Lessons From Joseph’s Temptation

Spencer Davis | Lessons From Joseph’s Temptation

God has promised to be with us, even when we are tempted. In Genesis 39, we see that Potiphar’s wife tempts Joseph. Joseph’s temptation came repeatedly but he remained faithful. Joseph was able to be faithful in the midst of slavery and temptation because the Lord was with him.

Your faithfulness matters, and it is possible. God is with you just like He was with Joseph.

• Genesis 39
• Psalm 105

Transcript – Lessons From Joseph’s Temptation

The following content is from Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters, a gospel-driven high adventure camp in western North Carolina. Go to SWOutfitters.com to learn more about our camps and conferences. Enjoy the message.

All right, y’all doing good? Good. Everybody have a good day? Good. Let’s go in the Bible to Genesis 39. Genesis 39 Everybody remember where we’re at in the story of Joseph? So at this point, y’all remember Joseph is like a trusted son. He is working with excellence in his father’s house and he’s had some wild, just unbelievable dreams and life’s good. Life’s doing great until his brothers, remember his dreams and his father’s favor, it brought on this jealousy and then it was so much jealousy they see him coming they’re like, That does it, let’s kill him, let’s kill him right now. And they have this debate what they’re gonna do with him and then they throw him into a pit. And at the end what we saw last sermon was he gets sold into slavery, their actual brother. And that is how every great revenge movie starts. You ever think about that? Y’all like that, there’s a genre of movies where there’s a whole bunch of them. Like if this was an American movie, The next phase would be an end slavery. Joseph meets master Shifu, you know, in slavery and he trains and he comes back and methodically and slowly kills all the brothers at the end.

There is a genre of movies like that and I would watch that movie, but that’s not how the story ends. The story ends way better. So let’s pick it up in Genesis 39, but just remember where he’s at at this point in the story. He’s been kicked in the pit and then He’s been dragged out of the pit and he has been sold to these traders. These Ishmaelites are heading through and he’s been sold into slavery. Now, I’ve always thought it was kind of like slavery light, you know, kind of like Jethro, oh, it’s not that big a deal. You know, he’s in the pit and then he hops on a camel and then he’s in a rich guy’s house. It was like, this is great, but look at how Psalm 105 remembers it. When he, Yahweh, when he summoned a famine on the land and broke all supply of bread, He had sent a man ahead of him, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. His feet were hurt with shackles. His neck was put in a collar of iron until what he had said came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him.

So Joseph’s slavery, it didn’t start in like a privileged kind of way. He’s got a chain of iron around his neck. And I want to start in verse one of chapter 39. It says this, Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt. And Potiphar, an officer of the Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. How old was Joseph at this point? 17, right? We know for a fact he’s 17 years old. So you got to picture this young man, this teenager, right? He’s being led, he’s got shackles around his ankles, he’s got an iron ring around his neck. At this point when they’re heading into Egypt, the pyramids have already been built. There’s already temples to like Osiris and Ra and Horus all around and he’s being sold into slavery. And this begins, this is kind of side note, this begins the history of God’s people in Egypt. If you fast forward way down the line, you’re like, why did the people get into Egypt? We need to let my people go. This is how they begin in Egypt. So, but here as Joseph goes off to Egypt, he has no real reason for hope at all.

But really he has every reason to hate. He’s been wronged by everybody. But here the story takes a really unexpected turn. Verse 2, the Lord was with Joseph. That is a key. That is a turning point in the story. The Lord was with Joseph and he became a successful man. He was in the house of his Egyptian master. So this theme, the Lord was with Joseph, the Lord is with Joseph, we’ve already seen it, but this is light in the dark. And basically this is what causes Joseph to become a successful man. Start out successful, but he starts working for Potiphar just like he worked for his dad, which is wild, because if any of us are betrayed and sold into slavery, you gotta think there’s no incentive to work hard for your slave master. You know, he hasn’t earned it. Most of us, if we go into slavery, we’ll be like, I’m gonna do the bare minimum. This situation stinks, man. I’m not gonna do it. But see, Joseph was working for the Lord. He wasn’t working primarily for Potiphar. There’s three points I want you to get from tonight and here’s the first one.

