The Trustworthy God

Read: Genesis 40. Daniel 2, if you have time.

Do you know that the interpretation of dreams is a gift from God?

It sounds very “new age” and so abstract, but it’s true: the God who gives us dreams often provides those with a gift to interpret them. Joseph is one of those. The chief cupbearer and the chief baker both have similar dreams that are related to their work. They shared the dreams with Joseph. Note his response: “Don’t interpretations belong to God? Please tell me.” (vs. 8b).

Joseph trusted in God. He was confident that God will reveal to him the meaning of the dreams, since they were God’s to begin with. Oftentimes, don’t we mistake God’s gifts with natural talent? The baker made such a mistake. Joseph gave the cupbearer a very nice interpretation, and he thought, “Wow… maybe if I asked, Joseph would give me a good interpretation too!” But what he forgot was that the interpretations were not Joseph’s. Joseph doesn’t go, “Oh, because the cupbearer is such a nice guy, I’ll give him a good interpretation.” So, you can imagine the surprise he had when his dream, which was quite similar to the cupbearer’s, turned out to be an omen.

You might be tempted to think that Joseph was a prophet, since he could foretell future events. It’s important to know that prophecy in the Bible does not concern far-off-distant events. It is an interpretation of immediate world events in light of God’s commands. Dreams, on the other hand, don’t have to be about near-future events. In Daniel 2, we have another story of a dream. Nebuchadnezzar had a weird dream of a great statue made of four materials, with the strongest and most durable (gold) at the top of the statue, and the weakest (iron and clay) at the bottom. All it took was a stone to topple the statue, but the stone itself became a huge infallible mountain! Daniel proceeded to tell Nebuchadnezzar the dream, and he closed by saying “The great God has informed the king what shall be hereafter. The dream is certain, and the interpretation trustworthy.” (vs. 45) How did Daniel know it was trustworthy? Because it was not his interpretation, but God’s. And God is trustworthy.

I’m not saying you should go out and tell everybody your dreams so that someone can tell you how well you did on last week’s pre-calculus exam. What I am saying is that this God whom we worship is entirely trustworthy. Joseph and Daniel had no way of knowing that their interpretations were on the mark when they told it. They had to trust that God knew what he was saying. So let us place our trust in our trustworthy God.

Maybe some of you are reading this when it’s late in the night. Devotions are probably the last thing you do to close the day. Let us fall into his arms of trust then, as we rest in his safety and security.