Genesis
40:1 ¶ And it came to pass after these
things, that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker had offended their
lord the king of Egypt. 2 And Pharaoh
was wroth against two of his officers, against the chief of the butlers, and
against the chief of the bakers. 3 And
he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison,
the place where Joseph was bound. 4 And
the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them: and they
continued a season in ward.
The king of
Egypt’s butler and his baker were both, “in the soup,” so to speak. Wroth is a form of wrath, fierce and abiding anger. These were the chiefs of the
butlers and the bakers who served the king, the top dogs. To place someone in ward is to put them in jail or prison
as the princes of Israel under the Babylonians or even just confinement as
David did with his concubines.
Ezekiel
19:9 And they put him in ward in chains,
and brought him to the king of Babylon: they brought him into holds, that his
voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.
2Samuel
20:3 And David came to his house at
Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to
keep the house, and put them in ward, and fed them, but went not in unto them.
So they were shut up unto the day of their death, living in widowhood.
We learn here that
Potiphar, being the captain of the guard
(see 39:1) had this prison as part of his house and that was his post, to keep
it. So, it appears that the captain of the guard was also responsible for the
king’s prisoners. Joseph became the servant, in prison, of these high court
officials whose fate had yet to be determined.
Pharaoh and king
of Egypt are synonyms, notice the parallel phrasing linking the word and
the phrase in verses 1 and 2, here as titles for Egypt’s ruler who was the
executive, legislative, and judicial branch of the government all rolled into
one, a virtual dictator except for the hold the priests had on the people.
God is our chief
executive (king, prime minister, or president), our lawmaker (like congress or
parliament), and our judiciary (like the Supreme Court). There is no appeal
from Him. Although the following verse was not used by America’s Founding Fathers
in their debates on the Constitution, as they leaned on Enlightenment and
humanistic writers, it is interesting how our three branches of government in
America line up with it.
Isaiah
33:22 For the LORD is our judge, the
LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.
No comments:
Post a Comment