Pharaoh, whoever he was, whichever Pharaoh, it was an Egyptian, perhaps an Egyptian. We do not know about all the history there. He might have been a Hyksos or something like that, which was a Semitic Pharaoh, but he recognized God's Spirit in Joseph. He was astute enough to figure that out, that it was God's Spirit that was doing this. It was the divine hand working with Joseph and he sees that there is a difference between Joseph and other men, especially Joseph and his soothsayers that could not figure this out. There was obviously a difference there between Joseph and all his servants. He was just an outstanding individual and he attributes all of this to God's Spirit being in him. That that was what made the difference. And he particularly focuses on Joseph's discernment and wisdom. That Joseph made himself different and separate because his discernment and wisdom stood out as being clearly superior to other men. He also realized that it was the Holy Spirit that made him so discerning and wise. He saw the connection—God and Spirit and Joseph, and what he said.
Just so we are clear, discernment is the quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure. He was able to take all the clues and put them together and make something clear. So it tends to stress accuracy. Wisdom, on the other hand, is the quality of deep understanding and sound judgment leading to proper actions. And here it was shown in his advice to Pharaoh about what should be done in order to save the nation. The Bible throughout looks at wisdom, or emphasizes wisdom, as the ability to make right and good decisions and then carry them through for following a godly and prudent course of action.
Right now, we will go to Genesis 41, the story of Joseph, and we will read three verses to get another idea of what the Holy Spirit does. A bit of background: Joseph has just interpreted Pharaoh's dream. He has given his advice to Pharaoh that he should appoint an overseer for the production, storage, and distribution of Egypt's food over the next 14 years. And, Pharaoh has an idea of who should fill that job.
Pharaoh recognized the difference between Joseph and other men. He clearly attributes this to the presence of God's Spirit in Joseph. What Pharaoh saw here was Joseph's discernment and wisdom. In these qualities, he was a notch above everybody else. As Pharaoh tells us here, it was God's Spirit in him that prompted, shaped, and guided him in this wisdom and discernment. Here is a pagan king who could see this clearly in this Israelite.
Let us take a moment to see the idea of the difference between these two words, discernment and wisdom. These are Webster's definitions of these: "Discernment is the quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure. And, it has an emphasis on accuracy." This is what Joseph had done. He had taken Pharaoh's obscure dreams and he had accurately told the dreams and been able to interpret what they meant. So he was able to discern, using God's Spirit, the meaning of these things and then his wisdom kicked in.
This is the definition of wisdom: "The quality of having deep understanding, keen discernment (so it overlaps somewhat with discernment), and sound judgment."
