Joseph and Potiphar's Wife

Story: Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife

Passage: Genesis 39

Characters: Joseph, Potiphar, Potiphar’s wife

Summary: The Lord blessed Joseph in Potiphar’s house. Joseph was put in charge of all that he owned. God blessed Potiphar for Joseph’s sake. Potiphar’s only concern was the food he ate. Joseph was handsome and Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him. Joseph refused her advances saying that he is greater than even Potiphar and he has been given everything but her. How could he sin against God? Joseph would not listen to her or lie beside her or be with her. One day she grabbed his clothes and tried to get him to sleep with her. He fled leaving his clothing in her hands. She told the household that Joseph had tried to rape her but he ran away when she started screaming. When Potiphar heard this he was furious and he threw Joseph into prison with the king’s enemies. The Lord showed Joseph love and gave him favor in prison. The prison keeper put Joseph in charge of the prison. The Lord made Joseph succeed.

Notes: Wow I have a ton of thoughts on this story! This story which is avoided sometimes because of its content is rich with meaning and lessons! For starters, Joseph was in a bad place. He was in a foreign country as a slave with no hope of ever seeing his family again. Instead of focusing on the bad spot he was in, he focused on God and continued his relationship with God and he prospered. Instead of looking at himself and complaining that God wasn’t there for him, he looked at God and saw that God was no less with him in Egypt than at home. Joseph was given control of Potiphar’s entire house. Potiphar was captain of the guard, which would have been similar to the head of Pharaoh’s security detail. This man was trusted by the king of Egypt and Joseph was in charge of his house. The passage says Potiphar had no concern but the food he ate. Apparently Joseph didn’t cook! Anyway, the passage also says that his master saw the Lord was with him and caused all that he did to succeed. Joseph was living and working in a way that the people around him knew he had a relationship with God. God also blessed those around him because of him. This blessing did not come quickly. If you look at his age when he was sold and his age when he was in prison, we see he was in Potiphar’s house for about 11 years. This process of God blessing him and giving him favor was not immediate. God’s blessings are often not immediate, but they are real and if we don’t lose our focus, they will come. We can’t confuse His blessings with comfortable circumstances. Joseph’s blessings came because he was a slave and a prisoner. We are supposed to be willing to focus on God no matter our circumstances. A good understanding of the one who we have a relationship with is essential to this. I believe it is the secret to being content in all circumstances which Paul refers to in the New Testament. It is significant that the passage says Joseph was handsome. Only two other biblical men are described as good looking: David, and Absalom. Potiphar’s wife saw him and began to try to seduce him. I doubt she was used to being rejected. In a position where culturally, women were not very moral and as the wife of one of the most important men in the country, she probably saw quite a few men. But Joseph would have none of it! Let’s look briefly at Joseph’s approach to this temptation. First of all, don’t let yourself believe that Joseph was not tempted by this! He would have been in his mid twenties and a beautiful prestigious woman wanted him. He had control of the entire house and had plenty of opportunity to give in. I guarantee you there was a struggle in Joseph every time she tried to seduce him. Satan has not changed his tactics much over the years. Guys are still tempted by very similar things today. Because of this, we can learn a lot from Joseph’s response! He knew he had been given everything except for her. Unlike Adam and Eve in the garden though, he knew what was off limits and he did not let his pride make him think he deserved the one thing he didn’t have. Joseph acknowledged that what she wanted was wicked and sin. When facing temptation it is important to not try to downplay sin and call it something else. Call it what it is! Wickedness and sin! She spoke to him day after day. This temptation was constant! Jospeh responded by not listening to her, lying beside her, or being with her. He did not try to coexist with the temptation, he intentionally avoided it! He put a conscious and probably difficult effort to not even be around her! And if he was, he did not listen to her. When she crafted a situation where they would be alone, she put him to the ultimate test. She caught him by the garment and tried again. To be realistic, what was probably going on here was she was trying to get his clothes off. Here Joseph was, alone in a house with her, half naked against his choice, and I suspect her appearance was encouraging sin as well. He immediately fled. He did not try to reason with her, he did try to talk her out of it or even to talk himself out of it. He immediately ran. He didn’t run to the other room, he ran out of the house! He got as far from the situations as he could, leaving his clothes in her hand. He knew it would have immediate negative consequences, but he also knew his relationship with God was more important. In fact, his relationship with God is the reason he was able to fight this in the first place. If our relationship with God is shaky, our ability to fight temptation will be as well. Unless we keep ourselves grounded and focused on the one who truly loves us and desires us and wants to give us joy, we will look to temporary pleasures. Joseph was indeed thrown in prison. This was probably a life sentence, but it was a light sentence. A slave trying to rape his master’s wife should have been the death penalty. Potiphar probably knew his wife was partially to blame, but he was in a tricky spot. He had no choice but to listen to his wife and punish the one who handled all his estate and had brought blessing to his house. This looks like an even lower spot in Joseph’s life, but once again he focused on God not his situation and once again he was blessed. Before long, he was basically in charge of the prison! Can you even imagine a prisoner running the prison he was imprisoned in? This contentment and diligence can only come from God! This looks like a bad spot, but God had big plans for Jacob which involved diligence, perseverance, hard work, and a lot of administrative responsibility. As the favored son in a wealthy family, he was not cut out for this yet. Remember that his fancy coat showed that he was not a worker. God was giving him a crash course in hard work to prepare him for what was coming and Joseph was passing with flying colors!

Questions: Did Potiphar suspect his wife was guilty here? How angry was Potiphar’s wife? How long had she been trying to seduce Joseph before this happened? What exactly was Joseph’s responsibility in the prison?

Lessons: We can learn a lot about how to stand up to sin and face temptation in this passage. When our focus is on God He will bless our efforts. Joseph kept his focus even in extreme temptation. He did not try to reason with Potiphar’s wife or himself. He simply called it sin and fled. We need to apply this to temptation in our own lives.