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Genesis 39:6b-10: You only.

“Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, ⁷ and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, ‘Come to bed with me!’⁸ But he refused. ‘With me in charge,’ he told her, ‘my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. ⁹ No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?’ ¹⁰ And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even to be with her.” NIV

In Psalm 51:4 David wrote: ‘’Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight…’’

 He wrote this helpful prayer of confession and repentance after committing adultery with Bathsheba. David had, obviously, sinned against the woman he slept with. He also sinned against her husband (in more ways than one, if you know the story.) He sinned against himself too (1 Corinthians 6:18). But he was aware that, ultimately, all sin is against God.

The same attitude was in Joseph. If he’d gone to bed with Potiphar’s wife, he also would have sinned against her, and her husband, and himself. But he was so aware of the vertical dimension of sin (9), and it helped him to dig in his heels and repeatedly ‘refuse’ (8, 10) her advances. The temptation was persistent and insistent (10). How many days did this go on? We don’t know, but we do know that, with a sense of accountability towards his earthly master (8,9a), but above all to His Divine King (9b), he resisted the devil.

Verse 10 makes me think about words attributed to Martin Luther: ‘You can’t prevent the birds flying about your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.’

PRAYER: Lord, I know that some temptation is inevitable in this broken world. But as far as it lies with me, help me to avoid situations where I’m going to be tempted and I’m likely to fall.

Genesis 39:6b,7: The eye-gate.

“Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, ⁷ and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, ‘Come to bed with me!’” NIV

Commenting on this passage, Matthew Henry points out how much temptation comes via the ‘eye-gate’. He refers to Job 31:1:

‘’I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl.’’

 If we would guard our hearts, we must be careful about what we allow our eyes to see (and our minds to dwell on).

The apostle John denotes ‘’the lust of the eyes’’ as one facet of worldliness (1 John 2:16). This, of course, is not limited to sexual temptation, but it is obviously applicable to it. But it’s important to say that our eyes see many things we go on to ‘’lust’’ after. The advertisers know about this and are magicians with images.

To guard your heart you must guard your eyes. Trust the Holy Spirit to help you. He will.

Genesis 39:1-6: Taken to Egypt.

“Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. ² The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. ³ When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, ⁴ Joseph found favour in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. ⁵ From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. ⁶ So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well-built and handsome,” NIV

‘’Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt…’’ (1).

It was not by his own choice that he was there. He was forced to go. Furthermore, it was a downward step. His dreams had told him of a great destiny awaiting; they had spoken of upward mobility. But he found himself in a downward spiral. Socially he fell so far as to become a house slave. The princely robe was now way behind him. It had had been ripped from his shoulders. Now he was lost in a foreign land, and who would ever find him? Who could know he was there?

But although it was not his choice to be in Egypt, he served with such diligence, under the blessing of God, that he flourished. He was blessed, and He was a blessing.

You may find yourself today in a place (geographically or circumstantially) you have not chosen. Maybe, too, there is no obvious indication that you can or should move. What should you do? Sit on your hands and wait it out? No, what better place to serve than where you find yourself right now?

One day, the Lord may move you on. But don’t waste time waiting for a day in the future (a day that might never come). Use the opportunities to serve right now, right where you are.

Alistair Begg says, ‘The best place to serve the Lord is wherever He sets you down.’

PRAYER: Lord, help me please to joyfully, lovingly and faithfully serve you wherever you take me. It is a privilege to serve you anywhere. Enable me to see that and believe it.

Genesis 38:11-30: Pointing the finger.

“Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, ‘Live as a widow in your father’s household until my son Shelah grows up.’ For he thought, ‘He may die too, just like his brothers.’ So Tamar went to live in her father’s household. ¹² After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him. ¹³ When Tamar was told, ‘Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,’ ¹⁴ she took off her widow’s clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife. ¹⁵ When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. ¹⁶ Not realising that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, ‘Come now, let me sleep with you.’ ‘And what will you give me to sleep with you?’ she asked. ¹⁷ ‘I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,’ he said.‘Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?’ she asked.¹⁸ He said, ‘What pledge should I give you?’‘Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand,’ she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. ¹⁹ After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow’s clothes again.²⁰ Meanwhile Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get his pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her. ²¹ He asked the men who lived there, ‘Where is the shrine-prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?’‘There hasn’t been any shrine-prostitute here,’ they said.²² So he went back to Judah and said, ‘I didn’t find her. Besides, the men who lived there said, “There hasn’t been any shrine-prostitute here.”’²³ Then Judah said, ‘Let her keep what she has, or we will become a laughing-stock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn’t find her.’²⁴ About three months later Judah was told, ‘Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.’Judah said, ‘Bring her out and let her be burned to death!’²⁵ As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. ‘I am pregnant by the man who owns these,’ she said. And she added, ‘See if you recognise whose seal and cord and staff these are.’²⁶ Judah recognised them and said, ‘She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.’ And he did not sleep with her again.²⁷ When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. ²⁸ As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, ‘This one came out first.’ ²⁹ But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, ‘So this is how you have broken out!’ And he was named Perez. ³⁰ Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out. And he was named Zerah.”NIV