First one I want you to get about Joseph is that Joseph was faithful and excellent wherever he was at. Joseph was faithful and excellent wherever he was at and you can see that play out in the different areas of his life. In his father’s house, in slavery, eventually in prison and then in Egypt he’s faithful and excellent wherever he’s at. Verse three, his master, that’s Potiphar, saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused everything Joseph did to succeed in his hands. All right, so look at this verse real quick. We’ll leave it up there for a minute. But I want you to see there’s several miracles that are happening here in slavery. It says, the Lord caused everything he did to succeed. So everything Joseph touched is like, poof, it just turned to gold. Every, every deal he made, it just made money. Every field he planted, poof, it just I mean, popped up a huge harvest. It was everything he did succeeded. That’s the first miracle. And the reason that Joseph succeeded was because the Lord was with him. And here’s the other miracle I want you to see is that the master saw that the Lord was with him.

It’s interesting that it doesn’t say, and Potiphar deduced that the gods must have blessed this man. It says, and his master saw that the Lord, that word is Yahweh. He knows him by name. How does Potiphar know Yahweh by name and know that that’s the that’s the God that’s with Joseph, probably because Joseph said it. Probably because Joseph spoke the name of Yahweh in the house as he’s faithfully serving. So the Lord caused everything he did to succeed. The master saw it and recognized that it’s from Yahweh. And the third miracle really is the blessings on Joseph spillover onto Potiphar. I mean, for real, because of Joseph, Potiphar is living large. He’s doing just fine. He’s doing good before Joseph, but now he’s doing real good. Look at what it says. It says, and this is, this is wild. Verse four. So Joseph found favor in Potiphar’s sight and he attended him and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. In the original language, the wording is really unique, but it’s basically like it’s showing his promotions. He gets three promotions from outside to inside.

Now he’s the personal assistant. Now he’s manager of the household. Basically, Joseph is just taking care of what God puts in his charge. It’s wild that he’s not complaining. He’s not whining. He’s not moaning about his situation. He’s just being faithful and God has he’s just dumping blessings out on Joseph, even in slavery. All right, here’s how it builds. Verse five, From the time that Potiphar made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had in house and field, so Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s charge. That’s wild. Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s charge, and because of Joseph, he had no concerns about anything except the food that he ate. That’s crazy. Can you imagine how sharp Joseph must have been at 17? Can you imagine those morning meetings where Potiphar’s like, hoo! Like comes in the kitchen like, oh, Joseph. And Joseph’s like, hey man, I got your eggs over easy, right? Great, here’s your coffee, great, I’m already on my third cup. And they pull out the agenda for today and Potiphar’s like, okay, okay.

How are the fields, Joseph? And he’s like, oh, the fields are good, man. I’ll harvest those like three weeks ago. Skip down to number three and he’s like, okay, great. The horses, how are those? And he’s like, oh, your horses were trash. I sold those. I made a bunch of money and I got some better horses out there. Everything, Potiphar’s just like, well, great. How about, okay, great. How about, okay, great. It says, Potiphar had nothing else to do. Hey, you gotta imagine, he’s like, all right, so what have, what you got for me today, Joseph? And Joseph’s like, well, you can choose off the menu. From tonight, I’ve selected the camel or the, you know, like Joseph, he’s done everything. He’s got everything all planned out. He’s a really amazing guy at 17. He’s excellent at 17. He’s faithful at 17. But we gotta remember, Joseph is in slavery for a long time. You all know how long he’s in slavery? It’s about 11 years. 11 years. So he’s in slavery from when he’s 17 all the way until he’s 28. He goes to jail when he’s 28. All right? We’ll read about that here in a second, but this is a long season of being faithful.

