“So in the morning his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was none who could interpret them to Pharaoh.”
Gen 41:8
Okay, so I am not going to cover a whole lot here pertaining to how the L-rd rescuses us, or other dynamics that usually come out in dealing with this text.
However, I want to cover a dynamic that may not be as regularly-preached from this text.
What Saved The Nation
It would appear, from this text, G-d resuced Egypt through a single catalyst: Pharaoh’s spirit.
True, Pharaoh could have had the dreams, but had his spirit not been troubled, I would suggest he would not have searched for a solution, nor acted when a solution was presented to him.
Deep Cries Out To Deep: The Deep In Us and the Deep In The L-rd
For us to deeply act, we must first be ready to receive the deep that cries out in us, to us, and to the deep that is within G-d who has the solutions to the problem He is showing us.
See, we have a spirit and a soul, and we often mix the two and say they are the same thing.
They are not, rather they are different, and are designed to be different and have different functions. And the spirit is not a metaphor for anything. It is literally breath and the thing that governs our life under the oversight of the L-rd.
In this case, Pharaoh’s dreams caused his spirit to engage with him, and that spirit was troubled, and, as a result, he was provoked to action. Find me someone who can tell me what these spirit-troubling dreams mean.
And fortunately, Joseph knew the G-d of Dreams, who owns the interpretations of dreams.
And old men dream dreams and young men see visions.
More and more, it behooves us to listen to what the L-rd is saying to us in our dreams, and not monk them up with every resourece that has a canned response for every image and metaphor. Our responsibility is to learn how to interpret dreams, and to hold our dreams as precious for us, and to understand that we have all the tools we need on-board and in-hand, including our friendships and relationships, to help us interpret.
Pharaoh’s spirit moved him to seek out one who knew the G-d of Dreams.
The Lesson For Us From The Text
And as our spirits prompt us to action, we do well to hearken to the voice that speaks to us. And to move.
In closing, I would exhort you each to connect with your spirit and to work with your spirit and to listen when your spirit speaks to you, and take him or her seriously.
Be blessed, gang. And we here at TPH are willing to work with you to help you hear your spirit if no one else is available.