It’s been said that whenever you point a finger at someone else, you point three back at yourself. Why is it that we condemn so vehemently the sins in others we know to be in ourselves (24)? Judah was outraged at the misbehaviour of his daughter-in-law, but didn’t seem concerned about his own antics. At least, not until he was forced to take a look in the mirror (26). Judah did not intend to commit incest, but he was okay, it appears, with fornication. Gordon Wenham, in the ‘New Bible Commentary’, suggests one reason for the inclusion of this story, at this point in Genesis, is to prepare the way for the softer Judah we run into in chapter 44. He was severely chastened, it would seem, by this experience. He got his fingers badly burned.

When we fail to do right by others, we may be the cause of their stumbling. I don’t say this to excuse Tamar’s conduct. She didn’t have to do what she did. But Judah toyed with her regarding his son ‘’Shelah’’ (11, 26). He fuelled her sense of desperation; drove her into a corner. Doesn’t it encourage you, though, to see Tamar in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:3)? The characters we read about in the Bible are not paragons of virtue, but many of them stand out as ‘monuments of mercy’, as someone put it. Jesus came to save the ‘Tamar’s’ of this world; He came to save the likes of you and me.

PRAYER: Thank you Lord, for your ‘amazing grace’.

Genesis 38:1-10: Not unequally yoked.

Remember that all the bad stuff you read in this chapter starts with Judah’s intermarriage with a Canaanite. That was not supposed to happen.

‘Though Jacob’s family had grown and prospered, they were still a tiny number compared with the Canaanites around them. How was God going to preserve His chosen covenant people as a distinct and holy nation in the midst of the ungodly Canaanites? God had a plan: He would send Jacob’s family to Egypt. There they would not be inclined to mix with the Egyptians, because the Egyptians would soon begin to despise them; instead they would remain separate, free to grow into a distinct nation. Seventy members of Jacob’s family would go into Egypt; four hundred years later they would be a great multitude (Exodus 1:6-7). And the means of their entering Egypt and prospering there would be a seventeen-year-old slave boy named Joseph, second youngest son of Jacob!’ Tom Hale: ‘The Applied Old Testament Commentary’, p.185.

These verses also show that we live and move ‘’in the LORD’s sight’’ (7, 10). All our ways are observed. Although there is a day of judgment to come, there can be mini days of judgment which fall in this life. According to ancient custom, if an older brother died childless, his younger brother was supposed to marry the widow and produce a son to carry on the deceased’s line. This is the so-called ‘levirate marriage’, and it was later incorporated into the Jewish law (Deuteronomy 25:5,6). It was the responsibility of the father (Judah in this case) to see that the younger son carried out the obligation, but Onan failed to fulfill his duty and this was considered wicked in God’s sight.

It’s scary to think that this all flows down from a wrong decision on Judah’s part – and he had not made his last bad decision, as we will see.

Genesis 38: Contrast.

“At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah. ² There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and made love to her; ³ she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er. ⁴ She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan. ⁵ She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him.⁶ Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. ⁷ But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death.⁸ Then Judah said to Onan, ‘Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfil your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.’ ⁹ But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to avoid providing offspring for his brother. ¹⁰ What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death also.¹¹ Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, ‘Live as a widow in your father’s household until my son Shelah grows up.’ For he thought, ‘He may die too, just like his brothers.’ So Tamar went to live in her father’s household.¹² After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him.¹³ When Tamar was told, ‘Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,’ ¹⁴ she took off her widow’s clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.¹⁵ When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. ¹⁶ Not realising that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, ‘Come now, let me sleep with you.’ ‘And what will you give me to sleep with you?’ she asked.¹⁷ ‘I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,’ he said.‘Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?’ she asked.¹⁸ He said, ‘What pledge should I give you?’‘Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand,’ she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. ¹⁹ After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow’s clothes again.²⁰ Meanwhile Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get his pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her. ²¹ He asked the men who lived there, ‘Where is the shrine-prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?’‘There hasn’t been any shrine-prostitute here,’ they said.²² So he went back to Judah and said, ‘I didn’t find her. Besides, the men who lived there said, “There hasn’t been any shrine-prostitute here.”’²³ Then Judah said, ‘Let her keep what she has, or we will become a laughing-stock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn’t find her.’²⁴ About three months later Judah was told, ‘Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.’Judah said, ‘Bring her out and let her be burned to death!’²⁵ As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. ‘I am pregnant by the man who owns these,’ she said. And she added, ‘See if you recognise whose seal and cord and staff these are.’²⁶ Judah recognised them and said, ‘She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.’ And he did not sleep with her again.²⁷ When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. ²⁸ As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, ‘This one came out first.’ ²⁹ But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, ‘So this is how you have broken out!’ And he was named Perez. ³⁰ Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out. And he was named Zerah.”NIV

In Genesis 38 and 39 a contrast is drawn between two brothers. You have on display the sexual impurity (and impropriety) of Judah, and the virtue of Joseph. Two quotes from F.B. Meyer seem appropriate.

