Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Yesterday ended with Joseph in prison in Egypt, forgotten by everyone but God, and probably his dad

Jacob. Today we open with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt,

having a pair of weird dreams. They bothered him because, as we talked about yesterday,

the ancient Near East cultures believed that dreams were messages from God. So Pharaoh called

for his magicians to interpret these dreams. First of all, don't think David Blaine type magicians. Think

Hollywood medium type magicians. They were more like spiritual mediums who would interpret

signs and omens. But second of all, and in general, I should point out that consulting

mediums and spiritists is ill-advised. We'll see that here, but also throughout scripture. Pharaoh's magician

mediums were useless. It was all part of God's plan to help the cup bearer remember that Joseph

exists and is really good at this dream interpretation thing. After all, Joseph had delivered

God's interpretation of the cupbearer's dream and the chief baker's dream a couple of years

earlier. So the cupbearer filled Pharaoh in on this, and Pharaoh had Joseph brought to him

quickly, but not before a shave, because those Egyptians loved a bald head.

Pharaoh asked Joseph for an interpretation, and Joseph makes it clear that this is not some skill

he possesses,

but that it is, in fact, a gift from God.

Pharaoh shares the dreams with Joseph, who then, without missing a beat, tells him what they

mean. There will be seven years of agricultural abundance in Egypt, and then there will be

seven years of famine in that part of the world. And it's about to

happen real soon. Then after his dream interpretation, Joseph dropped some wisdom on Pharaoh.

He basically says, because this is happening soon, you should put someone in charge of preparation.

...