[0:00] As we come to this 40th chapter, you may recollect a couple of weeks ago that we were looking at Joseph and the temptation that he endured from Potiphar's wife.
[0:11] And how that particular temptation and circumstance, if he had not had his faith rooted in God, there would have been little or no incentive to resist.
[0:24] Any natural man, particularly in his situation, especially one so young and being tempted by all the different allurements and all the advantages that would be to him by pleasing his master's wife and giving in to her demands and how she could advance him and how it could be a great benefit to him.
[0:42] But his faith in the Lord informed his faithfulness to Potiphar himself and his faithfulness in his own position in the house.
[0:52] Had there not been that anchoring, that rooting, that faith in God, then none of the other types of loyalty or faithfulness could probably have stood the test of such temptation.
[1:05] But here he is now cast into the dungeon, into the prison, and yet to mention a couple of weeks ago how there is, I think, sufficient grounds for doubt that Potiphar completely believes the story.
[1:22] He is put into, if we go back to chapter 39, verse 20, a place where the king's prisoners were bound. And he was there in the prison. He's almost in a privileged prison position.
[1:35] This is not the treatment of a routine criminal. And we read later on also, of course, in verse 3, that Pharaoh put the chief butler and the chief baker and warned in the house of the captain of the guard into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound.
[1:53] So this is not an ordinary criminal prison. This is Pharaoh's prisoners. This is sort of top prisoners of state who, yes, their end result might be unhappy, as for the chief baker.
[2:05] But when you look at how peremptorily the chief baker is disposed of at the end of the chapter, whatever his crime may have been, we do not know.
[2:16] But certainly Pharaoh does not even hesitate to execute someone in his high position, most likely by decapitation and then hanging with the corpse, as we'll come to in due course.
[2:30] But this is sort of an almost summary execution, which Joseph, a Hebrew slave, a nobody from a foreign land, he is not subjected to that.
[2:43] And yet, whilst we don't know the chief baker's crime, we know that Joseph has been accused of molesting and attacking his employer's wife.
[2:53] That would be a heinous crime, which you would think would merit instant execution of a slave. But here he is in the prison guard, the captain of the guard's house, the prison where the state prisoners are put.
[3:09] There is sufficient grounds to suggest that Potterpour is not entirely convinced, but politically he cannot do anything else. He cannot make out his wife as a liar publicly.
[3:21] He cannot make out that he himself is unable to satisfy his wife, so she has to turn to Hebrew slaves and so on. He has to act as he does.
[3:33] He is bound almost by his position and by the politics of the day. So we find Joseph then in the prison, came to pass after these things, that the butman of the king of Egypt and his baker had offended their lord, the king of Egypt.
[3:49] We don't know how. We don't know what their particular crimes may be, as we say. It may simply be a royal whim. And Pharaoh was wroth against them. He put them in war in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison place where Joseph was bound.
[4:02] And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them. And they continued a season in war.
[4:12] Now that little verse there again. Notice how as we saw at the end of chapter 39, the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
[4:23] And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison. And whatsoever they did there, he was the dealer of it. The keeper of the prison looked not to anything that was under his hand, because the Lord was with him.
[4:36] And that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper. And you read verse 4 now in this chapter, chapter 14, and you think, oh yes, well, that's, Potiphar has taken the prisoners, put them in prison like Pharaoh told them to do.
[4:46] And the keeper of the prison, having received them from Potiphar, he has naturally entrusted Joseph with the kingdom. That's what he does. That's what we saw at the end of chapter 39. The keeper of the prison looked favourably on Joseph.
[4:59] And so, of course he would do that. But it is not him that is doing it. Potiphar is the one who gives this charge. And the charge is neither given to the keeper of the prison, nor is it delegated from the keeper of the prison to Joseph.
[5:17] It is direct. Potiphar himself, the captain of the guard, charged Joseph with them. Now, you could say he's bypassing the keeper of the prison.
[5:29] I don't think we need to read too much into that. But clearly, he personally entrusts these prisoners into the hands of his own former slave. These are not the actions of somebody who thinks that this man is just one step away from being a rapist of his wife.
[5:46] This is not the action of somebody who does not trust this prisoner here. It all bespeaks a measure of reliability, of faithfulness, of trustworthiness on Joseph's part.
[6:00] Which, however many years may have elapsed, and we don't know how many years have elapsed that he's been in the prison now, the captain of the guard's house. We just don't know that factor. We don't know how long he was in Potiphar's house.
