The Presense of God in The Trials of Life | Genesis 39:1–23

Intro: Tonight we are picking up with our second message from the E100 series. Remember, if you are not regularly in The Word, please take one of these documents on you way out. It will help you get plugged in and understand the Bible better. Last week, we talked about Abraham and how God tested him by telling him to sacrifice the son that had been promised and given to him in his old age. Abraham goes obediently to where God told him, gets everything ready, starts the process, and God stops him. Well, Isaac got married and had two kids, Jacob and Essau. Jacob would be the one that the promise to Abraham about his offspring would come through. Jacob had 12 sons. His favorite was Joseph because he came in Joseph’s old age and was the son of his favorite wife, Rachel. He had two wives and that is a whole other story in Genesis. But Jacob made Joseph a coat of many colors which was hard to do and his brothers got mad. Then Joseph had these dreams where his brothers were bowing down to him. Joseph told them all this and it didnt’ go very well. So when his brothers had the chance they attacked him and sold him to Ishamelites, who were also descended from Abraham in a different way, and they sold Joseph to a man named Potiphar. Joseph had not done anything wrong, but his life had been turned upside down. Where is God in times like this? Where was He then where is He today in those times. What we see in this passage is that We must trust God is with His people in all circumstances and seek to honor Him. We will see this in God’s blessing, Joseph’s faithfulness and God’s providence. As always, can you please stand in the honor of reading God’s Word.

God’s Blessing (Gen. 39:1-6a.)

Exposition: We read in the beginning of the passage that Genesis 39:1 “Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there.” Ishmael was the son of Abraham that was born when Abraham’s wife got impatient waiting for the son God promised them was going to come in their old age. So Sarai told Abram to have a child by her slave woman. Though this was not the promised child, God promised that this child, Ishmael, would become a great nation. And he did. It was his descendants that Joseph’s brothers sold him to. Potiphar is described as the captain of the guard for Pharoh. We don’t know exactly what that was, but it had something to do with the handling of Pharoh’s prisoners. Joseph has been mistreated by his brothers, he was taken to Egypt by slave traders who one can imagine didn’t treat him well, then he is bought by a high up official in Egypt. Things have not been going well for Joseph. This seems like it could have been the end of his story. He could have lived the rest of his life working as a slave being bitter about his circumstance and nothing else really happening. But that’s not what happned. WE read in verses 2-3 Genesis 39:2–3 “The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands.” Joseph doesn’t just do enough to survive in Potiphar’s household, but he thrives.

Application: It would be easy to view Joseph’s circumstances and think God was not with Him. We know this story is in the Bible, so we know that God was with Joseph. But if we were in Joseph’s situation, would we have thought God was with us? Sometimes life is really hard, and if we are being honest, life is harder for some than others. We live in a broken sinful world, but that does not mean that God has abandoned us. God is with His people. If you are walking through one of those lonely times, I urge you trust that God is with you. Pray as if he is with you and not far away. Ask others to join you in that prayer. But know that God is always with His people. This isn’t a story where the person heard God audibly. But He was able to look and see that God was still with Him. God is with you too. He is directing your steps and caring for you even when you don’t feel it.

Exposition: God is with Joseph and Potiphar saw that. And that pays off for Joseph. We read in verses 4-5 Genesis 39:4–5 “So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had, in house and field.” Joseph’s success starts to mean good things for him. There’s several things we can take from this.

Exposition: Let’s not act like a lot of good things happened to get Joseph to this point. It’s not like he would say everything has worked out just how he always dreamed it would. No, it was hard. But it’s clear Joseph made the best of his situation. God was with Him, but I don’t think this is a situation where God rewarded laziness. Joseph didn’t just do the least bit possible. He didn’t spend every day wallowing in all that happened to him talking about how it wasn’t fair. No, he made the best of his situation.

Application: No matter what any of us have been through in life, we are responsible for our actions. We can sit there and complain and say it’s not fair, but does that make your life any better? Does just living your life bitter about what has happened make those things go away? No. It just holds you back. You can’t blame your present or your future on your past. Joseph worked to better a situation that was not his fault, and God honored that. We also see that the presence of God in Joseph’s life was not just a blessing to Joseph. It was also a blessing to Potiphar.

