Be Faithful...Like Joseph

 Genesis 39:9-10

"No one is greater in this house than I am.  My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife.  How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?"  And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.

Have you ever done the right thing, and things still didn't go well for you?  What are some of the temptations that you face day after day?  Are you able to withstand them every day, or do you lose that battle some days?

Joseph was faced with constant, daily, temptations and attacks on his faith and faithfulness to God.  Joseph recognized the favorable position God had given him despite being a slave.  His response to Potiphar's wife shows a level of maturity that we wouldn't expect from Joseph at this point of his life.  In the previous chapters it seems like Joseph, a young man of 17, was a spoiled brat.  This response to Potiphar's wife reveals that Joseph had a level of maturity that his brothers lacked: spiritual maturity.

Despite Joseph's shortcomings as the "favored brother", it seems that he loved God and tried to live according to his commands.  He would have been well schooled in the covenant and commands that God gave Abraham.  He would even have been familiar with the history of Noah and Adam.  After all, they were his descendants.  His response to Potiphar's wife shows clearly the depth of Joseph's faith and his dedication to the one true God, because I don't know many 17 year-old men who would have turned down this opportunity.

How about you?  When is the last time you resisted temptation because you realized that to give into it would be to sin against God?  This response of Joseph is so powerful for us, if we will remember it and use it, because this is how we should answer every temptation that comes along.  All sin is wicked and it is something we do against God.  

Unfortunately, all of us sin every day.  We do not stand up to it like Joseph did in this situation.  Usually we are more like Joseph in Genesis 37:1-11, indulging our selfishness.  Thankfully, God knows that we can't stand up to sin and temptation on our own.  That's why he sent Jesus.  Jesus did resist every temptation.  Jesus lived the perfect life that we can't live.  He died the death we deserve.  And he raised from the dead, in the flesh, on third day to conquer death for us.  Because of Jesus we are no longer slaves to sin and death.  We have been redeemed by God through Jesus.  Therefore we have been reconciled to our heavenly Father for all eternity.  It is all because of Jesus.

Hebrews 2:14-18

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil--and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.  For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants.  For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.  Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

God bless

Jason Fredrick