Genesis 39.6b-7-Potiphar's Wife Tempts Joseph
Tuesday November 28, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 39:6b-7-Potiphar’s Wife Tempts Joseph
Lesson # 245
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 39:1.
This evening we will continue with our study of Genesis 39.
By way of review of this chapter, we have noted the following:
Genesis 39:1 briefly summarized Genesis 37:36, where an Egyptian officer, Potiphar, who was captain of Pharaoh’s bodyguard, purchased Joseph from the Ishmaelites.
Genesis 39:2-6 presented to us the record of God blessing the captain of Pharaoh’s bodyguard, Potiphar on account of Joseph.
This evening we will study Genesis 39:6b-7, which gives us the account of Potiphar’s wife tempting Joseph to commit adultery with her.
Genesis 39:1, “Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard, bought him from the Ishmaelites, who had taken him down there.”
Genesis 39:2, “The LORD was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian.”
Genesis 39:3, “Now his master saw that the LORD was with him and how the LORD caused all that he did to prosper in his hand.”
Genesis 39:4, “So Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal servant; and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he owned he put in his charge.”
Genesis 39:5, “It came about that from the time he made him overseer in his house and over all that he owned, the LORD blessed the Egyptian's house on account of Joseph; thus the LORD'S blessing was upon all that he owned, in the house and in the field.”
Genesis 39:6a, “So he left everything he owned in Joseph's charge; and with him there he did not concern himself with anything except the food which he ate.”
Genesis 39:6b, “Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.”
We now have a description of Joseph’s appearance in order to explain the behavior of Potiphar’s wife, which is described in Genesis 39:7-10.
“Handsome of form” is composed of the adjective yapheh (hp#y*) (yaw-feh), which means, “attractive as to outward appearance” and the noun to’ar (ra^T)) (to-ar), which refers to the shape of the body.
Therefore, the expression “handsome of form” (yapheh-tho’ar) describes Joseph as being physically attractive in outward appearance in that he was well-built.
This adjective yapheh is used of only two other men, namely, David (See 1 Samuel 16:12) and his son Absalom (See 2 Samuel 14:25).
“Handsome…in appearance” is composed of the adjective yapheh (hp#y*) (yaw-feh), which means, “attractive as to outward appearance” and the noun mar’eh (ha#r+m^) (mar-eh), which is related to anything having to do with seeing, including not only the act of seeing but the eyes themselves.
Therefore, the expression “handsome in appearance” (wipheh mar’eh) describes Joseph as having a handsome face with emphasis upon the eyes since the noun mar’eh is related to anything having to do with seeing, including not only the act of seeing but the eyes themselves.
The noun mar’eh is used to describe Joseph’s grandmother Rebekah (See Genesis 26:7) and his mother Rachel (See Genesis 29:17) and of David (See 1 Samuel 17:42) and Bathsheba (See 2 Samuel 11:2) and Absalom’s daughter Tamar (See 2 Samuel 14:27) and Esther (See Esther 2:7).
This same expression yapheh tho’ar wipheh mar’eh, “handsome in form and appearance” appears in Genesis 29:17 to describe Joseph’s mother Rachel as having a great figure and beautiful eyes.
Genesis 29:17, “And Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful of form and face.”
Rachel and Joseph are the only people in the Old Testament that are described by this expression.
Humility and character are more important to God than outward appearance.
Remember the principle the Lord taught the prophet Samuel when selecting a king over Israel.
1 Samuel 16:7, “Do not look at his appearance, or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as men sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
This last comment at the end of Genesis 39:6 about Joseph’s appearance anticipates the next step in Joseph’s career.
It is common in Hebrew Old Testament narrative for the end of one episode to serve as a trailer for the next.
As we will see, Joseph’s good looks cause him problems in that Potiphar’s wife lusts after him.
Genesis 39:7, “It came about after these events that his master's wife looked with desire at Joseph, and she said, ‘Lie with me.’”
“After these events” refers to the four stages in Joseph’s elevation to power in Potiphar’s house, which are recorded in Genesis 39:2-6a.
The expression “his master’s wife” refers to Potiphar’s wife whose name is never revealed by the narrator in order to express the Holy Spirit’s displeasure with her conduct in attempting to seduce Joseph.
The statement “his master’s wife looked with desire at Joseph” refers to Potiphar’s wife looking with sexual desire at the physically attractive Joseph or in other words she was lusting after him.
This statement refers to the fact that she has already committed adultery in her heart, which is sin.
Mark 7:21-23, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”
The Word of God prohibits adultery.
Exodus 20:14, “You shall not commit adultery.”
Committing adultery is a manifestation of not loving your neighbor as yourself.
