Latest / Reformed Thinking / Remembered by God: Providence, Forgetfulness, and Hope (Genesis 40:20-23)

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Remembered by God: Providence, Forgetfulness, and Hope (Genesis 40:20-23) · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  You know, usually when we talk about doing the right thing,
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  there's this expectation of a clean cause and effect
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  relationship. We treat obedience kind of like
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  a vending machine. You drop in your coin of
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  faithfulness, you pull the lever, and well, out pops the
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  blessing. Right.
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  It is clean, it is binary, and it makes total sense to our
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  modern sensibilities. Yeah, but then you step into the
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  world of divine Providence, specifically when affliction is
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  involved, and you realize that the machine does not work the
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  way you thought it did. So welcome to Reform Thinking.
• 0:31
  This is our deep dive into a text that shatters that vending
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  machine theology completely. It really does.
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  It just completely dismantles it.
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  We are looking at Genesis chapter 40 verses 20 through 23
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  today and you probably already know the context.
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  Joseph is sitting in an Egyptian prison.
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  He just Florida State interpreted the dreams of two
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  high-ranking royal officials, the chief cupbearer and the
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  chief Baker. And his interpretations come to
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  pass with terrifying precision. OK, he asked the cupbearer for a
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  single favor to recall his innocence before Pharaoh, and
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  the result of his perfect obedience is total, absolute
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  silence. I mean he is forgotten.
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  The silence following that flawless obedience is what makes
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  this text so agonizing. We are looking at a universal
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  human ache here. It is that feeling of being
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  unseen and abandoned despite doing everything right.
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  Oh man, yeah, that is a heavy feeling.
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  It really is, and modern evangelicalism has a habit of
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  offering, well, shallow platitudes for this specific
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  pain. You will find endless lists of
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  steps to achieve a better life or psychological coping
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  mechanisms, or a prosperity driven guarantee that a
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  breakthrough is just around the. But Genesis 40 offers none of
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  that. No, not at all.
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  It offers massive theological realities about Providence.
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  It forces you to confront the tension between our earthly
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  abandonment and the decrees of heaven, and it does it without
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  giving you a quick escape hatch. I want to push on that tension
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  for a second because we are not just talking about a minor
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  inconvenience here. I mean, think about the
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  corporate equivalent today. You get the specialized degree,
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  you work weekends for years, you deliver the presentation.
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  That saves your firm millions of dollars.
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  You execute your role. Yeah, Florida State.
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  And then you watch the promotion go to an external hire while the
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  CEO forgets your name. That stings.
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  But Joseph is not dealing with a missed promotion.
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  No, he is dealing with a dungeon.
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  Right. To understand the sheer
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  devastation of this moment, we have to grasp the terrifying
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  absolute authority of the Egyptian system holding him
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  captive. We're not looking at a modern
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  justice system with appeals and parole boards.
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  Are we not even close? The setting here is the opulent,
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  idolatrous court of Pharaoh, and it is juxtaposed against the
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  miserable subterranean reality of the royal prison.
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  Verse 20 mentions Pharaoh's birthday.
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  Which is a big deal I assume. Oh, massive.
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  In Hebrew, that is. Yom Holodit E Pero, in the
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  ancient near east of Pharaoh's birthday was not just some
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  private party with cake. It was a massive event of
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  statecraft. Yeah, the Pharaoh was viewed as
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  a divine being, a literal incarnation of the God Horus.
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  So this birthday celebration was a moment of supreme religious
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  and political magnitude. So he is flexing his authority.
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  Precisely. The monarch would use this day
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  to grant sweeping amnesties or to execute enemies.
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  It was a calculated display of his absolute authority over life
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  and death. The lives of his officials
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  literally depended on his passing mood on that specific
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  day. That is terrifying, and
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  contracting that absolute terrifying authority is the
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  absolute misery of where Joseph was sitting.
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  The text uses the Hebrew word Sohar for the prison.
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  Yes, Sohar. That we need to erase any mental
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  image of a modern penitentiary. A Sohar indicates a Roundhouse
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  fortress dungeon. It was a subterranean pit, a
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  literal. Hole in the ground.
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  Right Psalm One O 5, verse 18 gives us an inspired historical
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  commentary on Joseph's specific condition.
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  It says his feet were afflicted with fetters and he was late in
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  irons. That is just brutal.
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  It is. This was a place of disease,
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  sensory deprivation and severe malnourishment.
