Joseph--The Adulteress

The best gift you can give your parent, parents or guardians is to be a person of integrity.

It doesn't matter how old or young you are, whether your parents are still with you or not, the best gift is to be a person of integrity. Now, it's tempting for us to take a look at Joseph and raise him up as an example of a great person of great integrity. The truth of the matter is what we find in Joseph really is the heart, the life and the integrity of Jesus Christ.

That's what the Lord was with Joseph really means. It means that the Lord Jesus Christ was present in Joseph's life in a special way in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We know from many passages in the Old Testament, that the Holy Spirit came on people in certain times. Oftentimes for prophetic work—that is, calling people to repentance and into faithful living once again.

The Holy Spirit was with Joseph. The Holy Spirit, who was with Jesus from the time of his baptism on, from the time he was anointed, that same Holy Spirit was with Joseph. And the same Holy Spirit who came at Pentecost and transformed the disciples into fearless preachers, that same Holy Spirit, was with Joseph and the same Holy Spirit, who is with Joseph is with you, with me, so as we study this passage, we need to see how the Holy Spirit works in God's people's lives.

And to do so, we need to see God’s working in the story. God blessed Joseph, he was full of wisdom, insight, integrity, and he devoted himself to spending time with God by communicating with God daily, and probably several times daily. So maybe you're sitting there looking, well, I didn't see that in the passage, where does it say that Joseph had this great prayer life? Where does it say that Joseph spent time? Because I thought Moses wrote these books. So what kind of scriptures was he studying?

Well, it says that the Lord was with Joseph. The Lord draws people to himself and they respond by drawing nearer to the Lord. So, when you have a desire to come to church on Sunday mornings, that's a desire that the Lord has placed in you, in order to be in fellowship with God and with God's people. The Lord has called you and he's brought you here. The Lord called to Joseph and Joseph answered and developed a relationship of friendship with the Lord through the practice of prayer.

We know that Joseph had this because he had this close relationship with God, think of your life relationships. How do you know if you're friends with someone? How do you know if you're in a relationship?

I don't know. Is that what they call it today, when you're, like, almost dating, you know, you're in a relationship? That's what they called it when I was a kid. So that was like 400 years ago. So, you know, I don't know what they call it anymore.

But, you know, how how do you know if you belong to a team or if you're in a choir or a club?

You know how important people are to you by the amount of time you spend with them, you prioritize them in your life.

Now, there are many people who claim to have friends, to be a friend, claimed to be members of a club or a gym, but they don't hang out with anyone other than themselves. They don't spend time with other people, they don't spend time with their families, they don't go to the gym even though they pay money monthly for it. “Yes, I'm a member of the gym.”

“Do you go?”

“No, I never go. I, I, no, never.”

But the proof is in the pudding. The proof is in the actions, the words, the time that you spend together. Joseph spent time with the Lord. He prayed. He reflected on the oral teaching he'd received from his father and from his grandfather and so on and so forth.

He knew God was with him. He knew that because God was with him, he wasn't alone. His friendship with God was enough.

He found total satisfaction in every moment of his life in the Lord. Yes, he missed his family. He missed his friends. But God's grace to him was sufficient to carry him through the ordeal that he was experiencing.

Do you know that God himself is sufficient for you?

Do you know that all of your needs, all your desires, all your wants, all your treasure is truly found in Jesus Christ? That's how you deal with temptation, temptation pulls you away from the source of true delight, God himself.

It's possible to enjoy God in many different ways and in being a good mom or dad, a good child, a good sibling, a good student, teacher, employee, employer, loving our families, in loving our friends and enjoying God's creation on holidays.

Just admiring what God has created, spoke into existence this unbelievably huge universe that we belong to.

Temptation takes the the good things that God created and it disorders it. It makes us desire things more than we desire God.

Think about Satan's temptation to Adam and Eve, when they were in the Garden of Eden. He presented to Eve something that was good for food: it appealed to the desire of the flesh. He gave her something that was pleasing to the eye: the desire of what we see. And something that was useful for gaining wisdom: the desire of pride.

