The Story of Joseph pt 2
Genesis 39
1 Now when Joseph arrived in
2 The Lord was with Joseph and blessed him greatly as he served in the home of his Egyptian master. 3 Potiphar noticed this and realized that the Lord was with Joseph, giving him success in everything he did. 4 So Joseph naturally became quite a favorite with him. Potiphar soon put Joseph in charge of his entire household and entrusted him with all his business dealings. 5 From the day Joseph was put in charge, the Lord began to bless Potiphar for Joseph’s sake. All his household affairs began to run smoothly, and his crops and livestock flourished. 6 So Potiphar gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph there, he didn’t have a worry in the world, except to decide what he wanted to eat!
Now Joseph was a very handsome and well-built young man. 7 And about this time, Potiphar’s wife began to desire him and invited him to sleep with her. 8 But Joseph refused. “Look,” he told her, “my master trusts me with everything in his entire household. 9 No one here has more authority than I do! He has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I ever do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God.”
10 She kept putting pressure on him day after day, but he refused to sleep with her, and he kept out of her way as much as possible. 11 One day, however, no one else was around when he was doing his work inside the house. 12 She came and grabbed him by his shirt, demanding, “Sleep with me!” Joseph tore himself away, but as he did, his shirt came off. She was left holding it as he ran from the house.
13 When she saw that she had his shirt and that he had fled, 14 she began screaming. Soon all the men around the place came running. “My husband has brought this Hebrew slave here to insult us!” she sobbed. “He tried to rape me, but I screamed. 15 When he heard my loud cries, he ran and left his shirt behind with me.”
16 She kept the shirt with her, and when her husband came home that night, 17 she told him her story. “That Hebrew slave you’ve had around here tried to make a fool of me,” she said. 18 “I was saved only by my screams. He ran out, leaving his shirt behind!”
19 After hearing his wife’s story, Potiphar was furious! 20 He took Joseph and threw him into the prison where the king’s prisoners were held. 21 But the Lord was with Joseph there, too, and he granted Joseph favor with the chief jailer. 22 Before long, the jailer put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and over everything that happened in the prison. 23 The chief jailer had no more worries after that, because Joseph took care of everything. The Lord was with him, making everything run smoothly and successfully.
This story contains so many great teaching points. We could talk about having a right attitude toward work, how to handle temptation, how to respond to false allegations, trusting God in your circumstances and so on.
Today though I’m going to zoom in to one particular aspect of the story, and that is to look at the ways that people respond to a righteous life. Joseph was committed to living rightly – he lived as someone who knew the presence of God. You and I are also committed to living rightly. What can we learn from the way that others responded to Joseph that will help us to be prepared for the reactions we will face when we choose to live God’s way in a world which does not know God?
Potiphar – a man impressed.
At the start of our story we see that Potiphar was very impressed with Joseph. He did not worry about anything, because he trusted Joseph’s skill and integrity. He saw that God had blessed all that Joseph did, and he was happy to reap the benefits of that.
I can tell you from experience that it is huge blessing to be able to trust the integrity and ability of people who work for you. It gives great confidence, peace and freedom when you are sure of these things, as Potiphar was with Joseph.
I wonder what was going on in Potiphar’s mind because of Joseph. The Egyptians had all sorts of gods for all sorts of purposes, but in comes Joseph who worships a foreign God who claims to be God alone. The things that Joseph does seem to have the blessing of this God, in a way that none of
It reminds me of what Paul says in…
Titus 2:9&10
9 Slaves must obey their masters and do their best to please them. They must not talk back 10 or steal, but they must show themselves to be entirely trustworthy and good. Then they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive in every way.
Of course this doesn’t only apply to those who are slaves or those who work for someone else. Jesus said in…
Matthew 5:15-16
15 Don’t hide your light under a basket! Instead, put it on a stand and let it shine for all. 16 In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
Genesis 39:3 tells us that Potiphar realized that God was with Joseph – is that what people see in you and I? Are people attracted to God because of your life? Do people think well of God because of the way you represent Him? Do they even thank God for you?
