Genesis 39:9, commentary and pictures

Joseph refused the wife kept back from him alone when all else was trusted to him, because to yield would be betrayal of complete trust and unfaithfulness, injustice and ingratitude toward his master, and above all great wickedness and sin against God and His law. God stood present and all-seeing before him, beholding actions, thoughts, motives and hidden deeds, too pure to look upon evil and bringing every work into judgment. Fear, love and reverence for God guarded his heart, and living faith, close communion, prayer and reliance on grace and infinite strength gave him victory, for he viewed God not as a tyrant watching to condemn but as a tender, loving friend guarding his interests. He answered with firm resolve and decisive moral courage, scorning even the thought of yielding and fleeing rather than yielding, meeting unlawful indulgence at the first invitation without reasoning. Keeping integrity brought false accusation, loss of reputation and liberty, and imprisonment, yet God did not forsake him but guarded his blackened reputation, in His own time caused it to shine and raised him to honor, leaving him a representative pattern of integrity to all generations tempted as he was.

Wording and Historical Setting

The words mean that everything in the house had been put into his hands except the master's wife, so to yield would be to abuse complete confidence and to act with unfaithfulness, injustice and ingratitude toward the master who trusted him. The refusal therefore names the act as great wickedness and sin against God, while at the same time it refuses to betray an earthly trust even though the wrong might never be discovered. Reverence for God and reliance on divine grace give strength to remain faithful, just and true under inducements and threats.

The setting is service in Egypt amid corruption, vice, idolatry, sin and blasphemy, where faithfulness makes principle distinct from the worship around it. From a slave he had been raised to be confidant and companion in the house and court, entrusted with all that his master had. The verse thus meets the test of prosperity and high station with the same fidelity required in adversity, standing firm in the palace as in the prison cell against the fierce temptation that assails those set in places of success and honor. God's people are thereby taught to honor Him among other nations without compromise, in prosperity and in adversity alike.

The temptation came through a person of influence and power most likely to lead astray, pressing him repeatedly with inducements and with threats that could harm his prospects. He was far from family and surrounded by corrupting influence, yet firm principle and trust in God preserved his virtue. The decision of the moment carried his whole future welfare, while angels watched with intense interest to see how religious principle would hold under assault.

Nature of Sin Against God

The proposed act was great wickedness and grievous evil, a defiling of body and soul and a sullying of purity. It was to be met with decisive refusal, for even the strongest temptation or greatest pressure does not excuse sin, since yielding is a person's own act rooted in the unrenewed heart. Religious principle recognized it as such, and remembrance that God's all-seeing eye was upon the tempted kept faithfulness firm under temptation and adversity. Though pressed repeatedly and far from family, loyalty to God was to govern conduct, and living faith gave strength to flee rather than yield. Early training in the way of the Lord, a guarded heart, close communion with God, and an eye fixed on promised redemption taught the choice of what is pure and good and kept from corruption even in peril, for a decisive moment can affect the whole future and sensual temptation is especially dangerous.

It was above all a sin against God and not merely a wrong against an earthly master, so the first thought was of God. The great trust placed by the master, with all put into the servant's hands, was recalled, yet fear of God and loyalty to the divine law guarded the heart. Awareness that God saw, with religious principle and trust in God for help, enabled resistance and flight, and faithfulness to God held regardless of consequences. Moral integrity and purity in this refusal made the refuser a representative of God among a corrupt people. Neither inducements nor threats moved him to violate God's law, while angels watched with intense interest and future welfare hung on the decision of the moment, demonstrating the elevating power of religious principle.

It was a transgression of God's law and a departure from the path of right, strictest integrity and righteousness. To yield would have been at once unfaithfulness, injustice and ingratitude toward a master who had put complete confidence in the servant, and abuse of a trust that would never be discovered was despised. Reverence for God strengthened righteousness to remain firm as a rock to principle against inducements or threats and to refuse to leave the path of righteousness. The history stands for the benefit of all tempted as he was, when attention is engaged to lead to transgress the law of God, calling for the same moral power now because yielding ruins usefulness and jeopardizes the soul. Such unlawful indulgence must be met with decided refusal at the first invitation, with watchfulness, vigilance and daily prayer for God to preserve the heart and strengthen the soul, rather than self-confidence that no danger exists, lest it soon become habitual and lead to denying it is sin.

God is present and all-seeing, too pure to look upon evil, with all things open before Him. His eye reaches thoughts, motives and hidden actions, and remembrance of His commands and promises keeps purity and integrity even when temptation comes from one in power who can harm prospects. Living with the sense of His presence would not do great wickedness and sin against God amid corruption. Awareness of God and accountability to Him restrains from wrongdoing, so that one living with the constant sense that God sees actions and motives confesses inability to do this great wickedness and sin against God. This principle applies in every place and activity, because God observes actions and motives and will judge every work, and looking up to heaven under temptation to licentiousness brings fear of God and the knowledge that corrupting the body brings His displeasure and condemnation in the judgment according to light given.

