Articles
Forgetting What We Should Remember
The “chief butler” or cupbearer in Pharaoh’s administration was apparently a high ranking post. But for some unknown reason Pharaoh’s chief butler and baker had angered him and were imprisoned awaiting possible execution (Gn 40:1-4). Joseph, their fellow prisoner, had been made their valet.
On the same night, both the butler and baker had dreams that disturbed them; they felt there was some message in the dreams but had no one to interpret the meaning. When Joseph questioned them about their despondency, they explained their predicament (40:5-8). Unbeknownst to them, they were talking to a man who had already received divine communication via dreams: “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell them to me, please” (40:8).
After hearing the dreams, Joseph offered the classic “good news, bad news” interpretation. The butler would be restored to his post; the baker was to be executed within three days (40:9-19). Joseph then implored the butler: “But remember me when it is well with you, and please show kindness to me; make mention of me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house. For indeed I was stolen away from the land of the Hebrews; and also I have done nothing here that they should put me into the dungeon” (40:14-15).
We can only imagine the relief to have one’s death sentence commuted. One would think the chief butler would be so overcome with gratitude that he would gladly plead Joseph’s case to Pharaoh. On the other hand, perhaps the butler thought after his near-death experience that he should lay low and not press the king’s favor lest something else go awry and he should end up back on the naughty list. Whatever the underlying causes, “the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him” (40:23).
Two years pass … two years of Joseph undoubtedly wondering whether his release was in the works; two years of hoping that any day an edict of his release would be delivered, facilitated by the chief butler; two years of wondering how delivering such good news to someone could be forgotten.
But then, Pharaoh himself has two dreams that deeply disturb him: “Now it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all his wise men. And Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was no one who could interpret them …” (Gn 41:1-8). [Light bulb turns on here.] “Then the chief butler spoke to Pharaoh, saying: ‘I remember my faults this day …” and he proceeds to report the events of two years prior (41:9-13).
All of us no doubt fail at times to show our appreciation for and reciprocate kindness to those who have helped us – sometimes in very significant ways. Maybe we are just forgetful; maybe we are embarrassed that we needed assistance; maybe we feel we deserved the help which short-circuits a sense of gratitude. A lack of thankfulness can come from some pretty dark places in our hearts; thus Scripture strongly urges being thankful (Col 3:15; Ph 4:6; Col 3:17; 4:2; etc.).
But this wasn’t the only time Joseph was victimized by the forgetfulness of others. After Joseph’s interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams and his elevation to prime minister, the fulfillment of the dreams occurs on schedule – seven years of abundance followed by two years of famine (with five more to come; Gn 41:46-57). The famine stretched northward into Canaan thus prompting Joseph’s brothers to seek sustenance from the land of Egypt (42:1-8). Following the chronology, this meeting between Joseph and his brothers was about 22 years after they had sold him into slavery.
With his brothers now unknowingly bowing at his feet, “Joseph remembered the dreams which he had dreamed about them …” (42:9). No doubt in the intervening years Joseph never lost sight of the prophetic dreams, but surely he wondered how those dreams could possibly become a reality. Yet here they were – his ten brothers who had so callously stripped him naked, thrown him into a pit, eaten their lunch without a pang of conscience (Gn 37:25) and then sold him to a passing caravan of Midianites (37:28) – prostrate before him and wholly at his mercy.
But what about them during the past two decades? They had covered their tracks by deception, presenting Joseph’s bloody, tattered cloak to Jacob: “a wild beast has devoured him. Without doubt Joseph is torn to pieces” (Gn 37:33) his shattered father concluded as they stood silently, knowing the truth. In their hypocrisy “all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him but he refused to be comforted, and he said, ‘For I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning.’ Thus his father wept for him” (37:35). What a heartless, hateful, rebellious cabal! Had they a shred of decency they would have at least made an attempt to find the nomads and buy Joseph back, but they refused to lift a finger to recover him.
But Joseph is shrewd, and he wants to know one thing: “Have my brothers changed at all over the years? Are they as hateful to my father’s other favored son, Benjamin, as they were toward me? Are they at all sorry for what they did to me, or are they the same vicious, wretched brothers who wanted to murder me but sold me instead?” Thus he concocts the scheme to have Benjamin brought to Egypt.
But after Joseph’s demand (Gn 42:19-20), “Then they said to one another, ‘We are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear; therefore this distress has come upon us.’ And Reuben answered them, saying, ‘Did I not speak to you, saying, “Do not sin against the boy”; and you would not listen? Therefore behold, his blood is now required of us’” (42:21-22). Whether they had forgotten Joseph’s pleading (which is doubtful) or whether they had repressed their guilt, it all floods back into their consciousness when Joseph, incognito via his Egyptian presence and language, presses them for Benjamin’s appearance at his court.
It occasionally happens that something is said or done which reminds us of a forgotten memory. Perhaps we sinned against someone; maybe we realize how immature we once were; or it might be a reminder of how much we truly love our spouse but haven’t acted like it or voiced it in a long time. Have you forgotten something very important that, with a little introspection, would change your life, or someone else’s, for the better?