Now here’s the weird twist in the story. In verse 6, we’ve said, Potiphar has got no worries except like, all right, what’ll I have tonight? And then it gives you a weird little side note. Look at the end of verse 6. Now Joseph was handsome and form and appearance and you go, What? Wait, why do you say that? What does that have to do with anything? Have you ever noticed, there’s a couple places in the Bible where it announces somebody’s handsome and it’s always like weirdly put in there. It says about Saul that he’s the most handsome man in all the land, but it’s like, and Saul went to, now Saul was very, very handsome. And Saul went out to the, and you’re like, why did it put it in there? David, it does that too? Where it’s like, and David was in the field attending his father’s sheep. Now David was ruddy and very handsome. It’s usually foreshadowing. The handsomeness plays into the story and you can see that’s fixing to happen. Now, Joseph is handsome in form and appearance. That’s the same phrase that’s used of his mom. His mom, Rachel, was very beautiful in form and appearance.

And so it’s foreshadowing something bad that’s gonna come. Y’all know where this story goes? Okay, some of y’all don’t. Some of y’all do, but it’s, Verse 7, and after a time, Potiphar’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, Lie with me. Subtle. She just comes right out there, Hey, let’s have sex. Like she’s just very abrupt about it, lie with me. And so you can see how old is Joseph at this time? 11 years have passed. He’s about to go to jail for an incident that’s about to happen. And so he’s about 28. So you can imagine that this has been building for Potiphar’s wife for a while. She’s like, she’s starting to notice Joseph more and more and more. He’s growing up, he’s getting older, and it can’t help that Potiphar every day is coming home saying, have you noticed Joseph? I mean, that guy, he is handsome, isn’t he? And you know how much money he made me today? It’s crazy. Have you noticed him? And Potiphar’s wife’s like, mm-, I sure have. And like, So what’s crazy though is if you remember that this is kind of a request from Potiphar’s wife and it’s kind of a command because he’s property.

He’s a slave here. Now no doubt this line had been used successfully in the past but Joseph’s no ordinary slave. Look at verse 8 it says, but he refused. That’s it. Potiphar’s wife said, Lie with me and it says, but he refused. What’s crazy is Joseph probably hasn’t said no to any command thus far. Hey Joseph, can you do this? Yep. Can you figure this out? Absolutely. Can you do this? Yes. Lie with me. No. And it’s a flat out refusal. He’s not like leaving the door open. He’s not making it ambiguous to spare her feelings. He’s making it very, very clear cut. No, he refused. There’s not any mixed messages here. Listen to what he says. He refused and he said to the master’s wife, behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house and he’s put everything he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am. That’s crazy. He’s not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you because you’re his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?

God, you expect them to say, Potiphar, how can I do this great wickedness and sin against your husband? No, his speech has three points. He says, It would be an abuse to the master. It would be an offense to your marriage. And it would be great wickedness to God. We don’t talk like that anymore. It would be great wickedness. He calls it what it is. For her, it’s probably not a big deal. For Joseph, it is. And there’s lessons all throughout this, I think, for us. I want us to learn some lessons about temptation. And here it’s saying, the lesson, I think, is no matter what the world says about sin, sexual or otherwise, it is a big deal. There’s a Scottish pastor named Colin Smith. He said, the world is always in the business of coming up with fresh language to make sin more acceptable. It’s just a fling, Joseph. It’s just a moment of weakness, Joseph. Joseph says, this is great wickedness against God. They don’t care about God, but Joseph does. You see, Joseph has already settled the issue in his mind. How could I do this great wickedness? Joseph’s not an idiot, right?

