In the Beginning: A Study in Genesis 37-50Намуна

What are three common tests for your testimony?

In Genesis 39, we find Joseph working for Potiphar, who was one of the officials of the great Pharaoh. Always faithful to his covenant promises, the Lord was with Joseph, blessing him and causing him to prosper. Joseph proved to be such a trustworthy and godly man that Potiphar entrusted the managing of his entire household to Joseph, and God blessed Potiphar the Egyptian through Joseph the Hebrew by the covenant promise that God would bless His people so that they could be a blessing to other nations of the earth.

We read that, like his mother, Rachel, Joseph was very physically attractive. Potiphar’s wife was smitten with Joseph and continually sought to seduce him into bed with her. Unlike his brother Judah, father Jacob, or great grandfather Abraham, Joseph remained a chaste one-woman man like his grandfather Isaac had been. Joseph continually rejected the woman’s adulterous advances, declaring to her that he would never sin against his master or God with such an evil act.

Things turn for the worse as Potiphar’s wife begins to lust after Joseph. She demands day after day that he sleep with her, and day after day, Joseph refuses as this would betray Potiphar and be “wickedness and sin against God.” Joseph demonstrates great integrity in this, refusing what must have been an increasingly difficult temptation every day of his life.

Today, we face similar, if not more intense, temptations than Joseph did every day. The current state of culture offers us an unlimited, on-demand selection of sexual vices through social media, internet pornography, dating apps, and more. Joseph passed his temptation test because he already had his answer before the test started–the answer was no. Like Joseph, we must make our minds up before the test.

The patient persistence of Potiphar’s wife eventually fails; rejection turns her lust to resentment, and she capitalizes on an opportunity to frame Joseph for attempted rape. Joseph’s obedience to God is “rewarded” by Potiphar with rage and punishment–he is seized and placed in the Pharaoh’s prison. The godly virgin is now a convicted rapist and registered sex offender.

Joseph goes to prison for not sleeping with a guy’s wife. This would be when many people might get bitter against God– “I did it your way, God, and look where it got me!” Instead, once again, Joseph succeeds spiritually and practically. Verse 21 says the Lord was still with Joseph; he had not lost his anointing, and God once again works practically through Joseph, even in prison, to allow everything he worked at to prosper.

It’s easy to miss in these verses how traumatizing of an experience this must have been for Joseph. He’s a teenager from a nice Hebrew family, now put in chains and auctioned off as property. The land he is going to–Egypt–is about as pagan as it gets, a place where you can worship nearly every god except for Joseph’s God. This is like taking an Amish kid from his home and putting him to work on the Vegas Strip for the mafia.

This episode in the life of Joseph is an interesting turn of perspective in the book of Genesis. Until this point, the emphasis has been on God’s faithfulness to His covenant people. But, throughout the story of Joseph, we see the human side of the covenant emphasized through Joseph’s faithfulness to God in light of Genesis 18:19.

In this, the story of Genesis is gaining some hope. Until this point in the book, each generation, from Adam to the flood, Noah to Babel, and Abraham to Judah, has seemingly become increasingly godless. Still, with Joseph, we see that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’s faith was finally passed on to the fourth generation. His character is perhaps matched only by Daniel’s in all of the Bible and excelled only by the sinless Lord Jesus Christ.

Joseph’s success is spiritual and practical. He spiritually succeeds because, even though he doesn’t have an absence of trouble, he has the presence of God. Sometimes we think that if we can get away from our problems, we’ll be fine; even if we get away from those problems, we won’t be okay unless we have the presence of God. Joseph’s success is practical because as he walks with God and conducts himself in obedience to his earthly, God-given authority, God works through Joseph and providentially orders the things around him to work in his favor, for the good of not only Joseph but also the future good of God’s people.

Although everyone had abused and abandoned Joseph, we read that God remained with him, blessed him, and caused him to prosper according to His covenant promises. We also read that Joseph fulfilled his obligations to the covenant relationship with God by serving the prison warden with humble godliness and honoring the Lord in all he did. This theme of faith, which dominates so much of both Genesis and the rest of Scripture, continues into the following chapters awaiting God to bless Joseph for walking with Him in humble faith like Enoch, Noah, and Abraham before him.

Despite these traumatic circumstances, it is clear that Joseph’s testimony is being written as the presence of the Lord is mentioned five times in the first six verses. Because he has the Lord’s anointing, he can flourish against incredible odds and works his way up to be the overseer of Potiphar’s entire estate. Even though he is a slave in a pagan land, Joseph conducts himself as a believer, and God blesses everything he sets his hands to.

Question:

What does Joseph’s story reveal about how our testimony includes many moral tests?