[6:13] All that we do know, and we'll come to it in just a minute, is how old he is when the dreams are conveyed to them. So, here he is being given charge of these major state prisoners directly by Potiphar.
[6:28] Potiphar, clearly, Potiphar trusts him again, whatever may have been the case before. So, here we have this situation where Joseph now is the one servant, almost like their man servant in the prison.
[6:41] Very high-ranking individuals, because it's, as some commentators have pointed out, in order to be in charge of anything. And this, you know, we shouldn't think the butler was just like a butler, like you would see in, you know, some of these period dramas or whatever you might see, answering the door and answering to the lady and the lord of the house.
[7:00] The butler is the one directly in charge of all the wine cellars, all the vineyards, and so on. The chief of the, he's the one in charge of all Pharaoh's drinking matter.
[7:13] All his, all the things that are given to him, wine or soft drink or whatever it may be, the grapes and the vineyards and so on. He's in charge of them all. There's nobody higher than him.
[7:24] So much so that if anybody gives the cup into Pharaoh's hand, it is this top leader of all those in charge of the vineyards and the cellars and so on of Pharaoh's household.
[7:35] And these were positions which would be given into the hands of princes of the blood. Now, Pharaoh himself would have, you know, cousins, brothers, what have you, those related to him who would be directly connected to him through his own blood.
[7:53] And these would be the people to whom he would give the top positions. Why? Because if you look at any history of Egypt, you find, you know, the Roman numerals of, you know, 19th dynasty, 20th dynasty, you know, 17th dynasty and so on.
[8:06] In other words, the ruling house of Egypt changed frequently. The fact that you may be Pharaoh and that your son may be Pharaoh afterward, after you, does not mean that your generation is going to continue for three, four hundred years.
[8:20] Dynasties changed on a comparatively regular basis. And if you were going to secure your own position on the throne, you surrounded yourself by people who had a vested interest in you or your son or whatever staying on the throne.
[8:38] So that meant that if you entrusted the top positions to people who were your cousins or your nephews or your brothers or whatever have you, then if the dynasty changes, they're out.
[8:51] Just as sure as you're out or your children are out. But whereas if it was simply, you know, an elected head or somebody changed, well, all these reliable civil servants, you want the same experienced ones around the bag.
[9:02] No, you don't. You want your own people. You want the guy that gives the cup into your hand and who has pressed the grapes in your presence to be somebody who is not slipping something else in the drink as well.
[9:15] You want the one in charge of your food and your bakery and so on to be somebody who is absolutely reliable. Nobody's going to poison you if these people have a vested interest in making sure that you stay on the throne.
[9:29] So these would be princes of the blood. These would be extremely high-ranking royal figures. Not immediate royalty, but second or third-rank royalty.
[9:41] High-ranking people. Top of the civil service. These are not just communal garden prisoners here. This is the problem of, say, the queen staging a military coup and throwing half the cabinet into prison.
[9:55] And this is the top layer of the Egyptian civil service here. And so these are people upon whom, yes, Joseph is waiting as a servant.
[10:06] And they are in the elite of prisons. The captain of the guards' house. That being the case, these people who would expect privilege and so on, we find Joseph is serving them.
[10:21] They continue a season in war. We don't know how much a season is. It could be how long is a piece of string. It could be years. It could be one year. Some people have speculated that because Pharaoh's birthday was the occasion when their sentence was concluded, either for better or for worse, that maybe their offence had occurred on the previous birthday.
[10:44] Maybe he had been passed some wine he didn't like the taste of. Or maybe he had tasted some pastries that he didn't like or whatever. So he threw the chief baker and the chief butler into prison.
[10:54] We don't know. We are completely ignorant of what their crimes were. We only know what the outcome was. And we only know that however long they were in, by the time we get to verse 5, they dreamed a dream, both of them, each man his dream in one night.
[11:11] We can calculate from subsequent chapters and verses that Joseph at this point is 28 years old. That means he has been in Egypt 11 years altogether.
[11:22] 17 when he was sold as a slave. 11 years now because we know that it's chapter 41, verse 1, came to pass at the end of two full years Pharaoh dreamed a dream.
[11:34] After the chief butler has been released, two years later Pharaoh dreams a dream. And when Joseph is brought in to interpret it, chapter 41, verse 46, Joseph was 30 years old when he stood before Pharaoh.
