Read Genesis 41:1-37 at Bible Gateway.
the teaching tools of scripture
Hebrew paragraph divisions
Gen 41:1-44:17 {s} Joseph the overseer
Strong themes of the parashah
None this week
Gen 41:1-37 chiastic structure
1a) Gen 41:1-15, Pharaoh’s dreams, which troubled him + his servants;
1) Gen 41:1-7, Pharaoh dreamed two dreams in one night;
2) Gen 41:8, He sent for the magicians + wise men/ none could interpret the dreams;
3) Gen 41:9-13, The chief butler told Pharaoh about Joseph who interprets dreams;
central axis) Gen 41:14, Pharaoh sent for Joseph/ they brought him hastily out of the dungeon;
1) Gen 41:15a, Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have dreamed a dream;
2) Gen 41:15b, There is none that can interpret it;
3) Gen 41:15c, I have heard it said that you can understand a dream to interpret it;
1b) Gen 41:16, Joseph answered: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace;
1c) Gen 41:17-24a, Pharaoh relates his dreams;
central axis) Gen 41:24b, I told this to the magicians; but there was none that could declare it to me;
2c) Gen 41:25-32, Joseph relates the interpretation;
2b) Gen 41:33-36, Joseph’s wise counsel is God’s answer of peace;
2a) Gen 41:37, It was good in the eyes of Pharaoh + all his servants.
Did you notice that God brought the troubling news before the king, so that He could open the path for His answer of peace to come before the king? Bad news is many times just the first step to a miraculous, peaceful, and wise outcome. And God prepared for His answer of peace several decades in advance, in positioning Joseph strategically. We of all people need never fear evil reports!
Theme of the parashah
God raised Joseph from imprisonment/ brought him + his gift before the king
Finding Messiah in Torah
Joseph, after descending to the place of a slave in Potipher’s house, suffered further dishonor when cast into prison even though he did no unrighteousness. Descent into slavery, and descent into prison are prophetic types of death in Scripture, because the life previously known, was ended.
God allowed his double humiliation as a prophetic type of Messiah Yeshua who also suffered a double humiliation:
Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross. Phi 2:5-8
But he was “raised up” from that place and brought before the king, where God used Joseph’s gift to bring the kingdom an answer of peace from God.
This is the sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a feeding trough.” Suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will toward men.” Luk 2:12-14
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