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  I mean you are in the dark, chained to a wall, waiting for a
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  ruler who thinks he is a God to decide if you live or die.
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  And we also have to recognize the status of his cellmates, the
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  chief cupbearer, the Mashka, and the chief Baker, the OFA.
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  These were high-ranking state officials.
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  Like White House chief of staff level.
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  Yeah, very much like that. The cup bearer was an intimate
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  confidant who tasted the wine to prevent assassination by poison.
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  He had unparalleled direct access to the most authoritative
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  ruler on Earth. That political reality explains
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  why Joseph placed his hope in this specific man.
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  Joseph understood the political machinery of Egypt.
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  He knew that a single whispered word from the mash guy into
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  Pharaoh's ear could mean instant freedom.
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  It was a very strategic, logical human hope.
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  But against this terrifying backdrop of absolute human rule
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  and political maneuvering, the text suddenly pulls back the
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  curtain to reveal an even higher, unassailable authority.
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  God is orchestrating these events down to the precise day.
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  The timing is meticulous. It really is.
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  Verse 20 gives us this temporal marker.
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  It says on the third day that aligns Florida State with what
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  Joseph prophesied. The grammar the author uses here
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  is staggering. Really.
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  In verses 2021 and 22, the text uses a brilliant Hebrew idiom.
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  It is Yisa at Rosh, which translates to He lifted up the
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  head. OK, I love this part.
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  Tell us about that double meaning.
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  It holds a terrifying double meeting in the ancient Near East
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  to lift up the head of a servant meant to summon them from prison
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  to stand trial or to be reviewed.
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  Oh, because they are literally down in a hole, Yes.
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  Exactly. You have to picture the physical
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  reality of the Sohar. They were in a subterranean pit.
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  They literally had to have their heads lifted up out of the
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  ground to stand before the monarch.
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  That makes so much sense. But the outcome was radically
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  different for the two men. For the cut bearer, Farrell
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  lifted up his head and restored him to his office.
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  For the Baker, Farrell lifted up his head from off his body.
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  He executed him by hanging. Wow, that linguistic double
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  meaning is brilliant and chilling.
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  The exact same royal action brings life to 1 and death to
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  the other. It is a stark contrast.
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  But this brings up a massive theological hurdle.
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  If we are operating under Reformed theology, specifically
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  the doctrines outlined in the Westminster Confession, we say
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  that God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy
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  counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain
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  whatsoever comes to pass. That is the core of it, yes.
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  So God did not simply look down the corridors of time to see
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  what Pharaoh would randomly decide to do on his birthday.
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  God ordained the birthday, the feast, the mercy for the
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  cupbearer and the wrath for the Baker, all to align Florida
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  State with the words spoken by Joseph three days prior.
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  He ordained all of it. But critics will argue that this
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  turns God into a cosmic puppeteer manipulating a rigged
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  game. How do we defend God's goodness
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  here, especially when he's ordaining a man's execution just
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  to match a prophecy? Well, the confession also states
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  that God ordains these things in such a way that he is neither
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  the author of sin nor is violence offered to the will of
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  the creatures. OK, so the secondary causes
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  matter. Oh, absolutely.
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  The liberty or contingency of second causes is not taken away,
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  but rather established. Pharaoh acted according to his
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  own tyrannical human will. The Baker suffered for his own
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  real offenses against the Crown. So they are acting out their own
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  desires. Yes, God uses the natural
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  actions, the political systems, and the free agency of humans as
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  secondary causes to accomplish His primary decree.
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  That is a crucial distinction it.
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  Is modern liberal theology constantly tries to edit God by
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  separating his kindness from his wrath?
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  They want a deity who restores the cupbearer.
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  That has nothing to do with the hanging of the Baker.
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  They want a safe, sanitized version of God.
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  Right, but the text will not allow for a sentimentalized God.
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  The Word of God is judicial, It gives life according to mercy,
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  and it announces death according to judgement.
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  That is heavy. The restored cupbearer and the
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  condemned Baker should awaken reverence before the God whose
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  word never fails. I totally agree.
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  So the narrative moves at breakneck speed through this
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  flawless execution of divine decrees.
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  Prophecy is given, the third day arrives, the feast happens.
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  The head is lifted, 1 is restored, 1 is hanged.
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  The. Machinery is working perfectly.
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  Right. The machinery is working, but
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  then the narrative hits a devastating brick wall.
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  The focus shifts from divine action back to human action, and
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  verse 23 is just crushing. What does it say?