[11:46] So two years before that, when the dream is dreamed, just before the butler is released, Joseph then clearly is 28 years old. However many years he's been in prison, however many years he was in Potiphar's house, we don't know these things exactly.
[12:03] But they dreamed a dream, both of them, each man his dream in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison.
[12:13] And Joseph came in unto them in the morning and looked upon them, and behold, they were sad. Now this would indicate it's an unusual scenario. You would think that being bound in prison for these men, these high-ranking officials, would be, well, they were sad to be in prison regardless.
[12:31] Of course they're sad, of course they're downcast, but clearly this is an exception. When Joseph comes in and they are both sad one day, it's clearly not prison life that is doing it.
[12:41] They, it would appear, were treated comparatively well, as be fitted their rank, their dignity, in prison. So prison itself is not what's getting them down.
[12:52] Being bound and being kept away from their own job, of course, they'd be disappointed about it, but they probably would realise that it's part of the price of being at the top of their profession.
[13:05] Being high-ranking princes of Egypt, high places, as one commentator has pointed out, high places are slippery places. And the higher people rise in political government or places of power, the more you have to watch your back, the more you stand to fall at things that you would never expect.
[13:28] You think of some of the people who have held power, whether in our own land or in other countries or whatever, and the things that have brought them down would never be the things that you would expect.
[13:41] I mean, the events, for example, in Zimbabwe in the last few days. I have to say that I personally thought, well, President Mugabe's 93, eventually, surely, he's going to pass away.
[13:52] When he does, there'll be some kind of struggle for power. But I would never have imagined the events of the past week. Nobody ever can see what is going to end up removing them from power.
[14:04] You look at some of our more recent prime ministers and think of the things that brought them down when they looked unassailable. It's high places are slippery places, as commentators have put.
[14:18] So they perhaps realised that, yeah, okay, we got to the top, but it's a risky place. Here we are, in prison, not too uncomfortable. Part of the, you know, it's part of the price of the job.
[14:30] It's an occupational hazard. But here we are. They weren't too sad then because they were bound in prison. But one day, Joseph comes into them, and they are conspicuously sad, both of them.
[14:42] And he asks them, behold, they were sad. Where are the four of them who say sadly today? And they said unto him, we have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it.
[14:54] Now, you might think, well, the dreams have made us sad. That's what it is. But it's not that. I think why we should understand it, it's key what they say here. There is no interpreter of it. When people dreamed dreams in these ancient societies, they were always taken as meaning something.
[15:09] If you could remember them, they were significant, you would go to a soothsayer or magician or some other kind of, you know, prognosticator or whatever, who would interpret or pretend to interpret the dreams for you.
[15:22] Remember what centuries later, hundreds of years later, Daniel has occasion to say to Nebuchadnezzar, chapter two of Daniel, verses 27 and 28, Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, the secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, show unto the king.
[15:43] But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets and maketh known to the king, Nebuchadnezzar, what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream and the visions of thy head upon thy bed are these and so on.
[15:57] Just as Daniel does centuries later, Joseph is doing now. He says, do not interpretations belong to God. He says, you know, you're discouraged because you haven't got a soothsayer or you haven't got a magician or whatever to go to and tell your dream.
[16:13] That's why they're sad because being prisoners, they can't get out and go and consult these people. They are left with this dream that they don't know what it means. It's not, oh no, I've dreamed a dream and I'm terribly sad because dreams make me sad.
[16:26] What is making them sad is they've got this clear vision that they are remembering from the night before. Both of them in the same night. It cannot be insignificant that they both remember in the same night their dreams so clearly.
[16:40] But what makes them sad is not the dreams per se because they don't know whether they're good or bad. What makes them sad is that they do not have access to the soothsayers and the so-called interpreters of dreams.
[16:54] And this is how when Joseph replies in verse 8, you know, if we read it without thinking these things then we might think, who does he think he is? You know, do not interpretations belong to God? Tell him to me as though I am in God's place.
[17:08] That's not what he's saying. Do not interpretations belong to God? In other words, forget about your soothsayers and your magicians and your wizards and all these others who pretend to interpret the dreams.
[17:20] They are only pretending. Interpretations belong to God. And God can reveal those things to whosoever he chooses. He can reveal them to anyone just as easily as to these charlatans and these pretenders.
[17:36] Tell them to me. I stand as good a chance as anyone of telling you. Interpretations belong to God. So tell them to me. I pray. Now Joseph himself, of course, had experience of dreams in the past so he wasn't entirely a novice when it came to these things.