Romans 13:8, “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.”
Romans 13:9, “For this, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET,’ and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’”
Romans 13:10, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
Proverbs 6:32, “The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense; He who would destroy himself does it.”
Under the Mosaic Law, both the adulterer and the adulteress received the death penalty.
Leviticus 20:10, “If there is a man who commits adultery with another man's wife, one who commits adultery with his friend's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.”
Potiphar’s wife has succumbed to two of the three great temptations of Satan’s cosmic system, namely, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes.
1 John 2:15, “Do not love the cosmic system in the sense of honoring it by taking pleasure in it to the extent that it becomes more important than your relationship with God, nor the cosmic system’s temptations. If anyone does love the cosmic system in the sense of honoring it by taking pleasure in it to the extent that it becomes more important than one’s relationship with God, then, the love for the Father is, as an eternal spiritual truth, unequivocally not resident and active in him.”
1 John 2:16, “Because, each and every one of the cosmic system’s temptations, the flesh’s lust, the eye’s lust, the arrogance produced by that which one possesses in life, is as an eternal spiritual truth unequivocally not originating from the Father but rather is as an eternal spiritual truth originating from the cosmic system.”
Genesis 39:7, “It came about after these events that his master's wife looked with desire at Joseph, and she said, ‘Lie with me.’”
“Lie” is the verb shakhav (bk^v*) (shaw-kahv), which is used as a euphemism for sex and is never used for loving marital intercourse in Genesis but only for illicit or forced sex.
The word is used of Lot’s daughters with Lot (19:32-35), the Philistines with Rebekah (26:10), Shechem with Dinah (34:2, 7), and Reuben with Bilhah (35:22).
In Genesis 39:7, the verb shakhav indicates that Potiphar’s wife desired to have illicit sex with Joseph in the sense that she wanted to commit adultery with him.
The statement “lie with me” refers to sexual intercourse indicating that Potiphar’s wife acted upon the lust for Joseph that was already in her heart.
James 1:13, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.”
James 1:14, “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.”
James 1:15, “Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”
Genesis 39:7, “It came about after these events that his master's wife looked with desire at Joseph, and she said, ‘Lie with me.’”
Notice, that it was after Potiphar promoted Joseph to the highest position in his household that his wife started noticing Joseph and then propositioned him.
Potiphar’s wife would have had little interest in a common household slave.
However, when Joseph’s great administrative and leadership abilities were manifested to the extent where Potiphar gave Joseph total control over his estate, then it appears Potiphar’s wife took notice and coupled with Joseph’s good looks, Joseph became very attractive to Potiphar’s wife.
So the text indicates that it was over a period of some time that Potiphar’s wife came to the conclusion she must have him.
Joseph probably had his “office” inside the house of Potiphar.
He now had the authority to come and go wherever and whenever he pleased.
He had con¬stant and ready access to the house of Potiphar.
Undoubtedly, Potiphar was not home very often (See Genesis 39:16) since he held an important position under Pharaoh, and with a capable administrator like Joseph, why should he concern himself with matters at home?
It was inevitable that contact with Potiphar’s wife would be more frequent and under more private conditions and so she increasingly attempted to capitalize on this.
Finally, she brazenly propositioned him (verse 7) and from then on she hounded him, probably engineering opportunities to entice him and persistently trying to break down his resistance.
The temptation of Joseph parallels the test of Adam and Eve in the garden in that just as they had free use of everything in the garden, except the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil so Joseph had access to anything of Potiphar’s except his wife.
But while the forbidden fruit just hung there tempting Adam and Eve, Potiphar’s wife actively pursued Joseph.
It is interesting that this story about Joseph reverses a well-known plot in the patriarchal narratives.
In the past we have seen the beautiful wives of Abraham and Isaac, Sarah and Rebekah sought by foreign rulers such as Pharaoh and the kings of the Philistines but now it was Joseph, the handsome patriarch himself who was sought by the wife of a foreign ruler.
In the past we have seen that it was either the Lord (12:17; 20:3) or the moral purity of the foreign ruler (26:10) that rescued the wife rather than the patriarch, but here it was Joseph's own moral courage and restraint that prevented an adulterous affair with Potiphar’s wife.
In the preceding narratives, the focus of the writer had been on God's faithfulness in fulfilling his covenant promises, in the story of Joseph his attention is turned to the human response.
Genesis 39:8-10 records Joseph withstanding the sexual advances of Potiphar’s wife.
Genesis 39:8, “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.’”
Genesis 39:9, “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?”
Genesis 39:10, “As she spoke to Joseph day after day, he did not listen to her to lie beside her or be with her.”