God’s plan and will for Joseph (3)
Joseph, who was well-built and handsome, refused
when his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!” (Gen. 39:6-8)
The reason was because his master Potiphar had withheld nothing from Joseph
except Potiphar’s wife (v. 9).
Joseph was loyal to his master.
The greater reason was because Joseph feared God:
“How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?"
But Potiphar’s wife spoke to Joseph day after day to bed with her (v. 10).
But Joseph refused to go to bed with her or even be with her (v. 10).
But one day, when Joseph went to his master's house to work,
And none of the household servants was inside except the master's wife (v. 11).
Maybe she told the servants not to be there so that she could be alone with Joseph.
Maybe she was determined to go bed with him.
When she caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!”,
Joseph left his cloak and ran out of the house (vv. 12-13).
Joseph, who feared God, not only kept himself far away from her who was tempting him
But also ran away from the temptation to be alone with her.
What was the result?
He was falsely accused and was put into prison,
the place where the king’s prisoners were confined (v. 20).
Why did God just looked at it happened like that?
Why did God allow Joseph to be falsely accused and imprisoned?
What was God’s plan and will for Joseph?
What should we do when more and greater temptations come closer to us than before
As we keep on trying to shun evil in the fear of the Lord (Job 28:28).
What should we do when we are struggling with sexual temptations every day and every moment?
What should we do when our weak flesh keeps heading for those temptations
even when our hearts want to run far away from them?
Obviously, God made Joseph to be found favor in his master Potiphar’s eyes (Gen. 39:4).
Why not then God let or allow Potiphar’s wife to tempt Joseph every day?
Why did God let Joseph to be imprisoned by her two false witnesses and accusations (vv. 14, 17-18)
even though Joseph, in fear of God, tried to refuse her sexual temptations twice?
In the midst of it, God was fulfilling His plan and will for Joseph.
That plan and will of God was for Joseph
to meet the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt (40:1, 9-15).
Why didn’t God make Joseph to meet them in the king’s palace where King Pharaoh was
Instead of in the prison?
It’s hard to understand with our own mind and reason.
It’s hard to understand why God helped Joseph,
who had two dreams and thus was hated more by his older brothers,
to interpret the dreams of the cupbearer and the baker.
But eventually God made Joseph to meet the king of Egypt
by helping Joseph to interpret their dreams (41:9ff).
But it’s hard to understand why God made Joseph to meet the king of Egypt
“When two years had passed” (v. 1).
If God let Joseph to meet the king of Egypt right away instead of 2 years later,
Then Joseph didn’t have to suffer for 2 more years.
It’s amazing to see how God had worked in which He made the king of Egypt to dream (v. 1),
Like the cupbearer, and made no one to interpret his dream but only Joseph to interpret it.
How can we who dwell in this lowly earth can fully comprehend God’s higher thoughts that’s
like the heavens (Isa. 55:9).
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.”
(Prov. 3:5-6)