Regarding chapter 38:

‘O my soul, remember that the possibilities of all these sins are latent in thee.’

Regarding chapter 39:

‘What a contrast between this chapter and the former: that like a Rembrandt background, throws up the bright colours of this.’

Joseph points to the possibility of a better way, even amid powerful temptation.

Genesis 37:34-35: Inconsolable.

^“34 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. ³⁵ All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. ‘No,’ he said, ‘I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave.’ So his father wept for him.” NIV

You may have heard the joke that goes, ‘How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?’ Answer: ‘Only one; but the light bulb has really got to want to change!’ Within the silly humour a great truth lies embedded: people will not change unless they are willing to change.

I’m not criticising Jacob. We feel for him in his grief. It’s understandable. But sooner or later (and no-one can state categorically how long it will take-it may be weeks, it may be years) everyone who has lost must move on. You have to adjust and accept that there will now be a ‘new normal’.Jacob, at this stage, was unwilling to do so. He was stuck.

Of course, this principle doesn’t only apply to the loss of a loved one. There may be changes in our lives we know we need to make, and we may actually say we want to change. Now no-one can change without God’s power operating in them; but even with all the grace of God available to believers, some never change because they love their sin too much.

Genesis 37:31-36: Sowing and reaping.

^“31 Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. ³² They took the ornate robe back to their father and said, ‘We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.’ ³³ He recognised it and said, ‘It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.’ ³⁴ Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. ³⁵ All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. ‘No,’ he said, ‘I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave.’ So his father wept for him. ³⁶ Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard. ” NIV

As I read through this last section of the chapter, it began to dawn on me how many references there are in the entire chapter to Joseph’s ‘’robe’’. Here was the bug bear. It wasn’t the robe as such, but what it stood for. It spoke loudly. It said to them, ‘Your father loves Joseph more than you.’ That’s a terrible thing for any child (including grown up children) to have to feel. Of course it doesn’t excuse the atrocious conduct of the brothers, but it helps us understand the dynamic at play.

Matthew Henry comments that, following one sin, the devil suggests following it up with another, in order to hide the first. But ‘truth will out’, and eventually it does in this wonderful story. He also says that a parent will understand something of Jacob’s grief. How he must have tortured himself with thoughts of his beloved son’s bloody end. Maybe he imagined young Joseph calling out for his daddy, and he wasn’t there. Perhaps he beat himself up for sending him in the first place. His pain must have been almost unbearable, and he was inconsolable.

The Bible repeatedly teaches that we reap what we sow. It tells us this truth in words and shows us in living examples. There is a further irony, then, in the unfolding story. It is that Jacob, who deceived his own father by means of a slaughtered goat (ch.27), was himself deceived by his sons in a similar fashion. As you ‘sow’, don’t imagine you will be an exception to the principle:

‘’Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life’’ (Galatians 6:7,8).

Genesis 37:23-30: Cruelty.

^“23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe – the ornate robe he was wearing – ²⁴ and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it. ²⁵ As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt. ²⁶ Judah said to his brothers, ‘What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? ²⁷ Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.’ His brothers agreed. ²⁸ So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels^[ of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. ²⁹ When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. ³⁰ He went back to his brothers and said, ‘The boy isn’t there! Where can I turn now?’” NIV

The commentator, Matthew Henry, observes: ‘God’s providence’s often seem to contradict his purposes, even when they are serving them.’ He goes on to point out that all Joseph’s brothers would have been undone if he had not been sold into Egypt. That is not to justify their despicable actions, but to demonstrate how God overruled.

Later on, the brothers were to say, ‘’Surely we are being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen; that’s why this distress has come upon us’’ (42:21). You have to say, then, that were heartless and callous in the extreme to sit down to their meal having thrown young Joseph into the cistern. Think about it though, it’s possible to eat your evening meal as you watch the news, and not feel as you really should about the images and stories filling the screen. God forgive us for our own lack of pity, that we can see terrible things and not be moved to tears; not be stirred to pray.

Judah manifested this same hardness of heart when he declared they’d be better off selling their brother rather than killing him, because then they would at least have some monetary return (26). If they were going to do mischief, they might as well get some financial benefit. Judah added, after floating his proposition of a sale: ‘’…after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.’’ Big deal! So we won’t kill him; we’ll just sell him as a slave!!!

The stripping and selling of Joseph are again pictures of what was to happen to Jesus, centuries later.