The Bigger Picture: Joseph 3

Joseph 3: Joseph the Slave.

(preached May 9th, 2010)

This morning, we return to our look at the ‘Bigger Picture’ of the Bible and to the story of Joseph that we began two weeks ago. So far, we have seen in the Bigger Picture how God created all things from nothingness; how mankind disobeyed God and paid the penalty; how the wickedness of human beings increased to the point that God said, “Enough!” and cleansed the earth with a flood, saving only Noah and his family; how God chose one man, Abraham, through which to bless the whole world; and how, over the years, God prospered his family, despite their shortcomings.

Those shortcomings have become all too apparent in recent weeks, as we have focussed in on Jacob – Abraham’s grandson – and his family. Three weeks ago, I highlighted their tendency to be deceitful, with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all being guilty in this respect. And then, a fortnight ago, we saw how the father’s favouritism, the favoured son’s behaviour and his brothers’ jealousy combined to bring about a tragic event: the selling into slavery of Joseph.

And yet, in spite of all the upset, there is a clear sense that God is at work here. No, He isn’t mentioned in chapter 37 of Genesis at all, but we know He is there, all the same. We know that, when Joseph shares his dreams with his brothers, those dreams don’t come from his own vivid imagination, they come from God – they are God-dreams and, even though Jacob finds them personally distasteful, he knows deep down that they mean something important and that something significant will come out of them.

And so, at the end of chapter 37, we seem to find ourselves looking at a split screen: on one side, we see the brothers deceiving their father with the blood-stained robe of their half-brother; and, on the other side, we look on as Joseph is forcibly taken into a life of slavery by Midianite traders. Then, the picture fades and the credits start rolling, as the author leaves us with a cliff-hanger: Have the brothers really disposed of the dreamer for good and thereby killed the dreams? Will the broken-hearted father ever recover? Will he ever discover the truth? And what suffering will Joseph experience when he arrives in Egypt? We just have to wait with baited breath until the next episode.

In fact, the next episode doesn’t concern Joseph at all, but tells us about Judah and his relationship with his daughter-in-law, Tamar – an important story, which again involves family strife and deception, but not one we’ll dwell on. Instead, we’re going to move on to Genesis chapter 39, where we find the story of ...

Joseph and Potiphar’s wife

You see, Joseph has been bought from the Midianite traders by no less a figure than the captain of Pharaoh’s guard, a man named Potiphar, to work in his household.

In verse 2 of the chapter, we find some very significant words: “The Lord was with Joseph ... .” As I’ve already said, nowhere in chapter 37 is the presence of God mentioned, even though we know He was active in the situation. But here, right at the beginning on chapter 39, we’re told that “the Lord was with Joseph, so he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master.” That is so important for us to take on board.

I have said before that I don’t believe God engineered every part of Joseph’s story – because that would mean that human beings are merely His puppets – but I am certain that God responds to the sin of human beings in such a way that ultimately His purpose is fulfilled. That is why I don’t give up all hope when I see the awful things that human beings sometimes do in this world – and let’s face it, human beings are responsible for some terrible atrocities and wickedness. I believe that God, ultimately, always brings good out of evil, so that His will is done.

Here, we learn that, in spite of the wickedness of the brothers which has brought Joseph into a dire situation, the Lord is with him and the Lord makes him prosper. He turns the sins of others to Joseph’s advantage, so that the God-dreams come one step closer to fulfilment.

The fact that “the Lord was with Joseph” is the single most important factor in this chapter. In fact, we’re told that even Potiphar noticed what was happening “and realised that the Lord was with Joseph, giving him success in everything he did.” That’s not to say that Potiphar believed that the God of Israel was supreme in authority, or anything like that, but he certainly did realise that the God Joseph worshipped was helping him. That, of course, implies that Joseph must have been very open about his worship of God – and this in spite of the fact that he had recently experienced such hardship.

Now, there’s a great example for us today! Joseph could have been bitter because of what had happened to him, but he didn’t let it affect his faith in God. As I consider all this, I’m reminded of some New Testament texts; for example, Colossians 3:22-24, which says:

22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord. 23 Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. 24 Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ.

Those first two verses could have been written about Joseph himself. And, in 1 Corinthians, Paul tells the church: “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” That’s what Joseph seems to have done and it gets him noticed.

