In Genesis 40, both of the cupbearer and baker offended Pharaoh, and were sent to prison. In prison, Joseph was in charge of them. They both had dreams, and Joseph interpreted it.
Could they represent Jesus? Let’s theorize.
THEORY A:
The baker, after 3 days would be impaled. Reminds me of how within 3 days of the Passover (bread), Jesus went to the cross.
Both of them were of royal position, just like how Jesus was highly regarded/persecuted by the people.
Could the cupbearer represent the wine, the baker represent the bread, and the 3 days represent the 3 days that Jesus was in the grave before rising again?
One died and one lived.
One fell from grace, and one rose back from grace.
Just like Jesus became sin for us, and was restored to his position at the right hand of God. [Joel Chang]
THEORY B:
But what if all of this this is related to Cain and Abel way back? That sin can only be washed with the spilling of blood, and not with the worldly things that came from the ground (bread = wheat). [Jing Rong Ho]
THEORY C:
It is said that the cupbearer did not remember Joseph (Genesis 40:23). Sounds like us. Sometimes we forget what Jesus did for us, and we forget His grace. [Faith Chia] The cupbearer represents the ones that turn to the mercy of The Lord, the baker represents those unrepentant of their sinful ways. Both are sinful, the only difference lies in their heart. And those that look away from the source of life, dies? [Jing Rong Ho]
THEORY D:
Once again, Joseph represents Jesus. But what does the baker represent? Maybe us, as we deserve the consequences of sin. [Joel Chang]
THEORY E:
Pharaoh reminds me of the people who crucified Jesus, and the baker is Jesus. Because it was on Pharaoh’s birthday that he hung the baker. Who would hang someone on his birthday? Only when it was a pleasure for him to do so, just as the people enjoyed seeing Jesus crucified as they hated him. [Faith Chia]
EVALUATION:
Genesis 40 provides an amazing story that illustrates the Biblical doctrine of election (doctrine of election: God choosing who to save and who not to save, who to favor and who to disfavor). Now actually, the text is much stronger than that; as the story of Joseph, Pharaoh, the cupbearer and the baker can be used to illustrate [Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated” [Romans 9:13]. The parallels are so strong that it can as a metaphor to describe, in order:
God choosing Israel from all nations to be His elect nation
God choosing the Church from all peoples to be His elect people
So Pharaoh represents God, and the cupbearer and baker represent humanity, and pharaoh’s anger at them for the unstated reason represents God’s anger at humanity over our original sin. What does Pharaoh do? He casts the cupbearer and the baker in prison, and away from their prior positions of serving him. This represents our alienation from God and our absence from His presence because of our sin. God is holy, therefore that which is sinful cannot stand before His presence! This recalls how Adam was cast from his position from serving God as caretaker of the garden of Eden because of his sin (Genesis 3:24) and also how Satan and the demons were cast from their first estates of serving God due to their rebellion (Jude 1:6).
Now just like the Lord (Yahweh), it was well within the rights of Pharaoh due to the privileges, power and authority contained within his position and rank to kill the cupbearer and baker, and the fact that the cupbearer and baker caused the lord of Egypt such grievous offense made this fact even more so. Yet Pharaoh used his kingly authority to spare the life of the butler and execute the baker. The cupbearer was loved, but the baker was hated. Why was the butler chosen over the baker?
That is because the cupbearer represented salvation by grace and the baker represented salvation by works. Just like the saga between Cain and Abel, sin can only be forgiven by the shedding of blood. The cupbearer represented the cup of wine, which in many cases refers to the blood of Jesus. As such, he represented Abel, who gave God a sacrifice (another reference to Jesus being the sacrifice for sin once and for all). However, the baker represented Cain who gave to God with the works of the ground. So this scenario is just like how God was pleased with Abel's offering because it shed blood, but was displeased with Cain because his offering didn't shed blood. That was how Pharaoh chose whom to favor.
