Joseph interpreted this by saying to him, "Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee." The result was as Joseph had foretold—the butler was restored, but the baker hanged.
There dees not appear in the mere words of this narrative to be much instruction of a religious nature; and yet, kind reader! no scripture narrative contains matter for reflection more weighty and more important than this: it involves much that is connected with thy peace both here and hereafter. These two, the butler and baker, were the chief officers or stewards of the king's household, and the offence each had offered to their lord threw them both into prison. Now if we could be constrained to turn our thoughts away from Pharaoh's household, and cast a glance at our own, the subject would then open in all its serious and instructive importance. The two chief officers or stewards in man's spiritual household are the understanding and will; the duty of the former being to furnish suitable nourishment for thought, intelligence, and knowledge, and that of the latter to feed and cherish the affections and desires. These in the narrative are the butler and baker who prepared food for their king. Food involves a two-fold nourishment, meat and drink. Truth, in Scripture, is called wine, juice of the grape, water, milk, with other liquids, expressing nutrition; and as the understanding, signified by the butler, is to provide these, so in his dream he saw a vine with three branches, blossoms, and ripe grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup. The office of the will, signified by the baker, is to prepare what is good and
