Potiphar's Wife
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Connecting With One Another
Connecting With One Another
Think of two unusual facts about yourself that you can share with the rest of the group: one that is true, and make the other one up! After one person shares, have the group vote on which one is true.
Key Thought This Session
Key Thought This Session
The story we consider this session is not just about sexual immorality and temptation; its also about disloyalty and lies. One character flaw can lead to many others.
Genesis 39:
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.
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.
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.
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. 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.”
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.
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,
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.
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.”
As soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, “This is the way your servant treated me,” his anger was kindled.
And Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison.
But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it.
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.
The insolent smear me with lies, but with my whole heart I keep your precepts;
their heart is unfeeling like fat, but I delight in your law.
Psalm 119
For Your Consideration
For Your Consideration
Sexual temptation is everywhere. Pornography is easily available on the internet, and the statistics about Christians who use online porn are far from encouraging. What used to be seen as “soft” pornography now regularly appears in mainstream movies and television shows. Casual encounters can easily be arranged online. And the church is an ideal place for immorality to rear its ugly head: we build close relationships, often sharing our lives with a measure of intimacy. We affirm our love for one another, and hugs are commonplace: close community is an ideal place for lines to be crossed.
In recent years there have been a series of ugly news stories about high profile business people, entertainers, and politicians who have allegedly used their positions to oppress, abuse, and molest. And the church scene has not been without its scandals either. Whether it be heartbreaking stories of priests abusing little children or popular evangelical personalities engaging in inappropriate behavior, our hearts ache for the victims. Thank God that they are finally finding the courage to tell their stories.
These scandals underline the need for all of us to be diligent- Scripture calls us to absolute sexual purity. The apostle Paul called believers in Rome to live “in the light”
Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.
And he wrote to the Ephesians, calling them to shun not only sexual impurity but greed too
But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.
The story of Potiphar’s wife is a revealing saga about sexual temptation. But it’s also about false accusation. While we should be glad that victims are speaking out, some caution is needed as well. In the atmosphere of outrage that currently exists, justice can become a casualty, as people are removed from positions without the opportunity to defend themselves, and before any convincing proof has been shown. An accusation seems to be enough to convict and sentence these days, with the jury of the press and public opinion rushing to judgment. Let’s continue to pray that victims will have the courage to speak out, find peace and well deserved justice. And let’s also pray there will be no new victims because of false accusation, their lives smeared and their careers damaged because of lies. All victimization is wrong.
3,500 years ago, Joseph became a victim, and all because of a woman whose name is never revealed to us in the biblical narrative. So we will just call her Hagatha.
HAGATHA
HAGATHA
She was relentless, and kept on urging Joseph to sin. Temptation is a daily reality, and it’s persistent. Joseph was an ideal target, because like his beautiful mother Rachel he was very good looking— A blessing that can easily become a curse. He had also experienced an amazing promotion to power, which could have easily gone to his head. Success makes some feel that they don’t need to abide by the rules that everyone else follows— they are special, at least in their own eyes. And then Joseph was young, probably just 17 or 18 years old at the time, so his hormones would have been racing. Nobody would ever know; Joseph was alone with the lady of the house.
Hagatha wouldn’t take no for an answer. Having first made a bold proposal (Let’s go to bed— nothing subtle about that approach), she kept trying to wear Joseph down, day after day. The language of the text implies that she even softened her advances, asking him to spend just a little time with her. But then her final approach was really an assault. We read that she grabbed Joseph by the cloak, but that’s a gentle way of putting it. Some commentation suggests that Hagatha grabbed his undergarments or underwear.
Yet in the face of this continued onslaught Jospeh remained true to his convictions and resisted, even though his good choices would ultimately get him into deeper trouble. Joseph had known deprivation and rejection, he himself had been a victim of human trafficking because of his brothers’ treachery. But here he found himself in a place of blessing and responsibility, selected by one of the Pharaoh’s senior officials, a captain of the guard, to be the man in charge of his household. In this story we repeatedly hear that God was the source of the blessing that rested upon Joseph. But being in a place of blessing, in the very center of God’s will, did not remove the possibility of temptation from this young man. Diligence is always needed.
Yet we don’t stand alone when temptation comes— help is at hand. Although Joseph made good choices (in stark contrast to Hagatha, who consistently made ugly decisions driven by lust, betrayal, and false accusation), God was the source not only of Joseph’s success, but of his resilience too. When we dig into the text, we discover that in this episode the God who was “with” Joseph is referred to no fewer than 8 times by His covenant name (Yahweh). It doesn’t happen again in the remaining account of Joseph (all 8 chapters of it), except when Jacob used that name of God as he died (). Scripture wants to make it clear that persistence is the greatest threat of temptation, and that God is with us and strengthen us for the fight of faith.
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
We can be especially susceptible to temptation when we feel low, or betrayed. Joseph could have excused himself with some rationalization: “Life’s treated me harshly, so a little comfort is reasonable enough...”
Joseph knew the dysfunction of his father’s favoritism (37:3), the scorn of his brother’ hatred (37:4-5,8), the betrayal of being sold for profit by those responsible for him (37:27-28), the disdain of a slave’s life as chattel (37:36; 39:1), and the dissolution of transplantation to foreign soil and culture (39:1). With this as his bio, Joseph had every reason to be angry, bitter, resentful, cynical, fearful, self serving, and self pitying.... Joseph had every human reason to find fleeting solace in an illicit embrace.
The scheming of Hagatha also demonstrates a truth that we sometimes find hard to hear: doing the right thing is no guarantee that we will be spared trial. Even though God would ultimately promote Joseph in prison, that did not make being incarcerated an easy thing to endure. Historians tell us that conditions were terrible in Egyptian prisons 3,500 years ago.
Life is often unfair, and it will include times of temptation when our character will be tested.
God never promises that we will escape trouble, but He does assure us that we will never be abandoned by Him in trouble.
Joseph’s life shines brilliantly when compared to the murky character of Hagatha— her story is about self-preoccupation and sin. Joseph however, is a picture of true success not just promotion and power, but character development too. Though he was certainly not an overnight success; even his promotion in Potiphar’s house was gradual. First, he was promoted to work indoors instead of being an agricultural slave. Then having “pleased his master”, he became his personal attendant, finally being the senior staffer in the household, trusted with all that his employer-master had. Success calls for hard work and endurance— even when God is with you.