Pharaoh chose the cupbearer over the baker during a feast of merriment for all his servants (sounds familiar? The marriage supper of the Lamb and the bride of Christ that will be witnessed by the angels) and therefore did it because it was for his pleasure! Though the king could have killed both, for his pleasure and his own sake he graciously spared one! Just as God’s choosing Jacob over Esau had nothing to do with Jacob’s character, for Jacob were a usurper, thief, manipulator, liar and con artist. Witness, for example, the way that Jacob mistreated his wife Leah, and how he blatantly favored the children of Rachel over the children of Leah and the concubines (sending the latter group first so that if Esau and his army started killing people, Leah, the concubines and their kids would have almost no chance to escape, but Rachel’s would have a chance.). Jacob was just as bad as was Esau, if not worse. Yet God chose him!
But why was Jacob favored? Perhaps because God has planned their lives even before they were born. (Psalm 139:16) But why did God choose Esau to serve Jacob?
That’s because Esau did not seek to find God's favor, for Esau deemed earthly wants more important than his birthright when he sold his birthright for a single meal: "Esau said, 'I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?'' (Genesis 25:32). Esau also married Canaanite women out of spite and against his father's will (for he was still mad about Issac blessing Jacob and not himself), thus proving his sexual immorality as well as his arrogance.
Jacob, on the other hand, is the one who found favor with God. He did this by obeying his father's command to not marry Canaanite women. Instead he worked hard and waited (fourteen years!) to marry Rachel, after first being deceived into marrying Rachel's older sister, Leah; he wrestled with God in order to receive God's blessing, causing his hip to be out of joint as a result. Throughout Jacob's life, his actions, though often times deceiving, displayed that he wanted to be in God's favor. "While both nations were not perfect, they both were punished accordingly, but while Esau was left in the misery which he had brought upon his own iniquity, Jacob was forgiven and restored"
There are 2 other verses linking the cupbearer and the baker:
Cupbearer: "O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” For I was the king’s cupbearer. [Nehemiah 1:11]
Baker: “They are all adulterers. Like an oven heated by a baker— He ceases stirring the fire after kneading the dough, until it is leavened. [Hosea 7:4]
So indeed, the cupbearer/Jacob were the sinners that were justified by faith as they sought for the mercy of the Lord! And the baker/Esau were the sinners that cared not about seeking the righteousness of God nor turning from their sinful ways.
It was all according to the wishes, the desire and the pleasure of Pharaoh. Please note that the nowhere does the Bible call Pharaoh wicked for exercising his prerogative in this manner. Quite the contrary, the Bible accounts Pharaoh as being wise for recognizing the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, living within Joseph (Genesis 41:38) and making him ruler of Egypt based on it. He is a clear contrast with the Pharaoh of Moses, who resisted this same Holy Spirit due to God’s hardening his heart.
Note that the cupbearer and the baker had no say in this matter. The baker did not reject the grace of Pharaoh; indeed no such opportunity to accept or reject it. And the cupbearer had no say in this matter either. The cupbearer had no opportunity to call the Pharaoh unfair for imprisoning him in the first place. He had no space to reject the grace given to him because he felt that it was unfair that he was saved while the baker was not, and while many other people (including Joseph) remained in prison. The baker could not accept the grace of the Pharaoh because no such “free will choice” to do so was given to him. And the baker could not reject the grace of the Pharaoh, because as the subject of a potentate with absolute power, authority and dominion over him (if only in a temporal sense, and please recall according to Jesus Christ that the power of the Pharaoh over the cupbearer and the baker were given to them by God, see John 19:11) he lacked the power and authority because of his own low estate – his lack of power, authority, rank and dominion with respect to the Pharaoh.
It seems like the Pharaohs represent high priests too! If the high priest is good, the people are in good hands! The good Pharaoh ensured that his people survived in the famine (Genesis 47:25) while the bad one had his people suffer from the plagues. (Exodus 7–12)
But what's the significance of the part on them having no choice in the matter of rejecting his grace?
For the butler, the grace of Pharaoh was irresistible! So is it with the grace of God towards His sheep: His Son’s bride. The bride cannot say no, because if all members of the bride do say no (which is not merely a theoretical possibility, especially when both the effects of sin and the nefarious plotting of Satan are involved!), then God’s Son has no bride, and the purposes of God are thwarted. God forbid that such a thing would happen! Make no mistake, just as the “god of Egypt” in this incident had the power to love the butler and hate the baker and exercised it accordingly, God of all creation has the same authority – indeed even a greater authority for God is greater than the Pharaoh – to do with Jacob (all those in Jesus Christ) and Esau (all those in Adam) and has exercised it accordingly before foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), since before Genesis 1:1!
