So he asked Pharaoh’s officers who were with him in custody in his master’s house, “Why are your faces downcast today?” Genesis 40:7
These men are in custody, and Joseph asks them, “Why are your faces downcast today?” Something is going on that is more troubling to these men than being guilty of a crime. Something is going on that is worse than being confined in a prison.
What can possibly be more troubling than being guilty of a crime, and being confined in a prison? They know that there is a God, but they do not know what He has said.
They said to Joseph, “We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.” And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me” (40:8). Joseph had been given a prophetic gift, by which he was able to interpret the dreams. So, he offered to tell these men what God had said.
The cupbearer told Joseph his dream, and what Joseph told him could only have come from God. “This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days. In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand as formerly, when you were his cupbearer” (40:12-13).
Then the baker told Joseph his dream, and what Joseph told him could only have come from God. “This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days. In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head—from you!—and hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat the flesh from you” (40:18-19). And in three days the Word of God came true—the cupbearer was restored to his position as servant to the king and the baker was hanged.
Here is something that you may have opportunity to do this week. You see that someone is troubled. You ask, “What is the matter?” You can say, “Do you want to know what God has said?”
