Read with Me
Genesis 41:1-7 (HCSB)
Two years later Pharaoh had a dream: He was standing beside the Nile, when seven healthy-looking, well-fed cows came up from the Nile and began to graze among the reeds. After them, seven other cows, sickly and thin, came up from the Nile and stood beside those cows along the bank of the Nile. The sickly, thin cows ate the healthy, well-fed cows. Then Pharaoh woke up. He fell asleep and dreamed a second time: Seven heads of grain, plump and ripe, came up on one stalk. After them, seven heads of grain, thin and scorched by the east wind, sprouted up. The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven plump, ripe ones. Then Pharaoh woke up, and it was only a dream.
Listen with Me
Over the course of history to this point, God had communicated with people in many different ways. He had spoken face-to-face and through those who could hear his voice, and He had communicated through dreams. All these methods were effective with the people He had chosen to speak to and through.
Pharaoh had no idea who the one true God was, so a face-to-face meeting or a verbal communication would have been more confusing than enlightening. But he, like a large number of the world’s people, did believe that “the gods” could communicate with them through dreams. So, that is the method God used with him.
God actually gave Pharaoh two dreams, both with elements that he would have understood well. The first with cattle grazing by the Nile, the second with grain growing in the fertile soil of the valley. Both dreams also included the number 7, and the theme of seven sickly and scrawny cows and plants completely consuming seven healthy cows and plants.
Pharaoh didn’t understand the dreams at that moment, but he immediately realized that there was a message that was being communicated. This was reinforced the following morning when the dreams hadn’t faded away but were still as vivid in his mind as they had been during the night.
Pray with Me
Father, I am thankful that You can reveal yourself to us using these same methods. In addition, we have Your word through which we can learn and understand Your being and Your character, at least as much as our poor finite brains can understand of the infinite. This section also points out that You continue to move things, people and events to move Your divine plan forward, even when Your actions are invisible to us. Help me, Lord, to simply trust in You when I can’t see or sense Your hand at work, to rely on Your promise that You’re always there and always moving. Amen.