From the Pit, to Potiphar to Prison (Genesis 39)

Don’t you love the movies where the complication is huge, and so the victory at the end is even more satisfying? In Avengers: Endgame, half of all life in the universe is gone. Five years have passed, and now the stakes can’t be higher; there is a tiny chance that they can bring everyone back. Can they do it? In this one shot? What if they can’t? What if they fail?

It wouldn’t be a great movie if they didn’t win. We are constantly sold stories of loss and complication that all end happily ever after. What if the prince can't find the person who fits the glass slipper?

This term, we are looking at the story of Joseph from the end of Genesis, and if you know the whole story you know it turns out alright. In the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, there is a line that is said when things are going bad, “It’s all going to be alright, because we already know how the story ends.”

But at the time, Joseph didn’t know that. And we don’t know the ups and downs we are going to face.

The story of Joseph could be made to say “if you are faithful, it will turn out alright”, but that is not necessarily true for everyone. We have a word for people who were faithful, and it didn’t turn out that well: martyrs. They followed God, and they got killed for it.

Today we are looking at the part of Joseph's life where he descends into slavley and then into prison, for something he didn’t do. We are looking at his faithfulness in tempting situations and how being faithful to God didn’t go well for him. But through all this, there was another who was also faithful, and they can help us, even when it is bad.

From the Pit to Potiphar

So if you were to follow the Genesis narrative, there was an intermission in the story of Joseph. Just before this bit, there was a story about Joseph’s father, Jacob. He got called out and was proven to be a smuck because he left his cord and staff.

But now we resume the story of Joseph, where he has been beaten by his brothers, put in a pit and then sold into slavery. We see that he was sold to the captain of the guard in Egypt. He oversaw the jails (Gen 40:3-4). His name was Potiphar.

I wonder how you would have felt if your own siblings had betrayed you and sold you to another country? You probably wouldn’t be too pleased with the situation. Joseph had reason to be angry or grumpy. He has done nothing wrong. That is not fair. But we see in verses 2-6 that Joseph worked hard for his foreign master. He was a good administrator and got promoted to being in charge of the whole house operations. Well, besides the food, as they probably had different religious food regulations and they didn’t want to break those.

But notice also what is going on in the first bit of our passage. I think the passage is trying to say something:

The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. (Genesis 39:2 NIV)

When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, (Genesis 39:3 NIV)

From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. (Genesis 39:5 NIV)

Do you see the point? God was still with Joseph in this foreign nation under this foreign ruler. God blessed Joseph, and God blessed the household of this Egyptian.

From Genesis 12 to the end of the book, Genesis is really about following this one family from Abraham, Issac, Jacob and now Joseph. God made promises to this particular family. They were like the promise carriers of God. And God said that He would bless all nations through them. Here we see, this slave Joseph, a promise carrier, is being used by God as a blessing to this Egyptian house. God was not limited to one location, but God is God over all the world. God is with Joseph wherever he goes, and God is keeping His promise to this family.

So, all things being considered, it is sort of going well for Joseph, until it doesn’t. While Joseph was finding favour in his master's eyes, he was also being seen by his master's wife. One looked at his abilities, the other his appearance. One of character, the other of skin.

Potiphar’s wife found Joseph attractive. He was young, strong and exotic. He was a slave, so he really didn’t have any rights, and so she tempted him to sleep with him. No one would know about this. It would be a little fling. And this could be nice for Joseph. Like, what are Joseph's dating prospects here anyway?

But Joseph stood firm in the face of this real temptation. He said it wouldn’t be right to break trust with what he has been given, and it would be a sin against God. He wanted to be faithful to his master and to God.

But the wife doesn’t let up. One day, she finds an opportunity to throw herself at him. Joseph flees. He turns and runs, she grabs his coat, and so he untangles himself from that and runs away. She is left holding his coat.

Fleeing may seem like a coward's way out, but it can also show courage. He avoided the path that led to destruction by going the other way. He was faithful to God, which meant he could be faithful to Potiphar.

Temptation in this world is not a part-time experience for a Christian. Attractive things are tempting; if they weren’t attractive, they wouldn’t be tempting. But like a fish that sees the bait and not the hook, we miss the damage it does when we take a bite. We break trust with others and with God when we sin.

Saying no to very tempting things in this life can be hard. You feel like you are missing out, and may make you unpopular or awkard. It is the harder way. But it is really the stronger way. Pushing back againist the crowd when they are wrong and you are following God is hard. It can be lonely. And while Jospeh avoided the path that leads to sin and destruction, it still lead to his impriosnment.

From Potiphar to Prison

Yet another coat became Joseph’s undoing. The wife claimed Joseph tried to come on to her, but her scream scared him off, leaving his coat behind. This evidence incriminated him, even though he was innocent. [If you were to contrast this with the last chapter, Joseph is doing better than his father. The stuff Jacob left behind righly incrimindated him. In contrasting these two men, we see that location and circumstances don’t determine integrity, conviction does. Joseph was faithful to God, despite it not going well for him.]

After hearing from his wife, Potiphar throws Joseph in prison. Many people note that when it says “Potiphar burned with anger”, it may have been at his wife. Potiphar doesn’t kill Joseph for such a serious accusation. Maybe he knew his wife. Maybe he didn’t want to lose a trustworthy servant. So Joseph ends up in prison, which Potiphar oversees.

And again, like a repeat from the start of this chapter. Joseph, a prisoner, has reason to be down; he has reason to get bitter and angry. He did the right thing and was punished for it. But instead notice another person at work

the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. (Genesis 39:21 NIV)

The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did. (Genesis 39:23 NIV)

God is still with Joseph. God is still working, even if it is unfair. Even when things suck. Joseph stays faithful and uses his administrative skills to help the guys who are imprisoning him.

God was with him. God was still being faithful and keeping His promises, even if Joseph couldn’t see how it would end.

Our God knows something of this. Jesus was falsely accused, despised and rejected. He walked the lonely road and obeyed God and was killed for it. That was hard. That was unfair. And we follow that guy.

Following Jesus and standing up for what is right is hard. It was hard for Joseph; it put him in prison, but remember all those verses I flashed up? God was with Joseph.

God is with you, even when it sucks. God knows what it is like. I really take comfort in this verse from Hebrews:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. (Hebrews 4:15 NIV)

Our God knows. Your life might not turn out how you want. There will come testing and temptations. But remember Joseph, remember Jesus, they stuck to their convictions, they continued to follow God.

There was a guy called Polycarp, who was a disciple of John the Apostle. So this is way back in the day. Polycarp had the nerve to say that “Jesus was Lord” and not “Caesar is Lord”. The government didn’t like this so they sentenced him to death. Polycarp said:

Eighty and six years I have served Him [Jesus], and He has done me no wrong.

Polycarp had walked with God all his life and saw no reason to be unfaithful now. He stood firm, even when tempted and threatened not to be. He had a lifetime of trusting in God that death could not scare away. They burned him at the stake, (but ended up stabbing him to death as the flames weren’t hot enough.)

We are not promised a happy ending here on earth, but we are promised that God is with us. When tempted, when suffering, know that God is with you.

You may not know how your story here will end, but God will be with you, and after this earth is gone, you will be with God.


Questions

In this chapter, what is Joseph doing? What is God doing? How are both being faithful?

Do you find it hard to follow Jesus where you are? How can this passage help you when you feel tempted to disobey God? What comfort is there?

We are not promised that if we are faithful, everything will be fine. What are we promised? How can you continue to remember this, even when things are hard?