NOTES for Gen 41:1-57

Today's reading is remarkable, among other things, because it tells how the cupbearer remembered Joseph. True, this required two years and circumstances favorable to the petitioner's career (vv. 1, 8-14). Now, when Pharaoh himself needed an interpreter of dreams and no one around him could help, remembering Joseph meant being useful not only to Joseph but also to Pharaoh himself, which of course changed the matter completely and gave Joseph a chance not only for release but also for a new, this time absolutely dizzying, career.

The matter, however, was not merely the interpretation of Pharaoh's dreams (vv. 1-7). That in itself was not especially difficult, since their meaning was quite transparent (vv. 25-32). What Pharaoh and his courtiers liked most was Joseph's proposed plan for how to use the coming years of abundance in order to prepare for the drought and famine that would follow (vv. 33-36). Egypt was then going through difficult times; the country had almost broken apart into separate regions, and nomads were attacking from the deserts. These nomads had managed not only to establish themselves in the Nile Delta and create their own small state there, something unprecedented in Egyptian history, but also to seize the Egyptian throne for a time; the dynasty ruling Egypt at that time was Semitic in origin. This situation, on the one hand, gave Joseph himself and his tribesmen opportunities they could not have had at any other time, but on the other hand, it required decisive action from the authorities. Gathering and preserving surplus grain was only half the matter; later, this grain was to be loaned to large private estates being ruined by the drought, first against the pledge of the future harvest and then against the pledge of the estate itself (Gen. 47:13-26). In this way, without any repressive measures, large private landownership, the economic foundation of regional separatism, was practically eliminated, and the land passed into state ownership. Naturally, the central authority was strengthened by this, and the state was reinforced. It is no surprise that Joseph's proposed plan was accepted with enthusiasm, and its implementation was entrusted to Joseph himself as the author of the project (vv. 39-49).

And yet the most remarkable episode in today's passage can be considered Joseph's mention of his God in response to Pharaoh's question about the interpretation of the dreams (vv. 15-16). It is not hard to remember God in times of trouble and misfortune; it is far harder not to forget Him in years of success and prosperity. And perhaps it is still harder to remember Him when such possibilities open before you as opened before Joseph, standing before Pharaoh, who expected from him an interpretation of his dreams. In such a situation, only the one for whom relationship with Him has become the center and meaning of all life remembers God.

Pharaoh too sees prophetic dreams. After all, God leaves no one without support, and if a person cannot hear Him otherwise, He often uses dreams as a last resort. Here, however, it is important to take into account the difference between a dream as such and what is usually called "subtle sleep": an intermediate state between sleep and wakefulness, for which the Hebrew Bible has a special word.

The state of "subtle sleep" more closely resembles visions in the strict sense, like those prophets see, while a person experiences a prophetic dream precisely as a dream: it resembles sleep, though it has some significant differences from it. The main difference is that during the dream a person is quite clearly aware of himself; he usually does not perceive his state as sleep, and yet he does not wake up (in ordinary sleep, a single thought that one is sleeping immediately leads to waking). Often during a dream a person can even remember certain events that happened to him while awake. In addition, during a dream, especially a prophetic one, the sleeper's perceptions are usually sharpened, so that he experiences everything happening to him more fully and clearly, and the actions themselves inside such a dream turn out to be entirely meaningful. They, like the scenes unfolding at the same time, may be strange and unusual, but at the same time quite logical, and within the scenes themselves quite natural and organic.

Something like this is exactly what Pharaoh sees, just as earlier the cupbearer and the baker did, and Joseph himself as well. Understanding what was seen is another matter: logic alone is not enough to understand a dream; it must be grasped in its wholeness, grasped directly and not through reflection. Such understanding is impossible without revelation; that is why there are far more people who see dreams than interpreters (we are speaking, of course, of true interpreters, not fantasists who base themselves on their own rather arbitrary associations, like those that fill popular dream books). And so it happened that now Pharaoh himself needed an interpreter: he understood at once that what he had seen was not an ordinary dream, but precisely a prophetic dream.