Illustration: There’s two types of people in life. There is the person who when he or she has a pack of gum opens it only when by his or herself so that he or she never has to share any of it. Then, there is the person that allows that gum to be a blessing to others. He or she opens it in a group and offers it to others. We should not treat the presence of God like the first person. God’s presence should not just be a blessing to us, it should be a blessing to those around us as well. How we live our lives and the work ethic we show and the grace we show others allows the blessings that God gives us to bless others as well.

Exposition: But things are going well for Joseph. How well, Potiphar has just delegated all his household responsibilities to Joseph. Verse 6 and the first part of seven say Genesis 39:6–7 “So he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he ate.” He trusts Joseph so much because everything is going so well, that he just hands everything to do with his house to Joseph. The only thing the scripture says Potiphar made decisions on was his food, which could be a metaphor for things that were personal. Joseph has been given everything except for what belongs only to Potiphar.

Transition: Joseph is in working for Potiphar and his life has actually turned out pretty nice. He has authority and he is well taken care of. Things are probably better than he ever thought they would be when he was in that pit in Canaan. But, things don’t keep going so smoothly.

Joseph’s Faithfulness(Gen 39:6b-20).

Exposition: We are now introduced to Potiphar’s wife. Picking up with the second part of verse 6, Genesis 39:6–7 “Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.”” Joseph is a young man who probably works hard, and has built up a pretty good bit of muscle from doing that. Scripture tells us here, he was a good looking guy. Not my words, the Bible’s words. Potiphar’s wife takes notice. It says in verse seven that she casts her eyes on Joseph and tells him to “lie with her.” Now she wasn’t asking him to go lie on a blanket and look at the stars, ok. She was trying to get Joseph to commit adultery with her. Let’s just call it what it is. And Joseph probably could have talked himself into this. He’s a young man who as a slave in a foreign land probably has a very small chance of ever being married. But we see he didn’t do that. Verse 8 tells us Genesis 39:8–10 “But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her.” Day after day she tries to get Joseph to have sex, let’s just be honest and not beat around the bush here, with her, and he wouldn’t do it. He gives several reasons as to why he won’t do this. The first is self-preservation. He has worked his way from being a slave Potiphar bought to being the one in charge of everything. Doing that risked throwing that all away. Second, Potiphar was good to him. It would be wrong to betray somebody who was so good to him. Lastly, it was a sin against God. These are points we need to remember.

Application: First, sin does not come without consequences. When we feel temptation, we need to think about what the negative consequences could be for us. Second, we need to think about what the negative consequences could be for us. Lastly, we need to think about how insulting sin is to God. We can play this out in every way, but let’s play this out with sexual sin as it was in this scenario. I know y’all are just thrilled for me to talk about this, but I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t bring up awkward topic like this sometimes. Let’s start with premarital sex. This is a temptation that will come for every one of you at some point. Think about the consequences that could come to you. It could be an unplanned pregnancy that derails your life plans. It could be some kind of STD that has long term effects. It could be that you don’t marry that person and you have to deal with the fact that you have given that person a part of yourself you can never get back, Let’s think about it from how you could hurt other people. There could be disappointment from your parents for a variety of reasons whether that’s the consequences or just that you didn’t follow the path they gave you. It could be that you then break up with the person and they gave you a part of you they can’t get back. It could be that on that person’s wedding night, they and their new spouse have to deal with the fact this isn’t the person’s first time because they already had sex with you. It could be that you have to tell your future spouse he or she won’t be your first and only. These are real life things. Lastly, that you have disobeyed God. That God gave you a gift that was meant to be enjoyed in marriage, that you abused with disregard for what God wanted for you and commanded you to. There is no greater offense than sinning against a Holy God. David writes in Psalm 51:4 “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.” We dishonor the life God has for us in these moments. Do we want that? If God is always there, we should live like it. The same goes for pornography. The impacts that is having on young people of both genders but particularly males is devastating. It is causing sexual psychological problems that are impacting men and their spouses. And it is offensive to God. Now, this is about those of us who chose to make these decisions. If you have experienced some kind of assault or have been in a relationship like this with an adult, you are not at fault. And I encourage you to tell a trusted adult if this is something you have kept a secret.