He was controlled by the truth that God sees him, yet he viewed God not as a tyrant watching to condemn and punish but as a tender, loving friend guarding his interests.

Secret of Resistance

Fear of God covering the heart guarded Joseph and kept him pure, faithful and true, making him faithful and just to his master and despising abuse of trust even where discovery was impossible. Love and fear of God kept him pure in the king's court, and reverence for God with reliance on divine grace gave strength to resist powerful temptation, inducement and threat and to come off conqueror. That fear with the grace of God was complete consecration, showing the elevating power of religious principle to remain righteous and victorious through the trial.

Victory came through living faith in God giving strength to resist, through close communion with God helping the heart choose what is pure and good, and through looking to God for help and fleeing rather than yielding when pressed far from family. Prayer preserved him amid influences that could have led him away, resting his commitment to purity and uprightness on accountability to God. Remembrance of God's commands and promises, reliance on grace and infinite strength, dependence on God for spiritual life, an eye fixed on Jesus who had promised redemption, and a life hid with Christ in God sustained his integrity. Dependence brought God's presence and guardianship to strengthen faithfulness, proving that sensual temptation is especially dangerous and that the decision of a moment can carry the whole future yet faithfulness can keep one uncorrupted in peril.

Firm principle and uprightness under temptation were formed by careful early training, by choosing duty over inclination, and by trusting God. Childhood lessons and remembrance of God strengthened resolve to remain true in Egypt, and obedience to duty held firm amid vice and temptation. Consulting duty rather than inclination in early years, with integrity, simple trust and noble nature, produced the deeds of the man, while a pure and simple life favored vigorous development of physical and intellectual powers. Communion with God through His works and contemplation of grand truths entrusted to inheritors of faith elevated and ennobled spiritual nature and broadened and strengthened the mind, and faithful attention to duty in every station from lowliest to most exalted trained every power for highest service. Living in accordance with the Creator's will secured the truest and noblest development of character, for adherence to principle in ordinary transactions had accustomed the mind to hold claims of duty above pleasure and inclination, giving strength to be faithful in greater matters and to remain loyal rather than wavering between right and wrong.

He was established in principle and determined to obey God, answering with decisive moral courage, I will not do this great wickedness, scorning even the thought of yielding from uprightness of heart and loyalty to God and fear of sullying purity. An accommodating nature that cannot say no to proposals weakening moral and religious influence is easily led into evil and comes under Satan's control rather than God's Spirit, so resisting requires moral power with faithfulness governing conduct even under pressure. Integrity is personal work each must do, giving the heart to God, meeting crosses, letting nothing stand in the way of duty even at business loss, and fleeing fornication at once without stopping to reason with conscience, since delay gives opportunity to be overthrown. A heart guarded through close communion can meet temptations to abandon integrity with the same resolve, for even the strongest temptation does not excuse sin because yielding is a person's own act rooted in the unrenewed heart.

Living with the sense of God's presence, knowing all things are open before God who is too pure to look on evil, he would not do great wickedness, and that sense amid the corruptions of Egypt was a shield from temptation and an inspiration to purity and truth with no equal. The shield is needed in the smaller affairs of daily life no less than in the greater, coming from abiding trust that makes sustaining strength real. Faith, if cherished, will bring such a shield to every soul.

When God places people amid temptation He gives grace and wisdom to answer the tempter and a firm purpose to stand, not through their own strength but through His presence, guardianship and help. Heaven gave wisdom to answer and strength to resist evil, so that obedience though followed by unprovoked imprisonment did not mean forsakenness.

Suffering and Vindication

Doing right did not spare him, for keeping integrity and putting reputation and interest in God's hands brought false accusation, maligning, persecution, loss of reputation and liberty, and imprisonment despite righteousness. Virtue preserved in close connection with God brought sore trial and affliction, with hatred testifying falsely against him because his integrity could not be corrupted. Such faithfulness can require refusing temptation even when virtue brings suffering, showing that closeness to God does not secure prosperity in the things of this life.

God did not forsake him in prison nor forget him because he had obeyed, even when without provocation he was cast there and it seemed he was forgotten. God guarded a reputation blackened by a wicked accuser and in His own time caused it to shine, raising him to honor and exalting him after Providence overruled false accusation and imprisonment. Affliction was turned into preparation, blessing and elevation, so that virtue in time brings its own reward and suffering for right brings victories.