And when did this happen? Genesis 40:20 states that it occurred the third day after Joseph interpreted the dreams of the cupbearer (the dream that he would receive salvation of his live through grace) and the baker (the dream that he would receive neither this salvation or the grace that makes it possible). Now how long was our Lord and Savior in the grave after His death for the sins of His bride on the cross? Three days. Now nothing is in the Bible by coincidence; in it are no superfluous facts. So, the fact that three days after the prophecy, the promise of grace, came by the butler from Holy Spirit of Elohim (the Name that Joseph used to the butler in Genesis 40:8) to the butler was this promise of grace consummated by the cupbearer’s release from bondage (which the Bible often uses with reference to sin) is a clear reference to the work of Jesus Christ. That allows us to elevate this episode from being mere metaphor, symbolism and allegory to typology. In this episode, the Pharaoh, in loving the cupbearer (Jacob) and hating the baker (Esau) was a type of the Ancient of Days, God the Father. Joseph is commonly regarded to be a type of Jesus Christ. And of course, the Holy Spirit was within Joseph. So in this story, the Trinity is together and in agreement, whether in actuality (the Holy Spirit in Joseph) or typology (Pharaoh as God the Father, Joseph as God the Son).
Keep in mind that just as the cupbearer was saved on the third day, the baker was executed on the third day. So, just as Jesus Christ delivered salvation to the elect with His ministry, Jesus Christ will return again to punish the non-elect on the Day of the Lord and will also serve as Judge of the non-elect before their punishment in the lake of fire (read the book of Revelation). So, the purpose of Genesis 40 is not to be fascinated with metaphor, symbolism, typology and allegory. Instead, it should be used to instruct one of the fact that those in Jesus Christ will be saved (the cupbearer) and those not in Christ will perish in eternal punishment of flame (the baker). In light of that fact, one must make His calling and election sure in accordance with the scriptures (2 Peter 1:10).
Well, could there be another significance here? That the cupbearer is representative of the church that was given grace! Since the cupbearer/butler is often a representative of the Holy Spirit in the Bible, like the servant that went and brought a wife to Isaac (Genesis 24) and the steward in the house of Joseph that was unnamed (Genesis 44), could the cupbearer then represent the Holy Spirit?
The cupbearer is the one that holds the cup, from which whomever drinks from, will be saved and redeemed. It seems to parallel the Holy Spirit, because He is the one that provided us the cup to drink from the blood that Jesus provided us with, so that we can be saved!
Not to forget the cup: ever noticed that the cup was used in 2 other instances in the Bible?
The Last Supper. Where Jesus offered the third cup to the disciples and said this is my covenant, drink of it. (Luke 22:17–18) This is a historically cultural way of saying, “Will you marry me?” an allegory of the marriage of Christ and the Church.
Benjamin found the silver cup in his sack because he found favor in the eyes of Joseph. (Genesis 44:12) Silver represents redemption. (Genesis 20:16)
The cupbearer represents the Church saved by Christ, and how that alone can redeem you from your sins and save you from death! And yet at the same time, as Jesus is, so are we: He in us and us in Him. The Holy Spirit lives in us, making intercessions on our behalf to save us!
Since the cupbearer holding the cup represents us, is this perhaps another representation that we are to go forth and offer the cup of salvation and redemption to the people? Because the cupbearer usually doesn't drink from the cup he holds, but offers it to others! Also, not forgetting that Joseph was only brought to the Pharaoh’s attention because the cupbearer remembered and brought Joseph into the picture, doesn’t this seem like a calling to us, to remember the Lord always, so that He can come into the picture of our lives, to provide us the best course of action and to save us from potential destructions, as Joseph circumvented Egypt from the impacts of famine?
*Italics denote acknowledgements from:
Job. (March 16, 2011). Joseph And The Pharoah: The Butler Was Loved But The Baker Was Hated! Genesis 40. Retrieved from http://healtheland.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/joseph-pharoah-egypt-butler-loved-but-baker-hated-genesis-40/
Crystal Thompson. (November 9, 2011). Why did God show favor to Jacob as opposed to Esau?. Retrieved from:http://cthompson701.weebly.com/2/post/2011/9/why-did-god-show-favor-to-jacob-as-opposed-to-esau.html