Here Comes That Dreamer!

Genesis 41
Gregory Broderick | Sunday, March 12, 2023
Copyright © 2023, Gregory Broderick

 In Genesis 37, which took place 13 years before the events recorded in our text.  As you might remember, Joseph, the young man of 17, has two dreams.  The first shows his brothers bowing down to him; the second, his brothers and his mother and father.  And the brothers are greatly offended by this dream: “Do you actually intend to reign and to rule over us?”  they said to him.  And later, his father sent him to the fields to check in on them and they utter the line, “Here comes that dreamer.”   Then they capture him, they sell him into slavery, and so on.  The idea is, “We’ll show him about those dreams.”

And we remember all that happened in the intervening 13 years between chapter 37 and our text this morning.  He was sold to those Ishmaelite merchants.  Then he was sold further as a slave to Potiphar down in Egypt, then falsely accused by Mrs. Potiphar of rape, and then tossed into an Egyptian jail.  And after all those difficult events, a ray of hope: Pharaoh’s cupbearer is also thrown into prison.  Joseph correctly and favorably interprets the man’s dream.

And here is the chance.  Joseph sends him back to Pharaoh and says, “Mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison.”  That was surely his most ardent hope: to get out of that prison.  But the man forgets Joseph for two full years, and nothing happens.  It is, perhaps, the low point of Joseph’s life.  Imprisoned, forsaken, and mistreated.  Languishing in a jail.  And yet God’s promise to him remains, that promise from 13 years before: “You will be the head.  You will be a ruler.”  Now it’s looking bleak.  It’s looking bleak in this jail.  But Joseph is holding on to God’s Word, standing on the promises of God.

And then all of a sudden, the unthinkable happens.  In the span of what seems to be just a few hours, Joseph is raised up from lowly prisoner and made second in charge of all Egypt.  It’s amazing.  It’s almost unbelievable.  “Here comes that dreamer.”  Indeed, he’s coming!  A miraculous deliverance by God.  A dream come true in more ways than one.  So let us look and learn from our dreamer this morning.

I. The Dreamer

Now our man Joseph was, in fact, a dreamer.  It began early in life.  The first recorded instance we have is at age 17 in Genesis 37: The sheaves of grain, the sun, moon, and the stars bowing down, and so on.  But as you read chapter 37, you get at least the impression that this is not the first time that Joseph is experiencing these prophetic dreams and visions.  He does not seem to be at all stunned by these dreams when they come to him.  Compare young Samuel:  when he heard the voice of God calling in the night as a child, he didn’t recognize it because it was the first time God was speaking to him.

And yet Joseph, when he gets these dreams, seems to know what they are, and seems to know what to do with them.  He’s unfazed by these dreams.  He seems to know that it is significant, that it’s more than just a strange dream that he has.  He seems to know and be able to understand the meaning.  He has spiritual discernment.  Indeed, even his brothers and his father seem to know the meaning of the dream.  The brothers didn’t like it, but they seemed to know what it was.  So I’m willing to wager that it happened before.  And hence the offense of the brothers.  Joseph wasn’t merely saying, “I had a funny dream in the night.”  He was saying, “God spoke to me the following things.” And they were offended.

Of course, the dreams, the dreaming, continues throughout his life.  He hears and understands the dreams of both the cupbearer and the baker while he languishes in the jail.  He gives the interpretation and is proven correct.  In three days, such and so will happen.  In three days, this other thing will happen.  And it all comes true.  In our text this morning, he is pulled from the prison to Pharaoh’s palace with apparently only time to shave and clean up.  And yet in that uncomfortable setting—with almost no notice whatsoever that he’s going to be asked to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams—Joseph confidently declares the interpretation.  And he is correct again.  How can he do this?  How can he stand there in Pharaoh’s Palace?  It’s one thing to give an interpretation while you’re sitting in a prison to two guys who are stuck in there with you.  It’s another to stand before the king, the world power of the moment, and confidently declare the Word of God.  How can he do it?  Well, the answer is, he is not merely dreaming.  It is God speaking.

