When Joseph would not respond to the advances of Potiphar's wife, she retaliated, telling her husband that Joseph had tried to rape her. Potiphar then had Joseph put in the palace prison.
The fact that Joseph was not put to death is evidence that God was with Joseph. Some have speculated that Potiphar suspected Joseph was innocent but had to do something to appease his wife.
To Joseph it must have seemed that no good deed goes unpunished. He had done what was right under difficult circumstances, and he had been rewarded with imprisonment.
But Joseph clearly did not give up. Again his abilities were evident, and he was placed in charge of the other prisoners (Gen 39:21-23).
We see Joseph's positive, can-do attitude, and his faith in God, in his interactions with the cupbearer and baker of Pharaoh who were also in the prison. When both of them had troubling dreams on the same night, Joseph urged them to tell him about their dreams (Gen 40:5-8).
Both dreams were full of "threes": three branches for the cupbearer, three baskets for the baker. The cupbearer dreamed that he was back at work, filling Pharaoh's cup. The baker's dream had him trying to provide Pharaoh with bread, but he was in a more passive role, with birds taking the bread from him.
Joseph knew from his own experience that dreams with divine messages come in pairs. He also probably knew that a birthday celebration for Pharaoh was coming up in three days. These things may have helped him see the meanings of the dreams. At any rate, God led Joseph to a correct interpretation by some chain of reasoning.
Joseph's dream interpretations planted a seed in the mind of the cupbearer. That seed would bear fruit in due time.
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