Joseph: Finding Purpose in Feast or FamineНамуна

Same Favor, Different Adversary

Perhaps you’ve heard that oft-quoted idiom, “…out of the frying pan and into the fire,” but have you experienced it? It usually happens with me when I look into greener pastures, jump the proverbial fence, and promptly step in a pile of cow dung in the pasture I thought was so attractive. Whether you prefer the idiom of a frying pan or green pastures, the lesson is the same. After escaping one hard situation, we seldom land in paradise. The same was true for Joseph.

I’m sure Joseph’s slave train experience and initial days in Egypt were incredibly humbling. However, he must have seen God’s hand at work when Pharaoh’s captain of the guard bought him from the Ishmaelites. The Bible tells us, first and foremost, “The LORD was with Joseph,” followed by his success and a position in Potiphar’s household. Things must have looked up for Joseph rather quickly because he found favor in his master’s eyes, first becoming Potiphar’s personal attendant and then overseer of his house, then chamberlain of the whole estate. Joseph had achieved as a slave in Potiphar’s household the position he would have had to fight his brothers to attain as Jacob’s heir! Granted, Joseph didn’t—nor would he ever—own the estate, but he was the unopposed overseer of it all, and God blessed Potiphar because of it.

Enter the adversary. Have you noticed every epic tale has a fierce antagonist? God’s Word is no different. The serpent in the Garden is and will forever be the adversary attacking every chosen one of God. We often think our enemies are deceptive friends, unreasonable bosses, unfaithful spouses, ravaging illness, or other devastating hardships in this sin-sick world. But Scripture tells us that we don’t fight against flesh and blood but rather against Satan’s principalities and powers in the unseen world (Ephesians 6:12). The same serpent that deceived Eve into eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil tries to convince us we should snatch the reins from God’s hands and go our own way. “Did God really say…?” he said to Eve, then twisted God’s truth to sound as if the Loving Father were a tyrant.

Joseph’s old adversary—his smelly, angry shepherd brothers—were easy to resist. But imagine a young man of seventeen with raging hormones denying a woman just begging him to lie with her. Notice he never told Potiphar about her advances. He wasn’t a tattletale as he’d been with the slave wives’ sons. Very similar to the temptations Jesus endured in the wilderness, Joseph never sinned even though Rabbinic literature suggests Joseph’s temptation was as great as Eve’s in the garden.

What temptations seek to derail your purpose? How has the enemy of your soul tricked you into thinking God unfair or twisted His Word in your heart? Will you put on the whole armor of God to protect your heart, mind, and soul as you continue the journey toward finding your God-given purpose?