He’s seen the glances probably. You know, he’s perceived that this is kind of building. He’s not out of the blue. He’s already made up his mind. I will not do that. I’m not gonna go there. That Colin Smith, he said this as well. An open mind in the face of temptation makes failure inevitable. What does that mean? If you come to temptation, you’re like, eh, we’ll see. We’ll see how this plays out. Well, maybe. Failure is inevitable. Another pastor said this, you need to know the answer before you take the test. That’s a good thing to keep in mind. This situation is going to come to you and sometimes be honest. Sometimes you want to be faithful and sometimes you don’t. You need to plan to stand. You can’t wait for your feelings to line up. Let’s continue on verse 10. The temptation keeps coming and she says it and she spoke to Joseph, day after day and he wouldn’t listen to her or to lie beside her or be with her. Here’s what I want to do. I want to take a few minutes here and just think about our temptations, whether that’s sexual or otherwise.

I want to think about our temptations and what makes them so dangerous. And I want to take some clues from what made Joseph’s temptation dangerous. So let me just pause for a second and ask you this. Is it a sin to be tempted? No, everybody’s tempted. That is natural, right? It is not a sin to be tempted, but you gotta be sharp. Temptation is coming, you gotta plan to stand. So I wanna take warning from some factors that made Joseph’s temptation so dangerous. There’s eight of them. The first thing that made Joseph’s temptation so dangerous was it was natural. It was natural. Think about this, sex and sexual desire are good. Not bad. God made them. It’s a gift from God. But God also created the environment for those things to be enjoyed, which is marriage between a man and a woman. That’s the place for it to be enjoyed and celebrated. You see, sexual desire is like fire. It’s enjoyable and beautiful and helpful when it’s used properly, but it’s devastating and destructive when it’s out of its proper context. Think about this. Joseph is young. He’s 17 when he goes into slavery. He’s 28 when he goes to jail.

He’s 30 when he goes into Pharaoh’s court. Do you think sex has not been on his mind at this point? He’s spent in all of his late teens and his 20s in slavery and prison. No chance for marriage in sight. It doesn’t say that Joseph was immune to those desires or that Potiphar’s wife was unattractive to him. It’s natural. He doesn’t reason, you know, if God didn’t want me to, if God didn’t want me to give in, he’d just remove those temptations. That’s not how it works. Paul says this, as long as we live in this body, we wage war against the flesh. Your temptation is going to be difficult because it’s natural. It’s what you want. Second thing that makes it so dangerous, Joseph’s temptation came when he was away from home. Think about your situation too. Well, let’s think about Joseph first. There’s nobody that’s gonna catch Joseph. There’s nobody that’s gonna blame Joseph. Where’s temptation gonna come looking for you? When you’re away from home, when you’re in college, when you’re on a trip, when you’re in a hotel, when you’re at a friend’s house. Joseph’s temptation was dangerous because when he was away from home, he was alone and he was vulnerable.

Third thing that made his temptation so dangerous, the temptation came when he had been wronged. Think about our situation. Temptation usually hits when we feel sorry for ourselves, right? How many times has this happened? You know, where we feel sorry for ourselves, you know, like his brother sold him into slavery. He could have thought, man, I deserve this. We’ve all been there. Number four, his temptation was dangerous because it came from an important woman. Think about this. This woman was the wife of an important official. Maybe sex with her would have helped towards his freedom. It definitely would not have hurt his situation, right? And on top of that, there’s no sexual like harassment policy in the house. He’s a possession outside of the Lord. Joseph has no incentive to be pure at all. He’s unmarried, she’s the boss. It makes all the worldly sense because Joseph probably would have benefited from sleeping with her. But ironically, she’s the slave and Joseph is the free one. Number five, fifth thing that made the temptation so dangerous. The temptation came after an important promotion. You know when temptation often hits? After a great week of camp.

