And it came to pass after these things, that his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me.
After about ten years of trusted service in Potiphar's household in Egypt, Joseph was directly invited by his master's wife to sleep with her in a fierce assault upon his morals. He refused because yielding would betray his master's great confidence and be a great sin against God whom he loved and feared. He would not linger over the forbidden invitation but fled, governing appetite and passion by putting his will on God's side and refusing temptation at its first step. His virtue that could not be subverted turned to false accusation and imprisonment, yet God did not forsake him but turned the misfortune to blessing and in time raised him to honor. His course stands as the pattern of purity and integrity for all generations, especially for youth in probationary time, showing that with God as a present help there is defense at hand in the severest temptation.
Setting and Temptation
After being sold into Egypt Joseph was entrusted with responsibility in Potiphar's household, serving there about ten years in a position of trust and responsibility and danger in the king's court. It was a special position among people who did not share his faith, a high station where he was called to withstand temptation and not abandon duty. He had not chosen that situation himself, yet he was to remain faithful there and rely on God.
He stood in the midst of idolatry, surrounded by royal pomp, wealth, culture, and the sights and sounds of vice. The household was heathen, irreligious and self-indulgent, and the court around him was corrupt, with temptation surrounding him on every side. Those influences could taint character, and he was thrown into very bad circumstances in a trying hour of temptation and bondage. Even so God did not forget him there.
His master's wife cast her eyes upon him and directly invited him to lie with her, to sleep with her. It confronted him with unlawful love and undue attachment, a direct sexual temptation to deviate from the path of right. It was a temptation of no ordinary character, a fierce, strong, severe and great assault upon his morals. It came from one of influence most likely to lead astray, and such sexual temptation can threaten even a strong person's integrity.
He had been placed among a foreign people to bring them blessings through knowledge of God and to represent Jehovah. As a captive in Egypt he was to honor God in both prosperity and adversity. He was not to compromise his faith or his religious principles.
Motives for Resistance
Joseph's refusal when his master's wife invited him to lie with her was grounded in love and fear of God. He lived with a constant dread of incurring the displeasure of God whom he reverenced and loved, keeping God's glory and will before him in every situation, including prison and a position of honor, and treating God's word as law. That love and fear kept him pure and untarnished amid the test of character in adversity in the king's court, and complete and entire consecration is what such a difficult position requires. He carried his religion everywhere, and that all-pervading godliness was the secret of his unwavering fidelity, with his gold undimmed by prosperity and elevation. He loved truth and loved righteousness with a moral taste not depraved, and the deep work of truth in his heart with a faith realizing God's presence and help at all times kept his soul true and steadfast, because godliness in him had a living root and wellspring to sustain it.
To yield would have been to betray his master's great confidence and to abuse that trust with ingratitude, even though his master might never learn the fact. He despised such ingratitude and counted faithfulness and justice to his master as bound up with being true to God. At the same time he saw the act as a great sin against God and a transgression of God's law, a deviation from the path of right.
He consulted duty rather than inclination, choosing faithfulness to principle from an upright heart. He was firmly settled in principle and determined to obey God, established in principle so that he rejected the very thought of yielding and guarded his purity. With stern integrity he scorned yielding to anything that would sully purity, loving truth and righteousness. His firmness of character, uprightness, and wisdom bore fruit in the deeds of the man, showing an integrity, simple trust, and noble nature.
That strength had been prepared by the lessons of childhood and by the purity and trust cultivated in his youth, which were reflected in his firmness and uprightness when sold into Egypt and entrusted with responsibility. He had decided to live as a subject of heaven's King, and so remained faithful to God and true to duty even surrounded by vice and temptation. A pure and simple life had favored vigorous development of both 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 his spiritual nature and broadened and strengthened his mind. Faithful attention to duty in every station from the lowliest to the most exalted had trained every power for its highest service, so that living in accordance with the Creator's will secured the truest and noblest development of character.
He valued God's favor above human approval and was determined to honor God above every human power. His conduct was a confession of faith, and he cherished the spirit that would suffer rather than sin. He would accept temporal and business loss rather than yield, letting nothing stand in the way of duty.
