This transcript was auto-generated.

Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife

When You Honour the Lord (Part 1 of 3)

Genesis 39: 1-7

What happens when believers decide that they’re going to honour the Lord in all that they do? They just decide I’m going to honour the Lord at work, going to honor the Lord home, and I’m going to honour the Lord in my personal life.  Question is really this, if you were to decide that you were going to do this how would your life work out? Would it prevent problems from arising, or would in fact produce some new problems? Would there be some unexpected consequences of this new outlook on life. I think there is an opinion around that if we live a life dedicated to the Lord, we wouldn’t have as many problems as we used to have. Is that true?  What really happens when you decide to honour the Lord?

Well, there’s a test case that we can look at to as an example and maybe even an answer to that question and it is here in the Old Testament, in the Book of Genesis. We are back again in the life story of Joseph, a young man who decided he was going to honour the Lord in all of his life. I wonder if what happened to him is an indication of what might happens to us when we do the same kind of thing? So, I invite your attention to Genesis Chapter 39 and let’s examine this episode together in the life of Joseph over the next few days. I’m going to begin reading with verse one where we’re

“Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master”.  (Genesis 39: 1-2)

Now, to really understand what’s going on here, we need to pause and review a little. You will recall that prior to this, Joseph was a family man who grew up in Palestine, or at least he was a member of a large family. He had eleven other brothers, but his brother were jealous of him because he was the apple of his father’s eye, and to make matters worse, he had a dream or two, and those dreams in the seemed to indicate that someday he was going have authority over all of the others, and that provoked them to further envy and jealousy, and that’s putting it mildly.  The brothers having first planned to murder him, later concocted this idea that they would sell him into slavery. They literally sold their brother to some merchants who were traveling through their grazing area and those merchants took him to Egypt. Now that’s the backdrop of this story before you even get to chapter 39.

Verse, one opens by saying now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt and it goes on to say that he was purchased by Potiphar. Potiphar is identified as captain of the guard and as an Egyptian. So, that’s the background of the story, Joseph has now been made a slave and he’s been bought by Potiphar. However, it also says the Lord was favorable with Joseph and he was a successful man and because of that so was the household of his Master, Potiphar.  Now what is going on here is very interesting because it just makes the statement, “the Lord is with him and he was successful”, but I think we need to think about what this means. The Lord was with him, and that’s why he was successful.  He was honoring the Lord, and the Lord was honoring him, it will become evident just how much he sticks to his principles and honours the Lord, as we dig further into this chapter, but we will get to that later, but it’s interesting to note that early in the chapter it says, the Lord was with Joseph, and he was successful.

Part of the success was he was in the house of his master, which tells us he hadn’t remained in the servants’ quarters, but that he was so favored by Potiphar and was now actually a resident in the main House. So, the passage opens by telling us of the success of Joseph and how he has been promoted from among the slaves and now lives in the main house. The story continues, 

“ When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favour in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned”.  (Genesis 39: 3-4)

Please note that the master saw that the Lord was with him, and he knew that was the reason that as a household they were having success. Joseph found favor in his sight and he is now living in the house as the overseer of his house and all that Potiphar owned Joseph had been put in charge of.  This is the continuing success of Joseph.  Please notice the text says that his master, saw that the Lord was with him, notice it doesn’t say God was with him, it says the Lord was with him and as you know, when you see the word Lord used in the Old Testament the word Lod is referring to the covenant name of God.  This is sometimes translated Yahweh, but this means he is recognizing the God who is bringing the prosperity is the God of the nation of Israel, the personal name of God. Potiphar didn’t just notice that Joseph had some kind of divine favour, he specifically noticed that Yahweh, the God of Israel was blessing him and you gotta ask how in the world did he know that?  The answer is Joseph must have told him, the Bible says in the Gospel of Matthew,

“Let your works shine so that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven".  (Matt 5: 13)

That I believe is what has gone on here. That isn’t just saying do good works to impress people, it tells us we have to walk the walk as well as talk the talk but let me ask as well as good works how else would someone know that what you were doing was because of your love for your father who is in heaven.  Well by talking about it, by crediting the Lord and telling people that you are his child. I take it that that’s what’s going on here, Joseph, no doubt told Potiphar about his honoring the Lord and his commitment to the Lord, and the text tells us his master saw it.  He that he was successful, that when his master saw that the Lord was with him and he also came to know that is was his love of the Lord made him do all that he did, and Potiphar came to understand that he prospered because of it. 

You will have noticed I said in verse three he was in the house and now in verse four he is the overseer; he has responsibility over the entire household.  So again, the Lord is honoring Joseph and he is making him successful, and that is indicated by the fact that he’s been promoted. There’s a lesson here for all of us, and that is, if we are faithful in little things, the Lord sees to it that we are raised up in the big things. As a matter of fact. In Luke Chapter 16, we are told in verse 10 that Jesus said.

“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own (Luke 16: 10-12)

So, Jesus is saying in that passage that if you’re faithful in little things, you get promoted to big things and Joseph. Is an illustration of that matter of fact.  Look at first five back in Genesis 39.

“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. So, Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate”.  (Genesis 39: 5-6a)

It was from the time that he made him overseer of his house that the Lord blessed the Egyptians house, he blessed him in his house, and he blessed him in his field.  This means he blessed the household with bumper crops, so to speak. You could say he blessed him in his business. 

This is a principle that’s established early in the Book of Genesis and taught throughout the scripture, namely back in chapter 12 the Lord said he was going to bless Abraham, and Abraham was going to be a blessing to the world. That’s established the principle on which God operates, but note, he blesses us so that we can bless others, and that’s what has happen here. Thus, Potiphar had the confidence to leave everything in Joseph care to the point Joseph did not even have to worry about anything even the food he ate. Please notice Potiphar so trusted Joseph that he took care of everything, and Potiphar went on about his other business and didn’t worry any more about what was going on in his own home. I wonder, is it all going to be plain sailing, nothing but blessing after blessing? The story continues.

“Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!” (Genesis 39: 6b-7)

Joseph was well-built and handsome, that’s a very interesting statement. He seems to have inherited his good looks from his mother, Rachel. As a matter of fact, there are only two other men in all of the Bible, of which it has said that they were handsome. One is David and the other is Absalom. But what really intrigues me about this is that when the Book of Genesis talks about people being physically beautiful, other than Joseph, it’s only the women that are mentioned in that way. in fact, the word used here “handsome” is normally translated as beautiful, and it is used several times about Joseph. So, let’s take a minute and just do a quick survey of the use of this word. In Genesis Chapter 12, it says,

“And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance”. (Genesis 12: 11)

Now in this situation Abraham wanted to lie about her saying she was his sister for fear that somebody would be so impressed with her beauty, they would kill him and take her. But the point I want to make is the scripture says she was a beautiful woman.  The same thing is said of Rebekah in Genesis chapter 26, where it says.

“And the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, “She is my sister”; for he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” because he thought, “lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to behold.” (Genesis 26: 7)

Isaac does the same thing his father did, said his wife was his sister for seven, says for he was afraid to say that she is my wife as he thought the local men might kill him for Rebecca because she was so beautiful. There’s one more example in Genesis but we will look at that next time, and we will look at the consequences of both these people “beauty” next time.