We should not be surprised when this happens. The Bible explains that the way we live must be different to those who do not know God. It lays out the many blessings that we have as God’s children. If these things aren’t noticeable, then there must surely be something wrong. The further our society moves away from God’s standards, the more obvious God’s children should be. That is, of course, as long as we are living by God’s standards and not the standards of our society.
The story is not all rosy for Joseph, however. It’s not too long before living to please God gets him in trouble with someone else…
Potiphar’s Wife - a lover spurned.
If you are committed to living to please God in a world which does not know God, there is going to be a collision that is bound to happen. For Joseph, that collision took place in the area of sexual ethics – is it OK to sleep with your master’s wife? For Joseph, the answer was a definite “no”, but that put him at odds with Potiphar’s wife.
Temptation comes initially with some flirtation, then prolonged nagging, and finally by literally grasping at Joseph.
Joseph deals with the initial temptation firmly but respectfully – he explains that he would consider such an act to be a betrayal of Potiphar’s trust and a sin against God. Potiphar’s wife is apparently not used to having to restrain her own desires, or to being rejected; and so she continues to pursue Joseph. After finally discovering that she cannot have him, her desire turns to hatred and she punishes him in the most cruel way.
Does this sort of thing ever happen in our experience? You bet it does!
Are there people around you who try to pull you away from living for God? Are there people who try to involve you in their own sinful behaviours? Are there people who genuinely like you or love you, but are jealous of the fact that God owns your heart and guides your life? Are there people who get offended that you don’t join with them in things that you know God disapproves of?
1 Peter 4:1-5
So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you are willing to suffer for Christ, you have decided to stop sinning. 2 And you won’t spend the rest of your life chasing after evil desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God. 3 You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols.
4 Of course, your former friends are very surprised when you no longer join them in the wicked things they do, and they say evil things about you. 5 But just remember that they will have to face God, who will judge everyone, both the living and the dead.
For many of us, learning to not be controlled by what other people might think of us and say about us is a difficult journey to take. We all want to be accepted. We want to be respected and approved of. We want to be treated fairly. We want to be spoken about truthfully.
The reality is that if we live for God there are going to be times when we are rejected. There will be times when we are despised. There will be times when we will be lied about. There are going to be times when people will want to hurt us. This isn’t because the people who do these things are horrible monsters, it’s just that we can’t give them what they want, and so they get hurt and angry. Potiphar’s wife may have been a very nice person, but Joseph defied her authority and made her feel unattractive, humiliated, frustrated and perhaps even a little guilty. Of course she was going to lash out at him.
When we get treated badly, there are a couple of things that we need to keep in mind:
1) Like in the story of Joseph, we need to remember that God is always with us and has a good plan for our lives. Nothing anyone does is able to thwart the work of God in us and His plan for us, as long as we ourselves are keeping in step with Him. God’s approval of me is enough, I don’t need to chase anyone else’s approval. God’s presence in my life is enough, I don’t need to rely on anyone else or anything else.
2) There will be a time when God will judge everyone. If you are a child of God, that time brings no fear, just a joyful expectation of eternal happiness. Others do not have that hope, so instead of being concerned about whatever short-term pain they have inflicted on us – no matter how deep - maybe we should share God’s concern that they be prepared for that time of judgement. If they continue on their present course the expectation is fearful, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if they had a change of heart before then and came to know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour? Instead of dwelling on how to get even or brooding over the pain they have caused us, let’s focus on their salvation. After all, are we any different without the grace of God in our lives?
When we live wholeheartedly for God, we will experience these sorts of responses in the people around us. Often because of our fear of the second type of response, we put on our camouflage gear and we try to look as much like citizens of this world as we can while being as true to the kingdom of God as we can. We avoid as many potential conflicts as we can.
Instead of being Christians in Camouflage, let’s determine in our hearts to be Salt and Light? Let’s not put any barriers in people’s way, but let’s not hide our different-ness either. Let’s live rightly and boldly in the place God has put us.
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