Lesson 12: Daydream Believer

This week's lesson deals with Genesis 40-45. When we last left our hero Joseph, he had been falsely accused by Potiphar's skanky wife and placed in jail. This week, he eventually gets out and saves Egypt and his family from a seven-year famine. Not very interesting when condensed down so far... I'll go over some of the things which stood out for me, and we'll see how much ground I can cover.

First, after Joseph has been in prison for an undisclosed amount of time (long enough to earn the trust of the prison keeper), Pharaoh's butler and baker wind up in prison. Here's one more reason why Joseph is a hero to me. He sees these two men and asks them, "Wherefore look ye so sadly today?" (Genesis 40:7)

I missed this for years, then it jumped out and bit me. Joseph is in prison, because his former boss's wife was a tramp. He got that job because his brothers sold him to some traveling Ishmaelites, who in turn sold him in Egypt. It seems like the bad luck just keeps coming for him, but he stops to inquire why these two men are having a bad day in prison. I don't know what prison life was like under Joseph's direction, but I wouldn't think it strange that two newcomers were a little depressed.

"I'm sorry you missed milk and cookie hour, but we have craft time just after lunch... "

How often do we get so caught up in our own problems that we don't notice there are people around us who are having a hard time too? There's a quote from Elder Neal A. Maxwell which has become one of my personal favorites:

"When, for the moment, we ourselves are not being stretched on a particular cross, we ought to be at the foot of someone else’s—full of empathy and proffering spiritual refreshment" (Elder Neal A. Maxwell, April Gen Conf, 1990).

Instead of sitting down to commiserate over the discomforts of prison life, Joseph does what he can to lift their spirits. Turns out they had disturbing dreams, which Joseph interprets for them. Works out well for the butler, sadly not so much for the baker. Butler promises to put in a good word for Joseph, then forgets for two years.

Pharoah has a dream this time, and none of his wisemen or magicians can (or will) interpret it for him. I didn't catch on to this one either until I read a bit more on Egyptian culture...

Dream 1: seven fat cows are eating by the river, seven scrawny cows come up out of the river and eat the fat cows and are still scrawny as ever.

Dream 2: seven good ears of corn grow up on one stalk. Seven shriveled ears come up and eat the seven good ears.

This should've been a no-brainer to the wisemen. Cows were a symbol of the Egyptian goddess Isis, who represented agriculture and food. The [Nile] river represented fertility and life. The ears of wheat would also represent life and sustenance. So seven plentiful symbols of food are consumed by seven scrawny symbols of food... doesn't really take a genius here. The only guesswork left is to figure out they represent seven years. This would be like me not catching on to the fact Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader and is really Luke's father.

Joseph not only interprets Pharaoh's dreams, but offers a suggestion on how to prepare for the upcoming famine. To the credit of Pharaoh, he recognizes Joseph as "a man in whom the Spirit of God is" (Genesis 41:38). Once again, Joseph is placed in the #2 slot. And, unlike his previous posts, he gets to keep it this time.

I bet Potiphar's wife was feeling a little nervous when she got the news Joseph was second only to Pharaoh. How easy it would've been for him to issue the order to have her put in prison, or worse. As we will see when the brothers come to buy food, Joseph possesses a very forgiving heart. But that's another story...

Lesson 11: Dream a Little Dream

"So, I keep having these dreams where everyone is bowing down to me."

"Oh! Oh! Can I be the president of your fan club?"

That's probably not how Joseph envisioned his brothers' reaction when he told them about his dreams, but he had to know that it wouldn't go over well. I've often wondered why Joseph even bothered telling his brothers about the dreams at all. They already harbored enough resentment over the whole coat issue (the Hebrew suggests it was a coat with long sleeves, similar to something worn by royalty).

One thing I've learned through my children is that they have a hyper-sensitive sense of what they perceive to be fairness. It must skip a generation, because I don't remember being that way. I just learned to deal with the fact that I was the only child who wasn't spoiled...

So when Jacob gives Joseph the fancy coat, that didn't go over very well with the other kids. In fact, they "could not speak peaceably unto [Joseph]" (Gen 37:4). That must've made for some incredibly awkward dinner table conversations...

"Nice coat Joseph, looks like a bathrobe. Did it come with slippers too?"

Then Jacob would threaten them with washing dishes or cleaning the kitchen if they didn't stop fighting (just speculating on that part, it's not actually in the scriptures).

So when Jacob sent Joseph to check on his brothers as they were feeding the flocks (45 miles away), the brothers took advantage of the situation, and little Joe gets sold off to Egypt.

He ends up a servant to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh's guard, and is eventually put in charge of the whole house. Potiphar's wife was a little loose in the morals department and poor Joseph ends up in jail for sticking to his standards.

We sometimes get stuck in the idea that good things happen to good people and bad things come as punishment. That philosophy makes it very difficult to deal with the tough times that just happen as part of life. Joseph didn't get caught in the self-pity trap, he continued to gain favor and ended up as #2 on the prison's corporate ladder.

One thing we can learn from Joseph's example is his attitude towards trials. As Bishop H. Burke Peterson once said, “Whatever the source of the trial, if properly approached and handled, it will draw us closer to God” (H. Burke Peterson, BYU Devotional, 16 Feb 1996). And that seems to be exactly how Joseph handled his trials, and as a result, "the Lord was with Joseph" (Gen 39:21).

President George Q. Cannon taught:

"No matter how serious the trial, how deep the distress, how great the affliction, [God] will never desert us. He never has, and He never will. He cannot do it. It is not His character [to do so]. ... We have made Him our friend, by obeying His Gospel; and He will stand by us. We may pass through the fiery furnace; we may pass through deep waters; but we shall not be consumed nor overwhelmed. We shall emerge from all these trials and difficulties the better and purer for them, if we only trust in our God and keep His commandments ("Freedom of the Saints," in Collected Discourses, comp. and ed. Brian H. Stuy, 5 vols. (Burbank, California: B.H.S. Publishing, 1987¬92), 2:185; emphasis added)."

One of the challenges of this life is to see trials not as punishments, but as God's invitation for us to draw nearer to Him. And since we're going to have trials anyway, it seems to be pretty good company...