Way of Overcoming
After about ten years of service the invitation to sleep with his master's wife met him in the midst of idolatry, surrounded by royal pomp, wealth, culture, and the sights and sounds of vice. He preserved simplicity and fidelity to God by living as one who saw and heard not, not permitting his thoughts to linger on forbidden subjects. He refused to conceal that he was a worshiper of Jehovah in order to gain favor, since hiding his principles would have left him overcome by temptation. Placed without his own choice in a heathen household and separated from his family, he faced a severe and perilous assault upon sensuality, kept his religious principles, looked to God for help, and fled rather than yield, showing that practical religion guards conduct even in private and that a decisive choice can determine a person's future. His course teaches governing rather than yielding to appetite and passion, for wisdom includes self-control and drawing near to God to prepare mind and body to do duty rightly.
The passions must be guarded and temptation refused at its first step, rather than debated or met with confidence in one's own strength. Strict reserve and propriety close doors to temptation, while willingly entering temptation weakens moral strength and leads to shame and confusion. Men are called to stand firm in principle when strongly tempted, and women to maintain strict reserve and propriety and give no encouragement to improper familiarity. Turning away from the first step of transgression is the way to control the passions.
A state of feeling does not compel sin, for a person has free moral agency to break away from hurtful and dangerous association rather than cherishing and strengthening evil. This is done by resolving to stay undefiled and putting the will on the side of God's will. It is done by studying God's word prayerfully and fully and laying hold upon the divine help God has promised, and by living a humble Christian life in reliance on God. He was preserved amid temptation because godliness in him had a living root and wellspring to sustain it, with moral taste not depraved and the deep work of truth in the heart keeping the soul true and steadfast to God even in very bad, irreligious and self-indulgent surroundings. With constant dread of incurring the displeasure of God whom he reverenced and loved, and with faith realizing God's presence and help at all times, the fear of God became the shield covering his heart. When God places people amid corruption He gives them grace to stand against temptation, not in their own strength but in His, so corrupt and unfavorably situated circumstances are no excuse for yielding, for godliness will stand the test by shaping its surroundings instead of bending and being molded by them.
Suffering and Vindication
Joseph could not be led into wrongdoing, and the virtue that could not be subverted turned to hostility and revenge in false testimony and accusation of criminal conduct. Preserving virtue and integrity therefore brought malignment, persecution, calumny and adversity, with loss of reputation and liberty and imprisonment despite innocence and rightdoing. Faithfulness under such assault exposes the faithful to reproach for truth's sake.
He did not sink in despair but patiently endured in consciousness of innocence and right, placing reputation and interest in God's hands and still trusting God. He bore the test with the same sacred regard for God's will in a prisoner's cell as when standing next to the throne after sudden elevation to great wealth and high honor. His gold was undimmed by prosperity, and the same fidelity marked his life in palace and in prison. Even with loss of reputation and liberty he remained kind, useful and cheerful, and hardship in prison prepared him for responsibility.
God watched his actions and guarded him through suffering, and did not forget or forsake him in temptation and bondage. The Lord remembers His people when they are hated, bound, imprisoned and left to suffer want, and they are not left to perish, for angels provide them with food and water. He overrules all the enemy's devices for good and turns even misfortune into blessing. That experience of temptation and gloomy prison is designed to prepare the faithful to fill an exalted position and responsibility. He gives victories even when they appear to suffer, and finally raises them in His own time to prosperity and honor, exalting them as much higher as for a while they were debased by wicked revenge.
His unjust suffering for righteousness, imprisoned because of righteousness though innocent, foreshadows and illustrates Christ, who was rejected and falsely accused because He lived righteously and reproved sin. It stands as an instance of God's appointed witnesses exposing themselves to reproach and persecution for truth's sake. It is an instance of having tribulation in the world while having peace in Christ, and of entering the kingdom through much tribulation as God leads His children through trial to perfect trust.
