COME AS A CHILD LESSON 94 BEYOND THE CUPBEARERS DREAM

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

A lot of the story of Joseph is about dreams that have meanings.  In the first part of our story we hear about Joseph’s dreams, that his family would bow down before him and he would rule over them.  He dreamed this same dream in a different way twice.  His dreams also predicted the coming famine in the land where Jacob's family lived. 

In the middle of Joseph's story we hear of the dreams of the baker and the cupbearer of the King of Egypt.  We would do well to examine their dreams a bit closer.  In the scriptures we are simply told the basic story and the basic facts, but other scriptures recall portions of these dreams.  There may be more meaning to the story than we see on the surface at the first glance.  

For instance, let's look again at the dream of Pharaoh’s Chief Cupbearer.  The cupbearer told Joseph that he squeezed the grapes into Pharaoh’s cup in his dream.  

On the night that he was betrayed, during the Passover Seder (which recalls the escape of the Hebrews from Pharoah’s bondage, Jesus also took a cup in much the same way that this cupbearer would have done.  After the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”  (Luke 22:20)  

Think back to our original story now when Joseph told the cupbearer the meaning of his dream.  He said the three branches were three days and within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cupbearer.  In other words, in three days the cupbearer would basically pass from his sentence of death to a new life and a restoration of his former self.  

We can clearly see that the cupbearer’s dream speaks of the new covenant in which we pass from spiritual death to eternal life because Jesus Christ, Our Messiah, rose from the prison of a grave on the third day into life. Because of this we too have been given a new and eternal life with God.  We, like the cupbearer, have been restored.  Our old sins have been forgiven and forgotten and we are able to stand before God restored, just as this cupbearer resumed his old job before Pharaoh. 

Joseph, hopefully explains to the cupbearer, knowing that he will be restored and stand before the King again, that he has done no harm to anyone, yet he has been imprisoned as an innocent man for quite some time.  He asked the cupbearer to “remember me.”  

Did Jesus not ask the same of us, using those very same words; "remember me?"   Did Jesus not want us to remember that his precious and innocent blood was shed for us?  How many times did he ask?  Yes, He has asked us to remember, and we do this every time we partake of communion.  We remember. Do we really?  Sometimes I wonder how much remembering Jesus is involved?  We must be dwelling on Him.  We must remember how He served us.  It was not His place to serve us, but our place to serve Him.  He did it anyway.  Do we REALLY remember?

So the Baker saw that the Cupbearer’s dream was interpreted favorably and he decided to ask for an interpretation of his own dream.   I'm sure he was hoping for the same good news.   In this dream he was carrying three baskets of bread on his head and the birds were coming down and eating the bread from his baskets.  Joseph told the baker that the three baskets represented three days and in three days his head would be lifted off by Pharaoh and his body would be impaled on a pole and the birds would come and eat his flesh.  What a gruesome interpretation!   I’m sure the baker regretted asking!  He probably would rather not know the outcome at this point.  Can you imagine his terror? He must have been especially terrified when he saw the Cupbearer's dream play out exactly as Joseph had predicted.  

So Joseph had predicted that  the cupbearer's head would be lifted up, and the baker's head would be lifted off.  This is a dream that portrays the day of judgement for all mankind.  The Baker's dream  symbolically speaks of sin and the evil one. 

This all sinks in and becomes much clearer when we read 1 Corinthians 5:8; “Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

It is noted that the different varieties of the breads baked for the king in the baker’s basket would have contained leaven.  Leaven is symbolic of sin, wickedness and malice.  The baker symbolically had sin upon his head.  Sin always leads to death.

Think for a moment about the vision of the birds swooping down to eat the bread from the baskets the Baker was carrying on his head.  We are reminded of a parable with a line that says:  “As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. “  (Matthew 13:4.)

We know that the scriptures always manage to interpret themselves if you just keep reading.  In Matthew 13:18-19 we get the interpretation of the parable:  “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means:  When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart.  This is the seed sown along the path. “

The birds which ate the seeds in the parable of the sower represented the agents of Satan.  The birds in the baker’s dream symbolized the carrion-eating, unclean birds which would eventually eat away the baker’s flesh. 

So we see the culmination of Joseph's interpretation of the two dreams.   Pharaoh’s birthday arrived on the calendar and he had a huge party, a feast and a festival for all the people in the land.  He brought forward the cupbearer and the baker and lifted up their heads in front of all of his officials.  He restored the cupbearer and beheaded the baker, just as Joseph predicted would happen. 

Are you a Christian saved by the atonement of the blood of Christ?  Then you are comparable to the Chief Cupbearer and you are freely given eternal life! We are all cupbearers to the King of Kings!  Those who believe in Christ have been restored and lifted up.  We get to pour ourselves out every day like wine before the King of the Kingdom of God.  

Have you not believed on the name of Jesus yet?  Have you decided to believe there is no God and have you chosen to walk away from all the evidence that One True God does exist?  Then you are comparable to the baker in this story.  Without realizing it, when you deliberately choose not to follow God you get the default for that; you choose to follow Satan.  Those who follow Satan and live wicked lives go the way of the baker, straight into Satan’s trap where they will die with their sin on their own heads.

There is one huge difference between our lives today and the lives of these two dreamers.  We have a choice.  We can choose our destiny, they could not.  For centuries men have been given a choice, but the time for deciding is quickly running out.  Like sand in an hourglass we are quickly approaching an end to the period of grace that God has so generously granted.  Have you chosen correctly?  Have you chosen at all?  The day is coming when no more decisions can be made, either you have decided to follow God, or you have not.  I hope everyone reading this considers those consequences.     

For those who HAVE decided, I hope you were paying attention to that one little detail at the end of the story of the cupbearer and the baker.  By now you have all figured out that Joseph so clearly represents Christ in this story.  He had asked the cupbearer to "remember me."  Yet, after he was completely restored and back to an even better life than he once had before prison, the chief cupbearer failed to remember Joseph!  The cupbearer got exactly what he needed and more.  He was completely restored and forgiven by the King and allowed to return to abundant life, but he forgot all about the one who had promised this would happen.  He forgot to remember Joseph to the King.

Does this have a familiar sound?  Have you been living happy and snug in the Kingdom, just so restored and relieved, but forgetting who proclaimed your destiny in the first place?  Have you thanked the King for Jesus lately?  Wasn't He the One who told you the end of your story?  Do you take it all for granted and just go on with your good fortune?  Do you ever remember to remember?

Joseph was still stuck back in that prison, not complaining, just serving the Lord, waiting on the day that the King would find out and proclaim His innocence.  Jesus is still in that throne room, daily listening to your prayers, taking them to the Father.  Have you asked God to let him come quickly to his rightful place as King of Kings and Lord of Lords?   He hasn’t been crowned yet, but He, like Joseph, has a greater destiny than just restoring us and interpreting our destiny.  One day the King will look down and see Him in all His innocence and set him upon His rightful earthly throne, the one his enemy Satan would love to steal away from Him.  It is Satan's plan that none of us remember, that we are like that foolish cupbearer who only thought of himself when God blessed him.  But Jesus, like Joseph, is simply waiting on God’s timing.  Unlike the forgetful cupbearer, He always remembers and he always keeps His promises.  Soon we will know.  One day soon….HE IS COMING!   

The significance of the cupbearer's dream lives on, and an even greater cupbearer will one day be restored to an even greater Kingdom.  Keep your eyes open and your heart prepared.