He bore the test of character in adversity and his gold was undimmed by prosperity, showing the same sacred regard for God's will when standing next to the throne as when in a prisoner's cell. Love and fear of God kept him pure and untarnished amid the king's court, and faithfulness to God's will remained unchanged in rising from prison to a place next to the king. He carried his religion everywhere, accepting temporal loss rather than sin, which was the secret of unwavering fidelity.

Standing firm in religious principle, honoring God and remaining in vital connection with Him, he was honored by God with wisdom, understanding and knowledge.

Pattern for God's People

Joseph stands as a representative man and pattern of integrity to all generations, his history left on record for the benefit of all who are tempted as he was to transgress the law of God. To yield would be great evil and sin against God, a transgression of the law and departure from the path of righteousness, and at the same time unfaithfulness, injustice and ingratitude toward a master who had put complete confidence in him. His answer was steadfastness to principle and living in the fear of God, firm as a rock under fierce assault on morals from a person of influence, refusing to let any inducement or threat prevail because God is a present help and His Spirit a shield and source of strength. He was tried and proved as a youth in Egypt and stood firm, showing that young men become successful by giving God time and talents, refusing a low standard, reaching heights of knowledge, and forming characters that will stand the test of judgment. Each person in this probationary time decides eternal destiny by the character built, with no second probation, and needs the same moral power now, for yielding ruins usefulness and jeopardizes the soul. Such steadfastness is the model of character for young people to follow, even though keeping integrity and putting reputation and interest in God's hands may bring false accusation, prison and unjust suffering for virtue. That suffering humbled without degrading him, for God guards a reputation blackened by a wicked accuser and in His own time causes it to shine, turning affliction into preparation, blessing and elevation, so virtue in time brings its own reward, and continuing to live in the fear of God means forgetting personal troubles in ministering to suffering companions.

His moral integrity and purity in refusing sexual sin as wickedness against God and not merely wrong against his master made him a representative of God among the people of Egypt. Refusal to sacrifice purity shows the character that makes a person like salt, preserving the world from moral corruption. By honoring God in refusing adultery as great wickedness and sin against God, his example in Egypt shows that God's people are to represent Him among other nations and remain faithful rather than compromise religious conviction, honoring God in both prosperity and adversity.

He is the pattern of chastity, scorning even the thought of yielding from uprightness of heart, loyalty to God and fear of sullying purity, and all who claim to be wise must follow him in strictly guarding and controlling the lower passions and appetites rather than being ruled by them. Wisdom draws nigh to God to prepare mind and body to discharge aright the duties of life, guarding thoughts and imaginations to serve in harmony with God, since indulgence brings disease and injury to mind and body. Those who work for God are to be chaste like him, cultivating kindness of heart, Christlike manners, industry and discretion, honoring God by becoming all it is possible to become through divine aid joined with human effort, so that power will attend them wherever they go. While serving in a position of responsibility he withstood the temptations of worldly honor and high station, named alongside Daniel as called of God to that stand, and his steadfastness to principle in the fear of God is given as the pattern for young men to become successful missionary workers. The same stern integrity is the model for physicians and nurses, for canvassers, for college workers, and for students cultivating mind and character while developing the character he displayed.

Bound to the throne of God by the golden chain of truth, he could not be tempted to turn aside from his course of integrity, valuing the favor of God above the favor and praise of princes and determined to honor God above every human power. In words, habits and practices he was not ashamed to display his true colors and confess faith in the Lord God of heaven, refusing any earthly course that detracted from God's honor. Because of that faithful integrity God loved him and spread His shield over him and signally honored him before men as the Lord God of hosts over heaven and earth. His strength from heaven to confess allegiance is the example for youth to unfurl their colors before men and angels, letting Christ occupy the throne in the soul temple and laying talents without reserve at His feet for service.

A mother's words and prayers plant in her son an appeal to hold him back from wrongdoing as disobedience toward God, abiding in the heart and unforgotten even when children appear indifferent and disregardful. The seed sown springs up years later to bear much fruit, when the grown child is absent from home, naturally drawn to evil and exposed to many temptations while traveling. Then remembrance checks him just as he is about to yield, like the pressure of his mother's hand upon his head, and saves him, carrying an authority that must be obeyed.

Though cast into prison without provocation and seemingly forgotten, he was not forsaken by God because he had obeyed, and surrounded by idolaters in Egypt his life assures that God does not forsake those who remain faithful in hardship. Heaven gave him wisdom to answer the tempter and firm purpose to resist evil by calling the act great wickedness and sin against God and refusing it. Obedient children who strive to keep the precepts have God's deep interest, may address Him as Father and Friend, and can be the happiest people even in trials. God's children placed in trying and sorrowful situations are not to imagine themselves forsaken but to trust God, bear trial without complaint and murmuring as he did, forget their own trials in helping others, and make themselves a necessity and a blessing even in prison.