God the Holy Spirit dwells in Joseph, and He speaks to Joseph, and He speaks through Joseph.  Sometimes through Joseph’s own dreams, as He did early on.  Sometimes through the dreams of others, as He did in the prison.  No matter who is the dreamer, no matter who’s receiving the message, Joseph knows the speaker, and so he instantly recognizes the pitch, the timber, the accent, the diction, and the word choice of that speaker.  Our Lord Jesus Christ said, “My sheep hear my voice,” and Joseph could hear the voice of God speaking to him in these various forms.

Now we all have this experience.  When you know someone, you know his or her voice.  Young mothers can pick up the sound of their child’s cry even though there are many cries in the chaotic yard of the co-op.  Or you might know your husband’s or wife’s voice from across a crowded room.  If you read old sermons, you will recognize the voice, the distinctive voice of your Pastor.  Even if they’re from 1998 and you’re just reading them on the paper, you can hear them in your head.  And it’s not just the sound waves that make up the voice, but it’s also what is said and the way it is said, the style and the substance.  If you work with somebody long enough, you don’t even have to communicate in complete sentences.  You know what they mean from your experience.  It’s almost like a secret code.  So if you know that person, you will know his voice.  And this is how it was with Joseph and with God.

Joseph knew generally that God could speak to His people through dreams.  Surely, he heard this from his father Jacob, who told him about the dream at Bethel, the stairway to heaven, God’s promises, the theophany that he had.  Surely Joseph heard how God appeared to Abimelech in a dream to warn that pagan king away from Sarai way back in Genesis 20.  He knew this general principle.  God can speak through dreams.

But Joseph also knew it in practice.  God the Holy Spirit dwelt in Joseph.  But God the Holy Spirit dwells in His people, in all His people (1 Corinthians 3:16).  The Father and the Son dwell in us and with us (John 14:23).  And He is not a mute God.  He is a communicating God.  Isaiah 30:21 says, “Your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it.’”  The reality is that Joseph has heard this God speaking to him for all of his life, so Joseph instantly knows who it is.  When Pharaoh is telling him the dreams, there is no confusion in Joseph as to who is speaking.  Listen to chapter 41 verse 25: “God has revealed to Pharaoh what He is about to do.”  Verse 28: “God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do.”  Verse 32: “The matter has been firmly decided by God and God will do it soon.”  He knows.  Joseph knows the voice.  He knows God.

God has been with Joseph from his youth—at age 17 or even before.  The Lord was with Joseph all that time.  Down in the pit, the Lord was with Joseph.  Out in Potiphar’s house, the Lord was with Joseph, even though Joseph was a lowly slave.  And chapter 39 verse 21 tells us that even in prison, the Lord was with him.  Now what do you think the Lord was doing that whole time in prison?  Just sitting there?  No, He was speaking to Joseph.  He is not mute, He is not dumb, like the false idols of this world.  He speaks to His people.  He encourages His people.  God comforts His people.  Psalm 50:3 says He comes and is not silent.  He is a speaking God, sometimes directing, sometimes comforting, sometimes rebuking and correcting, and so on.  Joseph has heard God’s voice many times before.  And so when he hears Pharaoh’s dream, he knows that God is speaking.  He has the spiritual discernment that is born of deep spiritual experience and deep personal relationship with God.