In the same way, as we recognise in our daily lives that we are to do everything we do for God and for His glory, others will see that the Lord is with us, too, and Kingdom opportunities will open up. Yes, Potiphar sees that God is with Joseph and puts him in charge of the whole household while he is away fulfilling his military duties.

But, just as things seem to be going swimmingly, sin again rears its ugly head: this time through the actions of Potiphar’s wife, a woman who has – perhaps appropriately – remained nameless throughout history. She lusts after Joseph and constantly tries to pressure him into an illicit relationship with her, but he steadfastly resists her sinful advances. You see, he knows that the Lord is with him and that this is most definitely the wrong thing to do – it would be a sin against not only his earthly master, Potiphar, but also against his heavenly master, God.

Of course, we might ask whether this development is the devil’s doing, but sometimes we can too easily assign everything to the devil’s schemes and shift the blame in that direction – ultimately, sin is down to human desire and disobedience. After all, when the serpent enticed the woman and the man into eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they could have said “No!” You know, if we consistently said “No!” to sin, the devil would have no power – it’s in our hands. Remember what the Apostle James tells us in his letter:

“[H]umble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Throughout it all, Joseph remains true to God and spurns the schemes of Potiphar’s wife, but as the playwright William Congreve once wrote:

Heav’n has no rage, like love to hatred turn’d,
Nor hell a fury, like a woman scorn’d.

Although Joseph does the right thing all the way along – even physically running away from sin’s grasp – Potiphar’s wife has another sneaky card up her sleeve, which she uses against him. She frames Joseph, claiming that he has attempted to sexually assault her and showing his left-behind robe in evidence. Again, Joseph’s clothing is used to deceive: just as Jacob was deceived by the sight of his son’s torn and blood-covered finely made robe, Potiphar is deceived by the sight of his slave’s left-behind robe. And, as a result, he has Joseph immediately thrown into prison and left to rot.

But notice what it says again in verse 21: “But the Lord was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love.” This is the second time that we’ve heard that the Lord was with Joseph and, again, it has immediate effects, because Joseph quickly becomes a favourite of the jailer, who then trusts him with responsibility for the other prisoners and for everything that happened in the prison.

There’s another theme emerging here: that of Joseph as ‘the favoured one.’ First of all, he was the favoured son of Jacob; then he was the favoured slave of Potiphar; and now he is the favoured prisoner of the jailer. And it’s becoming clearer as we go further into his story that he is a favoured one of God – God has chosen him to be the dream-bearer and will be with him through it all, because those dreams must come to fruition.

As I said last time, we, like Joseph, have been entrusted with God’s dreams: dreams of a renewed heaven and a renewed earth; dreams of life everlasting, in which joy will be unbounded and tears have no place; dreams of all creation illuminated by the presence of God Himself. And remember, these dreams are not just flights of fancy, but cast-iron certainties, because they are God-dreams. As we are faithful to God and bearers of His dreams, we become aware that the Lord is with us and constantly shows us His faithful love ... just as He was and just as He did with Joseph.

Conclusions

So, let’s just think a little about what we’ve learnt from this part of Joseph’s story.

Well, first of all, we find out that God isn’t tied to one place: He is with Joseph in Egypt, every bit as much as He is in Canaan with the rest of Jacob’s family. And we need to remember that ourselves: wherever we are, wherever we go, God is with us – there is nowhere we can go which is beyond His love, His care, His reach. No matter what circumstances we find ourselves in, God is with us and we can always turn to Him, for help or for forgiveness.

Later, when the Jews were carried away to Babylon after Jerusalem was overrun, they were distraught because they thought that God had been left behind. But they soon found that He couldn’t be left behind and that He was there with them – just remember the stories of Daniel and his friends for proof of that.

When we believe and trust in the Lord, He is with us. And because He is always with us, we should look upon everything we do as being within His gaze and we should do it for His glory. It might be our regular job, it might be voluntary work, it might be housework, or some other kind of task – whatever it is, we must do it for the Lord. That’s what Joseph did.

And just as Joseph fled from sin, when Potiphar’s wife tried to grab hold of him, we too must be prepared to do whatever it takes to escape sin’s clutches. We must try to avoid sinful, or tempting situations, just as Joseph tried to avoid being alone in her company, but, when necessary, we have to be prepared to run away from them, as fast as our legs will carry us – however undignified we may look! Treat sin like the plague.

So, we leave Joseph in prison, but we know that God has much more in store for the young man who is the bearer of His dreams and we’ll find out more next week.