912 Biblical Characters - Joseph & Potiphar's Wife
Exploring Biblical Characters • Sermon • Submitted
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- I’ve entitled the sermon “Joseph & Potiphar's Wife”
- But it’s really not about them per se but about the ongoing work of God in His faithfulness to His promise to Abraham
- But this title makes it clear where we are in the Bible
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- When you go boating, an anchor is a very helpful thing to have
- An anchor holds you to your spot while the water rushes by you & tries to push your boat along with the water
- Understand then, that there is a force applied to your boat that is anchored to the floor of the river
- That force upon the boat we can call resistance
- No anchor, no resistance – but the boat will be carried downstream with no resistance felt upon itself
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- The buoys Ros & I saw out in the Ocean off Maine operated in the same way
- If you didn’t anchor the buoys to the bottom of the sea, they would travel all over the place & even all over all the world & the purpose for the buoy would be lost – think about that!
- The purpose for the buoy’s existence would be lost if there was no anchor
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- Do you recall that after Abraham obeyed God by going to sacrifice the promised child, Isaac, God swore an oath by Himself (because there was no one greater to swear by) that the promise would steadfastly be continued
- The writer to the Hebrews speaks of 2 unchangeable things:
1. The wonderful promise of God to Abraham
2. The oath that God swore concerning the fulfilment of this promise
- The Hebrew writer says that our hope in these 2 unchangeable things becomes for the church an anchor for the soul
19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil,
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- Hope is a very important & powerful thing & God certainly knows how important hope is to His people
Q. How else could we continue in the Christian faith without that hope?
- When the world is constantly calling us to stop resisting & pull up the anchor we are so tempted to do so
- The Christian life is a battlefield & we often get weary of having to constantly live with resistance
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- In this passage today, we see a young man in a battle – a battle to stay true to His God against forces that would sweep him along away from His God
- Joseph becomes an amazing example to us of someone who never gave up hope
- He sure had reason to do so, but he trusted the Lord in spite of the circumstances he found himself in
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- In this message, we will look at 3 parts to this story
- The first part is how Joseph is elevated in Potiphar’s house
- The second is when Joseph is propositioned by Potiphar's wife
- The third is about Joseph when he is tossed into prison
1. The Lord Was With... & the Lord Blessed...Joseph
1. The Lord Was With... & the Lord Blessed...Joseph
Q. How many people would think that God was against Joseph?
Q. How many would say that Joseph must have done something wrong because everything around him seems to be going south?
- Cause & effect – that’s how some people judge
- His circumstances if they were our circumstances could become the measure of our judgement from people
- What I’m trying to point out here is that circumstances can have nothing to do with God’s acceptance or rejection
- That is the point of the Cain & Abel account
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- Joseph was attacked by his own brothers, sold into slavery into a foreign country, all alone at 17 yrs of age
- He gets accused of attempted rape & is thrown into prison
- Seriously, if you witnessed this without knowing anything else, what would our judgement be of Joseph?
- However, this has been the lot, for many of God’s faithful people
- They often found themselves in hot water with those who opposed God
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- As we look at this today, I’d like us to consider the ups & downs we experience of life with God
- “Some days are diamonds & some days are stone” I recall being sung by John Denver
- Joseph must have thought that, finally, something was going right for him
- Having been cast into a well & then sold into slavery, that he finally got some life back as Potiphar his master in Egypt gives him ultimate authority & oversight over his household
- But that little glimmer of excitement would fade after he is falsely accused of the attempted rape of Potiphar’s wife
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- I want us to see how God has taken this man through some terrible depths, but through it all, that hope remained as an anchor in his life
- That anchor was firm & unmovable
- He did not compromise & he did not drift with the tide – he did not settle with the least point of resistance (he was no coward)
- He stayed true to the Lord – but, as we shall see, he went through some terrible times in spite of staying true to God
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- In the midst of Joseph’s troubles in being a slave, he is quickly elevated by Potiphar because Potiphar saw that the Lord was with him
- What Joseph touched, prospered & that gave cause for Potiphar to elevate him so that he might also experience this blessing
- God was using Joseph & had his future all under control
- I bet Joseph would have loved to have known that beforehand, but it doesn’t happen that way
- Joseph had to confront those times of uncertainty, of anguish, of fear & perhaps, even of doubt
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- The name of the Lord, Yahweh, is mentioned 5 times in 4 verses, from v.2 to v.5...
The LORD was with Joseph
his master saw that the LORD was with him
how the LORD caused all that he did to prosper in his hand.
the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house on account of Joseph
the LORD’S blessing was upon all that he owned, in the house and in the field.
