“Potiphar was furious when he heard his wife’s story about how Joseph had treated her. So he took Joseph and threw him into the prison where the king’s prisoners were held, and there he remained.”
Genesis 39:19-20 NLT
We’re not sure if Potiphar had suspected his wife’s story was rubbish. It’s highly possible because the Bible tells us the following:
“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. Before long, the warden put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and over everything that happened in the prison. The warden had no more worries, because Joseph took care of everything. The Lord was with him and caused everything he did to succeed.”
Genesis 39:21-23 NLT
What we know for certain is that the Lord was with Joseph and that, be sure, is an odd thing to read when you consider that Joseph has both been sold into slavery by his own family (what an intense betrayal!), then accused of a heinous crime and now imprisoned. If ever anyone has the right to say that God hates him and isn’t being fair, Joseph can make that case. But instead we learn that the Lord was with Joseph and in His sovereignty, Joseph becomes trusted by the prison warden and put in charge of taking care of things there.
A few things to note.
First, God’s sovereignty is never in question in the Scripture. In back of all these tragedies, and they most certainly were, is God’s will.
God is never taken by surprise.
Whenever a Christian is blindsided by events and he searches his soul and knows that it isn’t because of consequential wrath, that is, the result of a dumb and/or sinful thing he’s done, that he is experiencing something through which the Lord is teaching him.
I know a man who quit his job after going through a divorce. This obviously added to the difficulty of his divorce. Then he met a woman online and fell madly in love with her. In his crazed passions he conveniently overlooked the fact that she’d already been married twice and had, shall we say, some proclivity toward drinking.
Soon this man was married and divorced again and struggling to find a job. He mentioned that he trusts God and knows all of it happened for a reason and that God takes care of His servants. I told him he was correct and that God is still and always good but that in this particular case His servant was a knucklehead (deep theological term, that).
We must be vigilant to never convince ourselves that our sin, contempt for discipline, and utter disregard of wisdom, is godly. We should all pray fervently with the Psalmist to be kept back from presumptuous sin!
Joseph’s journey is remarkable, though, in that he suffers in every case despite his godly character and faithfulness.
It’s to this that God, we’re told, is with him.
Which brings us to the second point.
Sold into slavery?
Work so faithfully that your master trusts you with his household.
Betrayed by your master’s wife and put into prison?
Again, work so faithfully that the warden trusts you with the prison.
God is with Joseph because Joseph loves the Lord more than his circumstances! How else is this possible except that the love of God is poured into Joseph’s heart? How else is this possible except that Joseph’s highest goal is to honor the Lord and not his own comfort?
It’s for this reason that I think Joseph’s is the greatest story ever told. We know where this is going and can see the end in mind with the slave becoming the prince and ruling over the land. With the story of the Lord Himself we don’t physically see Him reigning although we know He was raised and ascended to the right hand of the Father. We know of Christ’s reign only in part and look forward to it in full…someday…and soon. Christ will come and we’ll see His glory with our own eyes. And we will finally at long last have the deepest desires of our heart, which is to see Him with our own eyes and to be beyond the grasp and presence of all sin. Finally.
But the power of Joseph’s story is in that consummation we know is on the way, so we see the suffering and the later elevation. We see the betrayal and the lows and know, in part at least, that these are pictures of the gospel message. We know that Jesus suffered but can make all of it somewhat of an abstraction if we aren’t careful. Why? Because we know that He was God in the flesh and if He had so desired could have ended the matters forthwith. With a snap of His holy fingers He could have incinerated Pilate, the Pharisees, and everyone else.
But Joseph has no power…and then again he does.
And that’s the next thing.
The Lord was with Joseph and caused everything he did to succeed.
Faithfulness to God is what’s required of us at every station and place. Our circumstances are part of the great story of our lives through which the sovereign God is, with that holy finger, writing upon our heart. The story is divine and we are the work upon which it’s written, just as Joseph was. The story is God’s. The goal is the glory of God but, let us not miss this, fellowship with Him.
The sufferings of life are what’s needed to break our pride and our pride is the wellspring of our sins.
Sin is the refusal to accept God’s control and timing. Sin seeks to hurry up the process of glorification by self-medicating. What is a man doing who is looking at porn except trying stupidly to provide happiness to himself? What is a man doing who is grumbling and complaining about his boss, his circumstances, or whatever, except bitterly rejecting the Lord’s control?
Joseph loved the Lord and found His pleasure and company more valuable than everything else. To accept God’s sovereignty without knowing His goodness will cause bitterness. If ever a man had the right to say that everyone is useless and to hate all and close himself off, Joseph is that man. Instead, in the Lord, the prisoner becomes trusted by the warden and even goes on to help fellow prisoners.
This is probably what Potiphar told the warden and was a “secondary cause” of God’s provision for His man even in Joseph’s humiliation.
Finally, we should understand that Joseph’s story is ours. It truly is.
We know that Joseph taking control of the house affairs at Potiphar’s and then in prison displays his character so that later he is given control of all of Egypt. To be trusted with little is our goal (Luke 16:10) because we will be judging angels (1 Corinthians 6:3). Please don’t miss this point: if you will not submit to the Lord and work faithfully where you are, no matter the circumstance, you are in sin. If you’re grumbling against your employer or co-workers you are in sin. God will not bless you for being a treacherous gossip or unfaithful servant. You are not working for a bad boss…you are working for the Lord.
“Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord. Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ. But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done. For God has no favorites.”
Colossians 3:22-25 NLT
This is the goal of Christ in our lives: our sanctification (1 Thessalonians 4:3).
It’s always easy to be conformed to the world rather than the Lord. In our time that’s especially easy considering our education system and media is saturated with the false principles of the great idol of our time: Marxism. Bad work ethic and resenting bosses and authority are, make no mistake, clear offenses to God. A habitually bad and untrustworthy employee is a false Christian who should never speak Christ’s name since God’s name is then blasphemed because of his poor character.
Do we seek a revival in this culture? We should with all our hearts. Then let it start with us! Ask the Lord to bless you with a heart that yearns for nothing more than love for Him that manifests itself in outward joy and obedience. When the secular culture sees Christians who truly trust their God with their entire lives, including their promotions at work, the door will crack open. When even the unbelievers want to work with God’s people it will be kicked wide open.
Make no mistake: Potiphar, nor the warden, were believers in the Lord. But they were believers in the work ethic, competence, and attitude of the one who served Him. They trusted Joseph because he was faithful! Even to them who weren’t godly men themselves.
A very hard question emerges if we humbly submit ourselves to the Word. Are we more like Joseph or his disloyal and lying brothers?
Let us pray that we follow Joseph’s example and that we’re faithful no matter what happens or where we are. Let us pray so that even unbelievers want to work with us because they know and trust the loyalty and dedication to skill that faith inspires.
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