Lessons from the Cupbearer

What does it mean to trust God?

It seems that so many of us can fall into one of two camps when talking about trusting God. The first camp is the “Pray for Naturalism” camp. This camp prays for God to work through his natural world - for him to orchestrate things that would look to an outsider as luck or just the way the world works. The second camp is the “Only Pray for Miracles” camp. This camp is not satisfied with a doctor helping bring healing - it needs to be unmistakably miraculous.

Now, hear me out, neither is wrong to pray for. It’s not wrong to pray that someone gets into a better financial situation by means of stewardship and wisdom. It’s neither wrong to pray that God intervenes in a miraculous way to help pull someone out of the pit they are in. God works in both ways. There’s times when I pray that God works through people and there’s times that I pray that he bypasses morons like me and fixes the situation himself.

It’s dangerous to put God in a box and think he only ever speaks in a still, soft voice (1 Kings 19) or that it’s always a “feeding the 5000” miracle. Look at the Bible. There are times when God bursts onto the scene and there’s other times where he’s working in ways that no one would expect. The reason that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, i.e. Caesar Augustus’s census, can be traced back to Julius Caesar. It’s an interesting story. But had he not started the chain of causality, the census would not have been declared, and Jesus would not have been born in Bethlehem. But God was at work in very non-miraculous ways. I worked for the U.S. Census in 2020…there’s nothing miraculous about a census.

Look at Genesis 40. Joseph was in prison with the chief baker and chief cupbearer. Upon interpreting the cupbearer’s dream that Pharaoh would restore him, Joseph tells the cupbearer, “But when all goes well for you, remember that I was with you. Please show kindness to me by mentioning me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this prison” (v. 14). At the end of the chapter we learn, “Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph; he forgot him” (v. 23).

God was at work. He brought Joseph out of prison no shorter than two years later at what we can see was the perfect time. Joseph trusted God throughout his life in a way and depth that I wish I could. But he didn’t sit in jail and pray for a miraculous jail escape. I’m sure he was praying to leave the jail. He also told the cupbearer to remember him so that he could leave jail.

My point is, Genesis does not condemn Joseph for asking the cupbearer to put in the good word with Pharaoh. In fact, the cupbearer does remember Joseph two years later - all according to God’s perfect timing. The entire story of the Bible would be different if Joseph was released from jail earlier. Did he remember Joseph because Joseph asked him to? I’d say yes. Did he remember Joseph because God was working? Also yes.

Pray. Pray for God to work. Pray for what you want. But don’t put God in a box. Don’t believe the lie that God must work through wondrous spectacles. Don’t believe the lie that God will only work through his created natural order. God answers prayers in HIS ways and HIS timing. We shouldn’t want it any other way.