God had provided all of these things to Eve, she was not lacking for anything by any stretch of the imagination. But God had commanded her and her husband do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She would have gained all of those things that Satan had promised her if she had trusted in God's way. But she was not content to wait. She was not content to receive them in due time from the Lord, her God.

And so, she took a shortcut. She failed to see the value in following God's plan. Or she just didn't see how God's plan could give her even greater satisfaction than the shortcut Satan offered to her. Now, I know, I've used this analogy before, this is sometimes what we do in life, we. We take shortcuts, right? I have to ask and guys and girls, please be honest, OK? By a showing of hands, how many have used a butter knife as a screwdriver?

Yeah, yeah, lots, hey, yeah, because, you know, for light switch covers, outlet covers, it's almost perfect because it's just wide enough that it, you know, gets in there and it holds onto the screw better than a screwdriver seems to. But when you over torque it. Yeah, that's when you bend the end, eh and man, does mom ever get mad when you've wrecked your silverware, like, because, yeah.

You've got to use the silverware and not just the regular stainless-steel stuff because, you know, the plating makes it even better and it’s an extra good conductor too, if you slip. We're constantly tempted.

When we fall into temptation to use our bodies, our lives, our loved ones, our possessions, whatever it is, for the wrong purpose to use it to gain something in the case of the butter knife, access to the electrical plug or socket, whatever it is to gain access to something, to gain something. By the wrong means.

We know the right way to live, Joseph knew the right way how to live. Adam had passed it down through Seth all the way through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to Joseph. Joseph knew the sanctity of marriage. He understood the great privilege that Potiphar had placed on him. He honored God and he honored his boss. And so, we need to imagine the kind of pressure that Joseph had been placed in, right?

The kind of pressure that he faced in in his situation there in Egypt, having all of this power and authority even says it himself, right? He says no one is greater in this house than I am.

Apart from Potiphar, right? Who's second in command of the whole household, nothing is withheld for me, except. His master's wife.

Everything was given to him, he could have taken that whole idea and he could have just ran with it and says, you know what, I deserve this too. I deserve to have what my Master has. Clearly, he’s not a very good leader. Clearly he’s not a very good husband.

But Joseph understood the sanctity of marriage. Joseph understood integrity.

Actually, I don't think it's that hard for us to imagine his situation, is it? I mean, yes, we're not necessarily living or working for a person who has an adulterous spouse who's trying to, you know, get our attention and so on and so forth, or an adulterous man who is constantly begging us to sleep with them. I mean, I hope not.

But it could be. I don't know, we hear about it in the newspapers. We see it in movies.

Nevertheless, if it's not the specific thing, we face temptations all day long. The same devil who worked in Potiphar’s wife works in people around us, and he will work in us if given the chance.

Potiphar’s wife was attracted to Joseph, he was appealing to the eye.

He was appealing to the flesh, was appealing to her pride. She wanted him. She believed that having him would fulfill her, having him would provide her with something that she was missing. This idea possessed her and it ruled her life, her waking thought was trying to get Joseph into her bed. Her thought over breakfast was how she could seduce him. Her thought over lunch was only about Joseph. He became the singular focus in her life day after day.

She was after him.

She lost her desire for her husband, her desire for her work, she put herself into a position where she could see Joseph and ask him to bed repeatedly, daily.

And that is the weight of sin when we give into our temptations, they take over our lives, they possess us, they rob us of the enjoyment that God has promised us in this life, the good things that God gives us, the things that really do satisfy us, become as cardboard in our mouths.

You know, when you go to a restaurant and there's this awesome, juicy, thick hamburger with bacon and cheese on and it's all melting together and it's just dripping. And there's great sauce like mayo and ketchup, and mustard, on there. And like your lips are wet with the saliva. You can't even keep it in your mouth—you’re drooling. And you take your first bite, full of expectation, and it's like sawdust.

Can you imagine what that would be like? That's what sin is for us. The things tempt us and they take over us and then it becomes once we finally get what the thing is sawdust, it’s cardboard.

It's like biting into wax fruit. Ah it looks so delicious, but it's not real.

Temptation to sin, what sin offers is fake. Sin is the mirage of life. Always promising, never delivering. But God always promises and always delivers perfectly on his promises. What kind of temptations do you face or are you facing in your life, just take a moment to think about it.

