Punished For Doing Right
(Gen. 39:1-20)
To refresh your memory about Joseph, Joseph was a young man
dedicated to God. God had given Joseph two dreams, indicating that one day Joseph would rule over his eleven brothers, as well as his father and mother. His brothers hated him, because he was their father’s favorite son, and they despised him even more after he told them his dreams. He was merely a seventeen year old boy, and 10 of them were grown men. They wanted to kill Joseph and see what would happen to his dream, but instead at the last moment, his brothers sold Joseph as a slave to some Ishmaelites on their way to Africa. Joseph
ended up in the land of Egypt.
From the outside, it looked as though Joseph was making a journey into Egypt all by himself. When he got there, the slave traders quickly sold him to a high Egyptian official by the name of Potiphar.
When Joseph received his job, he had the right attitude in mind He didn’t let go of his dream. In his dream, he had been a ruler over others, therefore he may as well get prepared for his future job by doing his very best at the present. Do you know why sometimes things don’t turn our right for some of us? We are so busy living for one day in the future, that we forget to live today. One day, when I get a real good job, one day when I get in high school, one day when so and so does such and such, then, I’m going to. Forget it. You are going to be tomorrow, what you were at the end of last night.
Joseph determined, to give his best where he was and let God open the other doors. The other slaves probably told him, you don’t have to work that hard. Slow down man, you’re going to kill yourself. If he had of listened to them, he would have died an unknown slave just like the rest of them. But Joseph could tell them, no I had a dream that you wouldn’t understand. I’m not here to stay. God is got something else in mind for me. It turns out, Joseph hadn’t come to Egypt alone. In chapter 39:2, we discover the Lord was with Joseph and he prospered
and lived in the house of his Egyptian master. Joseph’s external position of slave, didn’t remove the call of God from his life. We
have no excuse in thinking of ourselves as just a this or just a that.
You tell God what you would like to become and work hard at it, and God knows how to make a way for you. Joseph’s hard work and his dedication to God got his boss’s attention. It wasn’t too long before the boss had called him in and said, Joseph I notice something different about you. You’re a man that can be trusted to do the right thing, whether someone is watching you or not. From now on, I’m putting you in charge of everything.
What you say goes. Nobody can over rule you except me. Now too many, it would have appeared Joseph was sitting on the top of the world. Fine house, great job, good food, wonderful situation. It would appear Joseph could just sit back and relax and enjoy life. God even blessed Joseph with something he didn’t have much control over. The older he got, the more handsome he became.
As a matter of fact, he was so handsome as a single man, Potiphar’s wife wanted to commit adultery with him. She begged and begged and begged. Joseph had all of the requirements for a sexual harassment suit. Joseph tried the talking approach. "He said, "Look, your husband has entrusted me with everything he has except you, because you are his wife. How could I repay this man by doing such evil as committing adultery. If I did this I would be sinning against God." She said, "I understand what you’re saying, but big deal, will you go to bed with me."
Joseph did not try the talking approach anymore because he wanted to be right with God, with his boss, and with himself. He made sure he was never alone with her and even refused to get near her. But one day when he was minding his own business, went straight to work, unknown to him, nobody else was in the house. She came up behind him, grabbed his coat and said, "I got you now, let’s go to bed together." Joseph remembered the last time somebody had grabbed his coat, he ended up in a pit. He jumped up and ran out of the house, and stayed outside. As far as he was concerned she could have the coat.
Potiphar’s wife was going to teach Joseph a lesson he would never forget. He had turned her down for the last time. First she called in the servants and told them. "Joseph came in here to mock me and tried to get in bed with me, but I screamed. When he heard me scream for help, he left his coat and ran out of the house." I think she told the servants first so that she could have someone back up her story when her husband got home. She also knew how gossip allows a story to build up in time. When Potiphar came home, she took to coat in to him. She said, "You’ll never believe this, but Joseph came in here and
tried to rape me. I screamed for help and he ran out the house. Look, here is his coat which he left beside me."
