From Slave to Prisoner

Genesis 39:7-20 

⁷And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.” ⁸But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Look, with me here, my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my hand. ⁹He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” ¹⁰And although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not consent to lie beside her or to be with her. ¹¹One day, however, when he went into the house to do his work, and while no one else was in the house, ¹²she caught hold of his garment, saying, “Lie with me!” But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside. ¹³When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled outside, ¹⁴she called out to the members of her household and said to them, “See, my husband has brought among us a Hebrew to insult us! He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice; ¹⁵and when he heard me raise my voice and cry out, he left his garment beside me, and fled outside.” ¹⁶Then she kept his garment by her until his master came home, 
¹⁷and she told him the same story, saying, “The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to insult me; ¹⁸but as soon as I raised my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me, and fled outside.” ¹⁹When his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, saying, “This is the way your servant treated me,” he became enraged. ²⁰And Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined; he remained there in prison.

At the beginning of the chapter, we find Joseph in the service of Potiphar, who bought Joseph from the Ishmaelites. Joseph was given increasing responsibilities and did well in all of them. Joseph did so well that Potiphar trusted him with everything – To the point where Potiphar only had to worry about what food he was going to eat.

Potiphar’s wife was attracted to Joseph and asked him to sleep with her, but Joseph, being a man of integrity, refused. Later, the wife tried to seduce Joseph, but Joseph refused again and escaped, but lost his coat in the process (Joseph seems to have a knack for losing coats). The wife then accused Joseph of trying to rape her, and Potiphar sends Joseph to prison.

In prison, Joseph again does well in whatever tasks he is given, and soon he is running the prison.

Although we know that Joseph was chosen by God to carry the dream, he does not have it easy. He is betrayed and sold by his brothers to be a slave. He ends up in Egypt and does his best and finds some success, but then he is falsely accused by his master’s wife and is put into prison. Even then, he continues to do his best and finds success.

Potiphar understood that Joseph was somehow special and put all his trust in Joseph. Potiphar’s wife was attracted to Joseph for his success as well as his good looks. She misunderstood the source of Joseph’s success and tried to seduce him. But Joseph is a man of integrity and refused to sin against God and against his master. In anger, the wife lied to her husband that Joseph tried to rape her. Potiphar must have been especially angry thinking that he had been fooled and betrayed by the man he trusted, and in anger, put Joseph in prison.

On the surface, this might sound like a story of a talented man with integrity that can find success anywhere, under any circumstances, and yet, keeps running into adversities.

But we know that is not the reality. Joseph’s success was because the Lord was with him (v.2; v.23). Joseph was chosen by God to be the one to keep the dream – The dream of a great nation that will be a blessing to the world.  To Joseph’s credit, he did the best he could under the circumstances and kept his integrity in difficult situations. He hung on to the dreams that God had given him.

There are things we can learn from Joseph. Even though we have not been chosen to build a great nation, we have been chosen to do God’s Kingdom work on earth. Each of us has unique set of tasks that God has entrusted to us. Like Joseph, we need to know that any successes we experience are because the LORD is with us. And in times of things not going the way we would like, we need to keep in mind the promises from the LORD – Mainly, the forgiveness of our sins, eternal life, and the fact that we have Kingdom work for which we are responsible.

The Seattle Mariners missed out on the playoffs this year by two games. Had just two of the seventy-four losses been wins, they would have been in the postseason. Their main problem was not scoring enough runs. They had enough runners on base, they just could not drive them in. Seems that their mostly young players got too excited when chances came, and they kept striking out. The type of player they needed in those times were those who did not get too excited or too distressed by the situations they were in.

This is how Joseph was. It seemed that whether the times were good or bad, he kept an even keel. He was aware of the dreams he was given by God. He was aware that the LORD was with him, which led to his success. When things got bad, he held onto the dreams, hoping that the LORD would help him out.

We also need to keep in mind that when we have successes, it is because the LORD is with us. And since we have been given assurance of salvation and eternal life when we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, when things are not going the way we want, we should take comfort in the LORD’s promises.

We also saw that even though Joseph was the chosen of God, he lived in the middle of a culture that did not share his values, and there are always temptations around to get us off course. Yet, Joseph chose to not give into temptation and hung on to his integrity.

We too have many temptations around us that can take us off course. We need to be strong in our convictions and live the way the LORD would want us to live. To love God and love others – Focusing on how to be a blessing to others, rather than just chasing our own needs and wants.

Joseph refused to do wicked things and sin against God. In these current times when people seem to do wicked things on an everyday basis, we need to keep in mind that we should keep away from sinning against God. We see on the news and social media people acting in ways that would not have been acceptable just a few years ago. It is easy enough to get desensitized to these behaviors and we stop getting shocked over them. But we need to keep in mind that what God considers sins against Him have not changed with the time. We need to make sure that we do not get carried by the flow of the world towards lawlessness and loss of civility. We need to be even more of a light and salt to this world.

So let us be like Joseph in this chapter. Let us know and acknowledge that all good things in our lives are there because the Lord is with us. Let us be aware that just because we are part of God’s people, we are not immune to experience hardships. And when we do go through hardships, hang onto the promises of God and live in hope, while keeping true to God’s commands – To love God and love others so that others will be blessed through us.

(the above is a summary of the message shared by Shun Takano during our worship on October 22, 2023.)