Ps. 105:18
"His feet were hurt with fetters; his neck was put in a collar of iron."
"His feet were hurt with fetters; his neck was put in a collar of iron."
The cutting wounds of false accusations come to all of us at some time or another. Character assassination is one of the most difficult challenges a human can face. It’s also amazing how such false accusations can travel with lightning speed, as Marvin Gaye sang, ‘heard it through the grapevine’. How we handle it will determine how fruitful we will be through it. You don’t find Joseph grumbling or complaining. Instead, he trusted in the Lord and the Bible says that the Lord was with Joseph and made him fruitful in the midst of his affliction (Gen.39:20-21). He will be with us too.
Joseph now found favor with the prison warden, who in turn made him the chief Administrator for all management operations and labor control in the prison! (Gen. 39:21-23)
Joseph’s status had changed once again. He had gone from being ‘favorite son’ to ‘favorite slave’, to ‘favorite executive’, and was now the ‘favorite prisoner”!
Joseph now found favor with the prison warden, who in turn made him the chief Administrator for all management operations and labor control in the prison! (Gen. 39:21-23)
Joseph’s status had changed once again. He had gone from being ‘favorite son’ to ‘favorite slave’, to ‘favorite executive’, and was now the ‘favorite prisoner”!
He became fruitful through the affliction of false accusation-He was Honorable but slandered.
Fast forward now to another point in his life, eleven years (means last lap) later, when he was honorable, yet still was slandered. He is a young adult slave of 28 years, working in the home of a high official in the Egyptian courts named Potiphar. Somewhere along the line, Joseph had decided that if life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. So, as Gen. 39 reports, he honored the Lord and worked hard at what was assigned to him. He served Potiphar with integrity and industry, and when opportunity came, he would talk to Potiphar about Jehovah God.
The Lord was with Joseph and blessed everything he oversaw. Potiphar noticed this and promoted him to the highest position in his household. And we feel the rightness of this for Joseph. I mean, isn’t that how it’s supposed to turn out—If you faithfully serve the Lord, He will bless you, shield you, open doors for you?
Even when his godly character was severely tested, he shined. Potiphar’s wife made it her goal to make Joseph her latest conquest. The Bible tells us that lust so gripped this woman that she threw caution to the wind, directly propositioning him to come to bed with her. Given her brazen forwardness, one might well imagine that as the days went by, she grew more daring in her seductions.
Finally, when none of these tactics had worked, she arranged for the house to be vacated except for herself and the man she had designs on. The unsuspecting Joseph walked right into her trap. She rushed at him wearing what we can only guess and grabbed him, presumably to drag him to her bed if she could.
With every rationalization known to man for having sex with this woman pounding his mind and body, Joseph chose to obey the Lord. He jerked free of her grip so quickly that he left his outer tunic in her hands as he ran out of the house to get away from temptation.
No one can escape admiring a man so set on glorifying God in his body that he refused the one thing he had no real hope of ever legitimately experiencing in his lifetime. But notice what happens to him in Gen. 39:13-20: As soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, she called to the men of her household and said to them, "See, he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. And as soon as he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house."
In Genesis 39 Verse 16-17 says that she laid up his garment by her until his master came home, and she told him the same story. Look at v. 19: As soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, "This is the way your servant treated me," his anger was kindled. And Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison.
Fast forward now to another point in his life, eleven years (means last lap) later, when he was honorable, yet still was slandered. He is a young adult slave of 28 years, working in the home of a high official in the Egyptian courts named Potiphar. Somewhere along the line, Joseph had decided that if life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. So, as Gen. 39 reports, he honored the Lord and worked hard at what was assigned to him. He served Potiphar with integrity and industry, and when opportunity came, he would talk to Potiphar about Jehovah God.
The Lord was with Joseph and blessed everything he oversaw. Potiphar noticed this and promoted him to the highest position in his household. And we feel the rightness of this for Joseph. I mean, isn’t that how it’s supposed to turn out—If you faithfully serve the Lord, He will bless you, shield you, open doors for you?
Even when his godly character was severely tested, he shined. Potiphar’s wife made it her goal to make Joseph her latest conquest. The Bible tells us that lust so gripped this woman that she threw caution to the wind, directly propositioning him to come to bed with her. Given her brazen forwardness, one might well imagine that as the days went by, she grew more daring in her seductions.
Finally, when none of these tactics had worked, she arranged for the house to be vacated except for herself and the man she had designs on. The unsuspecting Joseph walked right into her trap. She rushed at him wearing what we can only guess and grabbed him, presumably to drag him to her bed if she could.
With every rationalization known to man for having sex with this woman pounding his mind and body, Joseph chose to obey the Lord. He jerked free of her grip so quickly that he left his outer tunic in her hands as he ran out of the house to get away from temptation.
No one can escape admiring a man so set on glorifying God in his body that he refused the one thing he had no real hope of ever legitimately experiencing in his lifetime. But notice what happens to him in Gen. 39:13-20: As soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, she called to the men of her household and said to them, "See, he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. And as soon as he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house."
In Genesis 39 Verse 16-17 says that she laid up his garment by her until his master came home, and she told him the same story. Look at v. 19: As soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, "This is the way your servant treated me," his anger was kindled. And Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison.
ACTION STEP: Maybe you've been falsely accused? Maybe you're in a relationship prison or worse yet alone in the dungeon of someone else's making? We still serve a good, good Father--it's who He is and we are loved by Him. Hold onto your dream Joseph (Josephine), it will come to pass. God is making the person He can use. Times of famine and starvation are coming and resources our going to be coming from our good, good Father. Her needs a conduit of glory to flow through. Our Father needs someone who has been processed. Praise Him in your prison. Someone else is going to be a dreamer soon and they are going to need what you have!
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