Genesis 40:1-23

 |  April 9, 2018

Gen. 40:1-23

  1. Locate the passage

This passage tracks the events that took place while Joseph was in Pharaoh’s prison. Potiphar is now out of the picture and has nothing more to do with the story (though one might wonder what happened between them when Joseph was promoted to second in the country). In this passage, dreams are featured again in the Joseph narrative, but he is not the dreamer, but the dream-interpreter.

  1. Genre

The passage in narrative. It records the conversations between Joseph and Pharaoh’s officials (the cupbearer and the baker).

  1. Determine the structure of the passage

40:1-4 – Pharaoh was angry with his officials and imprisoned them

40:5-19 – Joseph interpreted the dreams of the cupbearer and the baker

40:5-8 – Both the cupbearer and the baker had dreams in the night

40:9-15 – Joseph interprets the cupbearer’s dream

40:16-19 – Joseph interprets the baker’s dream

40:20-22 – The interpretations of Joseph come true, but the cupbearer did not remember Joseph

  1. Exegete the passage

40:1-3 – The specific offences of the cupbearer and the baker are irrelevant to the story and unrecorded.

40:4 – Though the cupbearer and baker were put under Joseph’s care (and in the same prison as him), Joseph served them.

40:5 – Both the cupbearer and baker had dreams on the same night with specific application to their future.

40:6-7 – Apparently, though they did not understand the dreams, they knew them to be significant

40:8 – Interpretations belong to God

40:9-11 – The cupbearers dreams seems somewhat straight-forward

40:12-13 – Joseph unpacks the significance of the cupbearer’s dream

40:14-15 – When it goes well with you

40:16-17 – When the baker heard the positive interpretation given to the cupbearer, he also presented his dream to Joseph

40:18-19 – The interpretation of the dream of the baker was not as pleasant to hear as that for the cupbearer

40:20-22 – Pharaoh’s birthday

40:23 – The cupbearer did not remember

  1. Let the structure of the text drive the sermon

Category: Sermon Structure
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