Example for Today
Joseph's course stands as an example to all generations that though exposed to the severest temptations there is a defense at hand. God is a present help and His Spirit a shield and source of strength to apply and resist, so it is their own fault if they are not preserved. His fidelity under temptation and suffering, and his patient endurance despite innocence, remain a pattern of integrity, truthfulness and purity that temptation could not corrupt.
He is a pattern for youth and students as a youth tried and proved who stood firm to principle and kept himself unspotted from the world and aimed high. His course is worthy of imitation, showing that good character is built through diligent effort and the wise use of the advantages God provides. Students are responsible for the kind of character they build and decide their own eternal destiny in the present probationary time, which is the only opportunity to stand God's test and proving with no second probation to come, and no professor can make this character for them.
Together with Daniel he is an example of one called to withstand the temptations associated with worldly honor and high station while serving in a position of responsibility and danger. Complete and entire consecration is what such a difficult position requires, with the same sacred regard for God's will in adversity and in elevation. Safety in danger and on a lofty height is only in hiding in Jesus and holding the hand of Christ, guarding against presumption, cherishing the spirit that would suffer rather than sin, and gaining the most precious victory of victory over self.
He is the example of chastity for those who carry God's work, who should be chaste like Joseph in refusing impurity and keeping pure when invited to sin. Canvassers, laborers and other workers are to copy this model in neat dress, courteous and agreeable manners from kindness of heart, and thoughtful, industrious, discreet and temperate habits. Such chastity, joined with meekness, brings power attending them wherever they go.
His integrity and principle are the pattern for giving the heart to God, meeting crosses, letting nothing stand in the way of duty even at business loss, and obeying God. His stand shows the influence of little things, for the varied circumstances met day by day test faithfulness and qualify for greater trusts. Adherence to principle in the transactions of ordinary life accustoms the mind to hold the claims of duty above those of pleasure and inclination, and faithfulness in that which is least acquires strength to be faithful in greater matters, so a mind thus disciplined to habits of fidelity and truth is loyal to duty and does not waver between right and wrong.
After about ten years of trusted service in Potiphar's household in Egypt, Joseph was directly invited by his master's wife to sleep with her in a fierce assault upon his morals. He refused because yielding would betray his master's great confidence and be a great sin against God whom he loved and feared. He would not linger over the forbidden invitation but fled, governing appetite and passion by putting his will on God's side and refusing temptation at its first step. His virtue that could not be subverted turned to false accusation and imprisonment, yet God did not forsake him but turned the misfortune to blessing and in time raised him to honor. His course stands as the pattern of purity and integrity for all generations, especially for youth in probationary time, showing that with God as a present help there is defense at hand in the severest temptation.
Setting and Temptation
After being sold into Egypt Joseph was entrusted with responsibility in Potiphar's household, serving there about ten years in a position of trust and responsibility and danger in the king's court. It was a special position among people who did not share his faith, a high station where he was called to withstand temptation and not abandon duty. He had not chosen that situation himself, yet he was to remain faithful there and rely on God.
He stood in the midst of idolatry, surrounded by royal pomp, wealth, culture, and the sights and sounds of vice. The household was heathen, irreligious and self-indulgent, and the court around him was corrupt, with temptation surrounding him on every side. Those influences could taint character, and he was thrown into very bad circumstances in a trying hour of temptation and bondage. Even so God did not forget him there.
His master's wife cast her eyes upon him and directly invited him to lie with her, to sleep with her. It confronted him with unlawful love and undue attachment, a direct sexual temptation to deviate from the path of right. It was a temptation of no ordinary character, a fierce, strong, severe and great assault upon his morals. It came from one of influence most likely to lead astray, and such sexual temptation can threaten even a strong person's integrity.
He had been placed among a foreign people to bring them blessings through knowledge of God and to represent Jehovah. As a captive in Egypt he was to honor God in both prosperity and adversity. He was not to compromise his faith or his religious principles.
