Tag: Genesis 39

Potiphar was the captain of the guard. He entrusted Joseph with the management of his household, and God blessed everything Joseph did. Meanwhile, Potiphar’s wife pestered Joseph day-after-day, until one day she got him alone. She grabbed the handsome young man and insisted: “Sleep with me!” Joseph replied:

“Potiphar has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. So how could I do such a great evil and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9, BSB).

It’s a strange reply, especially to an Egyptian woman who might have thought: “God? Which god are you talking about?” Yet Joseph apparently had been taught and believed that none of us are ever really alone. God is always there, and God always sees. “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3, NIV).

There are those who insist children can be taught right and wrong apart from any religious instruction, that we can expect them to be “good humans” and that’s enough. No supernatural Being needs to figure into the equation, by their account. It looks good on paper, until you see the horrors caused in our world by those who grossly wrong others. Do they understand that they are wronging not just others, but their Creator? For them, who is God? God’s a myth, a tale Grandma and Grandpa talk about sometimes, an old and dying notion.

Before, we taught our children in Sunday School about a God who loves them, but also a God who one day will judge them for all that they’ve done (2 Cor. 5:10). Now, ask the average ten year old: “Who is God?” See what response you get.

What happens to a society that abandons the idea of God? Maybe we shutter our Walgreens because you can’t turn a profit when too much merchandise is stolen? Maybe we harden school security and run active shooter drills? Maybe we’re forced to borrow billions to purchase missiles and weapons, countering dictators who invade neighboring countries unprovoked and slaughter innocents?

Joseph wouldn’t sleep with his boss’s wife because he refused to sin against God. What a quaint idea, but what a powerful prescription for what ails us.

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