Exposition: Joseph stays strong, but one day, things escalate. Genesis 39:11 “But one day, when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was there in the house,” This right away is a sign that something bad is going on. Verse 12 tells us Genesis 39:12 “she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house.” Everything obviously got a lot more serious here. There was no body there. Nobody would have known, right. He could have gotten away with it. But God would have known, it wouldn’t have made it any less sin. So Joseph does what he has to do to avoid sin. Genesis 39:12 “ But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house.” Joseph gets out of there. He didn’t just laugh it off and say no and stick around hoping nothing would happen. No, he fled the temptation that was there.

Application: Young people, avoid situations where it is easy to sin because nobody would no. Integrity is what you do when nobody is watching. If you are now in a relationship or one day when you are, don’t be home when your parents aren’t home. Don’t go places in your car where you know nobody is going to be and try to tell yourself it’s fine because nothing is going to happen. Remember, if you ever have to decide whether or not you are going to make a bad decision, you probably will. If you struggle with pornography, don’t be on your phone late at night. Have me or somebody put a code on it. Flee temptation as Jospeh did here.

Exposition: Joseph flees the situation, but he has a problem. His garment ripped off of him and Potiphar’s wife now has it in her hand. And she exploits that. Genesis 39:13–18 “And as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, she called to the men of her household and said to them, “See, he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. And as soon as he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house.” Then she laid up his garment by her until his master came home, and she told him the same story, saying, “The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to laugh at me. But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house.”” She makes up these allegations against Joseph. She then goes and tells the servants so it can be something she seemed alarmed about, and when Potiphar gets home from work, she tells him. This is unfair. It’s wrong. But it’s real life. Sometimes people do bad things.

Transition:So Joseph is falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife and she is letting everybody know about it. That everybody includes Potiphar. What was his reaction? It was about what you would expect.

God’s Providence (Gen 39:19-23).

Exposition: Potiphar gets angry, but not as angry as he could have. He had Joseph thrown in jail, but not executed. Either he didn’t believe his wife, or Joseph did a good job stating his case. But Joseph still ends up in prison for something that wasn’t his fault. For something he didn’t do. But verse 221 reads Genesis 39:21 “But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.” Joseph could have really mailed it in this time, but he didn’t. He could have said it’s not fair whatever and just fallen into the crowd. He didn’t do that. And because he didn’t and because God was with him, he thrived again. Verse 23 reads Genesis 39:23 “The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed.” Because God was with Joseph, despite everything he had been through, Joseph gained influence in the prison. And then when two prisoners from the kings court had dreams, he could interpret them. And when one of them was restored to his position, he told Pharoh that somebody could interpret his dream. Then when Pharoh told Joseph his dream, Joseph warned him about a coming seven years of plenty, and seven years of famine. Joseph then gave Pharoh a plan to save the grain so Egypt would not be touched. It was so great that Joseph’s brothers went there to buy grain during the famine. And after a process, Joseph revealed himself to them, and told them what they meant for evil, God meant for good. And Joseph would welcome his brothers and bring their families to Egypt to live where there was grain. Hundreds of years later God would restore Israel to canaan after it became a mighty nation. And from that nation would come a child born of a virgin and was the Son of God. He would live a perfect life and then die on the cross for the sins of the world. He then rose again so that all who believed could receive the blessing to many nations that Abraham was promised his offspring would be. God was doing all of this for Joseph. God was surely with Joseph and He is with us today.

Conclusion: I know that some of you in here have been through some things. Some of you are still going through things. I know that some of you have been through things where you wonder where God is or maybe you are going through that. I want to make sure you leave tonight knowing that God is with you. God does not leave His people. We can trust that God is present with you as he was with Joseph because of what he did for Joseph. He put Joseph in that position so that the family of Israel would be saved. It would then become a great nation, it would leave Egypt and go to the promise land. From that nation would be born a child who was the Son of God. He came and died on the cross and rose again so that the nations could be blessed as God promised Abraham they would be. God cares for you and wants to walk with you in whatever you are going through. Don’t wallow in your circumstances, but trust God through them. Maybe you haven’t made Jesus Lord of your life yet, but you are ready for a relationship with the God who cares for his people in this way. Let tonight be the night. Or maybe you are ready to repent of sin you have in your life and flee the temptation, let tonight be the night that begins.