One of my questions for you this morning is, do you know the voice of God?  Can you hear Him speaking?  Can you distinguish between your urges and your desires, or the devil’s thoughts planted in your mind, or the philosophies of fallen man on the one hand, and the still small voice of God directing your steps on the other?  Can you tell the difference?  Can you hear the Lord saying to you, “This is the way, walk in it”?  Or are you unfamiliar with His voice, unable to pick it out among the crowd?  If you’re unfamiliar with His voice, then I say, get some practice.  Get into His Word and learn what He has to say.  The Bible is indeed the very Word of God.  God Himself spoke it.  It is theopneustos, God-breathed, Spirit-breathed, breathed out by God (2 Timothy 3:16).  God caused it to be spoken.  God caused it to be written down.  God caused it to be preserved across the generations.  Learn God’s voice by reading His Word and speak with God in other ways, especially by prayer.  If you want to know the essentials of prayer, it’s essentially speaking with God and hearing what God has to speak to you.  You want to know the voice of the Lord?  Then pray.  And this God hears and answers prayer.  In fact, Isaiah 65 says sometimes He answers before we even call.  Jeremiah 33:3: God says, “Call to me and I will answer you.”  You want to know the voice of God?  Call to Him.  He will answer you.  He says, “I will tell you the great and unsearchable things that you do not know.”  Our God desires to speak to us.

Our God is always speaking to us, and He speaks in many ways.  He can speak audibly.  Acts 8:29: the Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”  Now, I confess, that’s not my experience.  I have not heard the voice of God aloud.  But let’s not limit God by our limited experience.  God can speak by dreams and by visions as He did with Joseph, or as He did with Ananias in Acts 9:10: “The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias, go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul.”  And you remember that story.  Ananias says, “are you sure about that, Lord?  I heard a lot of bad things about this guy.”  But he heard from God in that vision what to do.

God can speak to us in many other ways: through delegated authorities, for example.  Your husband, your parents, your bosses, even the state, whose authority flows from God.  God can and often does speak to us through pastors and through those declaring His Word.  John Calvin is reported to have said that when a man of God is preaching the Word of God, then God is speaking.  Or He can speak to us through the counsel of our godly pastors.  Now it’s true, God can speak to you through anyone—through a pastor, through an unbeliever, through a brother or sister in the Lord, even through a donkey.  But the advantage of hearing the Word of God from the man of God is this: the spiritual antenna of the godly called and godly chosen man is generally more finely-tuned to God’s Word and God’s voice.  He knows it because he has experience with that God.  He has experienced studying His Word.  He has experience crying out to the Lord in prayer when he doesn’t know what to do.  And so he hears God’s voice often with much less static than your average person.

The main way that God speaks to us is through His Bible, his Word.  His Bible read and His Bible preached.  His Bible is written down for us as an objective source.  There’s no mixture, no signal interference when we go to the sources.  The Bible is God’s infallible and inerrant Word.  That means it has no mistakes and is incapable of mistake.  We can go to the sources, ad fontes, to know, what does God say about this?—subject only to translation error.  God’s Word tells us many things in plain terms: do not murder, do not steal, do not commit adultery, and so on.  It tells us that there are two genders only, that God created them male and female.  It tells us to flee from sexual immorality.  It tells us to worship Him only: There is but one God.  It tells us to speak the truth in love.  It tells us to love one another, to forgive one another, and so on.  We like to make it very complicated.  You want to know the will of God?  You want to hear the voice of God?  Get into God’s Word.

The world is full of noise, and noise creates confusion.  And with all the noise of the world, the flesh, and the devil, we can become confused.  But we have a remedy.  We can go back to the crystal-clear, powerful Word of God that keeps us free from confusion and directs our steps (Proverbs 16:9).  The Word preached also has this effect.  Preaching, if done right, will make the Word clearer, more applicable to us.

It will be applied powerfully to us.  The Word of God divides bone and marrow.  The Word of God exposes the heart.  The Word of God calls us away from error and to our Lord Jesus Christ.  Let’s not take for granted the Word of God.  We’re familiar with it.  Most of us read it every day.  Don’t forget what it is when you’re reading it.  It’s not some book.  It’s not some chore.  It’s not some duty.  God is speaking in the Word objectively, and He’ll speak to you by His Holy Spirit as you read it believingly.

So God is speaking all the time.  What is He saying with all this speaking?

1. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and Be Saved

First and foremost, He is saying, “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.”  This is his message to everyone, to every single person ever.  Matthew 28:18: He tells us, His disciples, “Go into all the world, witnessing to everyone about Jesus, testifying about Jesus, making disciples of all nations, and teaching them to obey God.”  It’s a paraphrase, but that’s what He’s telling us: “Go out, speak my Word to others and teach them to obey it.”

2. We Are All Sinners

God is saying to us that we are all sinners (Romans 3:22, 23).  The message is for everyone.  We are all sinners without exception.  Now the truth is, we like to think that others are sinners.  We all agree with that principle.  We think, they’re all sinners, but I’m pretty good.  Because I am rich, I am pretty good.  Or because I am poor, I am pretty good.  Because I am white or because I am black.  Because I am tall or educated.  Because I was born in the United States, I’m great.  Or because I’m an immigrant, I’m great.  Because I go to church, because I’m a member of this or that denomination, because I’m a member of this or that specific Church.  Oh, those sinners are out there somewhere, but in here it’s all good people.  It’s not true.  We can use any form of distinction to puff ourselves up and put others down.  Even a particular version of the Bible that I use or read can become a source of this false distinction.

So we can make all kinds of distinctions, but they’re all made up.  They’re all false, and they’re all declared false by the very Word of God which levels us all.  The Bible says there is no one righteous, not even one.  All of us tall people are unrighteous, and all of you short people are unrighteous.  All of the rich people are unrighteous, and all of the poor people are unrighteous.  There is no one righteous, not even one.  We are all sinners, and our sin deserves eternal death.  Romans 6:23: “The wages of sin is death.”  Now, that death that it’s speaking of is not some sort of rest.  It’s not some sort of non-existence.  It’s an eternal death of torment and agony forever.  Jesus Christ said so in Luke 16.

3. A Way Out

God is saying in His Word that we’re all sinners and we all deserve death.  But praise the Lord, He also says there is a way out, one way out, only one way out, by faith alone through grace alone in Jesus Christ Alone.  John 14:6: “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  Elsewhere He says, “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ Our Lord.  He is saying, “Come to me and be saved.  I will not turn you away.” But don’t go anywhere else.  There’s nowhere else to go that’s effective.  But He’s saying, “Come to me and it will be effective.”  Romans 10:9-13: He explains it’s available to all.  John 3:16 says He so loved the world—that’s everyone—that He sent His one and only son to die in our place, to pay for our sins, that whoever believes in Him, whoever puts their faith in Him, will be saved.

How do we do it?  How do we partake of this?  You don’t have to perform magic rituals.  You don’t have to perform great deeds of strength or be born into a particular race or family or culture or society.  All you must do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved (Acts 16:31).  You will be transformed.  You will be sanctified by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2).  Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be set free from the power of sin, freed from slavery to sin, free to obey God, free to live for Him (Romans 6:16).  He is saying, “Now is the time,” and, “Today is the day” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

So whether it’s your first time hearing this gospel preached or whether you’ve heard it a thousand times but never trusted in Christ, this is the Word of God for you.  And God is saying to you, “Cry out.  Cry out and I will save you.”  Cry out, “Have mercy on me a sinner,” and be saved.”  He is not speaking to the person next to you or behind you or at home on the live link.  He is speaking to you personally.  And He will keep on speaking to you after you confess Him, after you commit your life to Him, after you trust in Him.  He will keep on speaking, teaching you to obey all the things that He has commanded.  This is what God is speaking, and we know that it is God speaking it.

Joseph knew who was speaking to him in those dreams.  Potiphar knew who was with Joseph.  His brothers knew God was speaking.  His father knew God was speaking.  Even Pharaoh knew that God was speaking.  And you know that God is speaking too.  You know that what I am speaking to you is true and reasonable.  The question is, will you listen?  There’s no question who’s speaking.  The question is, will you listen?  Will you hear and do what God is speaking?  Will you confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior?  Will you obey Him?—the proof, the evidence of your confession.