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  It says yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but
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  forgot him. The syntax shifts dramatically
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  there. The author moves from the
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  heights of a royal banquet to the devastating silence of an
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  unchanged reality in the dungeon.
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  It is such a stark drop off. It really is.
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  The Hebrew grammar uses a striking redundancy to make its
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  point. It pairs a negative assertion lo
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  Zucker, which means did not remember with a consecutive
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  imperfect verb weish kachehu meaning and he forgot.
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  Him so it is saying the same thing twice.
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  Yes, for emphasis, the verb shakok means to obliterate from
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  memory to willfully neglect. When the Septuagint translates
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  this, it uses the word epilantheno.
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  OK. Does that show up anywhere else?
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  Actually, it does. This is the same word used later
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  in the New Testament in James chapter 1 to describe someone
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  who looks in a mirror, walks away and immediately forgets
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  what they look like. Oh wow, so it is a total blank.
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  It is an absolute erasure from the mind.
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  But the sources make a theological claim here that it's
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  kind of hard to swallow for some people.
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  They argue that this forgetting was not a tragic accident.
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  It was not a slip of the mind because the cupbearer was
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  distracted by the opulent banquet.
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  No, it was much more purposeful than that.
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  They argue God close the womb of the cupbearer's memory.
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  This forces us right back into the tension we just discussed.
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  If God causes the cup bearer to forget, which is a sinful
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  neglect of a man who saved his life, how is God not the author
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  of that sin? It goes back to how God works
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  with secondary causes. God does not inject evil or
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  forgetfulness into the cup bearer.
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  He simply removes his restraining grace, allowing the
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  cup bearers natural self absorbed human inclination to
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  take over. Ah, so the cup bearer just does
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  what selfish humans do. Precisely.
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  The cup bearer naturally wants to forget the trauma of the
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  dungeon. He wants to forget the squalor,
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  the fear, and anyone associated with it.
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  By leaving the cupbearer to his own selfish devices, God ensures
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  the man forgets. That makes total sense.
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  If the cupbearer had remembered instantly, Joseph's release
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  would have been credited to human networking, would have
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  been seen as clever political maneuvering.
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  Oh, Joseph would have owed his freedom to a Pagan official,
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  yes. God actively orchestrated the
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  circumstances so that Joseph would remain in the dungeon
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  until the exact predestined moment of Pharaohs dreams 2 full
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  years later. Two full years.
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  Think about the psychological toll of that reality.
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  It is unimaginable. I try to picture it like
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  surviving A horrific shipwreck with a wealthy magnate.
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  You were both clinging to a piece of debris in the freezing
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  ocean. You keep each other awake, you
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  share your last rations, and he promises you a lucrative
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  position at his company if you both make it out alive.
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  A. Literal life or death bond.
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  Right. And then a rescue boat pulls him
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  from the water, but they miss you in the dark.
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  Days later, you managed to wash ashore.
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  You find out he is back at his Country Club giving interviews
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  about his survival. And when you reach out, he
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  pretends he has no idea who you are.
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  That is a brutal analogy, but spot on.
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  Consider the sheer agony of those two extra years in irons
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  in the Sohar, knowing the guy whose life you saved with your
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  interpretation is sipping wine in the palace of the king.
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  It had to be agonizing for him. The memory of Joseph was
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  entirely erased from the cupbearer's mind.
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  It was not a race from God's mind.
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  The text strips away all human means of deliverance.
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  The author eliminates the arm of flesh.
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  Which was a massive lesson for the people reading this.
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  Oh, absolutely. We have to look at the people
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  this account was originally written for to grasp the weight
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  of this lesson. The original audience was the
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  Israelites gathered on the plains of Moab under the
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  leadership of Moses. So they are about to enter the
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  promised land. Right.
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  They were poised to enter, but they had recently been liberated
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  from the very nation where this story took place.
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  They knew the terror of Pharaoh intimately.
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  They knew the bitterness of Egyptian bondage.
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  They also had a severe corporate addiction, didn't they?
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  They did. They constantly wanted to return
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  to Egypt. Every time they faced a
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  challenge in the wilderness, they complained to Moses.
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  They wanted the leeks and the onions.
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  Yeah, they wanted to make alliances with the surrounding
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  nations. They relied on the arm of flesh
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  and Pagan treaties rather than trusting Yahweh in the desert.
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  So Moses used this account of Joseph to strip away their
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  idolatrous leanings toward political pragmatism.
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  Moses demonstrated that divine delays are not divine denials.
