22. Joseph’s ‘Sun, Moon and Stars’ Dream
The Dream Setting/Backstory
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Satan tried to mess up God’s plans and purpose big time through Laban’s self interest. Laban’s daughter Rachel was God’s divinely intended first wife for Jacob and Joseph was God’s intended heir. Weak eyed Leah on the other hand was the result of Laban’s greedy scheming.
Had Jacob not been tricked into marrying Leah he’d have married Rachel first and Joseph would’ve been his eldest son and rightful heir. Then no one would have objected to Joseph wearing his special long sleeved coat of many colours that identified him as Jacob’s inheritor.
At the time of these dreams Jacob was 108 years old, Joseph was 17 and his brothers were all under 30. This was not exactly a very mature age for men at that time, considering Jacob was well into his seventies before he married. In one sense the brothers’ response to Joseph’s dreams was just the annoyance of immature teenagers. On the other hand their hatred seemed demonically deep rooted. This dream came shortly after Joseph’s ‘Sheaves of Grain’ Dream.
The Dream Scripture
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Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
The Problem
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God is setting the stage for the next part of his plans and purposes for Israel. These are the plans God shared with Abraham in Abraham’s Covenant Dream but neither Joseph nor his father or brothers seem aware of this. In God’s plans and purpose Abraham’s descendants will spend four hundred years as slaves in Egypt. God sends these two dreams to kickstart the next phase of things.
The Dreamer’s Metron
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Joseph was a prophet with a powerful metron concerning dreams and visions. His brothers mockingly called him a Master of Dreamers and that is what he actually was. When the magicians and wise men of Egypt couldn’t interpret Pharaoh’s dreams, Joseph with God’s help was able to do so.
Afterwards God used Joseph to prepare a place of safety and provision for the children of Israel in Egypt so that the Messiah’s royal seed line would be preserved.
God chose Joseph to be the heir of His Covenant promises with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. [1] Chronicles 5:1-2 says, The rights of the firstborn belonged to Joseph.
Laban’s deceit in marrying Leah off to Jacob meant God’s plans for Joseph to be the firstborn were threatened. This caused bad blood between Joseph and his older brothers but God used Joseph’s dreams to put things back on track.
Joseph correctly understood his dreams meant his family would one day be dependant on him and humbled before him. This knowledge must have sustained him during the next thirteen years when he was bought and sold five times.
Through Joseph’s life God was working his purposes out concerning the Messiah and keeping his Covenant promises to Abraham.
The Message
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The simple message of Joseph’s two dreams is that God would restore Joseph to his proper place as inheritor and leader in the family. The symbolism of the grain in the first dream foreshadows the time when the brothers will bow down before Joseph begging for grain. God would then place Joseph in a position where he would rule over the lives of his family and the entire people of Israel.
In Joseph’s second dream Jacob correctly interprets, (even though his wife was dead), that he was the sun, his wife was the moon, and his twelve children were the stars. Symbolically Abraham and Sarah are Israel’s parents. Isaiah told Israel to, \
Look to the rock from which you were cut
and to the quarry from which you were
hewn; look to Abraham, your father, and
to Sarah, who gave you birth. [1]
In The Book of Revelation, Israel is similarly symbolically shown as a woman clothed with the sun and moon and wearing a crown of stars. [2]
God’s Purpose
* * *
In this dream God was encouraging and guiding His Covenant People with specific direction for their well-being and the safety of their seed line but they didn’t understand it. God’s purpose was also to set the record straight and bring Joseph back to God’s intended place for him as inheritor of the Covenant.
Joseph’s dreams were never intended by God to be kept private. God had his own reason in compelling Joseph to speak. God was working out the next phase of His plans and purposes for the Messiah, His chosen people and the Promised Land. God was moving Joseph forward to his place of destiny and greatest ministry.
Satan’s Purpose
* * *
Satan was still trying to stop the Messiah’s coming. He did his damnedest to kill Joseph. He incensed Joseph’s brothers to murder him so Joseph’s dreams would never come to pass.
Here comes that dreamer! they said to each
other. Come now, let’s kill him and
throw him into one of these cisterns and
say that a ferocious animal devoured
him. Then we’ll see what comes of his
dreams. [3]
Satan’s effort to remove Joseph was really an attempt to thwart God’s plans and change the future. The brothers’ reaction to Joseph’s dreams is like the response of most people when they hear about God’s sovereignty.
Many of us don’t like it when we realise God is sovereign over our lives. He is sovereign to create us, sovereign to choose us, sovereign to save us and sovereign to condemn us.
The natural man hates that God has such power. Rebellious man wants to plan his own future.
Nowadays he even wants to choose whether he should actually be a man or a woman. He scorns God’s authority and challenges God’s fairness and purposes. He screams, I will have my own free will.
Dreamer’s Eyes Enlightened
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Joseph correctly understood the dream meant his family would one day be dependant on him and humbled before him in the future. This knowledge would have stayed with him during the next thirteen years when he was being bought and sold as a slave five times. These dreams prepared and encouraged Joseph for the difficult days ahead.
