VERSE 7b: VA’YI’KEYTZ PAROH—”Pharoah awoke.”
A curious insight into the verb for “awoke” (va’yi’keytz)—root YUD-QOOF-TZADEE—is that the interior root QOOF TZADEE means “end”—especially with regard to a period of time (BDB). So then, at the end of his two troubling dreams about the cows and the ears of corn, Pharoah came out of his subconscious into consciousness in the real world of circumstance: he AWOKE!
When we jump ahead in the story (vv.7-43), we discover that Pharoah made a spiritual journey from pagan death to Joseph’s living GOD! In verse 39 Pharoah said to Joseph, “Since [GOD Who is your God] has informed you” of the meaning of my dreams, there can be no one more-wise than you to implement the solution to the coming famine. [author’s paraphrase]
Back to the early part of the story, before the Head Cupbearer of Pharoah informed him about Joseph, Pharoah resorted to what was near at hand to him for interpretation of dreams: he called for his necromancers [those who seek to communicate with the dead through occultic spiritualism] and his wise men [who were practiced in occultic arts]. When one considers that the culture of Egypt was steeped in the mysticism of death it is only natural to see that Pharoah sought answers from those who were devoted to spiritual forces surrounding necromancy. But when the Cupbearer informed him about Joseph, Pharoah suddenly came face-to-face with the God of LIFE!
The dreams of Pharoah were about the impending DEATH of his kingdom (Famine); the necromancers had no life-oriented insight into this horrible future. But Joseph—the slave buried deep within the tomb-like prisons of Egypt after surviving the ordeal of the pit into which his brothers had cast him but who had come out from the pit into a symbolic resurrection of life—came forth from the prison of despair with a word of HOPE, a renewing word from the God whom Pharoah did not know! That word became the stepping stone from Joseph’s circumstantial grave to his instantaneous and glorious reign as Viceroy of Egypt!
For you and me this tells us that it is GOD who is the LIVING GOD! OUR GOD IS THE GOD OF HOPE! And just as our LORD Yeshua arose both from prison and the grave, so do we arise with him through baptism into NEW LIFE. We overcome the fate of the world by the LIVING WORD OF GOD and by our practical implementation of the WISDOM that God’s LOGOS-WORD imparts!
Halelleujah!
Let us arise in faith and overcome! Let us AWAKEN TO THE HOPE OF SALVATION in the midst of the despairing world around us! Let us do so by proclaiming the Gospel! Let us speak boldly to all who will hear the word of our testimony! And let us demonstrate the truth of our faith by our consecrated lives of discipleship in Jesus!
