Remember (12-26-12)

Genesis 40:14 - "But remember me when it is well with you, and please show kindness to me; make mention of me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house."

There are several parallels between the life of Joseph in the Old Testament, and the life of the Lord Jesus in the New. For instance, Joseph was beloved of his father, Jesus was the Beloved of His Father. Joseph came to his brothers and they didn't receive him, and we read of Christ that He came to His own, but His own received Him not. Joseph was betrayed and sold, the Lord Jesus was betrayed and sold. Joseph was falsely accused and punished, the Lord Jesus was falsely accused and punished. After being humbled to the lowest prison, Joseph was exalted as a ruler in Egypt. The Lord Jesus humbled Himself to the lowest position, to the point of death, even the death of the cross, and God highly exalted Him and He rules on the throne. Josephs brothers bowed to him, one day every knee will bow to Christ. And their are many more similarities between the two. Joseph is an Old Testament type of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we could view any one of these aspects or events in the life of Joseph through lens of Christ and greatly profit from it, but the one that came to my attention today is found in Genesis chapter 40. In Genesis 40 Joseph had already been falsely accused and imprisoned, and in this chapter Pharaohs chief baker and cupbearer were both imprisoned, and they both had dreams on the same night. We read the account of the cupbearers dream in and Josephs interpretation of it in verses 9-15 - "Then the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, “Behold, in my dream a vine was before me, and in the vine were three branches; it was as though it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and its clusters brought forth ripe grapes. Then Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.” And Joseph said to him, “This is the interpretation of it: The three branches are three days. Now within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your place, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand according to the former manner, when you were his butler. But remember me when it is well with you, and please show kindness to me; make mention of me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house. For indeed I was stolen away from the land of the Hebrews; and also I have done nothing here that they should put me into the dungeon.”"

I find it interesting that both the cupbearer and the baker are imprisoned. The baker makes us think of bread, the cupbearer makes us think of wine. These are the two things that the Lord Jesus Christ takes at the last supper before His crucifixion. In Luke 22:19-20 we read - "And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you."" Joseph didn't ask the cup bearer to do anything difficult, he simply asked him to remember him, but he forgot. Genesis 40:23 says - "Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him." You would think that when he was putting the first cup of wine into Pharaohs hand he would think of Joseph, and remember that what he said had come to pass, but he didn't. And yet, this is what our Lord asked us to do and how often do we forget Him? I often look critically at this cupbearer and wonder how he could forget Joseph when he did something so great for him by telling him his future, and yet Christ has done something far more wonderful for me. He gave up His own life, applied His righteousness to my account and applied my sin to His account in order that He might bear my punishment and I might receive His life. And He asked us to do a very simple thing. As Joseph asked this man to remember him, so our Lord asked us to do something very simple, to remember Him. The apostle Paul reiterates this in 1 Corinthians 11:23-25 - "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”" Do we set aside time for the express purpose of remembering Christ? This command is so simple, but at the same time it's one the most neglected things in Christianity. Why is that? In Second Timothy 2:8 the apostle Paul says to Timothy - "Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel." I'm intrigued by this exhortation. You would think that this is pretty obvious, I mean how could we forget Him? He is the one on whom our faith and salvation are based. But Paul gives the exhortation nonetheless. Perhaps it's because we can become so comfortable in our Christianity and the works that He has prepared for us to do, that while we know who He is and what He has done, we don't just sit and remember Him as He commanded. This is one of the marks of the lukewarm church in Revelation chapter three. The Laodicean church was very religious, they have their programs and services and special events, their organizing their classes, and trying to figure out ways to draw in more people, making their church more "seeker friendly" and conforming to the ways of the world in order to attract it. This is a very busy church, but somewhere in the midst of all of this Christ has been forgotten. He's outside knocking on the door waiting to be invited in. And sadly, this describes a lot of our churches today. The devil has successfully influenced Christians today that if we're going to get church right we need to make it into something intricate and complicated, but God never intended it to be that way. Paul says to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 11:3 - "But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ." We tend to complicate things, but the Lord Jesus didn't command us to do something difficult, He asked us to do something very simple. Remember Him.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 - For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes."