Time With Joseph: Who Do You Wrong?

“and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. 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?””
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭39:7-9‬ ‭NIV‬‬


Joseph is one person in the bible I closely studied last year. I was told to revisit this personality again this year and learn from him. These verses are as poignant to me now as they were then. I’d like to share the results of my meditation with you as I think it highlights a very important way to approach life.

Joseph has been approached by the wife of his master to engage in an affair and his response surprised me the first time I read it closely. He says:

“With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. 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?”

He lists every thing, every benefit he has received from his master, all the authority and freedom his master has given him, but notice he doesn’t say “how can I do a wicked thing to my master after he has done all this to me and treated me so well?”

That really shocked me because that’s our natural response. Someone is good to us and because of that we believe we should be good to them. When people are not so good to us we are either grudgingly good to them or we feel completely justified in having a negative attitude towards them, but this is not how Joseph thinks. He is not operating from a human frame of reference at all. It is almost as though his master and his treatment of him (Joseph) is completely irrelevant. Joseph says:

“How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”

What a switch up.

Joseph is so clear in the fact that his actions towards his fellow men are independent of them, but reflective of his reverence of and attitude towards God. It’s amazing and it still blows my mind whenever I read this verse.

Human beings are fickle. God is constant. If we base our behaviour on other people, which we have to admit, we do, we can never be Christ like.

Imagine Potiphar who basically trusted Joseph with his life, yet was so quick to imprison him with no chance for explanation or reference to Joseph’s exemplary past behaviour AND his own (potiphar’s) realisation that he was being blessed through Joseph.

“When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭39:3-4‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Potipher never stopped to think. This is a man through whom God has blessed me, will God prosper a man that would do such a wicked thing? But at the time Potipher wasn’t thinking about God. All he saw was the alleged betrayal.

It’s clear to see how Joseph became prime minister. He wasn’t concerned with pleasing anyone other than God. He wasn’t trying to gain favour from anyone. He was simply focused on God and I think that’s really the source of his success.

The big take away here is this:

We need to learn to ask ourselves this question:

How would this action play out in front of God? What would He think about it? Don’t leave room for excuses. Don’t say but he said or she did. Keep it simple and know that God is the only person to whom you are answerable. That way you don’t have to deal with the confusion of dealing with different counsel.

What does this mean though?

That you need to make time to hear from and listen to God. This means quiet time. It means reflection time. It means going deep within to converse with your soul. Otherwise all you hear is noise and you miss the silence of God.

We don’t wrong people.
We wrong God.
We don’t please people.
We please God.

Nothing more to it than that.