We see in Genesis 41 that Pharaoh is having a little trouble finding someone to interrupt his dreams. It’s like the man who was terribly ill and had been to every doctor and specialist around. Then his friend suggested another doctor, a general practitioner. But his friend replied, “I’ve had the best doctors money can buy and you think a general practitioner would be any better?” Later, another close friend came along and told him about a man who was not even a doctor, but the man had tremendous success in treating very ill people using different methods than normal. Right away the sick man agreed to see him. Why was one acceptable and the other one wasn’t?

Because all the first man suggested was a different person, but with the same overall training. The second person was offering something “different” to try. So it was with the Pharaoh and his butler. Pharaoh had already tried every magician and wise man around. If the butler had only suggested Joseph to him as being another in like manner, the Pharaoh would have scoffed at him. After all, he had already seen the best of the lot. Therefore, the butler was wise enough to refer to Joseph first as just a youth, he had not been able to do all the studying yet the others had, and more oddly, he was a Hebrew slave who did not even believe in magic. Yet he was totally accurate on interpreting dreams, as the butler could attest to. Thus his interpretation of the dreams would not be based on the same impure powers the “Egyptian wise men” based their abilities on. He could go where the pagans could not access. Pharaoh accepted this idea to use Joseph because he was “different”, which lets you see it’s good to be different. In cracking this case, it was “good” the butler did it!