After a great church service. After, you know, you’ve reached a new level of achievement. After a championship. Joseph is basically in charge of this high government official’s house. Number six, this temptation happened in part because he was good looking. Okay. Now, most of these you might relate to, this one you may not, I don’t know. Like, this is theoretical for some of us. Like, you know, reading this, I was like, huh, I bet that would be hard. You know, like, so for some of you guys, you’re all like, oh, it actually is hard. But for most of us, we’re like, okay, okay, cool, cool, cool. But the irony, I think, is like, most people want to look better than they do, but beauty brings its own set of challenges. Ask Sarah and Abraham. There’s a quote from this guy, an old English guy named George Lawson. You ready for it? Hast thou beauty? No. But hast thou beauty? Trust it not, but be modest and cautious. Do you want beauty? Be content and thankful that you’re free from the snares that often attend it. Thank you Jesus. Alright, number seven. The seventh reason that the temptation was so Difficult was because the temptation came repeatedly over and over and over man.

A lot of us, we can stand temptation one time, but if it comes five times, seven times, saying no once is commendable. But you can see this on lots of levels. If temptation is always there, you give in. So my birthday was back in the fall in September and my middle daughter For my birthday, she made me one of my favorite desserts. Y’all ever have flan? It is from the Lord. It’s good. It’s like a Mexican, like a custard thing, and it’s got caramel. It’s got caramel on the top, and it’s just, man, it is awesome. And so she is 13, so she made me four giant bowls of it, which is way too much for one human to eat. And so, you know, I was like, Man, thank you so much. This is great. So I sat down on the couch, and I ate I ate a whole bowl of it. And it was like, it was, I was right at that sweet spot where I felt a little sick, but not a lot sick. Like, it was, it was great. And so y’all been there before. Well, you know, it was great. Happy birthday to me.

And we gave the kids hugs, you know, and we put them to bed. And then me and Amy was my wife. And me and Amy are sitting on the couch. And y’all know, y’all know what happens. Sitting on the couch. I’m like, oh, there’s three more bowls of flan in there. I’m good, man. I’m good. I’m not trying to, you know, eat all that plot. That’d be crazy. It’s not going to eat itself, but, you know, and then, you know, three minutes of. Of withstanding. And I was like, I’m. Man, I’m just going to have a little bite. All right. I ate three more bowls of it. And I swear, in, like, 10 minutes, I was going. And it was awesome. I would do it again. I will do it again next birthday if the Lord permits. But man, y’all know, okay, maybe flan’s not your thing, but you got something to where like if it’s in the fridge or the freezer, it’s in there going, hey, psst, come here, come here. Y’all know if that temptation is repeated, it’s hard to stand. And man, you think about this. Joseph’s temptation was so hard because it was day after day after day after day.

Last one. The temptation came in a perfect opportunity. So will yours. It’ll be tailor-made for you. Are you ready to follow Christ and say no to a perfect opportunity to sin? Only if your heart and desires are being changed by Christ through the word. Now, any one of these factors makes temptation hard, but all eight of them together is like the perfect storm of temptation. This brings us to point number two. I want you to get about Joseph. He was faithful in temptation. How did he do that? Here’s the key. God was with him. See, we shouldn’t just read this story and be like, yes sir. Yes sir, Joseph, you’re the man. The reason, let me read this to you. The reason Joseph could withstand crushing disappointment, family betrayal, physical slavery in a foreign land, an onslaught of sexual temptation, being punished for doing what’s right, wrongful imprisonment, It’s not because he was an exceptional man, but it was because God was with him. That’s how he could stand. The same thing that brought Joseph success brought him purity. Now, I want to just pause for a second, give a little commercial. Because reading this part of the chapter brings great motivation, but if we’re real, it also brings a lot of guilt.

