Genesis 39
The Temptation of Joseph

We continue now with the story of Joseph, sold by his brothers into slavery. In the previous chapter we saw how Joseph's brother Judah continued in sin after Joseph was gone. Yet in spite of that, God had grace toward Judah and granted him repentance and even granted him the promised Seed through his daughter-in-law Tamar. Now we turn back to the fortunes of Joseph. How will he react to his brothers' treachery. Will he become embittered against them? Against God?

  1. Joseph under God's Care
    1. God Is with Joseph (1-6a)
      1. Joseph is taken by the Ishmaelites who bought him down into Egypt. (v. 1)
      2. There he is sold as a slave to Potiphar, Pharaoh's Captain of the Guard (i.e. a high-ranking official in Egypt responsible for protecting the life of Pharaoh, king of Egypt).
      3. Two times, then, the story emphasizes that God was WITH Joseph
        1. "The Lord was with Joseph and he was a successful man" (v. 2)
        2. "And his master saw that the Lord was with him" (v. 3)
      4. And we breathe a sigh of relief when we hear that, don't we?
        1. Awful things have happened to Joseph
        2. But when we hear that God is WITH him, we cease to worry on his behalf.
        3. We know that the Lord is stronger than anything that can confront Joseph and will protect him from all danger and bring his difficulties to a successful conclusion.
      5. We are so confident of this that perhaps we don't even think of Joseph's real difficulties
        1. Separated from his family because of brother's who hate him
        2. He has lost the joy of basking in his father's love and favor.
        3. He cannot seek a normal life of tending sheep, getting married, and having children in hope that the promised seed of Abraham will be born.
        4. All this has been snatched from his hands and instead he is forced to dwell outside the promised land.
        5. He is made into a slave. He who had dreams from the Lord that his brothers would bow down to him, he must bow to another and serve in the house of a foreigner.
        6. Will he ever see his home again and know his father's embrace and see his brothers reconciled to him?
        7. From a human perspective, his situation is bitter indeed.
      6. So are we wrong to be so content when we hear that nevertheless the Lord is with him?
        1. We have the benefit of historical hindsight.
        2. We know how the story turns out, not just in Joseph's life but in all of redemptive history.
        3. We know that Joseph is even now in heavenly glory joining us in our praise of the Lamb who sits on the throne and awaiting the certain resurrection of his body at the last day.
        4. So it is easy to count his tiresome years of slavery as but a breath, as short as the moment it takes to think of them.
        5. And it is easy not to let dark doubts shadow our hearts as we contemplate his current situation and wonder if it shall ever be made right.
          1. We KNOW the answer already.
          2. As soon as we hear that the Lord is with him, we know we need not fear.
        6. This is the right perspective.
          1. It holds the end in view
          2. And it knows that when God is with someone, the happy ending is assured.
      7. Christian, then let us profit from this perspective
        1. Let us take this perspective we have with respect to Joseph, and let us know that certainly it must apply to us as well.
        2. Is God with us? Even more certainly than he was with Joseph.
          1. For Joseph, we have words on a page assuring us that God was with him.
          2. For ourselves, we have the living word of Jesus Christ whose name is Emmanuel, "God with us."
        3. Is the ending assured? Even more certainly than it was for Joseph.
          1. For Joseph, he could be confident that God would fulfil all his promises.
          2. But you, Christian, you are confident that God HAS fulfilled all his promises in Christ Jesus.
          3. Look! Christ Jesus has already passed from death into life!
          4. Already, on your behalf, he has ascended into heaven and sits at God's right hand. You are ALREADY seated in heavenly places with him.
          5. He is your anchor within the veil.
          6. As surely as he is there now, so surely will he come again to receive you to himself.
          7. In his resurrection and ascension you have already seen the end of your story. It ends in glory.
        4. Then, child of God, let us have boldness as we face the sufferings of this present time.
          1. Your life may seem to drag on, and that happy ending seems impossibly remote.
          2. So it must have seemed to Joseph too.
          3. But take courage! One day you shall look back at this life and it will seem like the life of Joseph, a moment of suffering follow by an eternity of glory.
          4. You look at Joseph's life this way. God looks at yours in the same way.
        5. Ah, Christian, do you find yourself not where you would wish to be in this life?
          1. You had different plans, perhaps; different ideas about what you would do or where you would live or how you would support yourself or whether you would be married or whatever else.