Motives for Resistance
Joseph's refusal when his master's wife invited him to lie with her was grounded in love and fear of God. He lived with a constant dread of incurring the displeasure of God whom he reverenced and loved, keeping God's glory and will before him in every situation, including prison and a position of honor, and treating God's word as law. That love and fear kept him pure and untarnished amid the test of character in adversity in the king's court, and complete and entire consecration is what such a difficult position requires. He carried his religion everywhere, and that all-pervading godliness was the secret of his unwavering fidelity, with his gold undimmed by prosperity and elevation. He loved truth and loved righteousness with a moral taste not depraved, and the deep work of truth in his heart with a faith realizing God's presence and help at all times kept his soul true and steadfast, because godliness in him had a living root and wellspring to sustain it.
To yield would have been to betray his master's great confidence and to abuse that trust with ingratitude, even though his master might never learn the fact. He despised such ingratitude and counted faithfulness and justice to his master as bound up with being true to God. At the same time he saw the act as a great sin against God and a transgression of God's law, a deviation from the path of right.
He consulted duty rather than inclination, choosing faithfulness to principle from an upright heart. He was firmly settled in principle and determined to obey God, established in principle so that he rejected the very thought of yielding and guarded his purity. With stern integrity he scorned yielding to anything that would sully purity, loving truth and righteousness. His firmness of character, uprightness, and wisdom bore fruit in the deeds of the man, showing an integrity, simple trust, and noble nature.
That strength had been prepared by the lessons of childhood and by the purity and trust cultivated in his youth, which were reflected in his firmness and uprightness when sold into Egypt and entrusted with responsibility. He had decided to live as a subject of heaven's King, and so remained faithful to God and true to duty even surrounded by vice and temptation. A pure and simple life had favored vigorous development of both 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 his spiritual nature and broadened and strengthened his mind. Faithful attention to duty in every station from the lowliest to the most exalted had trained every power for its highest service, so that living in accordance with the Creator's will secured the truest and noblest development of character.
He valued God's favor above human approval and was determined to honor God above every human power. His conduct was a confession of faith, and he cherished the spirit that would suffer rather than sin. He would accept temporal and business loss rather than yield, letting nothing stand in the way of duty.
Way of Overcoming
After about ten years of service the invitation to sleep with his master's wife met him in the midst of idolatry, surrounded by royal pomp, wealth, culture, and the sights and sounds of vice. He preserved simplicity and fidelity to God by living as one who saw and heard not, not permitting his thoughts to linger on forbidden subjects. He refused to conceal that he was a worshiper of Jehovah in order to gain favor, since hiding his principles would have left him overcome by temptation. Placed without his own choice in a heathen household and separated from his family, he faced a severe and perilous assault upon sensuality, kept his religious principles, looked to God for help, and fled rather than yield, showing that practical religion guards conduct even in private and that a decisive choice can determine a person's future. His course teaches governing rather than yielding to appetite and passion, for wisdom includes self-control and drawing near to God to prepare mind and body to do duty rightly.
The passions must be guarded and temptation refused at its first step, rather than debated or met with confidence in one's own strength. Strict reserve and propriety close doors to temptation, while willingly entering temptation weakens moral strength and leads to shame and confusion. Men are called to stand firm in principle when strongly tempted, and women to maintain strict reserve and propriety and give no encouragement to improper familiarity. Turning away from the first step of transgression is the way to control the passions.
A state of feeling does not compel sin, for a person has free moral agency to break away from hurtful and dangerous association rather than cherishing and strengthening evil. This is done by resolving to stay undefiled and putting the will on the side of God's will. It is done by studying God's word prayerfully and fully and laying hold upon the divine help God has promised, and by living a humble Christian life in reliance on God. He was preserved amid temptation because godliness in him had a living root and wellspring to sustain it, with moral taste not depraved and the deep work of truth in the heart keeping the soul true and steadfast to God even in very bad, irreligious and self-indulgent surroundings. With constant dread of incurring the displeasure of God whom he reverenced and loved, and with faith realizing God's presence and help at all times, the fear of God became the shield covering his heart. When God places people amid corruption He gives them grace to stand against temptation, not in their own strength but in His, so corrupt and unfavorably situated circumstances are no excuse for yielding, for godliness will stand the test by shaping its surroundings instead of bending and being molded by them.
