Doing the Right Thing

Go ahead and open your Bibles to Genesis 39 this morning.

Last week, we looked at the bookends of Joseph’s story. We saw that he had dreams of greatness that were dashed when his brothers almost murdered him and decided to sell him into slavery instead.

We fast-forwarded for a minute to see that years later, Joseph was able to acknowledge God’s hand in taking him to Egypt and eventually allowing him to be second in command over the entire nation and enact policies that saved millions of lives.

As we said last week, though, there is a long period of time between those points.

He was seventeen when he had his dreams of greatness, and he was thirty when he became a ruler in Egypt.

This morning, we are going to fill in the details of what happened in those thirteen years.

As we will see, Joseph didn’t work his way slowly up the ladder of the Egyptian governmental system.

In fact, his trajectory was a roller coaster ride of ups and downs until God brought it all together.

Here’s what we are going to see: In spite of all the setbacks and disorientation he must have experienced, Joseph did good work and the right thing wherever he was regardless of who was or was not watching.

Let’s talk briefly about what we are skipping over this morning.

We are jumping over chapter 38, which talks about how God took Judah to his lowest point and allowed him to fall deep into sin but was faithful to preserve his promise to Abraham. We won’t look at it together, but it sets the stage for what God is doing in changing Judah’s heart later in the book.

In that chapter, you see Judah and others using sexual intimacy for their own pleasure or purposes instead of how God designed it to be.

Their sin stands in stark contrast to what we are going to see through Joseph this morning.

As we pick up in chapter 39, we find Joseph in Egypt.

Read verse 1-2 with me...

We don’t know the specifics of Potiphar’s role in the Egyptian government, but similar titles are used of men who are in charge of the policing aspects of the military. He was a powerful man with lots of influence.

We could almost understand Joseph licking his wounds here and not giving his best. He has been mistreated and is having to work for a godless, pagan official.

Focus in on that first phrase in verse 2, though: “The LORD was with Joseph.”

Joseph may have been pulled away from home and enslaved in the house of an official who didn’t follow the one true God, but God had not abandoned Joseph.

God’s hand is woven through every aspect of Joseph’s life, and it shows.

Here’s what I want you to look at through this: how did Joseph act when God’s hand was on him?

When we look at what Joseph did in serving Potiphar, we can draw our first principle from this story:

1) Do good work wherever you are.

Listen to how God works in and through Joseph here. Read verses 2-6...

God is blessing what Joseph is doing.

Joseph gets promoted to one of the highest positions in Potiphar’s house. He is in charge of everything this wealthy and powerful man owns.

Because of what God is doing through Joseph, Potiphar’s wealth keeps growing.

This is an example of God blessing the nations through Abraham’s descendants. We saw God bless Laban through Jacob, and now we are seeing God bless Potiphar through Joseph.

There are a couple items we can draw out of this as we think about our own work.

First, notice the kind of work Joseph is doing.

He is enslaved, and he is the personal steward of everything and everyone in Potiphar’s house.

Is that a religious job? Not overtly.

He isn’t a priest or a prophet or a pastor; he is managing the estate of a wealthy and powerful pagan man.

And yet, God is blessing both Joseph and Potiphar because of Joseph’s work.

The vast majority of people are going to have jobs in the marketplace. Most people are not going to be pastors or teachers or in some kind of full-time Christian work.

That does not mean, though, that your work doesn’t matter to Jesus.

That’s why I don’t like saying “secular” work—what you do still matters to God and to his kingdom in a big way!

God blessed Joseph to do “normal people” work.

Don’t downplay or dismiss your work because it isn’t traditional ministry; do your work well, whatever it is.

This passage isn’t a promise that God is going to make you or the company you work for succeed, but you should still be a blessing to the company by the kind of work you do and the way in which you do it.

Whether you are at home or retired, in class, or at the office or the factory or the job site or wherever, recognize that God cares about the work you do!

The text makes it clear that God blessed what Joseph did and gave him favor with Potiphar.

What do you think that looks like, though?

Do you think that means Joseph just laid around doing nothing all day and then somehow everything just magically got done?

The picture in my head is that scene from Fantasia where Mickey uses magic to get the mops to mop the floor for him.

I highly doubt it worked like that.

The indication from the text is that God’s blessing on Joseph’s work was a unique skill and ability to do good work as well as a unique blessing on the outcomes of that work like bountiful harvests or healthy animals.

While God was with him, Joseph still had to use the strength and wisdom God gave him to do the work he needed to do. God worked through him in ways he couldn’t have necessarily foreseen, but Joseph still had to actually get up in the morning and go to work and do what God set before him.

We need to approach our work the same way.

Speaking to enslaved people in the New Testament, Paul would write:

Ephesians 6:7–8 CSB

Serve with a good attitude, as to the Lord and not to people, knowing that whatever good each one does, slave or free, he will receive this back from the Lord.

That means we go to work recognizing that God is our boss, not the guy who gives us our check.

I should work hard, work well, and work ethically. I may not be the smartest or the fastest employee they have, but I should be and do my best and be a blessing by the way I do what I do.

