Genesis 39:8, commentary and pictures

Joseph refused his master's wife by pointing to the complete trust his master had placed in him, having committed all in the house to his hand and left himself to know nothing except the bread he ate. His refusal was prompt and firm, turning from the first step of transgression without parleying, from gratitude that scorned to betray such confidence and from loyalty to God that valued divine favor above all human power. That integrity was not created in the moment but was the fruit of earlier faithfulness in small duties, communion with God, and a resolve made on the road to bondage to ever act as a subject of the King of heaven. Though his stand brought false accusation, prison and suffering, God did not forsake him but guarded his reputation, gave him favor, and in due time raised him to honor. His victory stands as proof to all generations that those surrounded by evil can resist and remain untainted through present divine help.

Trust and Setting

Potiphar's confidence in Joseph increased daily until he promoted him to steward with full control over all in the house, committing all that he had to his hand and knowing nothing of what was with him except the bread he ate. Joseph met the approach of his master's wife by pointing to that great confidence entrusted to him, treating yielding as betrayal of trust and abuse of his place. His refusal was gratitude and faithfulness to his master, despising the ingratitude of breaking that confidence even though his master might never learn the fact. That integrity is held up as a model of character for the young and for those preparing to serve God.

The trust was won because the Lord was with Joseph and made all that he did to prosper. The prosperity came not by direct miracle but by crowning his industry, care, and energy with divine blessing, which he attributed to God's favor. Even his idolatrous master accepted that divine favor as the secret of his success.

He gained and held this place as a stranger and slave in Egypt, serving amid idolatry and vice, the sights and sounds of vice and the allurements of heathen worship surrounded with wealth and culture and royal pomp, in a corrupt heathen court and a position of danger. He preserved simplicity and fidelity, refusing to linger on forbidden subjects or to hide that he was a worshiper of Jehovah to gain favor, remaining true to religious commitment without compromise with idolatry or abandoning duty for worldly advantage. In purity and uprightness he stood in marked contrast to idol worshipers, and by God's grace and not his own strength he glorified God, honored the Lord, and represented Him to a heathen nation.

Motives for Refusal

He refused promptly and firmly, turning away from the first step of transgression without stopping for a moment to reason or argue with conscience. He scorned the thought of yielding for fear of sullying purity, and met unlawful love and undue attachment with stern integrity, remaining upright and true to duty. He prayerfully and fully studied what God required, laid hold upon the help God promised, and exercised his free moral agency to wrench himself from a hurtful and dangerous association instead of cherishing evil and tamely giving himself to an evil way as though he could not break away.

He refused from gratitude and faithfulness to his master, pointing to the great confidence entrusted to him in committing all in the house to his hand. To abuse that trust would be ingratitude and betrayal, and he despised such ingratitude even though his master might never learn the fact. His integrity in honoring the trust placed in him makes him a model for the young and for those preparing to serve God.

He refused from the elevating power of the love and fear of God, which covered his heart as a shield and made him faithful and just to his master and true to God. From loyalty to God and sacred regard for His will and law he would not deviate from the path of righteousness nor transgress by any inducement or threat, calling the grace of God to his aid to fight the tempter and coming off conqueror. Aware that God saw him, unwilling to incur His displeasure, and reverencing and loving Him with unwavering trust, he carried his religion everywhere with the same regard in every circumstance. He valued the favor of God above the favor and praise of princes and every human power.

He refused by strictly guarding and governing the lower passions, appetites, and unlawful love rather than letting them govern him, standing firm in principle under strong pressure and preserving chastity, moral purity, and self-control under sexual temptation. A wise man claiming wisdom and competence for the duties of life draws nigh to God to prepare mind and body to discharge them aright. Indulging the passions abuses the perceptive faculties and injures health, calling blood in undue amount to the internal organs instead of circulating to all parts of the body to relieve the heart and clear the mind, so that disease comes until the evil is seen and remedied. His self-control and patience in adversity and unwavering fidelity, enduring innocent suffering without yielding or breaking God's law, were left on record for the benefit of all who should afterward live.

