Genesis 39.8-10-Joseph Rejects the Advances of Potiphar's Wife
Wednesday November 29, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 39:8-10-Joseph Rejects the Advances of Potiphar’s Wife
Lesson # 246
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.
Genesis 39:6b-7 gives us the account of Potiphar’s wife tempting Joseph to commit adultery with her.
This evening we will study Genesis 39:8-10, which records Joseph rejecting the sexual advances of Potiphar’s wife.
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.”
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.’”
Genesis 39:8-10 records Joseph rejecting 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.”
Joseph dealt with the sexual advances of Potiphar’s wife by giving her three reasons why he is refusing her sexual advances: (1) It would be an abuse of the great trust placed in him by Potiphar. (2) It would be an offense against her husband. (3) It would be a great sin against God.
Notice, he does not preach to her in that he does not condemn her as immoral for making such a proposition since there were greater considerations, which must take precedence.
Nor does he get angry with her since he is conscious of his subordinate position to her and thus shows her respect.
The first reason that Joseph gives to Potiphar’s wife for refusing her advances is that to commit adultery with her would be an abuse of trust since Potiphar had put him in charge of his entire household.
Joseph reasons with her by pointing out that it would be a terrible betrayal of her husband’s trust for him to take the one thing he had kept from him, his own wife.
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?”
The second reason that Joseph gives Potiphar’s wife for refusing her sexual advances is that to commit adultery with her would be a violation of her husband’s marital rights.
The third reason reflects his covenant relationship with God in that he tells her that to commit adultery with her would be a sin against God.
Psalm 51:4, “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.”
Marriage was established by God in the Garden of Eden when He brought the Woman to Adam to be his helpmate (See Genesis 2:18-25).
Therefore, committing adultery would be sin against God because it would violate the divine institution of marriage.
The Word of God prohibits adultery.
Exodus 20:14, “You shall not commit adultery.”
Adultery begins in the heart.
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 act of adultery takes place when the thought of adultery is acted upon.
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.”
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.”
Love for others is motivated by our love for the Lord and our love for the Lord is demonstrated by our obedience to His commands to love one another and our obedience to His commands is the response in our souls to the love, which He exercised towards us.
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.”
The Scriptures condemn adultery.
Proverbs 1:10, “My son, if sinners entice you, do not give in to them.”
Proverbs 6:29, “So is the one who goes in to his neighbor's wife; Whoever touches her will not go unpunished.”
Proverbs 6:32, “The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense; He who would destroy himself does it.”
Hebrews 13:4, “Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.”
Recovering from the sin of adultery demands the confession of the sin to the Father and then bringing one’s thoughts in obedience to Christ, which constitutes obeying the commands of Ephesians 5:18 to be influenced by means of the Spirit and Colossians 3:16 to let the Word of Christ richly dwell in your soul.
1 John 1:9, “If any of us does at any time confess our sins, then, He (God the Father) is faithful and just with the result that He forgives us our sins and purifies us from each and every wrongdoing.”
2 Corinthians 10:3-4, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.”
2 Corinthians 10:5, “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”
Ephesians 5:18: “And do not permit yourselves to get into the habit of being drunk with wine because that is non-sensical behavior, but rather permit yourselves on a habitual basis to be influenced by means of the Spirit.”
Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
Even though the Mosaic Law was not yet given, which prohibited adultery, Joseph and the rest of his family had knowledge that God ordained sex for marriage since the account of the creation of Adam and the Woman was passed down by word of mouth from Adam to his father Jacob.
Joseph was taught in his family, which was the covenant family of God, that God ordained the permanence and sanctity of marriage and that it was sin to violate this divine institution.
This third reason reveals the spiritual principle that sins against our fellow man such as adultery are in reality sins against God.
Joseph’s love for the Lord motivated Joseph to obey God’s will, which prohibited adultery.
His love and gratitude to the Lord for all that He had done for him was the secret to withstanding the sexual advances of Potiphar’s wife since his love for the Lord and gratitude towards Him motivated Joseph to obey the laws of God pertaining to adultery.
Obedience to the will of God, motivated by love for God, enables the believer to withstand temptation from the old Adamic sin nature and the cosmic system of Satan.
Obedience to the will of God demonstrates our love for God.
John 14:15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”
Obedience to the Word of God is motivated by the believer’s love for the Lord and the believer’s love for the Lord is simply the response of the believer to the love God has demonstrated towards the believer through His Son Jesus Christ on the Cross and raising him up and seated him with Christ (See Ephesians 2:1-10).
This is why the apostle Paul prayed that the Philippians love for the Lord would continue to grow since love for the Lord serves as a protection from sin and motivation to resist the temptation to sin.
Philippians 1:9, “Now, this I make it a habit to pray that your divine-love might continue to flourish yet more and more by means of a total discerning experiential knowledge (of the love of God manifested in Christ by the Holy Spirit in the pages of Scripture).”
Therefore, Joseph had the capacity to withstand the sexual advances of Potiphar’s wife because he loved the Lord and he loved the Lord because the Lord loved him first.
1 John 4:19, “We love, because He first loved us.”
Joseph’s love for the Lord was demonstrated by his obedience to the Lord’s commands and Joseph’s obedience to the Lord’s commands was the response in his soul to the love, which the Lord exercised towards him.
Also, Joseph’s awareness that God had a plan for his life and his personal sense of destiny further motivated him to withstand the sexual advances of Potiphar’s wife.
The two prophetic dreams that God gave to Joseph recorded in Genesis 37:5-11 demonstrated to Joseph that God had a great plan for his life.
He was convinced that God had called him to a special task in life and he had seen evidence of that in his rapid rise from slavery.
Therefore, to sin by committing adultery with Potiphar’s wife would hinder him from fulfilling God’s plan for his life.
God has ordained sex within the boundaries of marriage in order to perpetuate and protect the human race from disease and emotional trauma, which is brought on by adultery.
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.’”
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?”
Joseph does not use the covenant name of God, which is Yahweh, “Lord” but rather uses Elohim, “God” since he is dealing with an unbelieving Gentile.
Now, in order to gain a greater appreciation for the moral courage and strength that Joseph displayed in withstanding the sexual advances of Potiphar’s wife, we must understand that Joseph was a young man who was not married and therefore had no outlet for his sexual desires.
Also, in Joseph’s day, sexual promiscuity was commonplace in slave societies such as Egypt.
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.”
Potiphar’s wife ignores Joseph’s reasoning and attempts to wear down his resistance by relentlessly propositioning him, which was a tactic that was successful against Samson (See Judges 14:17; 16:16-17).
Not only did Joseph resist her demands to have sex with him but he would not even stay in her presence as indicated by the phrase “be with her.”
Therefore, we see that Joseph took double precaution in that he would not even allow himself to be in her presence in order to prevent anything from taking place that could lead to adultery.