He is telling you all the time.  He’s telling everybody all the time.  The very heavens declare His existence and His glory.  We have His Word that testifies to us.  We have our consciences that testify to us and tell us that we are sinners and tell us that we do not measure up to God’s standard.  We have His Word, we have nature, we have our consciences.  But are you going to listen?  Or will you plug your ears all the way to hell?  Don’t do it.  Listen, believe, confess, and be saved today.

Joseph listened to God’s voice, and he told the meaning of the dream—to the cupbearer, to the baker, to the brothers, and all of them.  He told the meaning of the dreams to Pharaoh: there will be a famine.  And everything Joseph told was true, because it was God speaking.  But what did Pharaoh do?  See, Pharaoh listened to Joseph declaring God’s truth.  And because he listened, because he obeyed the Word of God coming to him, Pharaoh and all Egypt survived that famine.  They were prepared when it came.  They had food.  They did not starve.  They got great gain.  They didn’t die.  Starving to death is a miserable way to die.  But because they heard and because they obeyed the Word of God, they did not die.

Well, you too will be spared if you listen to the Word of God coming to you this morning.  Not from mere privation, not from mere hunger, not even from mere physical death, but from the eternal death which each of us deserves.  Not merely getting by on a few scraps of grain either, having to sell your land and your cattle and your homes and even your very selves.  No, no, God is much more generous than Pharaoh.  If you hear and listen to the voice of God, you won’t just get by.  You will be richly blessed.  He promises us a place in His father’s house and a rich banquet with the Lord.  He promises us beauty for ashes, joy for mourning, the rags of sin exchanged for robes of righteousness and glory.  He promises us a crown of glory forever, eternal glory with eternal God.  Hear and do what the Lord is speaking to you this morning.

II. A Dream Come True

Next point: a dream come true.  Now, this marvelous thing happened to Joseph—apparently in one day, out of prison and elevated as Lord of all Egypt.  It says in verse 44 that no one lifted hand or foot in Egypt without Joseph’s word.  He had Pharaoh’s signet ring, the sign and symbol of authority.  He had robes of fine linen.  He had a horse and a chariot and servants and a high society wife.  He had actual power and vast wealth.  It was not a mere symbolic position.  Verses 46-57: It seems even Pharaoh himself directed people to Joseph: “Go and see Joseph and do whatever he tells you.”  This is unbelievable.  In one day, he went from the lowest of the low to the highest of the high on this earth.  It was a dream come true, and it was literally a dream come true.  It was the fulfillment of the chapter 37 promise that he would rule as the head.

All he had to do was deal with the small matter of 13 years of suffering and injustice in between.  And notice that those sufferings had a purpose.  The purpose was to prepare Joseph.  The purpose was to put Joseph in the right place at the right time.  God is truly sovereign, and He says that He directs our steps, and He does.  None of us want to be in prison—even Joseph didn’t want to be in prison—but not being in prison means no contact with the cupbearer.  Not being in Potiphar’s house, not being falsely accused, means not being thrown into prison.  Not sold into slavery means not sold into Potiphar’s house.  Not hated by your brothers means not sold as a slave.  So you can work backwards and see how all the dominoes fell.  Sadly for us, you do not see it going forward.  We like to know what’s coming next.  But there is one who knows what’s coming next.  And if you wait until the end, you can look back and see how God used every step, pleasant or difficult, to put us in the right place at the right time for our best and for everyone else’s.  God knows just how to arrange those dominoes.

My point is these are not random events.  In fact, God is not even accomplishing His purpose in spite of these events.  He’s the one directing all of our steps.  Proverbs 16:9 tells us that.  Daniel 2:21 tells us that He sets up kings and He takes them down.  He is the one who determined the exact times and places men should live (Acts 17:26).  From mighty kings to little sparrows, our times are in His hand (Psalm 31:15).  Nothing can happen to us apart from His will.  Not even a hair of our head can fall to the ground without His say so.