He refused from settled uprightness of heart, firm principle, and a will placed on the side of the Lord's will. Bible study, counsel with God, and reliance on Christ received as the basis of character produce steadfastness of purpose that the allurements of pleasure, custom, contempt, and self-indulgence cannot move, with God's word as law and the Lord with him. He loved truth and loved righteousness with undebased moral taste, lived with constant realization of God's presence and help, and drew from a living root and wellspring of godliness that shaped his surroundings instead of being molded by circumstances. This establishment in principle came by giving the heart to God and doing the personal heart work no one else can do, meeting crosses, letting nothing stand in the way of duty even at loss, and determining to obey God so that Christ's death would not be in vain on his behalf.

Formation of Integrity

His refusal was the fruit of character formed before Egypt by choosing duty over inclination, by integrity, simple trust, and nobility, and by careful training in early years that made uprightness firm when tested. That early formation came through a pure and simple life that strengthened physical and intellectual powers, through communion with God in His works and contemplation of the grand truths given to the inheritors of faith which elevated the spiritual nature and broadened the mind, and through living in accordance with the Creator's will as the security of truest and noblest development. Faithfulness in every station from lowliest to most exalted trained every power for highest service, for adherence to principle in the small transactions of ordinary life accustomed the mind to hold the claims of duty above pleasure and inclination and trained habits of fidelity and truth, so that loyalty to duty did not waver between right and wrong and faithfulness in that which is least gave strength to be faithful in greater matters. Such upright character is of greater worth than the gold of Ophir, not inherited nor bought nor accidental but formed by lifetime diligence, persevering effort, and right use of God-given opportunities. His standing firm to principle under trial makes him a representative man and pattern of integrity for students and youth who must themselves build characters able to stand the test of the judgment, since present probationary time is the only opportunity to stand the proving of God with no second probation to come.

He carried out in Egypt a resolve made in the crisis of the journey from his childhood home in Canaan to bondage, when looking for the last time on the hills hiding his kindred's tents he remembered his father's God and the lessons of childhood and determined to prove true and ever act as a subject of the King of heaven. That obedience to duty and faithfulness in lowly station as stranger and slave amid the sights and sounds of vice and the allurements of heathen worship surrounded with wealth and culture and royal pomp trained every power for highest service.

His steadfastness came from Bible study, counsel with God, and reliance on Christ received as the basis of character, producing steadfastness of purpose that allurements of pleasure, custom, contempt, and self-indulgence cannot move. Because the Lord was with him and God's word was law to him, he endured the test at every point with the same lofty, unbending principle, illustrating good principles in actual life and a character Heaven can approve, in contrast with vacillating youth who sacrifice conscience for indulgence and give way when firmness is most required. He loved truth and loved righteousness, his moral taste was not depraved, and the deep work of truth wrought in his heart kept him true and steadfast even while surrounded by evil. He lived with a constant realization of God's presence and help and with a constant dread of incurring the displeasure of the God whom he reverenced and loved, and his godliness had a living root to sustain it and a wellspring from which it drew nourishment, so it could stand the test by shaping his surroundings instead of bending and being molded in character by circumstances. Safety in such temptation comes from cultivating real faith in God, in His gracious goodness and His presence, and from earnest prayer.

He bore alike the test of adversity and of prosperity, success, and honor, with the same fidelity in the house of Potiphar as in the prisoner's cell and in the palace of the Pharaohs. His refusal met the test of prosperity and success and honor, which assails those who stand in high places as a tempest uproots the tree on the mountaintop while leaving the flower of the valley unharmed. The same sacred regard for God's will and love and fear of God that kept him pure and untarnished in refusal must stand undimmed on sudden and great elevation to wealth and honor next to the throne as in a prisoner's cell, because a lofty height brings danger and prosperity ruins those who forget to be humble and forget that God is their strength and become independent and self-sufficient. The more difficult the position the more Jesus is needed, requiring complete consecration, hiding in Jesus and holding the hand of Christ, guarding against presumption, and cherishing the spirit that would suffer rather than sin, for no victory is so precious as victory over self.

Suffering and Vindication

The refusal met a fierce assault upon morals from one of influence most likely to lead astray, yet it could not corrupt virtue and integrity. Because she could not corrupt him she hated him and testified falsely against him. Innocence therefore suffered for righteousness and virtue was cast into prison, with integrity bringing calumny and false accusation of a base crime on a foul charge. That refusal brought maligning and persecution, fetters and gloomy prison through revenge against virtue that could not be subverted. He meekly bore it without murmuring and did not sink in despair, but in consciousness of innocence and right still trusted God and placed reputation and interest in God's hands.