[17:52] So, tell them to me because God can reveal them to me just as easily as he can reveal them to anyone else. So in other words, he's seeking to comfort them and say, well, the fact that you have access to all these so-called professionals out there, don't let that discourage you out here.
[18:08] Tell them to me. So, Chief Butler launches in first of all and said to him, in my dream, behold, a vine was before me and in the vine were three branches and it was as though it budded and her blossoms shot forth and the clusters that all brought forth ripe grapes and Pharaoh's cup was in my hand.
[18:25] So, the dream is clearly not simply a remembering or an imagining of a normal natural scene. What is taking place in this dream is miraculous.
[18:36] It is as though in our present day somebody were filming a scene of nature like a flower bud sort of opening out and then the buds coming out and the blossom roll coming out and a speeded up camera or as though somebody had trained the camera on an apple tree right from the spring right through to the autumn and just speeded up the picture because what we've got here is he said the vine was before me three branches though it budded and her blossoms shot forth and the clusters they all brought forth grapes.
[19:05] So, it's going from bud to blossom to grapes and full ripe grapes all within the space of the dream. So, it's like a speeded up camera that's before him. He says he took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup just straight literally grape juice in the cup.
[19:21] Pharaoh's cup was in my hand I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup and gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand. In other words, just as he would have done before. And part of the thing when this was done in ancient Egypt was that it was all prepared.
[19:36] The grapes would literally have been pressed in Pharaoh's presence in order to ensure that they weren't being tampered with. In order to ensure that nothing was being added that shouldn't have been.
[19:48] So, the grapes would be pressed the juice into the cup and then the cup would be handed directly to Pharaoh. All in his presence, all in his sight. And Joseph said that, and this is the interpretation, the three branches are three days.
[20:02] Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head and restore thee unto thy grace and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand after the former manner when thou wast his butler.
[20:13] So, it's a good interpretation that the butler gets and Joseph says, but think of me when it shall be well with thee and show kindness I pray thee unto thee. And make mention of thee unto Pharaoh and bring me out of this house.
[20:26] For indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon. Now, this is the first explicit revealing we have of Joseph's feelings as to his treatment.
[20:39] And notice that in the midst of it he doesn't rail on anyone. He doesn't say, oh my evil brothers sold me into slavery when I bad not they are. He doesn't accuse them.
[20:50] He doesn't rail on Potiphar and say, my evil master you know, that I served so faithfully. This is what he's done to me and what a shrew his wife was and how terrible they were to me.
[21:01] He doesn't miscall anyone. And he asks for him to speak to Pharaoh not simply not because he wants preferment or he's looking for a job in the palace. But if the captain of the guard has had to put him in prison for shall we say political reasons the only person then who can directly go over his head is Pharaoh.
[21:24] If Potiphar were to have Joseph released on his own authority then it would be making him look a fool or look bad or be saying his wife was a liar or if she wasn't a liar then this Hebrew slave shouldn't be being released anyway he should be executed and so on the complications are just so many one reason Joseph is being left where he is is that Potiphar doesn't know what else to do with him.
[21:51] The only person then that can go over his head is Pharaoh. So Joseph is not asking for preferment or preferential treatment he's just asking to be released.
[22:02] What he would do when he was released who knows he might have tried to go back to Canaan and so on but bring me out of this house I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews here also I done nothing and they should put me into the dungeon so it's a plea and we can't help but be reminded when we know that the butler does end up forgetting him until years later.
[22:24] Think of another who made a plea think of the thief on the cross of course who are reminded of Lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom and said the forgetfulness of the butler you've got Jesus saying to him from the agony of the cross saying today thou shalt be with me in paradise.