This is one of the most astonishing moments in the Joseph story, although the most dramatic plotline still lies ahead: at the beginning of the chapter he is sitting in prison, and by the end he becomes the second person in the state, with the title "Savior of the Empire" (that is how his new "name" is evidently translated). And indeed, God makes him the key figure in saving Egypt, and later Israel as well. What is the secret of such a swift career? It is simply that this young man, who had not even dreamed of such adventures, found himself, almost against his will, drawn into the mysterious unfolding of the plan of the Lord of earthly history, who saves and destroys empires and nations. That is the only reason he could say so simply: "It is not mine; God will give you an answer." Here is another "property" of Sacred History: it is carried out by those who can say, "It is not I; God is doing this..."

Joseph not only interpreted Pharaoh's dreams; he also devised how to use the developing situation to strengthen the Egyptian state. Here it must be kept in mind that the very appearance of Joseph, and then of all his fellow tribesmen, in Egypt would have been impossible if Egypt had not been seriously weakened at that time. A weak Egypt could not resist the Semitic nomadic tribes that invaded the country from the east, from the direction of the Sinai Desert. In history this invasion of Egypt by Semitic tribes is known as the invasion of the Hyksos. They not only founded their settlement in the Nile delta; they even occupied the Egyptian throne, the ancient throne of the pharaohs. The first dynasty of the New Kingdom, whose history begins with the Hyksos invasion, was a dynasty of Semitic origin. Only under the pharaohs of the first dynasty of the New Kingdom, a Semitic dynasty, could Joseph have made the career at court that he made, and his fellow tribesmen too could have moved peacefully and safely to Egypt only during the rule of those same pharaohs.

Egypt had weakened largely because by the end of the preceding era, the Middle Kingdom, the problem of regional separatism traditional for that country had again become acute. Egypt, after all, had from the beginning been formed out of many regions, each of which was originally independent. The inhabitants of the Egyptian regions remembered their former independence for a long time, occasionally reminding the central authority of it. Regional separatism was fed, not least of all, by large landowners - not all of them, of course, but those who, not being in service, lived on their estates.

Joseph's plan was directed precisely against them. It was impossible simply to take their estates from them: that would have been illegal, and Egypt was a legal and law-abiding state. Taking them for debts was another matter; there was no room for argument there, because debts had to be repaid one way or another. And debts would inevitably appear: the overwhelming majority of farms worked for the market, and crop failure meant losses at first and then ruin.

One year of drought and crop failure could still be survived by borrowing grain for sowing for the next year's harvest; however, in the second year, if there was a crop failure, the estate itself would have to be pledged - and seven dry years, and therefore seven years of crop failure, lay ahead. The estates inevitably had to pass to the treasury for debts, replenishing the state land fund.

In this way Joseph strengthened the state to which his fellow tribesmen were to move. They would move there so that later, after several centuries, their descendants would have to flee from this strengthened state, where there was no longer any place for them. For now, God had placed Joseph where he could save his fellow tribesmen from famine. This is how He leads His people and His nation through the twists of history.

Joseph is considered an example of faith and trust in God. Life constantly requires him to submit to the principle formulated much later by the apostle Paul: "I believe God" (Acts). That is, Joseph is clearly a deeply, even intensely, believing man. What do we expect from such people? The stereotyped image of people who have given themselves completely to God is one of exaltation, exaggeration in everything, and what is usually called "obsession." Yet words like these are usually used to describe the insane. If we look at Joseph, however, we see a man filled with common sense. He does not simply interpret dreams or set before himself, as a defense, the God whom he knows. He realizes what the warning consists in and immediately offers a path of salvation. The most surprising thing in today's text is that for the Egyptians this very rationality of thought, this common sense, becomes evidence of the presence of the Spirit of God.