Genesis 39:4-9, “So Joseph found favour
in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put
him in charge of all that he had. (5) From the time that he made
him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the LORD blessed the
Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; the blessing of the LORD was on all that he
had, in house and field. (6) So he left all that he had in Joseph's
charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he
ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. (7) And after
a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, "Lie with
me." (8) But he refused and said to his master's wife,
"Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the
house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. (9) He
is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me
except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness
and sin against God?”
Pursuing righteousness, integrity,
holiness and godliness can sometimes be very costly and painful. For many years
Christians have been wrongly taught that if you obey God then you will be
blessed all the day long, no harm or evil will befall you. There is some truth
to this, which is we will know the favour of God when we live in obedience, but
we have no promise of receiving the favour of man when we seek to live godly
lives. Potiphar’s wife was displeased by Joseph’s integrity, rather than
admiring and rewarding it. In her displeasure she not only continued to entice
Joseph, but finally conspired against him and laid the most serious, but false,
allegations of attempted rape against Joseph. Joseph is deemed guilty and
imprisoned, presumably until he died, there is no mention of the length of the
sentence, nor is there ever any mention of his coming release. Joseph sought to
honour God with his life and the result was that he was sinned against, treated
as guilty and left to languish in prison.
What makes Genesis 39 all the more
remarkable is that despite the fact that Joseph is treated as guilty and cast
into prison, this doesn’t deter Joseph from continuing to living in a
God-honouring manner. Shortly after being placed in prison Joseph’s integrity
makes him stand out from the rest of the inmates and he is put in charge,
entrusted with great responsibility. We have to ask ourselves how we would
respond and continue to live if we were treated in a similar manner.
As believers in Jesus Christ we are
called to live upright lives in the midst of an evil world. We do this for
several reasons, firstly and most importantly, to glorify God; secondly, to
give outward evidence of our faith, to demonstrate that we are authentic
believers and thirdly, so that the world might see the testimony of our lives
and give glory to God. We are called to live such lives and we are aware of the
importance of living in such a manner, but we must be equally prepared to
receive the disdain of the world. Jesus never promised us that it would be easy
to follow Him and to live in accordance to His example. Jesus did tells us that
it would not just be difficult, but that we could expect to be hated, opposed,
handed over to the authorities and imprisoned, or even put to death. Should
this frightening reality and prospect cause us to stop pursuing Christlikeness?
By no means! Yes, it may be difficult and lead to pain and suffering, but we
need to remember that we do not live a life of godliness so as to be praised
and accepted by men; we do it for the glory, sake and name of our heavenly
Father. We do it to honour Him, display our love for Him and to further glorify
Him, we live in this manner so as to receive the eternal reward laid up and
kept in heaven for us. We live such lives in the hope and with the prayer that
God will use the testimony of our lives to lead others to Christ, others to
glorify God. Peter expresses this truth 1 Peter 2:12, “Keep
your conduct among the Gentiles honourable, so that when they speak against you
as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of
visitation.”
Ultimately Joseph in this passage
serves as a type of Christ. Joseph though innocent of this crime, is falsely
accused and unjustly cast into prison. Christ, likewise is innocent, not just
of the crime of which he is accused, but innocent altogether, and thus he is
superior to Joseph. Christ is also falsely accused and given the sentence of
death, but in the case of Christ, there is no deliverance of the sentence as
there was for Joseph. Christ went to His death. He, who was innocent of all
things, was treated as the guiltiest of all men and given the sentence of
death. Yet as Scripture teaches us, Christ entrusted Himself to God the Father,
who judges justly and continued to live in perfect obedience, right to his
death. We have then two great examples to follow as we seek to walk in
holiness, Joseph and best of all Christ.
Holy Father, we are aware that there
are many times in our lives when we do not live as we should because we are
afraid of how others might react. We ask that You would enable us to walk in
holiness and to love You to the point that we are less concerned with how the
world will react and more concerned with Your glory and our standing before
You. Amen.
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