Keep in mind that Joseph isn’t doing work because he is in a good job.

When he is working for Potiphar, he is still enslaved in a foreign land.

Things actually get worse for Joseph, but we still see him working the same way when he gets unjustly accused and thrown in prison.

Pick up in verse 21-23.

I understand it—our world is different, and people change jobs all the time.

However, if you aren’t in a great job, remember that you can and should still do your best until God directs you to do something else.

You are working for your King who loved you enough to die in your place, give you his life, draw you into his family and his kingdom, and equip you to serve him.

Do good work for the glory of God wherever you are.

Recognize that he is with you everywhere you go, even at work!

Now, how did Joseph find himself in jail?

Because of the next principle we draw from these accounts.

Not only was Joseph willing to do good work when Potiphar would notice, Joseph was also willing to...

2) Do the right thing no matter who is watching.

Look back at the second part of verse 6-7.

There were only two things that Joseph wasn’t in charge of in Potiphar’s house: Potiphar’s food and Potiphar’s wife.

Joseph is young and handsome, and Potiphar’s wife sets her sights on him.

Look at how Joseph responds in verse 8-9...

He will not violate his master’s trust or his God’s commands.

Interestingly, this appears to be one of the first times in the Bible that someone acknowledges that they are refusing a temptation because it is a sin against God.

I may be wrong, but as a group of pastors and I were talking about it, we couldn’t think of another instance before this where someone clearly rejected a temptation because it was a sin against God.

Joseph knew that even if somehow Potiphar never discovered what had happened, God saw and God knew.

We need to keep this in mind about our sin. God sees everything we do, including those private thoughts of our hearts or private sins we think no one else sees.

Joseph refused to give in because he cared too much about not dishonoring the God who was with him.

It is one thing to resist this kind of temptation once, but look at verse 10—she kept on, day after day after day.

Eventually, she spots the opportunity she had been waiting for.

Joseph comes into the house to take care of his responsibilities, and none of the other servants are there. It is just him and Potiphar’s wife.

She grabbed him by his clothes and tried to get him to sleep with her.

Joseph pulls free of her grasp, leaving his garment behind as he runs away.

He did the right thing even when no one was watching.

This powerful woman tried to seduce him. He didn’t stick around to reason with her; he ran from the temptation instead of taking an opportunity to give in while no one was watching.

Do you do the same?

We have been talking about work a lot, but let’s take this out of the context of work right now and look at this specific temptation.

Joseph refused to give in to sexual temptation, and when he was confronted with it head on, he ran away.

This temptation is everywhere in our society. Companies use suggestive scenes and images to sell things as mundane as a hamburger.

The internet on our phones can connect us to some great preaching, but it can also connect us to all kinds of temptation.

How are you handling that? Are you flirting with it, saying it isn’t that big a deal, and that no one knows? Or are you running from temptation no matter what it costs?

Now, this also has implications for other temptations as well.

How hard do you work on the days when your boss is gone?

What compromises do you make in those areas that no one sees?

Joseph does the right thing—he runs instead of giving in.

Surely that means he is going to be rewarded, right?

Once again, Joseph’s clothes get him in trouble.

Read her story in verses 13-15...

She repeats the same story to Potiphar when he comes home, and in a fit of rage, he throws Joseph in prison.

Interestingly, Potiphar doesn’t have Joseph killed. We don’t know why—it could be that Potiphar’s wife had pulled a stunt like this before, or it could be because he respected Joseph at least that much. Either way, God once again saves Joseph’s life by the skin of his teeth.

We don’t know how long he had served in Potiphar’s house, but any hope he had of ruling over anyone was dashed again as he is thrown in prison.

God hadn’t forgotten Joseph, and Joseph continued to do good work and do the right thing.

The warden over the king’s jail put him in charge over all the other prisoners and completely trusted him.

While the Lord’s hand was still on him, Joseph would spend several years in that prison.

The Bible records one more major setback for Joseph, but we will turn our attention to that next week.

Where does that leave us?

If you are here today and you are a part of Christ’s kingdom, then we have the assurance that God is with us wherever we go.

He may not bless us or our employer like he did Joseph and Potiphar, but we should be a blessing because we do good work.

We are going to do the right thing even when it seems like no one is watching.

We are going to live lives of integrity in every area, including our sexuality, our work, our words, and our thoughts.

How can we do that?

Because we are striving to honor a God who is better than we will ever be.

We are serving a God who the Bible says:

Hebrews 4:15 CSB

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin.

Jesus faced every kind of temptation out there, and he ran from every single one.

All of us have given into temptation over and over and sinned in all kinds of ways.

Yet Jesus, in his goodness, was willing not only to be thrown in prison like Joseph but instead be put to death for your sin and mine.

He rose from the dead to show that the penalty had been paid, and now he invites you to come, surrender your life to him, and serve in his kingdom.

We have the privilege of knowing that his presence is with us every moment, that he equips us for every work, and that he sees our every deed and thought.

Rest in his love, and do the right thing.