Now Joseph knows he’s completely innocent this time. He had been as faithful to God as he knew how. He had a perfect work record, and never gave anybody any reason to believe differently about him. By the end of the day in which Joseph took a courageous stand for faithfulness he ended up in prison where the king’s prisoners were confined. You could bet your life, nobody escaped from the prison where the king’s prisoners were.
Can’t you see Joseph saying, this just didn’t turn out right. God, how could you let this happen to me again? Trials are as certain as life itself and they are going to bring about some sufferings. There are three things we know about God and trials. The first is that God permits the trials to come. There are some sufferings that we endure simply because we are human and subject to pain; but there are other sufferings that come because we are God’s people and want to serve Him. Never think for a moment that trouble is an accident.
As a believer in Jesus Christ, everything is a divine appointment. There are only three possible outlooks on trials in life. One is trials are the products of fate or chance. If that’s true, then you may as well give up because no one can control fate or chance. Second, trials come when we don’t control everything ourselves. If that’s true the situation is hopeless because none of us have nearly as much control over our lives as we think we do. The third outlook is that God is in control and we must trust him. If that’s true, then we can overcome circumstances with his help. God’s word tells us that He is the one who permits trials to come.
The second truth about God and trials is that God is in control of trials. Joseph may have felt that going back to prison after all his hard work in Potiphar’s house was just too much too handle. He would have no family on the outside pursuing legal courses to try to set him free. The apostle Paul put it this way, when things looked really bad in his life. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. But God knew how much Paul could withstand; he knew how much Joseph could withstand and how much you can withstand. It’s usually a lot more than we desire to withstand.
It has been said, "When God puts his children into the furnace, He keeps His hand on the thermostat, and His eye on the thermometer." Joseph’s brothers wanted to kill him. God said no, you can sell him as a slave. No doubt Potiphar wanted to have Joseph executed. God said no, but you can send him to the top maximum-security prison. We may at times have despaired of life, but God does not despair of us. He’s using natural circumstances to get us into the place he wants us to be.
Third, it’s God who enables us to bear our trials. God must often show us how weak we are in ourselves. Sometimes we have abilities that we rely on to get us by in situations. But when God is at work in our lives for a greater purposed, He wants us to trust Him, not our gifts, not our abilities, not our experiences or our spiritual reserves.
When you and I die to self, then God’s resurrection power can go to work. Dying to self does not mean doing nothing and expecting God to everything. It means getting to know God in a richer relationship and trusting him to complete the work. The God who raises the dead is sufficient for any difficulty of life. He is able but we must be available.
There was Joseph all the way at the bottom once again. Did he think serving God paid off in the long run. Yes he did. Sometimes God delivers us out of situations, other times he delivers us through them. We find in 39:20 and 21, Joseph didn’t go to prison alone. The Lord was with him and gave Him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.
Joseph did the best job he could do in prison. He remembered his dream, that one day he was to be a great ruler. He immediately started organizing things in the prison. Before long, the ward had called him and put him in charge of the whole prison. It wasn’t a fulfillment of Joseph’s dream, but he knew God was preparing Him for the day which was yet to come. He had no idea his dream would lead to him become as a Pharaoh in Egypt but it would.
No matter how discouraged Joseph became in the many reversals he experienced, we never see Joseph doing less than his best. In moments of crisis and temptation, we see him choosing to do what is right rather than what is convenient. How often we look at our misfortunes and trials as punishment for some unknown sins, when we need more of Joseph’s trust in the loving goodness of God in the realization, God gave me a promise and He’s going to keep it. God does sometimes lead his children into suffering, But it always done in order that He might bring through the suffering some greater good.
There is no record that God spoke directly to Joseph or that God met with Joseph on confronted him. There is no record of God acting to set aside natural processes on Joseph’s account. It was through Joseph’s own honesty and efforts that the Lord work. In the unfolding or circumstances, Joseph saw the hand of God.
You may be having a rough go at life. You’re not by yourself. But even more important, you’ve got someone to go to. Jesus said Mat 11:28 "Come to me, all you who are labor and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest.” You may not understand all that you’re going through, but the important thing is God does. God wants to draw you into a deeper relationship with him. It begins with the acknowledgment of needing help.
Rom 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