Practical Moral Application

Unlawful indulgence is great wickedness and sin against God and transgression of His law, and it must be met with decided refusal at the very first invitation. The call is to flee fornication at once, turning away from the first step of transgression without stopping for a moment to reason or argue with conscience, because delay gives opportunity to be overthrown by temptation. This refusal is kept by watchfulness, vigilance, and daily prayer for the heart to be preserved from evil desires and the soul to be strengthened to resist, rather than by self-confidence that no danger exists. Those who do not give this decided refusal soon make unlawful indulgence habitual and become ready to deny that it is sin.

Even the strongest temptation or greatest pressure does not excuse sin, for yielding is a person's own act rooted in the unrenewed heart. A heart guarded through close communion with God chooses what is pure and good and can meet temptations to abandon integrity with the same decisive resolve. Lingering over temptation to gratify covetousness carries a man farther than he purposed in his heart, until his sin brings shame, defeat and death upon others, grieves the Spirit of God, defrauds his neighbor, and brings the frown of God upon the church.

Tempted feeling must not be yielded to as something that cannot be broken away from, nor cherished and strengthened as evil. Free moral agency must firmly and resolutely meet God's demands by refusing unlawful love and undue attachment, wrenching away from hurtful and dangerous association. Victory comes by taking hold of divine help through prayerful, full study of God's word.

Strength for the right requires taking this example to stand firm in principle when strongly tempted to impurity and sexual wrongdoing. It means holding strict reserve and propriety of deportment, closing every door to temptation, putting away all sin, iniquity and perverseness, keeping a distinct separation from impurity, and guarding against conduct that invites temptation. Even the least approach to impurity is to be loathed through love and fear of God.

Temptation is to be met by steadfastly resisting evil promptings and asking the soul how the Redeemer can be dishonored. Having given oneself to Christ, the works of Satan cannot be done, and strength is to be sought from Jesus by looking to Him for special grace to overcome personal faults. The tempted one is to cry to Him for help to sacrifice every idol and put away every cherished sin, believing by faith that strength comes through Jesus as He stands before the Father's throne presenting His wounded hands in plea.

Safety is only in complete and entire consecration, hiding in Jesus and holding the hand of Christ. Love and fear of God kept purity untarnished even in the king's court, and the more difficult the position the more Jesus is needed. There is to be guarding against presumption and cherishing of the spirit that would suffer rather than sin, for no victory is so precious as victory over self. Godliness can stand the test in very bad circumstances because it has a living root to sustain it and a well-spring of nourishment, with a constant dread of incurring God's displeasure by one who reverences and loves Him, and with deep truth in the heart keeping the soul true and steadfast even when surrounded by evil. Instead of blaming unfavorably situated circumstances or bending to be molded by irreligious, self-indulgent society, which a corrupt heart loves, the true follower shapes his surroundings, cultivates real faith in God's presence, gracious goodness and help at all times, loves truth and righteousness with undepraved moral taste, and prays as never before.

Wisdom means governing appetites and lower passions rather than being ruled by them, strictly guarding and controlling them and guarding thoughts and imaginations. Indulging them brings disease and injury to mind and body. The wise draw nigh to God to prepare mind and body to discharge aright the duties of life and to serve in harmony with Him, turning away from the first step of wrongdoing and drawing near to God for strength.

Habits of purity and steadfastness are formed by resisting temptation through divine strength in choosing purity and fidelity to principle. That integrity is personal work each must do for himself, giving the heart to God, meeting crosses, letting nothing stand in the way of duty even if it brings loss in business, so that Christ's death is not in vain on his behalf. Faithfulness means staying in the post of duty where Providence has placed talent and developing and using it where most needed, instead of deserting the only post for which one is fitted from short-sighted ambition for a higher sphere and forcing oneself into a position of danger when called to withstand the temptations of worldly honor and high station.

Loyalty amid infidelity and purity amid depravity come from depending on strength that is infinite, with life hid with Christ in God while surrounded by idolaters amid sin, blasphemy and corrupting influences. That example shows the pure and holy character and mind of Christ that must be formed before He comes, the holiness required of all who are to be translated. Vile bodies will be changed at His coming, but vile character will not then be made holy.

Christian character after this example requires purity, strict honesty, truthfulness and unswerving fidelity in both conduct and example. It preserves virtue, moral integrity and Christian principles despite pressure, persecution, and the pressure of associates or accepted customs to conform, remaining uncorrupted and firm in principle despite powerful temptation and a corrupting environment. Stern integrity recognizes that yielding would sully purity and be sin against God, refuses to do it, refuses corruption, holds fast to purity and fidelity, and lets actions match a sacred calling, remaining undefiled, unspotted and uncorrupted through dependence on God.