          2. Joseph had such plans and dreams too.
          3. And in a moment his brothers wrecked them all.
          4. Joseph could easily consider that his life has been permanently sidetracked by the wicked schemes of those who hate him or even by his own folly in taunting his brothers with his dreams.
          5. But the Lord is WITH him and is greater than all the sin and folly of him and his brothers combined.
          6. So it is with you. The Lord has you right where he wants you and he is with you there. Fear not.
        6. Or are you perhaps exactly where you planned to be?
          1. Then beware, oh brother, the sin of presumption by which you take even the smallest amount of credit for the Lord's goodness to you.
          2. Rather, use this goodness of the Lord to you as your excuse to lavish goodness upon your brothers and sisters that you through your fellowship may become a visible sign and reminder to them that the Lord himself is with them always.
      8. Thus Joseph becomes the recipient of the blessing upon Abraham
        1. God who had been with Abraham at the beginning
        2. said to Isaac "I will be with you" also (Ge 26.3)
        3. and this was obvious to Abimelech, the Canaanite king, just as it is obvious to Potiphar.
        4. And so the Lord appeared to Jacob and made the same promise.
        5. Now it comes down to Joseph. God is with him as well.
        6. The covenant God made with Abraham follows him out of the promised land and rests on him wherever he goes.
      9. And the promise to Abraham begins to be fulfilled in Joseph
        1. Going into Egypt - Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years; 14 but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. (Gen 15:13ff.)
        2. The nations blessed because of Abraham's Seed
          1. So it is that Potiphar sees and bears testimony to God's blessing of Joseph (3)
          2. And so he made him an overseer in his house (4)
          3. And God blessed Potiphar because of Joseph (5)
    2. Joseph Understands This (6b-18)
      1. Then temptation comes to Joseph.
      2. Potiphar's wife comes and crudely propositions him (7)
      3. Will he forsake the covenant God made with him in order to pursue this sin?
      4. He does not.
      5. Read vv. 8,9
        1. Notice that he does not say, "and sin against Potiphar."
        2. He knows that it is God who has commended all these things into his hand and that the sin would be against God himself.
        3. So Joseph has understood what all this prosperity means.
        4. God is with him and therefore he trusts in God and will not sin against him.
        5. He has not become embittered against the Lord, but entrusts himself to him.
      6. Let us thus reason with the devil when he tempts us to this sort of sin
        1. Consider all that God has given me in Christ.
        2. If he has withheld something from me, how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God.
        3. The argument is all the stronger because God has given you everything he possibly can in Christ.
        4. Whatever he withholds from you is of no value anyway.
        5. And further, Paul adds this inducement: "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not!"
      7. The woman renews her efforts (10)
      8. Finally, she catches him alone and grabs him by his shirt (11,12)
      9. He flees, leaving the shirt in her hand (13)
      10. With his shirt as evidence she falsely accuses him
        1. First she tells the men of the household her lie (14,15)
        2. Then she tells it to Potiphar himself (16-18)
      11. Is this Joseph's reward for his faithfulness?
      12. Will God allow this false accusation to stand?
      13. Will Joseph be punished for a crime he did not commit?
      14. We know that God is WITH Joseph, so we are not worried, just as we must not be worried when God allows us to suffer for the sake of righteousness, for so Christ suffered, and so did the prophets before him … all the way back to Joseph and further.
    3. God Remains with Joseph (19-23)
      1. Potiphar is angry and puts him in prison (19,20)
        1. Already God begins to preserve Joseph
        2. The penalty for a slave propositioning his master's wife should have been death.
        3. But God has plans for Joseph and he will not allow those plans to be thwarted. He is in control.
      2. But the Lord was WITH Joseph (21)
      3. And the keeper of the prison saw that the Lord was WITH Joseph (23) and so gave him authority over everyone else in the prison (22,23)
