Potiphar

POTIPHAR
(Genesis 39-41)
I stared at him in shock. 
I could not believe my eyes.
 Yes, it’s him, alright. 
He looked a bit older,
 but you cannot really miss that 
charming smile and boyish looks. 
I remembered when I sentenced 
him to prison…
It was a bit over two years ago. 
My wife had told me he tried to 
rape her. 
And she had strong evidence to back 
her claim: his jacket. 
There was no way his jacket could 
have been in my wife’s hand in our 
bedroom if he had not been there 
and had taken it off. 
I was so mad, I wanted to sentence 
him to death. 
Somehow, my fury was assuaged and 
I committed him to life imprisonment.
And I totally forgot about him.
Until today…
The king had a dream and he needed 
it interpreted immediately. 
Apparently, he was very disturbed. 
He asked me to get all the wise men 
and magicians in the country to come 
to the palace. 
Did I mention I was the Chief Security
 Officer to the king? 
I gathered all these men, over a 
hundred of them in an hour. 
The king was pacing up and down the 
Royal Court as they filed in. 
He nodded at them as they all 
greeted him in unison, “save the king! 
May you live forever!” 
As he sat down on the throne, 
he rehashed his dream to them and 
asked if anyone amongst them could 
interpret it for him.
None could.
What bothered the king most was that 
he had the dream TWICE.
 It would have been dismissed 
as a result of tiredness, overeating 
or anything else if you have a dream. 
But when the dream is repeated, 
you are wont to believe the gods are 
trying to pass a message across to you. 
And that is why the king was very 
restless and desperate.
There was a murmur in the Royal Courts, 
as the magicians and wise men consulted 
each other. 
As hard as they tried, none was brave 
enough to hazard a guess. 
It was safer to say you have no idea 
what the dream meant than to give an 
interpretation that would prove to 
be false. 
Better to err on the side of caution!
Just then, the Chief Butler to the 
king came in. 
He was surprised to see the crowd 
and he asked me what was going on. 
I brought him up to speed with 
the king’s dilemma. 
The Chief Butler suddenly hit 
himself on the head. 
“How forgetful can one be! 
I think I can help the king solve 
this problem, Potiphar!” 
I laughed sarcastically. 
“You? When did you become a 
dream interpreter? 
I know you serve the king’s wine- have 
you somehow gotten drunk with it?”
 The Chief Butler did not even see 
the sarcasm in my voice. 
He was adamant. 
“Please let me speak to the king. 
You know I was in prison about 
two years ago and…” 
I interjected, “Okay, you had a crash 
course on dream interpretation in 
prison, yeah?” 
“No, but I met a man there who 
interpreted my dream and the 
Chief Baker of the king. 
And it happened to both of us as 
he had interpreted- 
I was restored to my position, 
he was hanged! 
I’m sure he can interpret the king’s dream.” 
Okay, that made sense. 
I quickly ushered him before the king 
and he told him his experience with 
this dream interpreter in prison. 
The king asked him to be brought 
before him immediately. 
I sent some of my security operatives 
to carry out the king’s instruction.
About thirty minutes later, the dream 
interpreter was ushered into the 
king’s presence.
That was when I recognized him: Joseph. 
I was too much in shock to talk. 
I just watched as he went about the 
interpretation of the king’s dream, 
to the amazement of the wise men and 
magicians who looked on in awe of 
the wisdom in display before everybody 
in the Royal Court. 
I was still trying to digest what 
I just saw and heard when I heard 
the king say, “Forasmuch as God has 
revealed this to you, it is obvious 
there in nobody in this country as 
wise and as discreet as you. 
I need you in my cabinet to steer 
the ship of state in the right 
direction: I hereby appoint you as 
Prime Minister of the Federation!”
I felt my knees buckle, but I 
managed to remain standing. 
The Chief Butler noticed I was sweating 
profusely and was pale. 
He asked if I was okay. 
How could I ever be okay? 
The man I sentenced to prison two years
 ago has just been appointed into an 
office many steps ahead of me, and 
this bloke is asking if I am okay- 
what kind of a stupid question is that? 
I could not get out of the Royal Court 
any faster than I did. 
By the time I got home, the news had 
gone viral. 
It was on TV, radio, online, on every 
blog in the country. 
It trended on twitter and all social media. 
As I entered the house, 
I saw my wife couched up in a chair 
weeping. 
I called her and she turned. 
I noticed she was holding Joseph’s jacket. 
I was surprised she still had it, 
after these two years. 
“What are you doing with that jacket? 
And why are you crying?”
And my wife said, “I am sorry, dear. 
I am so sorry. I lied about him…”
In that moment, I could not say which 
was more devastating: having Joseph as
a superior officer, or realizing my wife 
had lied to me, making me send an 
innocent man to prison.
I collapsed on the nearest chair, 
wondering what Joseph was going to 
do to me. 
Because I know if I were in his shoes, 
I would surely yearn for vengeance. 
At that moment, my phone rang. 
It was a strange number. 
I picked it with dread: “H-h-hello?”
“Hello, Potiphar?”
“Y-y-y-yes?”
“This is Joseph, sir. Please don’t worry 
about it, okay? 
It was all part of His plan…”
And he cut the line.
How magnanimous can anyone be…?

- Haruna Daniels