Genesis 41:33-36

“Now therefore let Pharaoh look for a discreet and wise man, and set him over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint overseers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt’s produce in the seven plenteous years. Let them gather all the food of these good years that come, and lay up grain under the hand of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it. The food will be for a store to the land against the seven years of famine, which will be in the land of Egypt; that the land not perish through the famine.”

It is extremely encouraging to read this account. Pharaoh’s dream was nothing short of terrifying. It would have been easy to think that it was God’s will that everyone die and that it was time to fear because soon everything would be over, but that was not the case. It was Joseph, not the dream that delivered the message about how Egypt would be saved from the famine. The fact is that God intended to save Egypt along with the Hebrew nation.

The dream was a big part of God’s will, but it didn’t contain all of it. I think that we should pay close attention to this because it might be easy to think that we are destined for some particular thing because of what people think or even because of a dream. The fact is, to get a true picture of the will of God, we need to pay attention to what God’s Holy Prophets actually say. Like Joseph, they have the final word. Today we have that word written down in the Bible and even though God may, at times, supplement His word with dreams and visions, God’s Holy Prophets, who wrote the Bible, still have the final say.

Notice that, although Joseph didn’t shy away from telling the Pharaoh all of the gory details of the dream, he also made an effort to provide instructions for how to be saved. That is a good way to tell the difference between a message from God and a message from Satan. Satan loves confusion. God loves order and always provides a way out. God may not provide more than a single way out, however, and there is often a time limit too.