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  That is a great way to put it. If the chief cup bearer whose
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  life Joseph saved could forget him the second he experienced
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  prosperity, how could Israel ever trust the treaties and
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  promises of Pagan nations? They couldn't.
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  Exactly. Moses intended to correct their
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  reliance on human institutions. Now, this is not a prohibition
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  against lawful means. Right, because Joseph did ask
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  for help. Yes, Joseph did not sin when he
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  asked the cup bearer for help. Using lawful means to improve
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  your situation is fine. The warning is against placing
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  your ultimate confidence in mortal patrons.
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  Putting all your eggs in the human basket, right?
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  The passage aims to produce a corporate covenantal patience
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  within the nation. They were to understand that
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  their current hardships in the wilderness were analogous to
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  Joseph's time in the dungeon. It was a necessary period of
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  preparation. Yes, divinely orchestrated
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  before the realization of the promise.
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  The ancient Israelites tendency to trust political alliances
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  over divine Providence is the exact same struggle you face
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  today as a listener. It never really changes, does
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  it? No, it doesn't.
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  The application of this passage lands heavily on the modern
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  listener because we are constantly bombarded by
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  ideologies that preach the exact opposite of Genesis 40.
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  Oh, without a doubt. I mean, look at the prosperity
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  gospel. It teaches that having enough
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  faith guarantees an unbroken ascent of immediate, tangible
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  earthly blessings. It preaches a theology of glory
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  without a theology of the cross. It is a very dangerous message.
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  It is. They tell you that if you claim
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  it, the dungeon doors will fly open.
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  But Joseph possessed extraordinary faith.
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  He was Florida State faithful in his obedience.
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  He gave God the glory. And what did that get him?
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  His flawless faithfulness earned him two more years in a pitch
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  black dungeon. That is the hard truth people do
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  not want to hear. God matures His people through
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  deferred hope. This is the doctrine of
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  sanctification through suffering.
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  It is so countercultural. It really is.
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  The world tells you to build your brand, network with the
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  right people, and make yourself unforgettable.
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  Scripture tells you to submit to the God who remembers His
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  covenant. Wow.
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  Build your brand versus submit to God.
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  Yes, God mortifies our reliance on human institutions by making
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  us wait. It is fascinating how the source
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  material applies this ancient text to modern times.
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  They draw a sharp critique against relying on earthly
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  utopias. We see that everywhere right
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  now. Regardless of where you, the
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  listener, sit on the political spectrum, the underlying
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  argument here is that relying on any human political system is a
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  repeat of Israel's mistake. Our hope is never political
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  reform in the current systems, but the sovereign deliverance of
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  Yahweh. The Church age is much like
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  Joseph's time in the dungeon. We are a heavenly people living
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  in the Kingdom of men, waiting for the true King to return and
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  exalt us. While the world just keeps
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  partying, right? The world, much like the
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  cupbearer, goes about his feasts and his politics, entirely
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  forgetting the Church and the promises of God.
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  Joseph did not start a prison riot to overthrow the Egyptian
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  system. He.
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  Submitted to the Providence of God while waiting for
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  deliverance, Yeah. But I have to say, it is easy to
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  sit here and say that we should submit to Providence.
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  But what do you do when the pain is daily?
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  What do you do when the silence from heaven feels suffocating?
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  That is the $1,000,000 question. Because Christianity is not
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  Stoicism. We don't just pretend it doesn't
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  hurt. The text allows us to name the
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  wound. Lament is appropriate.
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  Lament is a thoroughly biblical response.
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  We can acknowledge the closed door.
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  We can feel the sting of the cupbearer's amnesia.
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  But we must view the closed door as a comma, not a period.
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  A comma, not a period. I like that.
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  We cannot conclude that truth has failed or that service has
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  been wasted just because our current sentence is unresolved.
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  The passage trains the covenant people to wait, to trust and to
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  interpret their lives not by the last sentence they have
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  experienced, but by the Lord who is writing the whole story.
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  That is so good, and Joseph's righteous suffering and the
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  total crushing failure of his human mediator inevitably pushes
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  us to look for a flawless mediator.
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  We need someone who never suffers from amnesia.
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  We absolutely do, and the redemptive historical lines from
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  Genesis 40 trace straight to the cross of Christ.
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  Let's dig into that because it is amazing.
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  It is. Joseph is unequivocally one of
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  the most vivid, detailed, and divinely ordained types of the
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  Lord Jesus Christ in all of Scripture.
