genesis 41 and 42

Read Genesis 41 and 42 at Bible Gateway.

The Hebrew paragraph divisions for today’s chapters are:

Gen 41:1-44:17 {s} Joseph the overseer

Gen 41:1-37 makes an interesting pair of chiastic structures:

Gen 41:1-15:

1a) Gen 41:1-13, Pharaoh’s magicians could not interpret his dream;

1) Gen 41:1-7, Pharaoh dreamed two dreams in one night;
2) Gen 41:8, He sent for the magicians and wise men, but none could interpret the dreams;
3) Gen 41:9-13, The chief butler told Pharaoh about Joseph who interprets dreams;

central axis) Gen 41:14, Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon;

2a) Gen 41:15, Pharaoh’s hope that Joesph can interpret his dream;

1) Gen 41:15a, And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I have dreamed a dream;
2) Gen 41:15b, And there is none that can interpret it;
3) Gen 41:15c, And I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it.

Gen 41:16-37:

1a) Gen 41:16, Joseph answered Pharaoh, God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace;

1b) Gen 41:17-24a, Pharaoh relates his dreams;

central axis) Gen 41:24b, I told this unto the magicians; but there was none that could declare it to me;

2b) Gen 41:25-32, Joseph relates the interpretation;

2a) Gen 41:33-37, Joseph’s wise counsel is God’s answer of peace.

I was struck by the A pair. Here was Joseph, wrongfully enslaved, wrongfully accused, living in the midst of a pagan land who does not know God. In fact, Joseph was living in the land Scripture identifies as a type of kingdom of darkness. He is taken before the ruler of that land, who believed himself to be the voice and embodiment of their sun god for that generation. The dreams themselves are dreams of destruction. They do not have a happy end.

So what does Joseph say? “God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.” And then, through Joseph’s wise counsel, God gives Pharaoh an answer of peace, an answer to the destruction and the doom and gloom. I just wonder if one of us were in Joseph’s shoes, would we say to “Pharaoh” in the nation’s capital, “God shall give you an answer of peace?” I can’t think of many that would.

Consider also that Joseph is a prophetic type of Messiah, who was cast down, in his first sojourn in Egypt, into slavery and prison, types for death, and then hidden away for a long time, and then in his second sojourn in Egypt, reigned in wisdom and glory, just as Messiah comes first as a Servant to die, and is hidden away from us for a long time, and then comes second as a King to reign in wisdom and glory. The answer of peace comes when Joseph reappears at the start of his second sojourn in Egypt.

Torah is giving us a different prophetic picture than the one we often hear.

Perhaps God is more generous than we give Him credit for. When we were His enemies, ignorant, and lost outside of the covenant of promise, He loved us and gave us an answer of peace, and caused us to be reborn into His family, rather than destroyed as an outsider. We deserved wrath, and He gave us peace instead. As long as it is still called “Today,” not the Day of the Lord, perhaps God yet has an answer of peace for us and for our country. I believe He does.