“Then Pharaoh said to Joseph: “Behold, in my dream I stood on the bank of the river. Suddenly seven cows came up (i.e. it will come to pass at the appointed time; literally: “it will come up” in the Sovereignly ordained timeline of world events) out of the river, fine looking and fat; and they fed in the meadow. Then behold, seven other cows came up after them, (i.e. after that which is represented by the first seven cows [years] has come up, that which is represented by the seven other [or second] group of cows will come to pass, indicating the order of the two events on a linear timeline) poor and very ugly and gaunt, such ugliness as I have never seen in all the land of Egypt. (Indicating that the famine which we already know is represented by this group of cows, will be the worst famine that has ever befallen the land of Egypt; at least in Pharaoh’s lifetime.) And the gaunt and ugly cows ate up the first seven, the fat cows. When they had eaten them up, no one would have known that they had eaten them, for they were just as ugly as at the beginning. (Without the intervention and provision of the Lord in instructing Pharaoh through Joseph to fill his storehouses during the seven years of prosperity, these years would not automatically be able to sustain the coming famine, however great its abundance.) So I awoke. (Pharaoh is careful to provide Joseph with as much detail as possible, also in terms of when- and under which circumstances he had these dreams, namely in two separate instalments within the same night, separated by a period of waking. However subtle the information yielded therein I do gather from this that Pharaoh can already sense deep in his bones that Joseph carries The True Answer, for surely at this point it would have been understandable had he yielded to despondency, hopelessness and frustration, growing weary of repeating the same details over and over again.) Also I saw in my dream, and suddenly seven heads (“heads of grain”) came up on one stalk, full and good. Then behold, seven heads, withered, thin, and blighted by the east wind, sprang up after them (again we note the same indications of a linear timeline). And the thin heads devoured the seven good heads. So I told this to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.” (I cannot help but chuckle once more as I am fairly certain that Pharaoh might’ve surmised that this last bit of information might cause our young Joseph to despair that he too might fail, even heightening the sense of pressure upon him unbearably. Thankfully we know that because Joseph is a man of God this information serves to do precisely the opposite, for he would anticipate that the forces and powers of darkness would fail, effectively bolstering his confidence in the Power of the One True God, the True Light 😃 [also see 1 Kings 18:20-40].)“

“¹⁷Then Pharaoh said to Joseph: “Behold, in my dream I stood on the bank of the river. ¹⁸Suddenly seven cows came up out of the river, fine looking and fat; and they fed in the meadow. ¹⁹Then behold, seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly and gaunt, such ugliness as I have never seen in all the land of Egypt. ²⁰And the gaunt and ugly cows ate up the first seven, the fat cows. ²¹When they had eaten them up, no one would have known that they had eaten them, for they were just as ugly as at the beginning. So I awoke. ²²Also I saw in my dream, and suddenly seven heads came up on one stalk, full and good. ²³Then behold, seven heads, withered, thin, and blighted by the east wind, sprang up after them. ²⁴And the thin heads devoured the seven good heads. So I told this to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.”

– Genesis 41:17-24 (NKJV)