Genesis 39:1
And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmeelites, which had brought him down thither. And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmeelites, which had brought him down thither.
Joseph was brought down from his childhood home in Canaan to slavery in Egypt, bought from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down by Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard, in whose service he remained ten years. He was greatly afflicted by separation from his father, with bitterest sorrow over his father's grief. Yet God did not leave him to go to Egypt alone, and angels prepared the way for his reception.
As a stranger and slave he was surrounded by idolatry and heathen worship, vice and corruption, and the pomp of royalty and royal splendor supported by the wealth and culture of the most highly civilized nation then in existence. It was a place of sights and sounds of vice all about him, of increased temptation and temptations of no ordinary character. In that crisis he remembered his father's God and the lessons of his childhood and resolved to remain faithful as a subject of the King of heaven.
He preserved simplicity and fidelity to God as one who saw and heard not, not permitting his thoughts to linger on forbidden subjects. He refused to conceal his principles to gain favor, and was openly unashamed as a worshiper of Jehovah. His being brought down and sold as a captive was God's providence in placing him in a heathen court so he could carry to a heathen nation the blessings that come through knowing God and represent Jehovah there.
When God places people in such circumstances, he gives them grace to stand, not in their own strength but in his. The Lord was with Joseph and prospered him and gave him favor with his master. Potiphar entrusted all that he possessed to Joseph's care and kept knowledge only of the bread he ate, because it was considered an abomination for a Hebrew to prepare food for an Egyptian.
God did not forget him among idolaters, and this proves the Lord will not forget his people in the trying hour when they endure privation, cruel bondage, prison chains, and want of food, but will remember them and provide for them. He was virtuous, genuinely good, and strong in purpose, yet maligned, persecuted, and treated as a criminal while doing what was right. But God gave him signal victories despite appearances to the contrary.
As a youth he was tried and proved, and because he stood firm to principle under test he became a representative man and a pattern of integrity. His obedience to duty and faithfulness in every station, lowly or exalted, prepare a person for higher service. He is therefore a pattern to be imitated, showing institutions and youth how to honor God without compromising with idolaters, to bear faith and the name of worshipers of the living God as a special honor in prosperity and adversity, and to be honored by God in return.
His example shows each person in probationary time is responsible for the kind of character built and is deciding eternal destiny and forming a character to stand the test of the judgment. No teacher can make character for another. No second probation will come.