IMITATE THEIR FAITH/JOSEPH -"How Could I Commit This Great Badness"

"He NEVER CONSENTED" 


Joseph valued loyalty; Potiphar's wife, though, did not.  We read:  "The wife of his master began to cast her eyes on Joseph  and say:  "Lie down with me.' " (Genesis 39:7) Was Joseph tempted to give in to this pagan woman's bold advances? The Bible gives us no reason to assume that Joseph was immune to the desires and drives common to young men or that this woman, the pampered wife of a wealthy and influential court official, was physically undesirable. Would Joseph rationalize that his master would never know? Would he be tempted by the thought of the material advances that such a liaison might offer? 

 In truth, we cannot know all that passed through Joseph's mind. But we have a clear indication of what was in his heart. It shines through in his answer:  "Here my  master  does not know what is with me in the house, and he has entrusted everything in my care. There is no one greater in this house than I am, and he has not withheld from me anything at all except you, because you are his wife. So how could I commit this great badness and actually sin against God!"  (Genesis 39:8, 9)  Picture the young man speaking those word with earnest intensity. It hurt him even to contemplate the deed she wanted  him to commit. Why?

As Joseph said, his master trusted him. Potiphar had put his whole household in Joseph's hand, holding back nothing, but his wife. How could Joseph betray that trust?  He abhorred the thought.  But there was deeper revulsion; the thought of actually sinning against God, Jehovah. Joseph had learned much from his parents about God's view of marriage and fidelity. Jehovah performed the first marriage and made his feelings clear. Man and wife  were to stick together, becoming "one flesh." (Genesis 2:24) Those who  attempted to violate that bond risked incurring God's wrath. For example, the men who came close to violating the wife of Abraham, who was Joseph's great-grandmother, and the wife of Isaac, Joseph's grandmother, cam perilously close  to disaster.  (Genesis  20:1-3, 26:7-11) Joseph had learned that lesson well, and he intended to live by it. 

Next time: Conclusion of  "HE NEVER CONSENTED"

From the Watchtower magazine, 2014