He promises us, and He does, work all things together for the good of those who love Him and whom He has called according to His purposes (Romans 8:28).  This means that the thing happening to you is neither random nor bad.  It is God-directed, for your good and for the good of all of His other people.  Your cancer is for your good and for my good.  Your unjust imprisonment or suffering is for good.  Your long waiting is for good.  Your disappointment or dashed expectations are for good.  Your God-imposed discipline is for good.  Anything and everything is for your good if you are in Christ, and it is also good for all those who belong to Him.

Again, look at Joseph: all this trouble for a godly young man.  I don’t think there’s one bad word recorded about Joseph in the Bible.  He’s a sinner like us—I said all have sinned and fall short—but not one bad thing about him is recorded.  And yet he suffers—almost certainly, among the top five or ten people in the Bible.  Why?  Genesis 45:7 gives the answer—later, way later, after all the suffering, gives the answer: “God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.”  See, he came to the understanding.  Let’s come to that same understanding.

Is something happening to you, believer?  Then I say, it is for your good.  We must stop our grumbling—or even our “grinning and bearing it” through the tough trials—we must stop that and see God moving in it.  We must stop asking, “Why is this happening to me?”  We have the answer: for my good.  Let’s stop asking, “Why is this happening to me?”  and start asking, “What good things is God going to do through this?  What good things will I see through this?”  And then see them when they come.

Perhaps God gave me this disease to witness to doctors or nurses, or to set up divine appointments that I might not otherwise have had.  Or perhaps God sent it to me as a discipline to turn me to Him.  Perhaps God is preparing me out here in the shepherd’s pasture or in Potiphar’s house or in Pharaoh’s prison so that I will be ready to stand as prime minister one day.  Now, most of us, perhaps none of us, will be the prime minister or the political head.  But God is preparing us for what is ahead.  Perhaps God is shaping and molding my character for the hard road ahead, or for that important thing that I must do.

What about unbelievers?  Well, you too, at least in this way: He directed your steps to hear this gospel so that you can be saved.  So listen, believe, confess, repent, and be saved.

Are you experiencing something good?  Well, that is God-ordained as well.  It is neither random nor just for you.  God works all things for the good of all His people.  You have that good job?  I say, good.  We’re to work six days so that we may support ourselves and our families, so that we have something to share with those in need (Ephesians 4:28).  See, it’s not to load up luxuries onto myself, but to be able to give generously (1 Timothy 6:18,19).  Or perhaps you have a speaking gift or a music gift or an administration gift.  Good.  Use it for the good of all God’s people.  That’s why He gave it to you: for the building up of the church (1 Corinthians 14:12 and Ephesians 4:12).

See all things happening, whether pleasant or painful, through this lens: that God is working in it, that God is working for the ultimate good of His people.  See that, and then discern and do the will of God as He carries you along through the good and through the sufferings.

This dream come true for Joseph also reminds us that God is trustworthy and God is sovereign.  What He says, He will do.  It might take a long time, but what He says, He will do, and at just the right time.  God does not lie, nor does He change His mind (Numbers 23:19).  No one can thwart His good plans for us (Job 42:2; Isaiah 14).

You can absolutely trust God to do what He says He will do, and you can safely take action in reliance on God’s promises.  When somebody else promises us something, we’re not so sure.  Even if that person is very trustworthy, they’re not perfect.  And even if they’re very trustworthy and trustworthy in that case, they might be unable.  But God is always trustworthy, and God is always able, so we can always act in reliance on His Word.

Things are not going according to your plan?  The marriage is not coming?  The baby is not coming?  The promotion is not coming?  The house is not coming?  Whatever it is, well, God has a better and best plan: to prosper you and not to harm you.  It’s happening.  Just give it some time (Jeremiah 29:11).  You’re not seeing God’s blessing in this life?  Well, first examine yourself and see if there’s any sin to confess and to deal with.  That’s a good thing from God: your suffering, your lack of blessing, is good.  If you’re sinning and you turn to God, it gets you away from eternal hell and it gets you to eternal God.  But also, at that time, remember Joseph in the pit.  He didn’t do anything to deserve it.  Remember Joseph and slavery.  He didn’t do anything to deserve it.  Remember Joseph in prison.  He didn’t do anything to deserve it.  But God did it because God had something better in store for him.