Think about the sin or the temptation or the deep desire desires that are good, of course, but the desires you know, or are wrongly placed. Just think about that for a moment.

Would you think of these things, recognize them for what they are, that they are a disordering of God's plan? So often we think that we are smarter than God is. But everyone comes or knows or comes to know that God's way is the best way. Let Joseph's answer be your answer. "How can I do this wickedness and sin against God?"

Temptations will come to mind, and that's where the battle happens, it happens in the mind. Think of your relationship with God, set your heart and your mind on things above where Christ is.

Take that thought and pray it to Christ and say, Lord, I have this temptation and I am weak, you are strong. You can overcome this in me.

Don't fall for Satan's deceit, he's working hard at trying to change God's word, to say something it doesn't say, don't fall into pressure from society, who says it doesn't matter, that morals are just irrelevant, it depends on the circumstances. It's not true.

Morals are dependent upon the way God created the universe. Don't believe that you can get away with what you know is wrong. You can't remain in sin and live with God.

Listen to the words of King David from Psalm 32 “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long for day and night. Your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

That's what Potiphar’s wife was experiencing. She was experiencing the weight of God's judgment upon her. Instead of recognizing it, she sought to alleviate it by acting on it. Sin is never the solution. We face such great pressure, but God is greater.

King David continues, “I acknowledged my sin to you. And I did not cover my iniquity. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. And you forgave the iniquity of my sin.” And so here is David, and I'm pretty sure this psalm was one of the psalms that was written after he was caught in adultery with Bathsheba and he tried to cover it up by murdering her husband.

David was feeling the weight of God's judgment, but he confessed and boom, right away he felt relief.

So, I don't know where you are at in your life. I don't know if you've been more like Joseph and how you've been living in striving to be full of integrity, trying to do the right thing. And the world just keeps hammering on you and keeps putting you down. And no matter what, it seems like you're losing ground, as Joseph did by the end of the chapter. Or maybe you find yourself more a bit more like Potiphar's wife, you're struggling with sin, you're trying to do the right thing, but you keep finding yourself falling down, time and time again, just having such a difficult time.

You feel the pressure that King David felt, you cry out to God, no matter what you've done in your life, no matter how far you've fallen short of God's glory. The hope is in Christ.

“I confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sins.” If you don't confess, you'll feel God's judgment, if you confess, God will bless you.

He makes you totally clean because of what Christ accomplished on the cross. God rewards you as he rewarded Christ. All our iniquity is placed on Jesus and all Jesus' righteousness is placed on us so that when God the Father looks at you today when you have put your trust in what Jesus Christ did on the cross, when the father looks at you, he sees Christ and his righteousness.

The Father looks at you and he sees someone who is totally, perfectly, awesomely clean. He's filled with his love for you, he's written your name on his hand. He has counted you as his treasure, he calls you his friend.

And because of that reality, because God has blessed you with his Holy Spirit, you have the power available to you to live as Christ lived. To live, as Christ lived in Joseph, to live as Christ lived in the disciples, to live, as Christ, lived in the Apostle Paul. To live as Christ lived or lives in your parents, and your family and your friends. That power is available to you. And that is Grace. Be in Christ, Christ in you. That’s how you become a person of integrity, Christ living in and through you, by the presence of the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit who was in Joseph, who is in you. Amen.

Let us pray.

Father in heaven, we thank you that in your grace, not by any effort, not by any determination or by any work of our own, that by your grace you have given us everything in Christ, every spiritual gift from Christ. You have blessed us and have poured into us your Holy Spirit. We are temples where you live. We confess, Lord, the temptations come and so often, we choose to fall into them.

We confess that we have desired things, good things that you've made and ordered them wrongly in our lives. We confess that we've just made a mess of things.

Even out of good intentions, we've made messes. So, Lord, we thank you that in Christ, all of those things are forgiven. We thank that all in Christ they are moved as far as the east is from the west. We thank you that in Christ we have the power and the strength to live. Right now, tomorrow and the days to come, in the power and the strength of your Holy Spirit.

Lead us and guide us, we pray, in Jesus name, amen.