Joseph was not
only handsome but also faithful both to God and to his master. His integrity
was absolutely impeccable. Could he have seen what was coming? But even if he
could he was unable to avoid it as he had to fulfil his administrative
obligation within Potiphar’s household. So what actually happened caught him
unaware. Verses 11-12 say, “Now it happened one day that he went into the
house to do his work, and none of the men of the household was there inside. She caught
him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me!” And he left his garment in her hand
and fled, and went outside.” Mrs Potiphar had waited till no one was in the
house. She was scheming and waited for a perfect opportunity to entice Joseph.
But this faithful servant would have none of it. In this situation, there must
have been some ensuing scuffle as Joseph sought to be free from the
entanglement. When he had finally freed himself, he dashed out as fast as he
could from Mrs. Potiphar, leaving his garment in her hand.
In terms of lying, Potiphar’s wife was a skilful one. She customized her
lies according to the audience she was catering to. First she designed her lies
to elicit the support of her servants, then she concocted it to rouse her
husband’s anger. She first gathered all the men of the household and vehemently
protested, “See, he has brought in a Hebrew to us to make sport of us;
he came in to me to lie with me, and I screamed. When he
heard that I raised my voice and screamed, he left his garment beside me
and fled and went outside.” Notice how she framed her lies. By referring to Joseph
as the Hebrew, she was trying to play the racial line. She was trying to arouse
a nationalistic feeling among the Egyptians to incite a racial discrimination.
Then she left
the garment of Joseph lying beside her till her husband came home. She did it
to substantiate her story. She wanted Potiphar to imagine that Joseph came into
her with intention to violate her. Her story line was that Joseph came to her
room, took off his garment and lined them beside her and was about to come onto
her. It was then that she screamed. She made it seems as if Joseph only ran
away because her scream alerted the others in the house. Notice how she told
the lies in a calculated way to incite Potiphar’s maximum anger. She referred
to Joseph as the Hebrew servant. What she was trying to say was that it would
be bad enough to be violated by a Hebrew but the attempted violation was not
just a Hebrew but a Hebrew slave at that. Then she went on to insinuate that it
was partly her husband’s fault, referring to Joseph as the Hebrew servant “…whom
you brought to us….” The meaning seems to be, “If you did not bring this
foreigner in this would never have had happened.” No wonder Potiphar always
worked late.
The way Joseph
responded to the persistent goading of Mrs Potiphar to sin, leaves us with a
key on how to deal with the seduction of sin. So long as we don’t give in to
the insinuation, subtle or otherwise, we do well. Joseph did not give in to the
continuous goading of Mrs Potiphar. Bear in mind that sin is persistent. When
we are cornered, the best action is the one taken by Joseph. He ran as far as
he could from the source of seduction. He refused to entertain or rationalize with
sin. He just flatly refused to have anything to do with it. What Joseph did was
exactly Paul’s counsel to Timothy, his protégé, and by extension, all young people desiring
to live for the Lord today. In 1 Timothy 2:22, Paul’s exact words were, “Now flee from youthful lusts.…” This is the best
advice to deal with lust. Listen to it!
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