Genesis 39:12, commentary and pictures

Seized by his master's wife and urged to lie with her, he left his garment in her hand and fled out rather than yield his purity. It was a powerful assault on his morals and integrity through inducements and threats to commit sexual sin and betray his master's trust. His escape was prompt and firm, without pausing to reason with temptation or letting thought linger on forbidden things. Love and fear of God kept his heart pure and made him faithful to his master and true to God. By calling the grace of God to his aid he conquered, showing that all exposed to severest temptation have a defense at hand and are left an example to copy.

Temptation's Setting and Force

The verse belongs to Joseph's ten years in the service of Potiphar, captain of the king's guard. It places him facing temptation of no ordinary character in the midst of idolatry, surrounded by all the pomp of royalty and the wealth and culture of the most highly civilized nation then in existence, with the sights and sounds of vice all about him. It shows him steadfast in the bitter life of a stranger and a slave amid those sights and sounds and amid the allurements of heathen worship. His leaving his garment and fleeing carries out the resolve formed in the crisis of the journey from his childhood home in Canaan to bondage in Egypt, when looking for the last time on the hills that hid the tents of his kindred he remembered his father's God and the lessons of his childhood and determined to prove himself true and ever to act as became a subject of the King of heaven.

The verse shows a fierce assault on his morals and integrity from one of influence most likely to lead astray. It came with both inducements and threats, to deviate from the path of righteousness and transgress God's law. It pressed him to prove untrue to his master and with ingratitude to abuse his master's great confidence even though his master might never learn the fact. That even Joseph was so targeted shows that even a strong person is targeted by temptation.

The verse is a powerful temptation to sexual sin, to fornication and adultery and unlawful love. Potiphar's wife pressed him through corrupting influence and seized his garment urging him to lie with her and to let himself be corrupted. It was a temptation to violate God's law and betray his master's trust, met by demands of God's word to break away from unlawful love and undue attachment. His chastity in refusing to commit adultery is the refusal to yield to such corruption.

Flight Rather Than Yielding

When she caught him by his garment and urged him to lie with her, he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out rather than yielding his integrity, virtue and purity. His refusal was a refusal of sexual wrongdoing, fornication and adultery, and his firm principle kept him upright through false accusation and imprisonment until trust in God carried him through hardship to great responsibility in Egypt. His decisive escape wins the victory over temptation, showing that sensuality can be resisted through reliance on God, moral resolve and fidelity to religious principle. Steadfast religious principle held firm through every trial, with God's word governing his choices and keeping him true, and loyalty to God and purity of heart leading him to reject temptation and remain true to principle.

His escape was prompt, firm and immediate, without stopping for one moment to reason or argue with conscience. He left his garment and got out at the first step of transgression, turning away rather than pausing to reason with temptation. His prompt escape demonstrates strength to resist through humble Christian faith and reliance on God. The lesson is that the lower passions and appetites must be strictly guarded and controlled rather than allowed to govern, because indulging them abuses the perceptive faculties, draws blood in undue amount to the internal organs, and brings disease that prevents health until the evil is seen and remedied. All who claim to be wise and feel competent in their own strength to discharge the duties of life must therefore draw nigh to God and prepare mind and body to discharge duty aright instead of being overthrown by temptation.

He fled as one who saw and heard not, preserving simplicity and fidelity to God amid vice. He did not permit his thoughts to linger upon forbidden subjects, but governed his appetites and passions and controlled them rather than letting them govern. Wisdom means governing appetites and passions, drawing near to God, and preparing mind and body to do what is right, with thoughts and imaginations guarded.

He broke away and wrenched himself from a hurtful and dangerous association by his free moral agency instead of tamely giving himself to an evil way. His action proves that a state of feeling in unlawful love is not irresistible and cannot excuse yielding, and that the claim of inability to break away is a deception. To remain in it is to cherish and strengthen evil and to love it better than truth, purity and righteousness while refusing to take hold of the promised divine help, which is laid hold upon by prayerful and full study of God's word. Kept pure and untarnished by love and fear of God, he would accept temporal loss and loss of reputation and liberty, and suffer rather than sin, gaining the most precious victory of victory over self.

