“But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” Genesis 50:20 KJV

from Genesis 39:

The officer was Potiphar, captain of the guard, and Joseph became his servant and found favor in his sight. Potiphar saw that the Lord was with Joseph, so he put him over all that he owned, knowing things would be done right.

But as Joseph was a handsome young man, Potiphar’s wife no longer cared about loyalty to her husband at all. She desired the love of Joseph instead, but his love of God made loving her a temptation for which he wouldn’t fall.

“How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?” he told her. At a later time, he had to escape her presence, and he ran. She then made up a false accusation about Joseph to Potiphar, who, in anger, no longer kept Joseph as his right-hand man.

Potiphar had him thrown into prison, wrongfully accused. But, again, God was with Joseph in that dreadful place. The chief jailer trusted him, putting him in charge over all prisoners–a sure sign of God’s favor on Joseph in another case.

from Genesis 40

Then it came about that the cupbearer and the baker for the king of Egypt offended the king and were jailed there, too. Joseph was put in charge of them; and after being there for some time, they each had dreams, about which they had no meaningful clue.

Joseph found them, dejected, because they had no one, they said, to interpret the meaning of the dreams they’d had. Joseph, knowing interpretations belonged to God, was able to interpret the dreams, one of which was good and one was bad.

The cupbearer would be restored to Pharaoh’s service–then Joseph asked to be remembered by him after this would go through. The chief baker would be hanged–both interpretations were correct, but the cupbearer forgot about Joseph when things came true.

P. A. Oltrogge

However, Joseph was not forgotten by the Lord…

The story of Joseph will be continued in the next post.