- In the thick of the “battle”, the Lord was with Joseph & he caused Joseph to be successful or to prosper
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- Please note the use of all & everything
how the LORD caused all that he did to prosper
he made him overseer over his house, and all that he owned he put in his charge.
he made him overseer in his house and over all that he owned
the LORD’S blessing was upon all that he owned
So he left everything he owned in Joseph’s charge
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Q. Did Joseph know that the Lord was with him in the well?
Q. Did he know that the Lord was with him when he was carried off to slavery in Egypt?
Q. Did he know that the Lord was with him when he was falsely accused & thrown into another pit – this time a dungeon?
- But in reality, the Lord was with him in all those circumstances
- He may not have realised it until later on in life
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- In reality, Joseph had earned the trust of his master Potiphar to such an extent that he left him in charge of everything – it was the Lord who was with Him, but it happened in real life as Joseph earned his trust
- The only thing Joseph never controlled was in what Potiphar would eat
- But Potiphar saw that the Lord was with him
2. Joseph’s Temptation
2. Joseph’s Temptation
- When everything is going well, its easy to become complacent
- Perhaps there’s a red flag in here that indicates that when everything is going well, temptation is not far from the door
- It has been said that Joseph may suffer from one endowment too many
- To be “lord” over Potiphar’s whole house & estate is one thing, to be “lord” with his wife is another
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- It is certainly right to call her a temptress
- In the course of time, the Scripture says that she “lifted up her eyes at Joseph” or “looked with desire at Joseph”
- But Joseph was resolute
10 As she spoke to Joseph day after day, he did not listen to her to lie beside her or be with her.
- You could say that Joseph never entertained nor even teased himself with the obvious flattery coming from Potiphar’s wife
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- I find this whole section very instructive
- After he is propositioned by her, he goes into quite a bit of detail on the trust her husband has placed in him & the authority in which he has given him
8 But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, and he has put all that he owns in my charge. 9 “There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?”
- Now then, what you would expect would be: “How then could I do this great evil and sin against my master Potiphar?
- But we don’t do we – what we are witnessing here is theocentricity
- God is central to all areas of his life
- “How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?”
- Later Joseph remarks to his brothers
18 Now Joseph said to them on the third day, “Do this and live, for I fear God:
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- This reminds me of David, the Psalmist
- He committed adultery with Bathsheba & set up her husband, the righteous, Uriah the Hittite to be killed in battle, yet David says...
4 Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge.
- This is not to say that we cannot sin against people, but we need to see here the emphasis placed up one’s relationship with God
- Theocentric – God is in the centre of all I say & do & any sin is not so much an offence against man inasmuch as it is an offence against God
- That is the conscience of both David & Joseph
Q. Do we have that conscience?
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- If all we cared about was offending people, then when they aren’t looking or have knowledge of what we are saying or doing, we most likely would have no problem with slandering them or speaking ill of them because they don’t know
- I mean, who knows, Potiphar’s wife may have been quite good with keeping an affair secret from her husband
- However, when life is theocentric, then there is never a time when something can be said or done in secret
- Because we belong to God & He sees & knows all
9 “There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?”
- Not him but HIM
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- Joseph had a steady conviction to not even go near the danger
- But she never gave up
10 As she spoke to Joseph day after day, he did not listen to her to lie beside her or be with her.
- What wisdom – he kept his distance from her so kept his distance from temptation – a move full of wisdom!
- Then finally, rather than reason out the situation with her, when she grabbed him, he just hightailed out of there as quickly as he could
- Which is sound practice for any & all sin
- You don’t entertain it, you don’t tinker with it, you don’t reason with it
- You just get out of the situation as fast as you can
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- Pride, though, can be a real snare in sinful temptations because our pride is hurt if we think we can’t conquer the sin on our own
- But Joseph here, amputates the temptation by getting away from the source – he didn’t want to do battle, he just removed himself
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- Mrs Potiphar starts off being inviting – pleading with him everyday
- Now, she moves from seductress to aggressor & grabs Joseph by the garment
- For the 2nd time, Joseph loses a piece of his clothing
- First when his brothers ripped off him his multi-coloured robe & now, Potiphar’s wife rips off his garment
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- We read that Joseph fled & left his garment in her hand
- But Potiphar’s wife claims that he left the garment beside her
- The biblical author says that she then left the garment near her until her husband came home
- She must make it obvious that Joseph came after her
- That it was he who undressed himself
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- If the garment was left in her hand, it implies that she tried to remove his clothing
- She reverses the account of what happens & it reinforces the blatant nature of her lie
- So there is a shift we see here from “he fled leaving his garment in her hand” to “she left the garment beside her”
- The implication is that she did not try to undress him, but he undressed himself - this is her angle
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- She frames Joseph because she is now a woman who has been scorned
- In talking over this passage with me, Ros says, “Hell hath no fury like a woman’s scorn”
- Being rejected, she was out for revenge
- When Potiphar returns home we read...