[22:42] Jesus keeps his promises and keeps his word and he doesn't forget in the way that men forget. But having heard a good outcome the chief baker then says okay wait I'll tell you my dream now and I also was in my dream and behold I have three white baskets on my head now the word that we've got translated as white it literally means full of holes it means a wickerwork basket where you know you can see through the the network of the basket so I have three white baskets on my head in the uppermost basket they were all manner of bakeries or pastries as we would say nowadays for Pharaoh and the birds eat them out of the basket upon my head now again what he's describing is a perfectly normal scene in ancient Egypt whereby the bakery would be across the courtyard or whatever from the palace and those servants who were bringing the breads or the pastries or whatever they would be in baskets on their heads they'd be carried across across the courtyard and then distributed or set out or whatever the case may be now you might think well why didn't they just cover the top basket or why didn't they put it in one of the lower baskets so that it wasn't the top one that the birds in the air couldn't come and peck at the pastries or the baked meats that were on the top and one reason this is such a problem in ancient Egypt is if you remember that ancient Egypt of course had hundreds of gods possibly a thousand gods or more there were hundreds of gods and some of them if you think it had bodies of men but heads of birds many of the birds the buzzards vultures and so on were deified they were regarded as divine so nobody was allowed to chase them away or to shoot them or kill them or whatever the case may be they weren't allowed to prevent these supposed gods or supposed divine beings from feeding on the pastries on the food that was for Pharaoh
[24:39] Pharaoh was a god but so were all these other people all these other birds and other creatures regarded as gods there were dozens hundreds of gods in ancient Egypt so you weren't allowed to wave them away to stop them feeding on it or to try and kill them or shoot them or preserve your bakery materials in this way so you just had to let them eat them as you went from the kitchen or from the bakery across to the palace so it's an understandable scenario it's not an unusual scenario that is being described I had three white baskets on my head the uppermost basket were all manner baked meats for Pharaoh and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head and Joseph answered and said this is the interpretation of the three baskets are three days now notice that Joseph here could so easily have fat at him you're going to be released as well it's all going to be good and when you get out speak for me as well but he has to speak the truth if he is interpreting what is given to him he can only do so by the power the Lord gives him the inspiration the Lord gives him and he can only speak the truth within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee and shall hang thee in a tree and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee and notice again there's no no sense of oh that's gross that's so terrible oh imagine doing that terrible thing rather the sense is as though this was a normal method of execution as some commentators have suggested
[26:13] Joseph has here in very few words minutely described one of the forms of execution of criminals in ancient Egypt i.e. decapitation followed by the hanging of the headless corpse by the wayside from a tree and the birds of the air would literally just feed on it and peck it away till there was almost nothing left it's not even remarked upon it's not regarded as unusual or particularly cruel it's just described as though it were if not the most normal thing in the world and certainly a recognisable form of execution and nor does anybody say oh well why would he do that you know I haven't done anything we don't know what they've both done and this was part of the thing of living in the midst of an absolute monarchy where the word of the king or the prince is instantaneous and absolute he doesn't have to give a reason if he says so and so he's getting executed that's what happens he said this one's being released that's what happens it worked well for Joseph of course because nobody said when he ended up being promoted nobody said just a minute you can't promote him
[27:25] I'm more senior than him he's got no experience in the civil service what does he know nobody questions the word of the absolute as they thought divine ruler of Egypt if he says live you live if he said die you died just as was later on said in the book of Daniel whom he would he kept alive and whom he would he slew and this is the nature of life at court so it's not even remarked upon he shall lift up thy head from off thee and shall hang me in a tree and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee and it came to pass the third day which was Pharaoh's birthday he made a feast to all his servants and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants and he restored the chief butler unto his butlership again and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand but he hanged the chief baker as Joseph had interpreted to them Joseph's reputation if you like despite the severity of the one judgment and the blessing of the other is enhanced because when he finally comes to be remembered he is remembered as having called it right as having told the truth he neither flattered nor did he denigrate he just told it as it was and as it proved to be and he has acted faithfully throughout this incident is remembered it is recorded because it is part of the means the Lord used for what he was going to accomplish
[29:02] Joseph would not have been exalted later on in Egypt if he had not been remembered eventually by the chief butler and he wouldn't have been remembered by the chief butler unless the chief butler had been in prison and there wouldn't have been the occasion if there hadn't been the contrast between his release and the baker's execution and they wouldn't have met Joseph in prison if Joseph hadn't first been in prison and so on you see how all the different details of what the Lord has ordered whilst they seem to us why would God do that why would God ever bring that to pass why wouldn't he just intervene and get Joseph out of there quicker well let's just say for the sake of argument the chief butler had spoken up for Joseph and been heard and he said oh yeah at least that you were slave you know he shouldn't be in there anymore Potiphar you're overruled let him out so he gets out and he makes his way back to Canaan so when Pharaoh has his dream two years later there's nobody to interpret it for him there's nobody to make the preparations there's nobody to gather in all the abundant bumper crops and harvests of Egypt so that when the famine strikes