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  Look at the Christological parallels.
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  They are everywhere. Joseph is the righteous,
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  innocent sufferer. He was sent by his father,
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  rejected by his brothers, stripped of his garments,
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  falsely accused and placed in a pit of condemnation, flanked by
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  two criminals. It is a striking portrait of
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  Calvary. I mean, you have Jesus, the
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  sinless Son of God, stripped of his garments and nailed to a
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  cross between two thieves. Look at the outcomes to Joseph
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  stands between the cupbearer and the Baker to 1.
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  He delivers a message of life and restoration to the other, a
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  message of impending judgment. It perfectly mirrors the
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  crucifixion. It really does.
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  On the cross, Christ is between two criminals.
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  To the repentant thief he gives a message of life.
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  He says, today you will be with me in paradise.
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  To the unrepentant thief, there is only the silence of impending
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  judgment. The parallels are exact, but we
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  also see a contrast that highlights the superiority of
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  Christ. Joseph begged the cupbearer to
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  remember him, and the cupbearer failed.
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  He forgot. He totally blanked.
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  Yeah, but on the cross, when the dying thief cried out, Jesus,
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  Remember Me when you come into your Kingdom, Christ did not
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  forget. He never forgets.
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  That is the beauty of Christ as our great High Priest.
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  It really is. The cupbearer ascended to the
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  comfortable palace of Pharaoh, and completely forgot the man
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  suffering in the dungeon. Christ suffered in the dungeon
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  of God's wrath, and then he ascended to the right hand of
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  the majesty on high, and he perpetually remembers his
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  covenant people. Human mediators fail you the
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  second their own circumstances improve.
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  The exalted Christ never forgets those who belong to Him.
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  He has inscribed us on the palms of His hand.
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  That is such a comfort. We also see a connection in the
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  temporal marker in Genesis 40. The third day brings vindication
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  of God spoken word through Joseph.
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  The third day is when the destinies of life and death
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  diverge. The third day is everywhere in
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  Scripture, right? In the Gospels, the third day
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  brings the ultimate vindication of the Word made flesh bursting
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  from the tomb. Joseph's third day is a shadow.
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  Christ's third day is the blazing reality that secures our
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  eternal deliverance from the dungeon of sin and death.
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  Amen to that. So, having seen the flawless
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  memory of Christ compared to the failing, fragile memory of man,
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  we bring our discussion to a close.
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  If you are listening to this and you are building your hope on
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  the arm of flesh, you need to hear this clearly.
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  Pay attention to this part. The arm of flesh will always
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  fail you. If you build your hope for
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  deliverance or peace on the fragile memories or the
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  political cloud of mortal men, it will collapse under the
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  weight of reality. It is just a matter of time.
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  The cupbearer forgot. Your friends may forget.
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  The systems of this world will crumble.
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  But the Ancient of Days never forgets his covenant.
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  If you are in a season of suffering, you're waiting is not
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  a cosmic accident. It is the meticulous decree of a
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  loving Father who is preparing you for glory.
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  He is mortifying your reliance on the world so that you will
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  lean entirely on Him. That is the whole point of the
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  dungeon. Exactly.
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  I want to leave you with one final thought to Mull over.
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  Consider the cupbearer shock. 2 full years later.
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  Pharaoh has a terrifying dream. All the wise men of Egypt fail.
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  Nobody can figure it out. Right.
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  And suddenly the memory of Joseph hits the cup barrel like
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  a physical blow. Genesis 41 tells us.
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  He says. I remember my offenses today.
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  How often does God use our season of being forgotten to
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  perfectly position us for a moment of deliverance that we
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  never could have orchestrated ourselves?
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  Think about it. If Joseph had been released
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  early, he would have just been a free Hebrew slave wandering
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  Egypt. Because he was forgotten, he was
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  in the exact position to be pulled from the dungeon to save
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  the known world. God's timing is rarely our
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  timing, but it is always flawless.
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  It really is. We started by talking about that
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  broken vending machine, the frustration of doing the right
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  thing and getting silence in return.
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  Genesis 40 shows us that the machine isn't broken, it's just
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  not a vending machine at all. It is something so much bigger.
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  It is the sovereign, unassailable decree of a God who
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  works all things for His glory and your good.
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  Even when the dungeon is dark and the cup bearer has lost his
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  memory, rest in the hands of the God who writes the end from the
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  beginning. Thank you for joining us on this
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  deep dive into Genesis 40.