06/16/2008 Genesis 39:6

06/16/2008

Genesis 39:6 - 12 (HCSB) ⁶He left all that he owned under Joseph’s authority; he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well-built and handsome.

⁷After some time his master’s wife looked longingly at Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.”

⁸But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Look, my master does not concern himself with anything in his house, and he has put all that he owns under my authority. ⁹No one in this house is greater than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. So how could I do such a great evil and sin against God?”

¹⁰Although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her. ¹¹Now one day he went into the house to do his work, and none of the household servants was there. ¹²She grabbed him by his garment and said, “Sleep with me!” But leaving his garment in her hand, he escaped and ran outside.

Genesis 39:16 - 20 (HCSB) ¹⁶She put Joseph’s garment beside her until his master came home. ¹⁷Then she told him the same story: “The Hebrew slave you brought to us came to me to make fun of me, ¹⁸but when I screamed for help, he left his garment with me and ran outside.”

¹⁹When his master heard the story his wife told him—”These are the things your slave did to me”—he was furious ²⁰and had him thrown into prison, where the king’s prisoners were confined. So Joseph was there in prison.

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Have you ever found yourself in trouble for doing the right thing? This is exactly where Joseph found himself.

By this time in Joseph’s life, his brothers (who were jealous of him) had sold him to migrant traders and told their father, Jacob (Israel), that he had been killed by a wild animal. Joseph meanwhile was sold as a slave to Potiphar, an Egyptian military commander. Joseph’s prosperity had been observed and he rose to the rank of the head servant in the household. But trouble was lurking.

Potiphar’s wife took a liking to Joseph and repeatedly tried to seduce him. On one occasion, she grabbed his garment and when he wrangled loose, she kept the garment and in her anger of rejection, fabricated a story that landed Joseph in prison.

I remember as a kid, when something did not go as I had wished saying: “That’s not fair!” I would think if anyone had the right to say that, it would be Joseph. He had been faithful to his master in everything, but now the lie of an angry wife has ousted him from his position of favor. Not to mention all that his brothers had done to him. It is not “fair” that Joseph is now a slave in a foreign land, in prison for a crime he did not commit.

But I think we are too quick to cry foul sometimes. We can certainly look on Joseph’s situation and understand that what happened was not right, but what we fail to see at this point is the greater plan.

This is also true in our lives. We ask “Why did God allow this to happen?” But we are looking at the situation with our finite understandings and with the limitations of the horizon – failing to see what lies beyond. But God sees things from an entirely different perspective. The plan he had for Joseph could not have been anticipated by Joseph, his brothers or Jacob, his father. Yet, the plan that God had in mind was greater than anything any of them could have aspired to.

We need to keep this example in mind when troubles come our way. God has a greater plan and although we can’t see the result of it, we must trust Him to guide our paths. We must remain faithful in the best and in the worst circumstances. We should not be discouraged by troubles that come our way, but rather, look forward to the good that He has in store for us.

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