Now, I will say, God’s delivery system in this case was certainly complex.  But God used every step to deliver the best outcome for Joseph and for all His people—the seventy that went down to Egypt, but all His people throughout all times.  See, it was the best, not just for Joseph and his family, but for the millions who would come out of Egypt, for those who would be led into the land, and for the generations and generations who came after, until at just the right time, His savior came, descended from those whom Joseph saved in Egypt.

It is hard in the pit.  It is hard in the prison.  It’s hard when you’re sold into slavery.  I’ve been there, at least metaphorically speaking.  But God is faithful, and He will deliver you to glory, just as He said He would.  He will deliver you exceedingly abundantly more than you can ask or imagine.  It might take 13 years, it might even take two years, but He’ll deliver abundantly more than you can ask or imagine.  It’s coming.

Remember Joseph.  What did Joseph want when he was in prison?  “Get me out of this prison.”  He didn’t say, “Put a word in with Pharaoh and make me the second in charge of all Egypt.”  He didn’t have such lofty hopes.  Just, “Get me out of this prison, for I have done nothing to deserve it.”  And God said, “I can do better than that.  It’ll take two years, but watch this.”  Out of prison, exalted as head, saving his family’s life, reunited with his father, restored to relationship with his brothers.  He knows.  He knows the plans He has for us.  Trust Him, and watch Him deliver, and I promise, you will not be disappointed.

The greatest promise for us is yet to be fulfilled.  The greatest dream is yet to come true.  For a day is coming.  He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, and His kingdom shall have no end.  Listen to what He says about it: “In my Father’s house there are many rooms.  I am going there to prepare a place for you.  I will come back, and I will take you to be with me” (John 14:2,3).  He says He will wipe away every tear at that time (Isaiah 25:8).  He says He will bring us safely to His heavenly kingdom (2 Timothy 4:18).  Those are promises of God.  Just as surely as Joseph’s dreams came true, these dreams too will come true.

What kind of place is this that He promised us?  What will happen there?  Listen to what He says about it in Revelation 21: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  I saw a holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men.’”—hard to understand, but glorious—“‘now the dwelling of God is with man, and He will live with them.  They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”  That’s what’s coming.  He says later, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”  It’s a certain thing.  It’s sure, based on the very Word of God.  He tells us that there are two destinies only in that chapter.  He who overcomes will inherit all of this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.  But the cowardly and so on and so forth will be outside.  Two destinies only.  Believe it.

He describes its walls, its foundations, and its gates.  It’s a real place.  It’s not an abstraction.  It’s not an analogy.  Perhaps words fail to describe its glory, but it’s a real place with real God, really there, really with His people.  He tells, “The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone.  The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.  What a place this must be!  It is beyond description.  And He tells us what will happen there.  “There is no temple in that city because the Lord God Almighty and His Lamb are the temple.”  He tells us that we will go there, that the glory and the honor of the nations will be brought into it, that nothing impure will ever enter it, and that we will be there with God forever—those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

This is our dream, and one day, this dream too will come true.  It could be today.  It could be 13 years from now, like Joseph.  It could be a thousand years from now or even more.  But as surely as Joseph went out of that prison to be prime minister in one day, our dream will come true as well, and it will happen even faster than Joseph.  Not a few hours, but in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, from glory to glory.

Brothers and sisters, that is where I am going.  And I ask, don’t you want to go there, too?  God is speaking to you.  Come.  God sent me to tell you to come.  He sent another man from across the world almost 50 years ago to start a church in this place so we can tell people come.  Come by faith in Jesus Christ.  You can come.  Trust in Him today.  Be saved today.  And then live the dream: life with God now and life even more with God in glory forever.  Amen.