God who supported him did not forsake him or forget him in Egypt. He guarded the reputation blackened by a wicked accuser and in His own good time caused it and his character to shine. He gave him favor with the keepers and committed to him the charge of all the prisoners, turning misfortune into blessing and making the prison the way to elevation. He overruled the enemy's devices for good and used temptation, adversity, and hardship in the gloomy prison to prepare him. In His own time He raised him to prosperity, honor, and an exalted position far above his debasement, for virtue will in time bring its own reward. Even when maligned and treated like a criminal for doing right, God ultimately gave him victory.

Close connection with God does not bring prosperity in the things of this life, but may bring sore trial and affliction. Followers of Christ will often be sorely tried and afflicted, for it is through much tribulation that they enter the kingdom of God. Yet in Christ they have peace amid tribulation in the world, and God leads His children through trial to perfect trust. He will not forget His people in their trying hour when they flee to desolate places, are cast into cruel bondage, bound in chains, shut in prison, sentenced to death, and suffer privation and want of food. Christ cannot forsake those who are as the apple of His eye, the purchase of His precious blood, but while judgments fall and the wicked die from hunger and thirst, angels provide the righteous with food and water.

His self-control and patience in adversity and unwavering fidelity are left on record for the benefit of all who should afterward live. His refusal stands in contrast with those who yielded to sexual temptation and lost their integrity. His righteous character reflected Christ, with its source and strength coming from God. His righteous, self-denying, holy and meek life illustrates Christ, whose life was a continual rebuke to sin and was for that reason rejected and despised.

Pattern for Believers

His prompt, firm refusal under fierce assault from one of influence most likely to lead astray stands as an example to all generations that defense is at hand for those exposed to the severest temptations and to evil influences and corrupting surroundings. God is a present help and His Spirit a shield covering the heart, so that the tempted can resist and remain unconquered and untainted and come off conqueror with grace called to aid, and if they are not preserved it will be their own fault. No inducement or threat persuaded him to deviate from righteousness, transgress God's law, and prove untrue to his master by abusing great confidence although his master might never learn the fact.

Youth and students are to imitate him as a representative man and a pattern of integrity worthy of imitation, tried and proved and standing firm to principle by refusing wrong. They are to carry religion everywhere, with his regard for God's will unchanged by circumstances, cultivating Joseph-like firmness against temptation, holding propriety and earnest piety, keeping unspotted from the world, and unfurling their colors in choice words and consistent action. Present probationary time is the only opportunity to stand the test and proving of God before the judgment, with no second probation to come, and they are themselves responsible for building characters that will stand that test. His uprightness under test reflected purity and trust formed through careful early training and choice of duty over inclination.

Those preparing for service are to copy his chastity and moral purity under sexual temptation, holding firm refusal rather than yielding to opportunity and trust. Canvassers must be chaste like him, cultivating self-culture, agreeable manners, and thoughtful habits of industry and discretion from kindness of heart and desire to copy Christ, making of themselves all that it is possible to become through divine aid combined with human effort, and then a power will attend them wherever they go. Gospel workers should copy that same chastity, and his integrity and faithfulness in refusing because his master had trusted him with everything make him a model of character for those preparing to serve God. Physicians and nurses and all claiming wisdom and competence for life's duties are to govern the lower passions, appetites, and unlawful love rather than letting them govern, turning away from the first step of transgression without stopping to reason with conscience, and drawing nigh to God to prepare mind and body to discharge duty aright. Indulging the passions abuses the perceptive faculties and injures health by calling blood in undue amount to the internal organs instead of circulating to all parts to relieve the heart and clear the mind, so that disease comes until the evil is seen and remedied.

He was faithful in the post where Providence had placed him, remaining at duty in a position of danger rather than abandoning it for worldly advantage or deserting the only post for which he was fitted. With Daniel he was called to withstand there the temptations of worldly honor and high station, developing and appreciating talent where it is most needed, and young people should not force themselves into positions of danger or leave the duty suited to them. His special position did not lead him to compromise, for God kept him from contamination and from being molded by surroundings, showing that those who love God can remain faithful when placed among people who do not, and his awareness that God saw him strengthened his resolve to flee rather than yield. Complete and entire consecration like his in a difficult position requires the all-pervading power of true godliness, hiding in Jesus and holding the hand of Christ, guarding against presumption, and cherishing the spirit that would suffer rather than sin, for no victory is so precious as victory over self.