Inner Ground of Victory

What held Joseph in that moment was the fear of God covering his heart, the love and fear of God keeping him pure and untarnished, with a constant dread of incurring the displeasure of God whom he reverenced and loved, and that fear made him faithful and just to his master and true to God. He called the grace of God to his aid and so fought the tempter and came off conqueror, for God is a present help and His Spirit a shield and source of strength to apply and resist. A person facing strong temptation can therefore stand by God's grace and by humble Christian faith and reliance on God, not by finite strength.

His firmness had been made possible because in early years duty was consulted rather than inclination, and integrity, simple trust and noble nature bore fruit in the man. A pure and simple life had favored vigorous development of physical and intellectual powers, while communion with God through His works and contemplation of the grand truths entrusted to the inheritors of faith had elevated and ennobled the spiritual nature and broadened and strengthened the mind. Faithful attention to duty in every station, from the lowliest to the most exalted, had trained every power for highest service, and living in accordance with the Creator's will secures the truest and noblest development of character. By adherence to principle in the transactions of ordinary life and by faithfulness in that which is least, the mind becomes accustomed to hold the claims of duty above pleasure and inclination and acquires strength to be faithful in greater matters.

He was preserved amid temptation by an inner principle rather than by favorable surroundings, because godliness in him had a living root and a well-spring to draw from. He did not bend to circumstances but shaped them, loving truth and righteousness with a moral taste not depraved, and the deep work of truth wrought in his heart kept his soul true and steadfast even surrounded by evil. That steadfastness was sustained by love of truth and righteousness, reverence for God, faith in God's presence and help, real faith in His gracious goodness, and earnest prayer.

He had prayerfully and fully studied God's word and laid hold upon the promised divine help, and God's word governed his choices and kept him true under temptation. His virtue came from God and his life displayed the mind of Christ. Steadfast religious principle thus held firm through every trial, and the Lord was with him.

He was bound to the throne of God by the golden chain of truth so that he could not be tempted to turn aside from his course of integrity. He valued the favor of God above the favor and praise of princes, and was not ashamed to display his true colors or to hide that he was a worshiper of Jehovah to gain favor, for hiding them would have left him overcome. He confessed his faith in words, habits and practices and refused any mandate that detracted from God's honor, with strength from heaven to confess his allegiance. He did not compromise his religious faith but bore it as a special honor in both prosperity and adversity, representing God whom God used to bring the blessings of knowing Him to a heathen nation.

He was established in integrity and principle by a determined purpose to obey God and a settled purpose to keep himself pure and stand firm by principle, holding to his decision to obey when tried. Obedience must therefore hold firm under temptation, giving the heart to God, letting nothing stand in the way of duty, meeting crosses and accepting even losses in business rather than disobeying.

Shame Turned to Honor

Joseph's refusal to be corrupted turned the tempter's lust into hatred against the virtue and integrity she could not subvert, so the woman who would have led him astray revenged herself by falsely charging him with a base crime. That false charge made his fidelity cost him shame and disgrace, being treated as a criminal and cast into gloomy prison bound with fetters, the innocent suffering persecution and imprisonment because he remained righteous and would not yield his virtue. He did not sink in despair under that disgrace but in consciousness of innocence and right still trusted God and placed his reputation and interest in God's hands. God who had hitherto supported him did not forsake him but safely guarded the reputation blackened by a wicked accuser, gave him favor with the keepers of the prison and charge of all the prisoners, and turned the misfortune into a blessing. In His own good time He made the prison the way to elevation, overruling the harm toward his good until trust carried him through hardship to great responsibility next to the throne next to the king.

He bore the test of character in adversity and his gold was undimmed by prosperity, showing the same sacred regard for God's will and the same faithfulness in a prisoner's cell as next to the throne. His self-control and patience in adversity without murmuring and his unwavering fidelity in suffering for innocence are left on record for the benefit of all who should afterward live. His preserving virtue and integrity when tempted and then being maligned and persecuted for it proves that those who closely connect with God may not be prosperous in the things of this life but may often be sorely tried and afflicted. It is through much tribulation that entrance is made into the kingdom of God, and through such trial God leads His children to perfect trust with peace in Christ, while virtue in time brings its own reward.