17 Then she spoke to him with these words, “The Hebrew slave, whom you brought to us, came in to me to make sport of me;
- Not only was she blaming Joseph for what happened, but she puts some of that blame on her husband
- “Look what you’ve done to me”
- She is blame-shifting – which we also saw was “skilfully” executed by Adam in the Garden of Eden
11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.”
- Blame-shifting generally never seems to be unilateral
- It’s not the rifle effect, but the shotgun effect
- The shotgun shoots pellets in a much wider range
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- When she first called to the men of the household, after Joseph fled, she blames her husband but doesn’t refer to him as anything but “he”
14 she called to the men of her household and said to them, “See, he has brought in a Hebrew to us to make sport of us; he came in to me to lie with me, and I screamed.
- Not only was she lying, not only was she blaming “he” (not even calling him her husband), but she was accusing “he” of wrong motives
- The implication in her words is that her husband got him as a slave to annoy the living daylights out of his wife by making a fool of her – or “to make sport of me” (ESV – “to laugh at me”)
- The same word is used when Lot told his sons-in-law to be, that the Lord was going to destroy Sodom
14 Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, “Up, get out of this place, for the Lord will destroy the city.” But he appeared to his sons-in-law to be jesting.
- Or we could say, clowning around
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- The fact that he is a Hebrew slave makes her accusation more damning
- She wants Potiphar to believe that he was betrayed by his servant
- She feigned a scream to set up the situation
- She will be very careful to avoid any indication that she was the guilty party
- She resorts, then, to fiction & fabrication
3. Joseph Treated Unjustly But the Lord Was with Him
3. Joseph Treated Unjustly But the Lord Was with Him
Q. What does Potiphar do when she confronts him about Joseph?
19 Now when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spoke to him, saying, “This is what your slave did to me,” his anger burned.
- The word anger here means to be hot in the nose, like a snorting Bull
- He wasn’t happy, but by the same token, he does not have Joseph put to death which would have been the normal course of action for a slave, especially, a foreign one
- Instead, he has Joseph locked up – why?
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- Either Joseph made a convincing case in his defence or he knows something of the manner of his wife, either way, it is God who is behind this in keeping Joseph alive
- Still, if Potiphar knows something of his wife, he would still fear the social stigma of showing favour to a Hebrew slave over that of his wife
- Remember his position – he is Pharaoh’s captain of the bodyguard & would have to maintain his reputation
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- Joseph’s “adventures”, if we could call it that, remind me of Covid lockdowns
- We had those dark days, but then we thought we were finally free & let out, but this week, we say, here we go again
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- Joseph was father’s favourite & proudly wore his special coat, but he was almost killed by his brothers, thrown into a pit, sold into slavery in Egypt
- But then, he was released to be in charge of Potiphar’s whole estate
- Enjoyed that freedom & privilege for a while, but now, back in lockdown or should we say, the locker
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- In the closing verses of this chapter, our attention is drawn, once again, to what is clearly, unseen
- That the Lord was with Joseph
- This passage really says something to us about life & the fact that a person of God can be falsely accused & treated as a criminal yet, God is with him
21 But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer.
- The same can be said for Jesus – persecuted, falsely accused, ill-treated & killed, yet, God was with Him! His resurrection testifies to that!
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- Joseph is again blessed & the Lord has caused favour to be upon him
- The warden of the jail takes to Joseph & ends up entrusting everything to him
- You can see it coming, can’t you – all of Egypt will end up trusting Joseph because God is with him
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- This passage reinforces the divine nature of the promise to Abraham & God’s faithfulness to it
- We can trust in the truth of the Gospel, in part, because of the reliability of God to ensure that His promise to bless the world will come to pass – we see His divine hand on it’s progress through history
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- The other reality we need to consider is that Joseph’s trying circumstances may well have been the making of the man who will eventually lead Egypt & save many people, especially, Israel
Q. What could we say then about our own life struggles & what God may be doing within our pain & struggles to make us into the godly man or woman that He desires
2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Questions for the 10 min Zoom breakout groups
Q. Why do we find it so hard to live life theocentrically (that is, with our central concern on what God thinks)?
Q. What can we do/think to improve on that?