Because all of us have fallen for less. All of us have fallen into sin, whether it’s sexual, whether it’s otherwise. We all, we’d love to identify with Joseph, but a lot of times we identify with his brothers. We’ve messed up, we’ve been caught. Here’s the thing, Joseph wasn’t perfect. There’s only one man that’s ever been perfect and that’s Jesus. I think we’re supposed to see Jesus in Joseph’s story. See, Jesus was tempted in every way like we were and never sinned. That’s why we can look to him for our hope, that he can forgive our sin. All of us have fallen. If you’ve messed up in this area, you’ve messed up sexually, you’re in good company. Everybody else has too. That’s why we need Christ’s perfection. That’s what he gives to us on the cross is he takes our badness and we get his goodness. So there’s forgiveness, full forgiveness in Christ. So we need to look to him for that and for today’s help. All right, let’s finish our story out. Y’all ready? Back to our story. It’s gonna get really dark, really dark. She’s persistent day after day. She entices him, and the wording makes it clear that she’s, like, manipulating.

She’s, you know, she came on pretty strong with the lie with me. And now she’s, like, recalibrating. Come back. She’s like, no, man. Don’t lie with me. Lie beside me. Don’t fall for that. I’m not talking about sex. Just lay here beside me, just be with me. And it says that he wouldn’t listen to her or be with her. He set clear boundaries. There’s a Welsh proverb that says this, he who would not enter the room of sin must not sit at the door of temptation. That’s good. Set clear boundaries. He’s fighting and fighting is winning. All right, and here comes the dark part of the story. Things are going good. He’s fighting. But here’s where things go really bad for Joseph. Verse 11. But one day, when he went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was there in the house, she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me. She grabbed him by his jacket, saying, Lie with me. But he left his garment in her hand. He wriggled out of that jacket. He left the garment in her hand and ran and got out of the house.

This was an ambush. It was an ambush. She grabbed him and he wriggled out of that and he ran. Now it was the perfect opportunity for Joseph to give in because there was nobody in the house and that’s exactly when you need to run. Sometimes running is the only option. When your reason is overpowered by your wants you need to run. Don’t stay there. Don’t debate. You’re gonna talk yourself into sin. 1 Corinthians 6 says, Flee, run from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body but the sexually immoral person sins against his look at where it goes next. Here’s the darkest part. And as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, in her hand and had ran out of the house, she yelled to the men of her household and said to him, look, he’s brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us. He came into me to lie with me and I yelled with a loud voice. And as soon as he heard that I yelled with a loud voice, he left his garment at my doorstep. She went beside me and fled and got out of the house.

Boy, she turns from lust to fury real quick. She, I mean, wow. She did not have to take this route. She’s going scorched earth and accusing him of attempting rape. It is wild. She didn’t have to take this route. Joseph didn’t take this route. Now look at how she twists the story. She retells it backwards, right? She says, I started yelling, so he left. Nope. The way it really went was, he left, so you started yelling, come in and look what he did. And the garment is here beside me. Where was the garment really? It’s in her hand. I can’t have that, it’s too damning. I’m gonna lay it here on the bed and I’m gonna say, it’s pretty dark what she’s accusing Joseph of. Verse 16, Then she laid up his garment by her until the master came home. And she told him the same story saying, the Hebrew servant who you brought in among us, he came in to me to laugh at me. Now this part caught me funny a little bit. Just picture the scene real quick. Because this is a day before cell phones, right? Look at what it says.

And she laid up the garment by her until the master came home. How long was that? How long did she have to lay next to this jacket? You know, like she’s, she’s laying, she didn’t, she’s not texting saying, hey baby, you on your way home? Okay, great. I’m gonna set up the scene. All right. You know, like she’s laying next to this for a long, anyway, all right. I thought it was funny. So Potiphar comes in and she accuses Joseph of attempted sexual assault. She is trying to ruin his life again. She’s really trying to end his life again. She says, But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment beside me and ran out of the house. And as soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, this is the way your servant treated me, his anger was kindled. Now a slave assaulting a master’s wife is 100% the death penalty in these days. Why is Potiphar not killing Joseph? I don’t know. Uh, I think he, I think Potiphar believes her. I think he’s legit mad, but, you know, I don’t wonder if 11 years of faithfulness, 11 years of purity, 11 years of truthfulness had built up some equity, like some trust with Potiphar.

