Genesis 39

"but God Was With Him"

We have spent some time looking at the significance of the story of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38. This rather unattractive narrative seems to interrupt the flow of the Joseph story, yet is integral to it. If the Judah story explains to us why the sons of Jacob needed to go down to Egypt, the Joseph story will explain to us how God went ahead of them there, to secure provision for them, and to make all the necessary provision for their material and spiritual welfare.

One of the features we highlighted in the narrative was the contrast the writer of Genesis draws between these two brothers, Judah and Joseph. While Judah gives himself over to immorality, and yields to the lust of his own heart, Genesis 39 is going to emphasise for us the purity and the integrity of Joseph.

Three times in Genesis 39 -- in verses 3, 21 and 23, we read that "the Lord was with Joseph". It is surely not insignificant that this refrain keeps occurring. While Joseph had been rejected by his brothers, and while he was now being mourned by his father, there was One who had not, and would not, forsake him.

There is a great lesson to be learned from this itself. David learned it too, when he penned these poignant words of Psalm 27:10 -- "When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take care of me". Peter learned it too; having promised that he, of all the disciples, would never forsake Jesus (Matthew 26:33,35), it was he who denied that he ever knew the Lord. Yet, years later, with many nights of regret behind him, he encouraged God's people by the fact that they were "kept by the power of God through faith for salvation" (1 Peter 1:5).

Joseph discovered it too -- this great lesson of the keeping, caring, watchful presence of God with him, even when he had been rejected by those who ought to have shown him most love. The hardest wounds to bear are those we receive from those who ought to love us. But the greatest assurance we have is that there is one who can, and will, sustain us, in all the difficulties of life.

God Was With Joseph In His Prosperity

The ruler of our Providences opened up unexpected doors for Joseph in the land of Egypt. We are told immediately (verse 2) that "the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man ... the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand". From being shackled in the chains of the Ishmaelites, Joseph rose to the highest position of trust in the household of Potiphar, captain of Pharaoh's guard.

Indeed, the chapter is at pains to remind us of the way God blessed Joseph. All that was in the house was entrusted to Joseph (verse 4) to the extent that Potiphar did not know what he possessed, except that he knew what he ate and drank (verse 6)! Potiphar could sleep easy because he trusted his whole life to Joseph.

But more than that; we read not only that Joseph was blessed, but that "the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake"! "The blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in the house and in the field"! What Potiphar made of all this we do not know; perhaps he put his new found prosperity down to the skill of his new manager, or even accredited them to the gods of Egypt, or to Pharaoh himself. But Genesis lets us into the secret -- the blessing of God was on Potiphar's household because God was with Joseph.

There are some preachers who preach a prosperity Gospel -- who try to sell a "trust in Jesus and get rich quick" scheme. That is not the Gospel of the Bible, and it is not true to the experience of many of God's people, either. Sometimes the greatest blessings are experienced amid the greatest poverty and the greatest deprivation.

Yet if the blessing of God is on us, we will have something that cannot be bought with money, and cannot be robbed either. We will have peace, and blessing, and contentment, and a security that cannot be found except in a faith-relationship with God, such as Joseph had. He was not only blessed himself, but was a blessing to others too. If we want to have this kind of blessing for ourselves, and be a blessing to others, then we must learn to leave our all to God.

Yet I seem to see more here -- a greater than Joseph is surely here. If it is true that Potiphar was blessed for the sake of Joseph, how much more so are we blessed for the sake of another? For the sake of one who was despised and rejected of men, whose own people did not receive him? He who has been exalted above all principalities and powers -- for Jesus' sake we are blessed by God.

God Was With Joseph In His Temptation

Joseph was a good-looking man (verse 6). He may have been only a slave, but his physique, his energy, his intellectual and administrative abilities all combined to turn the head of Potiphar's wife. Without any engineering of the situation on his part, Joseph was faced with another great test. "Lie with me", Potiphar's wife said (verse 7).

No-one else was around. No-one else need know. No-one else need hear. The sin could go undetected. The pleasure could be immense. Opportunity opened the door, and sin invited Joseph in.

But Joseph knew that there was someone else there, who would know and hear it all. Perhaps his body did draw him to the pleasures Potiphar's wife offered. But his heart kept him back -- "How can I do this great wickedness," he said, "and sin against God?" (verse 9).

There is not one of us who is not faced with temptation of one kind or another. It may, like Joseph, be sexual, or it may be financial, or it may have some other nuance to it that appeals to the native sensuality and sin of our heart. But those who are trained in the ways of God know that "when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death" (James 1:15). God was in the thoughts of Joseph, and God enabled Joseph to withstand the temptation, as Jesus also did (Matthew 4:1-11), and to flee the scene.

How often we fail to be Joseph-like, or Jesus-like! We fall into the sin, and drive the thought of God out of our minds so easily. Let us seek grace to repent of our sins, to turn from them, to flee from them, like Joseph did here, and to please God rather than ourselves.

Of course, there was a price to pay. Potiphar's wife was furious, accused Joseph of attempted rape, and had him thrown in prison. So once again he was locked up. It was all part of God's plan, but was still hard to bear.

Sometimes holiness comes with a high price tag. Sometimes faithfulness does not give immediate rewards. But Joseph preferred to be a prisoner in Potiphar's dungeon with a clear conscience, than be ruler of Potiphar's house with a guilty one. Let's try, by God's grace, to follow his example, whatever the cost. Believe me, a guilty conscience is a difficult thing to live with. What a blessing that Jesus died "to cleanse our conscience" (Hebrews 9:14) that we might serve the living God!

God Was With Joseph In the Prison

The same God who had blessed Joseph in Potiphar's home, blessed him in Potiphar's cell. The blessing of God cannot be bound, or confined, or shackled. He is with us in darkness as in light, in day as in the night. Whether our bodies are free or bound, we can still know the blessing of God.

Like Potiphar, the keeper of the prison could sleep easy and trust Joseph "because the Lord was with him, and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper" (verse 23). Those who know that blessing in times of deep crisis are blessed indeed, and have a treasure that is beyond compare.

From his prison cell in Tegel, incarcerated at the hand of the Nazis, Dietrich Bonhoeffer could write: "That misery , suffering, poverty, loneliness, helplessness and guilt mean something quite different in the eyes of God from what they mean in the judgement of man, that God will approach where men turn away, that Christ was born in a stable because there was no room for him in the inn -- these are things that a prisoner can understand better than other people; for him they really are glad tidings..." (Letters and Papers from Prison, p166).

That was Joseph's experience too. God approached even when men turned away. That is the essence of the faith and is the heart of the Gospel. It is still the case that God is with his people, whatever their circumstances, and will be until the end of the world (Matthew 28:20).