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Jan 14, 2010 Genesis 40:9-42:28

We rejoin Joseph in prison with his cellmates. They have had dreams they don't understand. They tell Joseph their dreams and Joseph interprets them. The cupbearer and the baker are to be let out of prison in three days. The cupbearer is to be returned to his old job, but the baker is to be hung. It all happens as Joseph said. The cupbearer agreed to mention Joseph to the Pharaoh but he didn't. Not until two years later when Pharaoh starts having strange dreams that he can't figure out. In fact, nobody can figure them out and then the cupbearer remembers his mistake and tells Pharaoh about Joseph. After a shave and a change of clothes, Joseph meets Pharaoh. Pharaoh tells Joseph his dreams and Joseph interprets them as warnings that for the next seven years there will be abundance and plenty, but for the seven years following, there will be hardship and famine. Naturally Pharaoh puts Joseph in charge of all of Egypt. Joseph being a good guy sets aside 20% of the grain grown during the first seven years to prepare for the famine of the second seven years. His foresight pays off because nobody in the world has any food and they all travel to Egypt for grain - even his own brothers. They ask for grain, but they don't recognize Joseph, but he recognizes them. He pretends he can't understand what they are saying by using an interpreter. Joseph pretends that his brothers are spies trying to find out where Egypt is unprotected, as if he doesn't believe that they just want food. They tell Joseph that they are twelve brothers, that the youngest is home with their father and another one is "no more". Joseph says he will test them and puts them in prison. Then he demands that they leave one of them in prison while they go and fetch the youngest brother and bring him back. As they are talking amongst themselves, Reuben says that they shouldn't have done what they did to Joseph and that they should have listened to him. Simeon was bound and taken to prison. Joseph sent the rest of them home with their grain and gave orders for their money to be secretly placed inside the grain sacks.

Let's all offer up a prayer that God's will is done in Haiti and that His will is that those poor souls will be comforted. Also, my daughter-in-law has received word that her father is not well and on his way to the hospital this evening. I pray that she and her family are held in God's loving hands at this difficult time. Amen.

Tomorrow read Genesis 42:29-45:15

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