      4. Isn't this a repetition of Joseph's previous story?
        1. Joseph's brothers are about to kill him but sell him into slavery instead.
        2. And in slavery he rises to prominence in his master's house.
      5. So, each time, though he comes into an unpleasant situation, the Lord is WITH him and takes care of him.
      6. Joseph can be confident that the Lord will not allow any permanent harm to come to him.
      7. How much more we? For even if they kill the body we shall rise again. What then can man do to us if God is for us?
  2. The Story in Old Testament Context
    1. Joseph and Judah
      1. Joseph's story is a deliberate contrast to the story of Judah in the last chapter.
      2. Judah committed the very sin (and worse) that Joseph was tempted to.
        1. All Tamar had to do was dress up like a harlot and Judah was carried away by his lust.
        2. Joseph, though propositioned repeatedly, does not give in.
      3. Judah's signet and cord and his staff are used as true evidence against him.
      4. Joseph's garment is used as false evidence against him (just as Judah previously used Joseph's many-colored coat as false evidence of his death.)
      5. Judah stands justly accused. He represents the children of Israel in their sin.
      6. Joseph stands unjustly accused. He represents the children of Israel in their righteousness.
      7. So from the beginning Israel is taught that their salvation will come from one of their brethren who will not have a heart to sin as they do.
    2. Joseph and Adam
      1. Joseph argues that his master has given him everything EXCEPT this one thing. (8,9)
      2. What does this remind us of?
        1. Adam in the garden.
        2. God gives him all things, withholding only the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
        3. But Adam must have that one thing and so he falls.
      3. Thus Israel is instructed concerning their salvation
        1. It must come from a second Adam, one who passes the test that the first Adam fails
        2. And yet he suffers as though he had failed the test.
        3. But afterwards he is exalted
    3. Joseph and Israel
      1. Joseph's experience prefigures as well the experience of the nation of Israel.
      2. They will go down to Egypt and attain prominence there.
      3. But then they will become slaves and prisoners.
      4. But they may take heart. Just as God rescued Joseph and brought him up, so God will rescue them and even bring them out of the land of Egypt and return them to the Promised Land.
  3. The Story in the Context of Christ
    1. Christ, the Real Joseph
      1. Christ, like Joseph is born a son of Israel, but is rejected by the other sons of Israel.
      2. Like Joseph he is persecuted, unjustly accused, imprisoned and finally put to death.
      3. But he rises again, being exalted by God the father.
      4. Thus he becomes the salvation of those who put him to death, for as many as believe on his name.
      5. Christ is the one, finally, whom God is always WITH.
      6. Christ is the seed of Abraham in whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
      7. Everything about this story points to Christ and is fulfilled in Christ!
    2. Christ, the Last Adam
      1. Joseph is presented as a second Adam in this story, one who makes a better choice than the first Adam.
      2. But Joseph is not the true second Adam.
      3. Christ is the one who has truly turned from all temptations
        1. Joseph was not perfect.
        2. He cannot offer you the righteousness that he exhibits in this chapter because his righteousness was not constant or perfect.
        3. But Christ offers you a true righteousness that has turned from EVERY temptation.
        4. Brothers and sisters, the example of Joseph in this chapter is not sufficient to enable you to turn from temptation.
        5. But the righteousness of Christ IS sufficient.
        6. He did not reach out for anything that his Father withheld from him and so, in the end, he was rewarded with all things in heaven and on earth.
        7. He has won the victory over that supreme tempter, the Devil.
        8. Sin no longer has mastery over you.
        9. You have been bought and made the slaves of a new master, for you are mastered by the righteousness of Christ.
    3. Christ, the True Israel
      1. Like Israel leaving the Promised Land for Egypt, so Christ left heaven to dwell on this earth.
      2. Their experience as well was looking forward to his.
      3. And as they were brought out of Egypt into the Promised Land, into the presence of God
      4. so Christ was raised from the dead to everlasting life at the right hand of God.
      5. Truly all the Scriptures are fulfilled in Christ even as the New Testament claims.
      6. So, children of God, your position is better than Joseph's, is it not?
      7. For You are in Christ and in Christ you have ALREADY been brought out of Egypt and into the presence of God.
      8. In Christ you do not have to wonder what the end of the story will be, you KNOW. The ending has already been displayed in Christ's rising from the dead.
      9. Let us then have the confidence that befits our position as those who have been raised with Christ.
        1. Let us put behind us our worries
        2. Let us lay aside the sins that so easily entangle
        3. We have already entered into glory in Christ Jesus; what then can the world or the flesh or the devil offer us that compares?
      10. And let us then magnify our Lord!

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