Title: Our Obligation

Read: Genesis 40:1-19

Scripture reading: Genesis 40:14
“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” (Genesis 40:14).

Main idea: Jesus will be with us every step of the way.

Among Joseph’s fellow-prisoners were the chief butler and the baker of the king of Egypt (Genesis 40:1-4). When they each had a dream, Joseph interprets them (Genesis 40:5-8). The butler’s dream of the vine meant that Pharaoh would lift up his head to a position of favor in three days (Genesis 40:9-15). But the baker’s dream of the three white cake baskets indicated that within three days Pharaoh would lift off his head—by hanging him (Genesis 40:16-19).

In our text Joseph gives the butler a commission. This commission in principle is like the commission Christ gives to believers. Joseph is a type of Jesus. We note four things about the commission that compare to the commission Christ gives to each one of us.

First- Call to Remember
“Remember me when it is well with you.” The butler failed for two years to fulfill this commission because he forgot about Joseph. ^“Yet the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him” (Genesis 40:23). He did not “remember” about Joseph.  It was not a lack of courage but a lack of contemplation that kept him from serving Joseph as he ought. Likewise, the same is true with we believers. We think about so many things, but we do not think about Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. If we did more thinking about Christ, we would serve Him more and better.

Second – Our Obligation
“Show kindness.” Joseph had shown great kindness to the butler and simply asks him to reciprocate by showing kindness for Joseph. The same is true spiritually. 1 John 4:19 says, “We love Him because He first loved us.” Christ has shown tremendous kindness to us in saving us, so we are obligated to show kindness to Him in speaking up for Him. We have an obligation to serve as well as a command to serve the Lord.

Third – The theme of our message
“Make mention of me unto Pharaoh.” The butler was not to tell his own life story to Pharaoh, but was to talk about Joseph. Joseph is a type Jesus. The theme of our message needs to be Christ. When we leave Christ out of our message, we do not have a message. The place of the proclamation, “To Pharaoh.” The butler was to proclaim his message where he was. Like this commission, God puts us in various places so we will witness for Him there.

Fourth – The objective of the commission
“Get me out of this house.” The objective of the commission was to bring Joseph out of the place of dishonor (the prison) to the place of honor (freedom). It was to exalt Joseph from being a lowly prisoner to being a free man. The great commission for believers is to exalt Jesus Christ as the great Savior of the world.

Application
While all others may have forgotten Joseph, God remembers him, as he has done for many others throughout Genesis (Genesis 8:1; 19:29; 30:22). Two years later, God would use the butler to help deliver Joseph from prison. Thus, Joseph’s request wasn’t wasted. During those two years of waiting, Joseph clung to the dreams God had given him, just the way you and I would cling to His promises.

God had promised that people would bow down to Joseph, and he believed God’s promise. He didn’t know how God would accomplish it or when it would happen, but he knew that God was faithful. There were sufficient reasons for him to have been discouraged and to have abandoned all hope of ever rising to any position of authority. But he was still convinced that God’s revelation to him in his own two dreams was true. (Genesis 37:5-7, 9)

The lesson is, nothing is more improper than to prescribe the time when God will help us. For he deliberately, sometimes keeps his people in suspense, so that they may know for certain how to trust in God. Besides, in this way God planned to publicly bring glory to himself when Joseph was set free from prison. For if Joseph had received his freedom as a result of the butler, it would have been generally believed that he had gained it as a result of the actions of a man and not those of God.

Oswald Chambers said, God engineers our circumstances as he did those of his Son; all we have to do is to follow where he places us. The majority of us are busy trying to place ourselves. God alters things while we wait for him. (Oswald Chambers, 1874–1917)

“Do not put your trust in princes, Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help” (Psalms 146:3). “Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, Whose hope is in the LORD his God” (Psalms 146:5).

“He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:12). May we all strive to understand this!

Let’s pray together
Heavenly Father, thank You for the great commission. Help us Lord to carry out our obligation to witnessing and proclaiming Your Word. In Jesus Name, Amen