Genesis 39:1-23
(sermon note: 09-27 sermon note)
1When Joseph was taken to Egypt by the Ishmaelite traders, he was purchased by Potiphar, an Egyptian officer. Potiphar was captain of the guard for Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.
2 The Lord was with Joseph, so he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master. 3 Potiphar noticed this and realized that the Lord was with Joseph, giving him success in everything he did. 4 This pleased Potiphar, so he soon made Joseph his personal attendant. He put him in charge of his entire household and everything he owned. 5 From the day Joseph was put in charge of his master’s household and property, the Lord began to bless Potiphar’s household for Joseph’s sake. All his household affairs ran smoothly, and his crops and livestock flourished. 6 So Potiphar gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph there, he didn’t worry about a thing—except what kind of food to eat!
Joseph was a very handsome and well-built young man, 7 and Potiphar’s wife soon began to look at him lustfully. “Come and sleep with me,” she demanded.
8 But Joseph refused. “Look,” he told her, “my master trusts me with everything in his entire household. 9 No one here has more authority than I do. He has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God.”
10 She kept putting pressure on Joseph day after day, but he refused to sleep with her, and he kept out of her way as much as possible. 11 One day, however, no one else was around when he went in to do his work. 12 She came and grabbed him by his cloak, demanding, “Come on, sleep with me!” Joseph tore himself away, but he left his cloak in her hand as he ran from the house.
13 When she saw that she was holding his cloak and he had fled, 14 she called out to her servants. Soon all the men came running. “Look!” she said. “My husband has brought this Hebrew slave here to make fools of us! He came into my room to rape me, but I screamed. 15 When he heard me scream, he ran outside and got away, but he left his cloak behind with me.”
16 She kept the cloak with her until her husband came home. 17 Then she told him her story. “That Hebrew slave you’ve brought into our house tried to come in and fool around with me,” she said. 18 “But when I screamed, he ran outside, leaving his cloak with me!”
19 Potiphar was furious when he heard his wife’s story about how Joseph had treated her. 20 So he took Joseph and threw him into the prison where the king’s prisoners were held, and there he remained. 21 But the Lord was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love. And the Lord made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden. 22 Before long, the warden put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and over everything that happened in the prison. 23 The warden had no more worries, because Joseph took care of everything. The Lord was with him and caused everything he did to succeed.
This morning’s reading reminds me of the one about a man who was in the final stages of getting ready for his wedding. Everything was going well except for the one small matter of his bride-to-be’s extremely good-looking younger sister. One afternoon, a week before the big day, he found himself alone with her in the house. She slid up to him and suggested going upstairs – ya know, before he finally settled down to a life of wedded bliss. The man began to panic. Running through his options, he charged out of the house – only there, in the front garden, he discovered the rest of the girl’s family all waiting for him! As soon as he emerged, they gave him a big round of applause. “Congratulations,” said the father-in-law, “you’ve passed the test! You have proved yourself a man of honor and integrity, and I’m delighted to give you my daughter’s hand in marriage.” The fiancé couldn’t believe it and breathed a huge sigh of relief. His wife-to-be planted a big kiss on the cheek. And the moral of the story? Always leave your condoms in the car.
Which just goes to shows…sometimes life gives us opportunities to do the right thing and sometimes life gets the right thing out of us regardless of whether we wanted to do it or not. And thank goodness for the latter! I like to believe that God is more involved in getting the right thing out of us than when we’re asked to do it on our own. I like the idea of a more actively involved God in the affairs of this world. Heaven knows God is involved, it’s just hard knowing when and how He’s involved sometimes. It’s good to hear of him ensuring right things are done regardless of our free will. God’s good and right will will be done with or without us!
Alas, God gives us plenty of opportunities to do the right thing on our own. Just look at our friend, Joseph, from our reading for today. He, too, was given an opportunity to either give in to the temptation of Potiphar’s wife or resist it and he chose to resist it. Not without some pretty hard consequences! I mean, as if it wasn’t hard enough to resist her persistent advances, then she has the gall to get him unjustly thrown in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Talk about some hard consequences for simply doing the right thing! It makes you wonder why God makes doing the right thing so difficult sometimes. If it costs so much, then who would want to pay for it? Well, we’re looking at it all wrong. Doing the right thing actually costs very little. What we give up for doing the right thing actually has very little value. The real value is found in the right thing itself. I know, this is a lot of deep thinking this morning and not really what I want us to reflect on.
No, what I’d much rather want us to reflect on is a trait found in Joseph that enabled him to endure such a tumultuous life and that trait is integrity. Over the last couple of weeks, we looked at some key figures in the early biblical narrative. We looked at Noah and his salvation from the flood and then Abram cast into the unknown wilderness. Both men were men of great faith and courage and it’s no wonder we consider them as patriarchs of our own faith lives. But they also had the same trait as our friend, Joseph—integrity. Now whenever I think of the word, “integrity,” I think back to my days in basic training when they had us write a short response to the question, “What is integrity?” The best thing I could come up with in those scary times of sergeants yelling at you from sunup ‘til sundown was simply, “doing the right thing when no one is around to see it.” It’s not easy doing the right thing when no one’s around. But ya know what? We’re never truly alone. God is always watching, always growing us. God is always watching to see if we choose to do the right thing. Noah and Abram had it somewhat easy. God told them what to do and they simply had to obey. By simply obeying, they were doing the right thing. But it was a little trickier with Joseph. God didn’t tell him to resist the temptation of Potiphar’s wife. He had to rely on his integrity to make the right decision. Potiphar had entrusted Joseph with his property and all that entailed, including the relationships under his care. Joseph understood this all too well. Underlying all integrity is a deep-seated trust. Having integrity involves honoring and respecting that trust.
Trust is important in this world. It is the foundation of all fruitful relationships. Without it, relationships are bound to fall apart. Having integrity helps sustain that trust. I think we can all agree that relationships are pretty important in this world. Relationships with ourselves, relationships with each other, and relationships with God. Of course, loving relationships are the only thing that holds this world together, but all relationships need some degree of trust to survive. And all trust needs some degree of integrity. So, we understand the importance of integrity too…which Noah and Abram and Joseph had in spades!
It’s a shame we only get to see it revealed in this little snippet of his life journey. Recall that his integrity is amply revealed in the years leading up to and after this encounter with Potiphar’s wife. Beginning with his being thrown into the pit by his brothers and spending years in slavery, Joseph quickly gained the trust of Potiphar and was granted authority over his property. In the ten years he spent in prison after this incident with Potiphar’s wife, he again gained the trust of the warden and granted authority over the inmates. He’d go on to gain the trust of the Pharaoh himself, granted authority over all of Egypt. And what was it that enabled him to earned such authority over and over again? His integrity! His ability to continually do the right thing according to God and not just other people. There is great power to be earned by living with integrity!
And this is only reiterated by the wisdom of scripture. The book of Proverbs repeatedly boasts of the rewards of integrity. It says, “People with integrity walk safely, but those who follow crooked paths will be exposed.” (10:9) And again, “better to be poor and honest than to be dishonest and rich.” (28:6) Oh yes, there is great wisdom to be gleaned from living a life of integrity! So as we continue through the rich stories of the early Bible, let us give thanks for people of great faith and courage and integrity that have gone before us. They pleased God and were rewarded handsomely for simply obeying and doing the right thing. It is good to live with integrity! Let us boldly sing as David sang, “May integrity and honesty protect me, for I put my hope in you.” (25:11) Thanks be to God!
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