In any case, Joseph is wrongly accused and unjustly judged. Look at what it says. Verse 20, and Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison. The place where the king’s prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison. Can you imagine? Joseph did the right thing. What a live man. You ever been there? You do the right thing and you’re punished for it. How does that make you feel? John Calvin, he says this about how he thinks that Joseph felt. He said, From that honorable position he was thrown into prison, which was like a death sentence. He must have thought that he was abandoned by God as he was constantly exposed to new dangers. He might have even imagined that God had declared himself to be his enemy. Now, I think Calvin’s probably voicing what any of us would have felt, but the scripture doesn’t show any indication. That’s what Joseph felt. See, I think Joseph knew that God was with him. Look at the next verse, because this is a light at the end of the story. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.

We’re going to talk about the prison tomorrow, but we just need to stop and remember the Lord’s grace shines the brightest in the darkest places. It’s his favor. It’s a steadfast love in the dark. This brings us to the third point I want us to get about Joseph. The reason he’s able to act so honorably is that God was with him. God was with him. Here’s what I want to do. Y’all can’t read this probably, but I want to put up that whole story on the screen. All right, you can’t read this, but this is the whole story from when he goes into slavery all the way until he goes into prison. And there’s bookends. The stuff in green are kind of the bookends. When he’s going into slavery, it says, the Lord was with Joseph. The Lord was with him. The Lord caused all that he did to succeed and it tells the whole story of his slavery. And then when he gets thrown into prison, it says the same thing. The Lord was with Joseph, the Lord was with him and the Lord made it succeed. It’s showing that God is never leaving, never forsaking Joseph and the same is true for us.

Hebrews 13, I will never leave you nor will I forsake you. I think we need to learn in our darkest times, our darkest places, he has promised to be with us. With us. So as we close, let me paint a little picture of Joseph’s faithfulness that he never gets to see. Here’s the thing. It is hard to do the right thing. It really is. The current is pushing against you, but it’s hard to do the right thing, especially when doing the right thing is opposite of what you want to do. And when it hurts you, think about this, Joseph’s faithfulness cost him so much. And he didn’t even get to see the whole picture on the front end that it would be worth it. I want you to think about this. If this doesn’t happen on this afternoon, if Joseph doesn’t wriggle out of that jacket and say no to this super dangerous temptation that happens over and over and over, if he doesn’t stand in the face of temptation this afternoon, he doesn’t end up in prison. If he doesn’t end up in prison, he doesn’t meet the cupbearer. If he doesn’t meet the cupbearer, he doesn’t meet Pharaoh.

If he doesn’t meet Pharaoh, he doesn’t get out of jail. He doesn’t get promoted. He doesn’t provide food for his family. He isn’t used to to save the entire nation of Israel and in one way to save the promise God had made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It’s wild. Now God could have accomplished his purposes with anybody but he chooses to use Joseph, which is crazy. Here’s what I want us to get. Joseph’s faithfulness on one afternoon with nobody else in the house changed history. For real, your faithfulness one evening in your house, one afternoon at school, it matters. How do you know that? Man, God, the way he tells the book of Genesis, it’s wild. He flies through creation in the fall, real quick. Adam to Abraham, real quick. And then when he hits Joseph’s life, it’s like he puts on the brakes because he wants us to see that God is at work even in the smallest details of our life. God, if you’re a believer, God is with you like he was with Joseph, even in the hard times, especially in the hard times, even if those hard times last 13 years like Joseph’s did.

Be patient. God’s working everything for good even when we don’t see it. I’ll end with this verse, Psalm 31, Be strong and let your heart take courage, all of you who wait for the Lord.

Thanks for listening. We hope this has encouraged you in your walk with Christ. Be sure to give us a rating and review. And for more Snowbird content, check out our other podcast, no Sanity Required.