Dreamer’s Response and Application
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Unlike Mary who kept all things in her heart, Joseph perhaps unwisely shared these two dreams with his father and brothers. On the other hand, maybe this family regularly shared their dreams with one another. It’s always been normal for my own family to share and interpret our dreams around our meal table.
After all Joseph’s father Jacob was a big dreamer who most likely would’ve shared the importance of his and Abraham’s dreams with his family.
Joseph’s response was to believe and share his dreams. This had a huge effect on his father and brothers. His father wisely pondered them as possible future prophetic events that might impact his family.
The brothers were incensed. They mocked him. They said, Here comes the dreamer. The word used here is chalown which means master of dreams. They knew Joseph was a dreamer with a gift of dream interpretation and they didn’t like it.
Know God Better
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God is again seen as a Promise Keeper and a God of justice who can restore people and things to their proper place in His greater plans and purpose. Here once again God is working for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. [5]
Sovereign God sees the future and often prepares us for it through dreams. Joseph is being shown no matter what happens in the future God is with him working His purposes out.
The Dream Process
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On one level both of Josephs dreams are the same dream. They are simple symbolic dreams, not particularly difficult to interpret. On another level they are incredible prophetic dreams that require a good knowledge of scripture in order to understand.
The brothers understood Joseph’s dreams on a very superficial level and wrongly and partially interpreted them through their dark cloud of hatred. This made them question Joseph’s motives. They said, Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?
The deeper spiritual truth was that God intended Joseph to rule over them in order to save their lives and the lives of their families and to bring God’s greater plans and purposes to come to pass for their nation.
This second dream about the sun and moon and eleven stars bowing down to Joseph, (the twelfth star) was again generally understood by the brothers and Jacob. The brothers responded by adding jealously to their hatred while Jacob, who well understood that a dream can change one’s fortune, pondered the matter.
Jacob better interprets the dream. He realises it’s a prophetic dream about him and his family being dependant on Joseph and humbled before him.
Though I don’t think he saw the full significance of the sun, the moon and the stars as being the foundation of Israel that was as glorious at the heavenly bodies that brought light and time onto the earth. Similarly Israel would bring the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole world.
There is also possibly another level of meaning to the sun, moon and stars imagery. It can mean the gods of other nations. Moses warned Israel,
And when you look up to the sky and see the
sun, the moon and the stars—all the
heavenly array—do not be enticed into
bowing down to them and
worshiping things the Lord your God has
apportioned to all the nations
under heaven. [5]
On this level, the sun, moon and stars imagery could also represent Egypt’s gods who will bow down before Joseph because he is able to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams and they are not. All of Egypt would also bow down to Joseph in order to receive food during their time of famine. On another level Joseph is a type of Jesus Christ. Prophetically the dream also speaks about all creation bowing down before Jesus.
The Usual Suspects
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God through His dreams to Joseph is working His Covenant plans and purpose out and is working all things together for good. Satan is enflaming the jealous brothers to kill Joseph and thereby change the future and prevent the Messiah from coming to crush his head. Jesus is prophetically in the dreams. He is the sheaf of grain that will be worshipped by His brothers the Jewish people when they finally recognise Him. He is also the One to whom all creation and all gods will eventually bow down to as represented by the sun, moon and stars.
Takeaways
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In Deuteronomy Moses warns Israel against idolatry. He says,
And when you look up to the sky and see the
sun, the moon and the stars—all the
heavenly array—do not be enticed into
bowing down to them and
worshiping things the Lord your God has
apportioned to all the nations under
heaven. But as for you, the Lord took
you and brought you out of the iron-
smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the
people of his inheritance, as you now
are. [6]
In the above scripture Israel is warned never to worship other gods, not because other gods don’t exist, but because God Almighty has decided to take complete personal responsibility for ruling Israel Himself.
The other gods would rule the rest of the world’s nations.
Joseph’s two dreams have a major prophetic significance for the Messiah of whom Joseph is a type. In this sense Joseph’s dreams symbolise the day when the crucified Messiah Jesus Christ, the man of sorrows who was despised and rejected of men [7] and who was rejected by his brothers in the nation of Israel will be recognised and received by those who once destained him.
The heart-breaking event in Genesis 45 when Joseph was revealed and reconciled to his brothers who had hated and rejected him will be played out once again between Jesus and the saved remnant of Israel on the day when God, will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. Scripture says,
They will look on me, the one they have
pierced, and they will mourn for him as
one mourns for an only child, and grieve
bitterly for him as one grieves for a
firstborn son. [8]
The Lord God shall give Him the throne of
His father David, and He shall reign
over the house of Jacob forever, and of
His kingdom there shall be no end. [9]
1 Isaiah 51:1
2 Revelation 12:1
3 Genesis 37:20
4 Romans 8:28
5 Deuteronomy 4:19
6 Deuteronomy 4:19-20
7 Isaiah 53:3
8 Zechariah 12:10
9 Luke 1:33