It's Thursday 9th July 2015

NUMBER 31

'Now Joseph was well built and very handsome, and after a while his master's wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”' Genesis 39:7

We are told that God was with Joseph (v2), that his master, Potiphar, trusted him implicitly, (v4). Although a slave, Joseph could not have asked for a better situation in which to be a slave except, that is, until his master's wife set about trying to seduce him. Assuming that she was an attractive woman, Joseph may well have experienced tremendous temptation. Whatever the attraction, Joseph did not let his feelings take control. He was determined to do the right thing and to be worthy of the trust his master had placed upon him. We must not assume that because he did not surrender to her advances he found it easy. It may have been anything but easy for him. For we read, 'Though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even to be with her.' (v12).

Sometimes temptation can come knocking at our door relentlessly. Satan knows that if he is persistent, in many cases he can wear a person down and give them reasons, that sound quite plausible at the time, to give in. The best way to deal with such temptation is to take ourselves completely away from temptation's source, (if at all possible), and focus our minds elsewhere. Joseph avoided even being in the woman's company. But, as William Congreve states, 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.' Potiphar's wife was so incensed at Joseph spurning her efforts to seduce him that she accused him of trying to seduce her, presenting herself as the virtuous one. The result was that her furious husband, thinking that Joseph had betrayed his trust, had him thrown into prison.

Sometimes doing the right thing will get us into a lot of trouble. We will suffer for it rather than be applauded, and be on the receiving end of fury and contempt rather than gratitude. As human beings we naturally expect good to come our way as a result of being good and doing the right thing. We are shocked when things turn out otherwise. We need to look at the cross and realise that we might not receive our just deserts and that, though things might appear otherwise, God may well be working out his purposes in the injustice we experience. What might seem a terribly unfair thing to have happened, may well turn out to be a path to blessing. 

God bless you all.