Numerous examples of divine vision or prophecy in the Torah are explained away in the text or by commentators as applying to the specific people and their specific time.
But I think there is a bigger picture to be had as well – a zoomed-out perspective.
For example, the dreams of the Butler and the Baker are not only about them – they are also prophecies about the future of Israel and Egypt. As Joseph Cox points out, the dreams had another meaning as well: they presaged the future of Egypt and Israel (in 300 years, Egypt would be plagued and then beheaded, while Israel would grow fat and be delivered into the hands of G-d).
Pharaoh’s dreams are similarly really about the future of Egypt and the incoming “invasion” of the Hebrews – “the likes of which have never been seen here before.” See here, here, and here .
There is an earlier prophecy, often mistranslated because the readers and translators assume that it only applies to Rivkah. The common translation is
Two nations are in your womb / Two separate peoples shall issue from your body;
One people shall be mightier than the other / And the older shall serve the younger. (G. 25:23)
But as I write here, a much more accurate translation is
Two nations are in your womb / And two peoples will issue and branch out from you. One people will give fortitude to the other / And the multitude will be dependent on (or: cultivated by) the younger
Readers assume that this is about Jacob and Esau. But what if it is not – at least, not entirely? What if Rivkah’s prophecy also applies to the future for all Jews and Gentiles, including to the present day?
After all, the Jewish people today are highly interconnected and co-dependent with the non-Jewish world (especially in the West, leading the world in thoughts wrestling with moral and ethical issues, as well as a broad swath of technological leadership and change). In a sense, Jews are called to try to serve/cultivate the rest of humanity.
Further than this: the fact that Rivkah is troubled and seeks answers from G-d very much reflects a contemporary Jewish response to things we do not understand. It is not in our nature to simply take events in stride, to accept whatever happens to us and assume that it is all because of fate or the stars.
Instead, the Jewish role, both with Rivkah and continuing through to today, is to always try to understand, to question and challenge. This is why Jews – for better and for worse – are invariably catalysts for change in any society in which we live.
P.S. This one verse makes it clear that Judaism was never meant to be a universalist faith. The G-d of the Torah is content with different people having different roles, as well as different relationships with the divine.