His integrity fiercely assailed and his suffering for innocence illustrates Christ, who came to His own and was rejected and despised because His righteous, self-denying, holy life was a continual rebuke to corrupt profession. He was hated as a faithful reprover of sin, though guilty of no wrong, with false witnesses hired to testify against Him, and He meekly suffered. His remaining faithful while surrounded by idolaters in Egypt when God did not forget him in that trying hour proves that Christ cannot forsake those who are as the apple of His eye, the purchase of His precious blood. Therefore God's people when fleeing, imprisoned, deprived and suffering want of food while judgments fall on the earth and the wicked die from hunger and thirst will not be forgotten or left to perish, but will be remembered and supplied with food and water.

Call to Copy Joseph

Joseph's decisive escape is victory left as an example to all generations that although exposed to the severest temptations there is a defense at hand, so it is a person's own fault if not preserved. He is a representative man and pattern of integrity, a model of good character and of what youth should be, worthy of imitation by all youth. Students especially are to copy him, for they are themselves responsible for the kind of character they build, since no teacher can make their character for them and they decide their own eternal destiny in this probationary time that is their only opportunity for standing the test and proving of God in order to form characters that will stand the test of the judgment.

He shows a youth with an eye single to the glory of God and a lofty regard for God's will, carrying his religion with him wherever he went and into whatever situation he was placed. True religion in him has all-pervading power with sanctifying influence on all he does and says, giving tone to everything, keeping the heart fixed on heavenly things, enabling him to discharge well the duties where God has placed him without going out of the world, and breaking the spell of unwise association. His aim was to keep himself unspotted from the world, remaining uncorrupted and firm in principle despite corrupting influence.

His example shows that children and youth can develop godly character under God's discipline and care, and that a person placed among those who do not serve God can remain undefiled through God's keeping power. Young people placed amid increased temptation in a corrupt court should rely on God and remain where they have the greatest light. Facing strong temptation, a person can stand by God's grace and not by finite strength.

His example teaches complete and entire consecration, to hide in Jesus and hold the hand of Christ, to guard against presumption, and to gain the most precious victory of victory over self. The more difficult the position the more Jesus is needed, because it is impossible to stand on a lofty height without danger, and prosperity ruins those who forget to be humble and forget that God is their strength and become independent and self-sufficient. Yet God may call people to withstand temptation while serving in positions of influence.

His example teaches that people should hold to principle when strongly tempted, stand firm, refuse to yield, and avoid conduct that invites temptation. Loyalty to God and purity of heart lead a person to reject temptation and remain true to principle. Purity, honesty and fidelity are not to be corrupted by temptation, for character is shown by actions as well as words.

His hating sin, despising every temptation leading to pollution, and standing firm as a rock to duty is the pattern youth are to copy by cultivating uprightness of heart, growing in grace and knowledge of the truth, and going forth with higher, holier motives and firmer principles that scorn to yield to impurity. Uprightness of heart leads a person to scorn temptation that would sully purity. Steadfast religious principle holds firm through every trial and the Lord is with him.

His chastity in refusing to commit adultery and fleeing, even at the cost of abandoning his clothing, means chastity refuses sexual sin and flees from temptation rather than yielding. That chastity is the standard for those who carry the gospel from house to house to copy, together with meekness and temperance, with purity in habits, dress and conduct. Then divine power will attend their labor everywhere and wherever they go.

His example teaches wisdom in governing appetites and passions, drawing near to God, and preparing mind and body to do what is right. Physicians and nurses must also guard their thoughts and imaginations. The lower passions and appetites must be strictly guarded and controlled rather than allowed to govern, because indulging them abuses the perceptive faculties, draws blood in undue amount to the internal organs, and brings disease that prevents health until the evil is seen and remedied. All who claim to be wise and feel competent in their own strength to discharge the duties of life must draw nigh to God and prepare mind and body to discharge duty aright instead of being overthrown by temptation.