Genesis 40: Forgotten But Not Forsaken

Somebody helped you, and you remembered forever. Somebody else helped you, and you forgot by Friday. Genesis 40 puts that tension right on the page, and we feel it through Joseph’s story in Pharaoh’s prison. We follow the moment two powerful men, the chief cupbearer and chief baker, land in the same cell block as Joseph and bring two unsettling dreams with them. Joseph doesn’t chase weird signs or act mystical. He serves, he listens, and he makes it clear that interpretation belongs to God, not ego. 

We talk about what those dreams mean, why one man is restored and the other is judged, and how God’s providence can be working even when Joseph’s life still looks stuck. We also slow down at the sharpest line in the chapter: the cupbearer forgets Joseph. That single detail opens up a real conversation about disappointment, church hurt, friendships that fade, and the way “it wasn’t personal” can still cut deep. Most people aren’t evil, they’re busy, and that reality helps us name the pain without turning bitter. 

The big takeaway is simple and steady: people may forget you, but God will not. If you’re in a waiting season, feeling overlooked, or tired of doing the right thing with no return, this chapter offers grounded hope and a practical shift, lower expectations of people and raise expectations of God. Subscribe, share this with a friend who feels forgotten, and leave a review letting us know where you’re seeing God stay faithful when life feels delayed.

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Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us and let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

