One of the most significant dreams recorded in the Bible is that of Jacob, when he journeyed to Haran. When he came to Luz, Jacob dreamed a dream of angels ascending and descending a ladder connecting heaven and earth. The Lord also spoke to him for the first time in the dream and he promised to be with Jacob and bring him back to the Land of Canaan. Other dreams were dreamed by other men, usually kings, wherein God spoke to them. In ancient times, before the word of God was written down, dreams seem to have been used by the Lord to communicate his will to mankind. It isn’t known for certain, but they may be used even today to hold sway over men’s decisions, especially heads of state, but, if this is true, men dream and hear the voice of God unawares. They don’t know it, or if they remembered the dream at all, it’s content is of no importance to them in this age of enlightenment, so-called.
Two years after Pharaoh’s chief baker and his chief butler were in the king’s prison and dreamed their dreams, Pharaoh also dreamed a dream that troubled him (Genesis 41:1). Pharaoh was standing by the Nile River and he saw seven well favored, fat-fleshed cows came up out of the river and fed among the reeds near the riverbank. Suddenly, seven other cows came up out of the river, but they were ill favored and lean-fleshed. These seven stood by the first seven, and the ill-favored cows ate up the well-favored cows. Then Pharaoh awoke out of his sleep (Genesis 41:2-4).
Afterward, Pharaoh went back to sleep and dreamed another dream. In his second dream Pharaoh saw seven ears of corn arising out of one stalk, and they were healthy-looking and good. However, later seven thin ears of corn came up from one stalk, but these were burned by the east wind. The second stalk of corn, which was thin and sun-blasted ate up the first stalk, which was full of choice looking ears of corn. Once again, Pharaoh awoke and found it was a dream (Genesis 41:5-7).
In the morning Pharaoh remembered his dreams and was very much troubled by them. Immediately, he sent for all the divining priests and the wise men of Egypt and demanded that they interpret his dreams. The priests were believed to possess knowledge of mysteries and employed divination to understand or interpret events, while the wise men studied the heavens and, no doubt, used astrology to determine the nature and outcome of certain dreams. Yet, none of these men could interpret Pharaoh’s dreams for him, so Pharaoh remained very troubled over the matter (Genesis 41:8). It may be because of this very reason, vis-à-vis the fact that Pharaoh was visibly upset, that his chief butler spoke to him about his dreams. The last time Genesis records Pharaoh being agitated, he cast his chief butler into prison. Therefore, perhaps hoping to avoid another outburst of the king’s wrath, which may not end as well for him as it did two years prior, the chief butler spoke up and reminded the king of the time, when he cast his two servants, the chief baker and himself, the chief butler, into prison. So, it was at this time that the chief butler remembered Joseph and mentioned him to Pharaoh, the king (Genesis 41:8-9).
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