Joseph: Finding Purpose in Feast or FamineSample

Similar But Different

I have an annoying habit. When I find something I like, I purchase lots of it in various colors or flavors. Shoes. Pants. Shirts. Candles. Snack items. I get the same basic thing with small variations because I know something similar but different will also be pleasing.

This concept of “similar but different” jumps off the page as we read Joseph’s dream interpretations throughout Scripture. Three times we’re given glimpses into his God-given gift. First, Joseph himself dreams about sheaves of grain and then the sun, moon, and stars bowing to him (Genesis 37). Separate dreams about different material—grain and markers in the sky—but both proclaimed the same message: someday Joseph’s family would bow to him in obeisance.

We next see God’s similar-but-different message when Joseph is in prison, and he interprets dreams for the king’s cupbearer and baker (Genesis 40). The cupbearer dreams of three grapevines, offering Pharaoh a cup of wine as he did before his captivity. The baker dreams of three baskets of bread carried on his head, but birds come and eat the bread before he can serve it to the king. See how the three-day theme makes these dreams similar but different?

Two years later, Pharaoh summons Joseph from his prison cell to interpret two nightmares that the king’s royal magicians can’t decipher. In the first dream, seven ugly, thin cows consume seven plump, attractive cows. In the second dream, seven withered and blighted ears of grain devour seven full and healthy ears. Joseph assures Pharaoh that the interpretation comes from only one Place—Elohim, his Hebrew God—and the similar-but-different dreams mean a seven-year feast and seven-year famine is coming, both certain and imminent (Genesis 41:32).

Discovering our purpose in life is often like God’s approach to His similar-but-different dream messages. I discovered one of my purposes is to creatively present God’s Word in a way that people can perhaps see and understand in new and deeper ways. As a young mom, I believed I was called to a speaking ministry at churches, retreats, and conferences. In 2002, an illness confined me to bed for six months, and my health never fully returned. My body would no longer bear the rigorous traveling of speaking; however, during those six months in bed, I wrote my first novel and learned to teach God’s Word through parables—what we call biblical fiction today. My purpose, like the dreams Joseph interpreted, became similar but different.

Is there a passion in your life that has taken an unexpected detour? Could there be a similar-but-different path God might lead you to fulfill your purpose in a new way?