Suffering and Vindication
Joseph could not be led into wrongdoing, and the virtue that could not be subverted turned to hostility and revenge in false testimony and accusation of criminal conduct. Preserving virtue and integrity therefore brought malignment, persecution, calumny and adversity, with loss of reputation and liberty and imprisonment despite innocence and rightdoing. Faithfulness under such assault exposes the faithful to reproach for truth's sake.
He did not sink in despair but patiently endured in consciousness of innocence and right, placing reputation and interest in God's hands and still trusting God. He bore the test with the same sacred regard for God's will in a prisoner's cell as when standing next to the throne after sudden elevation to great wealth and high honor. His gold was undimmed by prosperity, and the same fidelity marked his life in palace and in prison. Even with loss of reputation and liberty he remained kind, useful and cheerful, and hardship in prison prepared him for responsibility.
God watched his actions and guarded him through suffering, and did not forget or forsake him in temptation and bondage. The Lord remembers His people when they are hated, bound, imprisoned and left to suffer want, and they are not left to perish, for angels provide them with food and water. He overrules all the enemy's devices for good and turns even misfortune into blessing. That experience of temptation and gloomy prison is designed to prepare the faithful to fill an exalted position and responsibility. He gives victories even when they appear to suffer, and finally raises them in His own time to prosperity and honor, exalting them as much higher as for a while they were debased by wicked revenge.
His unjust suffering for righteousness, imprisoned because of righteousness though innocent, foreshadows and illustrates Christ, who was rejected and falsely accused because He lived righteously and reproved sin. It stands as an instance of God's appointed witnesses exposing themselves to reproach and persecution for truth's sake. It is an instance of having tribulation in the world while having peace in Christ, and of entering the kingdom through much tribulation as God leads His children through trial to perfect trust.
Example for Today
Joseph's course stands as an example to all generations that though exposed to the severest temptations there is a defense at hand. God is a present help and His Spirit a shield and source of strength to apply and resist, so it is their own fault if they are not preserved. His fidelity under temptation and suffering, and his patient endurance despite innocence, remain a pattern of integrity, truthfulness and purity that temptation could not corrupt.
He is a pattern for youth and students as a youth tried and proved who stood firm to principle and kept himself unspotted from the world and aimed high. His course is worthy of imitation, showing that good character is built through diligent effort and the wise use of the advantages God provides. Students are responsible for the kind of character they build and decide their own eternal destiny in the present probationary time, which is the only opportunity to stand God's test and proving with no second probation to come, and no professor can make this character for them.
Together with Daniel he is an example of one called to withstand the temptations associated with worldly honor and high station while serving in a position of responsibility and danger. Complete and entire consecration is what such a difficult position requires, with the same sacred regard for God's will in adversity and in elevation. Safety in danger and on a lofty height is only in hiding in Jesus and holding the hand of Christ, guarding against presumption, cherishing the spirit that would suffer rather than sin, and gaining the most precious victory of victory over self.
He is the example of chastity for those who carry God's work, who should be chaste like Joseph in refusing impurity and keeping pure when invited to sin. Canvassers, laborers and other workers are to copy this model in neat dress, courteous and agreeable manners from kindness of heart, and thoughtful, industrious, discreet and temperate habits. Such chastity, joined with meekness, brings power attending them wherever they go.
His integrity and principle are the pattern for giving the heart to God, meeting crosses, letting nothing stand in the way of duty even at business loss, and obeying God. His stand shows the influence of little things, for the varied circumstances met day by day test faithfulness and qualify for greater trusts. Adherence to principle in the transactions of ordinary life accustoms the mind to hold the claims of duty above those of pleasure and inclination, and faithfulness in that which is least acquires strength to be faithful in greater matters, so a mind thus disciplined to habits of fidelity and truth is loyal to duty and does not waver between right and wrong.