How To Support The Podcast

Joseph’s Backstory And The Prison

Two Prison Dreams Interpreted

Forgotten By People Remembered By God

Prayer And Final Encouragement

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Genesis chapter 40. And today's title is Forgotten but not forsaken. Forgotten but not forsaken. And I gotta tell you, this is one of those that I really struggle with the title. I wanted to say don't eat pizza after midnight, you know, because this is going to be about two guys who have some crazy dreams. But God caused this to happen and you're gonna get to see it and it's crazy, but we just got to get this out of the way. These are some crazy dreams. And, you know, and I am one of these that absolutely believes that God can speak through dreams. However, I think it's kind of rare. And so I tell people all the time, I mean, I will tell you as a pastor, I've had people who will come and tell me, you know, I had, you know, I had a slice of pizza, you know, dancing through my living room in my dream. What do you think that means? And I will say, I think that means you're crazy. You know, it's like not every dream means something, but sometimes it does. And we're gonna see how God does some amazing things. And it is amazing to think about that sometimes in the middle of our greatest storms, God does the most beautiful things. It's amazing. So we're gonna get into all that in just a second. So if you have your Bible, want to get it out with me to Genesis chapter 40, while you're doing that, take just a moment, like, share, and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast. It really does help and it helps people to you know see what they can that they're gonna interact with and all of that. Make sure you leave us some comments on the YouTube videos. Let us know how you're engaging with God's word. If you have questions, anything like that. If you want to find out our Facebook page where there's an amazing group of team, uh group of people that are going through and writing devotions every day, you can get all of that information at the Biblebreakdown.com or just Biblebreakdown.com. Well, if you're ready, we're gonna jump into Genesis 40. But to remind you of where we are, we have been going through the beginning of how God made everything and how he put his hand on the Jewish nation that later in the New Testament we find out that as Gentiles, we've been grafted in. So this is our spiritual heritage because we've been grafted into the plan of God. And God is writing the narrative of how everything started and how it all began. And we've been talking about how Joseph was arrested, not arrested, he was sold into slavery by his brothers. They take him down to Egypt. And 400 years later, when God is sharing with them this story, I wonder how many of these recently liberated Jewish people are going, oh, well, that's how we got down here to Egypt. You know, they want to go, you know, kick Joseph in the pants, maybe, but they don't need to. He was he was a cool guy. But, you know, yesterday we talked about how Joseph actually was lied on, that Potiphar was the slave owner, Joseph was the slave, and he became, you know, the number one guy in Potiphar's house. And the problem with that was is Potiphar's wife was like, ooh, ooh, I think I want to get to know him, you know, in, you know, in the biblical way, right? And Joseph was like, no, no, no, thank you. Well, Potiphar's wife lied on Joseph. And so Potiphar put Joseph in the king's prison. And while he is there, the Bible said he just decided he was going to grow where he had been planted, and he ended up getting put over all the prisoners in the prison. I mean, Joseph was a great administrator. He he really knew how to, you know, get things done. And now we're going to find out what happens and that maybe there was a reason why Joseph was in this prison this whole time. And so let's read this. And we're going to read about two crazy dreams. Genesis chapter 40, verse 1 says this. Sometime later, Pharaoh's chief cupbearer and chief baker offended their royal master. Now pause. Now, there's a lot of reasons why they would have possibly offended their master. We don't really know exactly why, but this is exactly where they would go. Because remember, Joseph is in the Pharaoh's prison. But sometime later, we don't know exactly when this was. Some say that Joseph might have been in prison up to between seven and fourteen years. So this wasn't a weekend. This was quite a while that he's there. But the Bible says this in verse number two Pharaoh became angry with these two officials, and he put them in prison where Joseph was, in the palace of the captain of the guard. They remained in prison for quite some time, and the captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, who looked after them. While they were in prison, Pharaoh's cupbearer and baker each had a dream one night, and each dream had its own meaning. When Joseph saw them the next morning, he noticed that they looked upset. Why are you look so worried today? he asked them. And they replied, We both had dreams last night, but no one can tell us what they mean. Well interpreting dreams is God's business, Joseph replied. Go ahead and tell me your dream. So the chief cup bearer told Joseph his dream first. In my dream, he said, I saw a grapevine in front of me. The vine had three branches that began to bud and blossom, and soon it produced clusters of ripe grapes. I was holding Pharaoh's wine cup in my hand, so I took a cluster of grapes and squeezed the juice into the cup. Then I placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. This is what this dream means, Joseph said. The three branches represent three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift up, lift you up and restore you to your position as the chief cupbearer. Please remember me and do me a favor when things go well for you. Mention me to Pharaoh, so that he might let me out of this place. For I was kidnapped from my homeland, the land of the Hebrews, and now I'm here in prison, and I did nothing to deserve it. When the chief baker saw that Joseph had given the first dream such a positive interpretation, he said to Joseph, Wait, wait, wait, wait. I had a dream too. And in my dream there were three baskets of white pastries stacked on my head. The top basket contained all kinds of pastries for Pharaoh, but the birds came and ate them from the basket from on my head. Well, this is what the dream means, Joseph told him. The three baskets also represent three days. Three days from now, Pharaoh will lift you up and impale your body on a pole. Then the birds will come and peck away at your flesh. Bad days, bad days. Verse twenty. Pharaoh's birthday came three days later, and he prepared a banquet for all his officials and staff. He summoned the chief cupbearer and the chief baker to join the other officials. He then restored the chief cupbearer to his former position, and so he could again hand the Pharaoh his cup. But the Pharaoh impaled the chief baker just as Joseph had predicted when he interpreted his dream. Pharaoh's cupbearer, however, forgot all about Joseph, never giving him another thought. Gee, thanks, buddy. So once again, what we have here is we have where Joseph has been in prison and he has been put in charge of all of these other prisoners, and there's a chief cupbearer and a chief baker. They both have dreams. Both meant three days from then something was going to happen. One was going to be restored, and one was going to be killed. And then it happened. And Joseph said, Listen, I'm going to do you a favor. I'm going to do you a solid. I am going to serve you. Other words, I am going to use the gifts that God has given me to make a difference in your life. I'm going to serve you. I'm going to help you. I only want one thing. Help a brother out. When you get back in front of Pharaoh, go, hey, I know a guy. And this is why it happened. It's all I want. But the Bible said that Pharaoh's cupbearer forgot all about Joseph. It even says, never giving him another thought. Here's some bad news, and then here's some good news. The bad news is people will sometimes let you down. Well, Pastor, I wish you'd be positive. Okay, well, I am positive. Sometimes people will let you down. That doesn't mean they mean to. Doesn't mean they want to. There's nothing in this text that says that the chief cupbearer was an evil guy. I mean, he did something to make the Pharaoh mad, but it doesn't say that he intentionally was trying to do anything wrong by Joseph. We find out in the next chapter that actually he does right by Joseph. Spoiler alert, right? But he got so wrapped up in his life and what was going on, he forgot. Can I tell you, most people, now this is not true for everybody, some people are just horrible people. Most people are not bad. They're just busy. They're busy with their life. They're busy trying to do their thing, just like many of us are, right? And so many times we will serve people, we will help people, we'll do everything we can to do the right thing. And in return, we'll get crickets. Can I tell you, just to be really honest with you as a pastor, this happens to me as well. I can't tell you how many times that, you know, I have visited people in the hospital. I have sat with them while they cried and we have we've walked through things and we've we've shared text messages and we've prayed over one another and and just did life together. And then one day they just disappear from our church. And then, you know, they just disappear and then and then we reach out to them and they will say, Well, yeah, we just decided that it was better for us to go to another church, and then they say something like this. Oh, Pastor, it wasn't personal. What do you mean it wasn't personal? It sure felt like it was personal when we cried together, when we walked together, when we shared gifts together. It sure felt personal. But you know what they meant? They didn't mean that they didn't like me or they didn't like the church, nothing like that. It just meant they got busy with their life. And does it hurt? Yes. It's also important to remember that all of us are guilty of doing that too. We need to be so careful that we don't sit in the seat of judgment to forget that we've all been on both sides of that argument. But here's the good news God never does that. God doesn't forget. And so here's maybe the lesson for all of us today. Maybe it's time for us to lower our expectations of people and raise our expectations of God. Because here here's what I'm and I don't mean this to vilify people. I think people are wonderful, and I I think most more people are busy than bad. But there are times when people will drop you, people will leave you, people will forsake you because they're human. But God never will. He's faithful and he loves you. And here's my encouragement for you even if you get forsaken by people that you try to help, God sees you. And God will always come through. Let's pray together right now. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, God, that you're with us and that you're for us. I'm thankful for your mercy and for your kindness. God, I pray you'll help us to never, never have that pride and that arrogance to always look at how we've been victimized and how we've had a bad time. Because the truth is we have, but you know, we've also been on the other side too. We've had bad days, we've done bad things, we have been busy. But God, I'm so thankful that you never have. You've never been too busy for us. You've never told us you didn't have time for us. You're so faithful. And I'm thankful for that today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, God's Word says in Genesis 1, verse 1, it says, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. If God is big enough to do that, anything is possible. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Genesis chapter 41.