God gave Joseph the gift of prophetic dreams as well as the gift of interpreting the dreams of others. When you read the entire story of Joseph, you see how this gift is what directed his future.
As a young man, he has dreams prophesying that his entire family would someday bow down to him (Genesis 37:5-11). In combination with these dreams and Joseph's father showing him favoritism by making him the coat of many colors, his brothers ultimately decide to sell him into slavery.
After Joseph is falsely accused of attacking his boss' wife, he is thrown into prison. While there, two of his fellow inmates, a butler and a baker both have strange dreams. Joseph is able to accurately interpret their dreams. The baker dies as God predicted through Joseph, and the butler is set free. However, after he is released from prison, the butler forgets all about Joseph's gift.
Yet, God never forgets. Two years later, He gives Pharaoh a dream that no one can interpret. It is then the butler remembers Joseph and makes sure he is called upon to use his gift from God.
In Genesis 41:16 Joseph humbly states, "It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace."
Joseph tells Pharaoh that his dream means there will be seven years of great prosperity followed by seven years of famine. Because Joseph is able to offer an interpretation, Pharoah releases Jospeh from prison and puts him in charge. Pharoah then makes preparations to start a storehouse of food to last for seven years of the upcoming famine.
Because God blessed Joseph when in captivity with such an amazing gift, many lives were spared. It even led him to be reunited with his estranged brothers. Just as he had dreamed many years ago, they were now bowing before their younger brother as he stood in authority over them. Joseph could have sought revenge but ultimately chose instead to repay them with kindness as well as making sure they and their father Jacob survive the famine (I will write more about this later.).
Make no mistake, God still give His faithful children dreams and visions of the future (or even as a way to comfort or warn them) as well as helping them to interpret the dreams of others. For those of us who are granted such a gift, we need to be as bold as Joseph and tell us what God has showed us and not worry if we are believed or not.
May we always use the gifts of God to bless others, no matter what our circumstances. And may we be humble enough to give God the glory and not take credit for what God has done through us.
(Genesis 37:5-11) And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, "Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf."
And his brethren said to him, "Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us?" And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.
And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, "Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. "
And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, "What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?" And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.
(Chapters 40-41 are too long to post here, please read them on your own.)
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