Friday, March 27, 2015

As She Spake to Joseph Day by Day

In the picture of purity, we see with the life of Joseph, there are many routes in which he is tempted to commit sin, or tempted to just get angry. This is not a shocking revelation to most of you.

But perhaps the part that seems so crazy about Joseph's life is the way the situation happened with Potiphar's wife. It just seems rather odd that after trying to sleep with Joseph, apparently his denial was a reason to get revenge upon him by accusing him of attempted rape. That doesn't really make sense to me.

But regardless, it was the intention of Potiphar's wife to lie with Joseph, and she was persistent in that purpose. She spoke to him asking for him to commit this sin every single day. As Genesis 39:10 says,
"And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her."

I don't know, but I think it would be hard to continually say no to a sin when it is placed before you each and every single day. I can only imagine that Joseph began to understand that this woman would ensure secrecy of the event.

Yet as that verse speaks, he continually hearkened not unto her, and stayed strong in the faith. How could he withstand such  temptation for so long? Nothing would have kept him faithful except reliance upon his God.

But even after this resistance, how might he have felt after he loses his position in Potiphar's house by refusing to sin. Had he just said yes to Potiphar's wife, he would likely have remained in that position. So how come at this point he didn't decide that serving God was counter-productive and served him no purpose?

Instead of coming to denounce his service, we see Joseph in the text doing in the prison exactly what he did in Potiphar's house - serving faithfully.

So, know these couple of things. Temptation will be persistent, and you might find yourself in a difficult position at times. Also, know that serving God may not always come with physical rewards, but then that's not the point. The point of serving God is to please the one who loved you enough to die to take away your sins.

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