11 But it happened about this time, when Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was inside, 12 that she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside. 13 And so it was, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and fled outside, 14 that she called to the men of her house and spoke to them, saying, “See, he has brought in to us a Hebrew to mock us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. 15 And it happened, when he heard that I lifted my voice and cried out, that he left his garment with me, and fled and went outside.” 16 So she kept his garment with her until his master came home. 17 Then she spoke to him with words like these, saying, “The Hebrew servant whom you brought to us came in to me to mock me; 18 so it happened, as I lifted my voice and cried out, that he left his garment with me and fled outside.” ~ Genesis 39:11-18
Today, we continue our study of Genesis 39 where we find Joseph whom his brothers hated so much they sold him to Ishmaelite traders from Midian. After being sold in Egypt, we now see Joseph living in the house of Potiphar an officer in Pharaoh’s army. Like Joseph’s, our lives have a bunch of peaks and valleys. As the Lord was with Joseph through the good and bad, so He is with us. This is why we must practice His presence every day, especially on the most dark of days. It was Jim Eliot who once said, "God always gives His best to the one who leaves the choice to Him."
So, Joseph was a slave away from his family, in Egypt. But God was with him and caused him to succeed at his workplace as he worked for Potiphar. However, he gained the unwanted attention of Potiphar's wife, who repeatedly demanded that he lie with her. This was a daily temptation. As a slave, Joseph had no prospect of marriage and no freedom. To a young man in the prime of his life, this naturally meant a lifetime of celibacy. This was a real temptation that Joseph had to fight daily. This fight had to be extra hard since he was yet a teenager.
In v.11-12 of today’s passage we read, “11 But it happened about this time, when Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was inside, 12 that she caught him by his garment, saying, ‘Lie with me.’ But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside.”
If nothing else, Potiphar’s gorgeous wife was persistent. Her persistent advances teach us that the more we feed the flesh, the harder it will be to not be defined by it. This is why we must not avail ourselves to those things that we know will cause us to be unfaithful to our commitment to our God.
In the Middle East at that time and even now, the people wore garments that were loose around the body. It was hot and having something like this would have been cool and yet fashionable. Slave garments would probably have been of different material, style, and/or color to identify them, but they would follow the general motif of the day. In Joseph’s case, Potiphar’s wife grasped Joseph’s outer garment. It was then that he ran away from her.
In v.13-15 of today’s passage we read, “13 And so it was, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and fled outside, 14 that she called to the men of her house and spoke to them, saying, ‘See, he has brought in to us a Hebrew to mock us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. 15 And it happened, when he heard that I lifted my voice and cried out, that he left his garment with me, and fled and went outside.’”
Potiphar’s wife tried to get Joseph to be defined by her passion. When this didn’t work, she then referenced Joseph as a “Hebrew” which is a descriptor that hasn’t been used in the book of Genesis since chapter 14 when it was first introduced into the pages of the Bible. Hebrew is synonymous with Israel and yet it provides something deeper. It is the calling of the national group. Just as our national identity is American, we are first and foremost “Christians.” This is the force and the effect of the term Hebrew here which is derived from Abraham’s great-great-great-great grandfather named Eber. Eber means “he who crossed over” and it signifies that he and his family are the ones who crossed over the Euphrates and away from Babel, the land of apostasy. This was more than just a physical crossing of a river, but a spiritual crossing over, hence a title being used first of Abraham. So, recognizing that it was only Joseph and her in the house, Potiphar’s wife accused Joseph of trying to rape her.
In v.16-18 of today’s passage we read, "16 So she kept his garment with her until his master came home. 17 Then she spoke to him with words like these, saying, 'The Hebrew servant whom you brought to us came in to me to mock me; 18 so it happened, as I lifted my voice and cried out, that he left his garment with me and fled outside.'"
Potiphar's wife reported her story to two groups of people -- the men of the household and her husband, Potiphar. There are slight differences in emphasis in her stories. To the men of the household, she highlighted Joseph's ethnicity and played on the ethnic divide between Egyptian and Hebrew. To her husband, she carefully chose her words to kindle anger through appealing to a hurt pride. In both these cases, however, she carefully arranged the burden of guilt away from her. She set herself up as a poor, helpless victim.
Through all of this the Lord was developing Joseph's faith. Joseph had faith, he trusted in the Lord. But, his faith in the God of the Bible needed to grow. And the way the Lord most often develops our faith is through the trials that He allows into our lives. The most effective way to resist the temptations to be defined something other than God is to be diligent to hide God’s Word away deeply in our hearts.
Faith is the hearts ability to recognize God in a given situation in our lives. Adrian Rogers says, “The devil tempts us to do evil, to cause us to stumble. God tests us to do good, to cause us to stand, to make our faith strong and pure.” It is a really good thing that Joseph passed the tests during those many days that Potiphar’s wife pursued him because it was through the tempering and the strengthening of his faith that he was able to endure the even harder trials that were about to come his way. As we will see Joseph waited by faith, he waited by faith in Potiphar’s house, he waited by faith in a jail cell and he waited by faith in a palace. In today’s world, many would consider Joseph a victim but he wasn’t. Joseph was a victor because he was deliberate at being defined by God. For 13 years God tested and refined Joseph’s faith, making of him a leader who would be able to handle the incredible stresses of leadership. When Joseph had proven himself to God, it was God who exalted him to be the blessing the world needed at that time in history.