[30:16] Egypt famishes and starves to death and when Egypt the bread basket of the ancient east perishes with famine likewise Canaan perishes Jacob's family perishes Joseph who has gone out of prison and so glad to be home if that's where he went likewise he and his family perish for want of bread God knows what he is doing God is in total control of all his providence that does not excuse our own sins or the sins of the chief players here yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph but forget him he forgot because he was restored to prosperity he was having a good life again he didn't want to remember maybe part of him as sometimes human nature does suppresses the bad memories doesn't want to think about his time in prison just doesn't want to go there or even remember he was there and
[31:21] Joseph is part of that which he wants to forget whatever the reasoning he didn't remember him but he forgot him and we might think oh that's terrible imagine doing that but we're all guilty of forgetting people that we promised to remember we're all guilty of not following up on contacts that we promised we would do and things we said we would undertake we've all made that kind of mistake and we tell ourselves it doesn't matter too much because it doesn't matter to me it won't matter to them well there's not being anything I could do I'm just a servant and who am I to speak to Pharaoh and so on what better chance of speaking to Pharaoh than Joseph does and so on but most of all our greatest crime against God is that we forget him that we forget what he has done that we are inclined to forget the means of our deliverance I would suggest to you that this is one reason why our Lord
[32:26] Jesus when he took his leave of his disciples before his death instituted the sacrament of the Lord's Supper he knew what he was going to go through he also knew that this would be the means of paying the price the means of deliverance and redemption for all his people at every age but human nature being what it is there is always the danger that they might forget and so they have the most solemn commandment this do in remembrance of me that we should not forget that we should not be allowed to forget that we have the holy institution command and example of our Lord that we should remember and when we gather at the Lord's Supper what do we remember we remember his death we remember the price that he paid if we would remember Christ yes there will be plenty of people come the turn of the year who will be supposedly remembering the birth of
[33:37] Jesus in fact he will probably be forgotten his birth in the midst of all the other paraphernalia that will be visited on that time of year remember his birth yes remember his child perhaps remember his resurrection and another time of year perhaps we would hope we remember his resurrection every Lord's Day the first day of the week but if we would remember Christ and honour what he has done we remember his death and Jesus has given that explicit commandment this is what we are to do and this is why we are to do it yet did not the chief mother remember Joseph but for that life became good Joseph had predicted what would happen if Joseph didn't get him out of prison in all fairness but he told him what was going to happen and in due course of course that came to his mind but because life had moved on he didn't leave Joseph anymore and sometimes when the Lord to whom we pray in times of externity gets us out of a particular hole life is good again and we don't want to go back there we don't want to revisit the one who delivered us we don't want to remember the one who got us out who answered our prayer who saved us we just we just want to move on worse than the chief butler and Joseph is us
[35:00] Jesus we are inclined to forget that is our human nature this is one reason why the Lord is constantly enjoining his people to remember it is one reason why the world and the flesh and the devil is so intent on the deconstruction of the Christian Sabbath the Lord says remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy why is the Sabbath day so important because every week when we stop everything else that we do every week when we focus in worship and rest we are giving that silent witness to the God whose day it is we are remembering and the devil will have us forget when we gather around the Lord's table we remember his death when we gather in worship whether as families whether together in church whether as individuals we have our times of prayer or worship we are remembering and the world will have us forget it is so so easy to forget it is our human nature but the nature of God and of his spirit is that we be remembered before him and that we remember him likewise in our hearts this is a sin by the chief butler but it is a greater sin on our part to forget not simply one who has interpreted a dream to us but one was actually deliver us the reason the chief butler was free was not because of
[36:38] Joseph but the reason the chief butler was free was because of the Lord's providence in bringing him out and the reason we are free from sin and from all its effects and all its destructiveness is because of what Christ has done we dare not forget but even if we do the Lord in his mercy often brings us back to the place of remembrance often but not always and it is a risk we cannot afford to take remember the Lord whose day this is remember the Lord whose deliverance has redeemed you remember the Lord who holds out the way of escape from the dungeon of unbelief and indifference in this world remember the saviour who desires to save and to save to be uttermost all who will come unto him by faith but no for a surety that whether we remember or whether we forget God orders all these things in his perfect providence for his glory just as Pharaoh showed his power with the deliverance of the vatner and the destruction of the baker which one would we rather be the redeemed or the condemned the Lord has made for us a way of escape that his name may be glorified both in the redemption of those who put their trust in his son and in the condemnation of the wicked the Lord does not forget let us remember him as prayer
[38:28] I were there the has it