Maybe it was just the pizza I ate last night

Genesis 40

While in prison, Joseph is put in charge of the king's cupbearer (bartender?) and baker who have lost favor with Pharaoh. One morning, Joseph notices them both a little down in the mouth, so he asks them what the matter is.

It seems they've both had dreams and they can't find someone to interpret. Joey says that "interpretations belong to God." So the cupbearer unloads.

He sees a vine with three branches. Once the vine budded, it blossomed and developed into grapes. The cupbearer had Pharaoh's cup in his hand so he took some grapes, squeezed the juice into the cup and handed it to Pharaoh.

Joe has a response ready. The branches represent days- in three days you'll be returned to your prominant position. But- once this happens, please don't forget me- get me out of this prison. I haven't done anything worth being imprisoned for.

Now the baker hears the favorable interpretation and begins watering at the mouth- here's my dream:

He had three baskets of bread on his head. The top one had baked goods, but birds were munching away on them.

Joseph says that the three baskets are once again days. In three days Pharaoh is going to hang him and birds will eat his flesh. I would say that this dream officailly qualifies as a nightmare.

Three days later both events came to pass- but the cupbearer didn't remember Joseph.

Once again I'm puzzled by the role of dreams in the plot of biblical stories. How did they know that the dreams weren't the result of spicy food from the night before? Do dreams still have a predictive power now and if not, what sparked the change? If we could interpret our dreams to predict the future would we want to? Would the baker's last three days have been more pleasant if he were clueless about his fate?

The thing that strikes me most here is that Joseph notices that these men are troubled and sets out to help them. It might be easier sometimes to avoid people who seem to be annoyed or worried- to not invest too much in the troubles of others, after all we've got our own problems. My car broke down,my job is stressful, the cubs are losing, I'm stuck in prison myself- but Joseph doesn't cop out. He sees an opportunity to try to ease suffering, and he acts.

And the result- God is glorified (it's by His power after all), the cupbearer is comforted, and if I remember correctly, eventually he remembers the plight of our hero. It does seem that the baker might end up worse off- but maybe it gave him three days to contemplate the purpose of his existence and to make things right with his maker.

Or maybe it didn't- maybe the point here is that sometimes our attempts to help, gum up the works and make things worse- but the answer is not to stop being concerned and to stop trying to help- maybe the answer is to care and to pray and to show love...and the rest is in God's hands.