Genesis 39:21 “But the LORD was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison.”
The Lord gave Joseph favor with the keeper of the prison. That is quite a statement and could be a great promise for us. Would it not be wonderful that in all our ventures, either on the job, school or in any pursuit the Lord would grant us favor with our superiors. The word favor in the Hebrew, however, is the word ken which has multiple meanings that include favor, consideration, pity, mercy and something else that I think fits the context much better, trust.
You don’t hear much about prisons in ancient times, because there were none. Punishments in ancient times usually involved whippings, torture, dismemberment of body parts and/or death. Do you find any indication in Hebrew or Mosaic law that suggest a punishment for not keep the law is incarceration? It is usually banishment or death if you refused to repent and seek forgiveness.
However in the last fifty years Egyptologist have found evidence that ancient Egypt really did have prisons and of course the Bible clearly speaks of prisons in the story of Joseph who found himself incarcerated in one of them. What is even more interesting is that if Joseph was just a slave to a high governmental official and was found guilty of raping his master’s wife he should have been immediately put to death. Yet, Potiphar just had him imprisoned and not even beaten or whipped, which suggest that Potiphar might have questioned his wife’s accusation but was put in a position where he had to do something to show he was not siding with a slave.
An Egyptologist Dr. Hays translated an Egyptian papyrus document that gave us much insight into Egyptian prisons and life in those prisons. Generally prisons were holding cells for those that the government felt they could not trust, in other words prisons were for those who were suspected of some form of treason and were put into a holding cell until a verdict could be reached. There is really no evidence that prisoners were given an number of years or months in a sentence. It was usually a life sentence or death. The Egyptians referred to these prisons as Places of Confinement. Joseph realized that but for the grace of God he would probably be spending the rest of his life in the Place of Confinement and if convicted would be forced into slave labor or put to death. It appears Joseph was placed in this place of confinement awaiting a trial which for some reason never came about. I’ll give my theory on the reason for that later. There were only three possible outcomes to such a trial, sentence to life in hard labor, death or release. There are records in ancient writings suggesting that the Pharaoh himself could offer pardons which is what happened to Joseph and the Butler. The Baker, well not so good.
The Butler in this case is given the Hebrew title of Cup Bearer. This was a very responsible job as the Cup Bearer was to provide the beverage for the Pharaoh. He had to be a highly trust individual as he could easily poison the beverage or be bribed to do so. So this position required the utmost trust. Just the slightest hint of mistrust did not mean simply dismissal or being fired, it meant being thrown into prison to await a decision from the Pharaoh himself as to whether he could trust the Cup Bearer or not and if not, well we will not talk about that. The Baker also was in a trusted position as he could easily poison the food. It is possible the Pharaoh might have gotten sick after a meal from simple food poisoning and the Cup Bearer and Baker could have been held under the suspicion of poisoning the Pharaoh and were placed in prison until the matter could be investigated. As forensics were not as advanced in those days as today, the poor slobs could end up getting the blame and losing his head for something that was not their fault.
When Joseph asked the Butler to remember him to Pharaoh he might have been saying, “Hey, remind the Pharaoh I am here and I am in need of a verdict on my case.”
As far the prison itself goes Archaeological discoveries indicate that the main prison was located at Thebes in Upper Egypt about 400 miles south of the Nile delta (modern Cairo). There were smaller prisons located elsewhere but this would be where political prisoners were held which would be the case with Joseph. The Overseer of the Prison, what we would call today as the warden, had a large staff of trustees, prisoners like today who served as clerks and scribes. One of the chief assistances to the Overseer was the Chief Scribe of the Prison. As we learn from Genesis 39:22 this is likely the position Joseph ended up in. Such a position was given only to the most trusted prisoner. This would have made Joseph the chief trustee, the right hand man to the warden and entrusted with all the records of the institution.
Based upon this historical record which has just recently come to light, I believe the best rendering for the word ken favor would not be that Joseph just found favor with the Overseer, but it would more accurately be rendered not as favor but trust. If your superior can have the utmost trust in you, you will definitely find favor with your superior. I know when I was a high school teacher I would often grant favor to certain students because of their potential, abilities or certain circumstances, however that did not mean I trusted them. I may have granted a student favor by allowing him to retake a test, but I would definitely not leave that student alone in the room while taking the test. I just did not trust him. However, there were certain students that I did really trust and I would allow them to be in a room alone while taking a test.
Joseph not only was given favor with the Overseer, but he had something more with the Overseer that the other prisoners did not have and that was the trust and confidence of the Overseer. The very thing Joseph was imprisoned for, lack of trust, God allowed him to have with the Overseer. I am going to take this one step further and indulge in some speculation. As I said Archaeological studies have shown there was a court system in Egypt that tried cases like we do today. Yet, for some reason Joseph’s case never went to trial. My opinion, pure speculation mind you, is that I suspect Potiphar really did believe Joseph to be innocent but he could not call his wife a liar in favor of a slave, that would be scandalous. But when he had him placed in prison he confided in the Overseer his suspicions that Joseph was innocent. Knowing that if Joseph’s case was tried he would not stand a chance of winning and the only hope would be to delay any kind of trial before the Pharaoh. In the meantime, until something could be worked out he plotted with the Overseer to see that Joseph was given a good position in the prison and after a while the Overseer found Joseph to be trustworthy as Potiphar believed and made him a chief trustee, his right hand man.
My point is this. Joseph had to do his part, he had to prove that he was worthy of the trust. God did move Potiphar and the Overseer to feel favorably toward Joseph, but Joseph also had to be worthy of that ken, favor or trust. Too often I hear people offer a prayer request before a job interview, loan application or even a court appearance and they ask that we pray for favor from the potential employer, loan officer or judge. But if you go before one of these superiors with false or inaccurate information, if you dummied up your application with inaccurate statements, or you withhold information from a judge, then don’t expect God to grant you ken favor before that superior.
When you ask prayer for ken favor you are not asking that the person will like you so much that he will favor you over others who may be more qualified, it is that you are asking that that person grant you the trust that you deserve and if you do not deserve to be trusted, don’t expect any special favors.
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