment upon the churches that came at the end of the church age when judgment began at the house of God.
So this, as well as other things we read here, make us think that the baker’s fate represents judgment on the churches. Remember that “three days” represent judgment when it is not broken up as “today and tomorrow,” and the “third day.” It says within three days, and that identifies with judgment. As far as the baker was concerned, it indicated he was under the wrath of God.
In our last study we started to talk about the role of a baker. He would bake bread, and he would identify with those that are involved with the Gospel. Just like a baker is involved with the dough for the bread, so too are the leaders of the churches involved with the spiritual bread from heaven. Christ pointed out, “I am the bread,” and He is the Word.
I cannot say this enough because we always have to remember that this is the Bible, and Christ spoke in parables, and without a parable He did not speak. The whole Bible is about Him: “Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me.” Jesus spoke in parables to teach us how to understand the Word, and the whole Bible is the Word of God.
So the dream itself was basically in the form of a parable, and the interpretation of the dream was the explanation of the parable. And that is what Christ did when He would speak a parable, and then His disciples would ask Him to tell them the parable. Jesus said, “How is it that ye do not understand?” In other words, if you do not understand this parable, how will you understand all parables? He was implying that all His Word, the Bible, is a parable. How will you understand the Bible if you do not understand that He spoke in parables?
So when we read of the baker, our first thought should be, “Baking relates to bread, and bread relates to the Gospel, or to doctrine, so it is very likely that he represents those in the churches.”
Let us look at 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 JEHOVAH: bakethat which ye will baketo day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.
They were to bake the bread, the heavenly manna that came down from above. God sent this miraculous bread. Also, we read in Leviticus 24:5:
And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake.
These cakes were for a memorial, and it goes on to say in Leviticus 24:8-9:
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.
The bread was baked, and there were 12 cakes, and the number “12” represents “fulness,” identifying with the 12 tribes of Israel. The cakes were for Aaron, a type of Christ, and the sons of the priesthood of Aaron represent the elect. We are spiritual prophets, priests, and kings. We are a “royal priesthood,” according to a New Testament scripture.
The bread identifies with Christ Himself, as we can see if we go to John 6:31-35:
Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
In the Lord’s Prayer, we read, “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.” In other words, “give us Christ this day,” and Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life.” And of course once we are saved, we have Christ. We have eternal life. However, He is also the Word. He is the truth of the Bible, so even after we are saved we can pray, “O, heavenly Father, give us the truth of thy Word today. May we behold wondrous things out of thy law? Show us the deep things of God, and explain to us the parable that is the Bible, and guide us into all truth by thy Holy Spirit.” These things are all related when we study the Bible. That is why we do Bible studies. It is to get our daily bread. Remember the Bible says that if a man does not work, neither shall he eat. Yes, this has a practical physical application because you have to work to get money to buy physical bread, or food. But that is the minor meaning. The superior meaning is for spiritual bread. We have to work in the Bible, comparing scripture with scripture, allowing the Holy Spirit to teach. When the Holy Spirit teaches He imparts understanding of the doctrines of Christ, and we are told to abide in the doctrine of Christ in 2John 1:9.
By the way, in the Lord’s Prayer there has a built in petition for salvation, so that prayer was designed by God for the day of salvation. So when we entered into Judgment Day after God completed the salvation of all His elect, that prayer was really fulfilled spiritually. Therefore the Lord gives us a second Lord’s Prayer in Luke 11 where we find the parable of a man who comes to his friend for bread at midnight, but the door is shut. Midnight is a time period that identifies with Judgment Day, and the context would determine if it refers to judgment on the churches or judgment on the world. In Luke 11 it is speaking of judgment on the world. Here, the petition for salvation in the day of salvation is given in the earlier verses, as it says in Luke 11:2-4:
And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.
So these verses were a prayer for salvation, but it was God’s plan to leave His true people on the earth to go through the prolonged Judgment Day after the day of salvation was complete, so the Lord goes on to give a parable. And by the way, we can learn doctrine in the form of a parable, and we can see this if we look at Mark 4:2-3:
And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine, Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:
So He was speaking a parable, and it is called His doctrine. Some people will allow for that when it is a more obvious parable like, “The kingdom of heaven is like…” They will allow doctrine for that, but when the doctrine is hidden in the parable itself, they step back. So Christ can speak doctrine considering a second Lord’s Prayer, and that is what He is doing in Luke 11 where He goes on to say in Luke 11:5:
And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;
So the focus is still on petitioning the Lord for bread, but now the timing is midnight. Notice the response in Luke 11:7. It says in Luke 11:6-7:
For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.
The door is shut, and that date was May 21, 2011, seven thousand years to the equivalent selfsame day as the Lord shut the door of the ark on “the seventeenth day of the second month” in the 600th year of Noah. May 21, 2011 had the underlying Hebrew calendar date of “the seventeenth day of the second month.” That is when Judgment Day began for this world. But what about the daily petition for bread?
By the way, petitioning God for bread is not salvation. It is a request for truth. And some try to say that it is salvation, but they have no basis for saying that. They desperately want ongoing salvation today, so they try to make that claim. Does it says, “Give us this day our daily salvation?” Do we go to God every day for salvation? Obviously, no, because once we are saved we are always saved. Even after salvation we can pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” meaning to give us this day Bible truth. There used to be a little booklet called “Daily Bread,” and it had a daily scripture verse with some related doctrinal teaching.
So this man is coming to his friend, and God is our friend, if we are saved. Again, the big indicator is in Luke 11:7:
And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not…
We might assume it means from within a house, but it does not say that. It says, “he from within.” As a matter of fact, in this same chapter we read in Luke 11:39:
Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.
The word “inward” is how this word is usually translated. It is the word used when we read that our inner man is renewed day by day. It has to do with the spirit. I could go to other verses, but I do not have the references at my fingertips. But you can look it up, as I think it is used in Matthew 7 where it refers to inwardly being ravening wolves. Again, the “inward” part is speaking of the spirit, the soul of man. The soul of a sinner is full of wickedness, but the inner part of the child of God has a new heart, the indwelling Spirit of Christ.
So when we read that this man comes to his friend, he is coming to God, and He from within is saying, “Trouble me not: the door is now shut.” In other words, you must already be a child of God to be able to go to God at midnight, or in the Day of Judgment, for bread. It is not for someone “without,” but it for someone “within,” and only the elect of God have the Spirit of God within them, and we can petition the Lord for bread. An unsaved person cannot do so because they do not have the Spirit within. And that just emphasizes that the door is shut, and there is no more salvation.