God Loves Me and Has What Kind of Plan for My Life?
Iain M. Duguid, Ph.D.
(First published in Evangelium, Vol. 2, Issue 1, Jan/Feb 2004)

Genesis 39 tells the familiar story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife. It has often been described as a case study in dealing with temptation, and in some ways it is. The temptation being addressed is not necessarily the obvious one, however. Certainly, Joseph’s approach to the head-on assault of lust is far different from that of his brother Judah in the previous chapter. These two incidents, set side by side in Scripture, serve as foils for one another. Yet, as we shall see, there is far more to learn from this passage than merely how to “Just say no” to sexual temptation.

The story unfolded in the chapter is well known: Potiphar’s wife desired Joseph. Some of the older commentaries contain slanderous assertions about the morals of Egyptian women in general, but there may have been another factor in this case. Potiphar, we are told, was an official (a sarîs) of Pharaoh (Gen. 39:1). Now the word sarîs literally means a eunuch. Later on it became a more generalized term for a certain class of official, but the word is still translated “eunuch” on at least half the occasions it occurs in our English Bibles (see, for example, Is. 56:3,4). If Potiphar was a eunuch, then it certainly would add a new and perhaps more understandable dimension to his wife’s interest in Joseph.

Whether Potiphar’s wife was motivated by simple lust or by a difficult marriage situation, the temptation that presented itself to Joseph was sudden, real and direct. Potiphar’s wife was not exactly subtle in her approach. She lifted up her eyes upon Joseph; she looked at him, wanted him and commanded him: “Come to bed with me!” (Gen. 39:7). It was not a request; it was a demand, delivered in the same tone of voice she would use in telling him to straighten the chairs or dust the furniture. This is temptation in the form of a head-on assault.

In such a situation, it would have been easy for Joseph to rationalize. He could have said: “This is simply a matter of two consenting adults. No one will be hurt by my sin; no one needs ever to know. Sure, it may be wrong but think how it might improve my promotion prospects! On the other hand, to refuse would almost certainly have negative repercussions: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!” But Joseph didn’t do that. He not only explained to Potiphar’s wife why it would be humanly wrong (because it would have been a betrayal of the trust placed in him by Potiphar), but he also went on to the deeper and more
important reason why he could not do this: It would be a sin against God (Gen. 39:9).

Day after day, though, the same temptation confronted Joseph. Even though he did his best to avoid it, refusing even to be in the presence of Potiphar’s wife (Gen. 39:10), it was always there. Finally, Potiphar’s wife made one last all-or-nothing try. She waited until she could catch him alone, grabbed his cloak and commanded him again, “Come to bed with me!” Still Joseph refused, running out of the room. Yet unfortunately for Joseph, there was not a happy ending to the incident. In running away, he left his cloak behind in his mistress’s hand (39:12). Not for the first time was Joseph’s clothing used to fabricate a false report about him. First, it was his fancy coat that his brothers used to convince his father he had been killed by a wild animal (Gen. 37:32). Now his cloak was used by Potiphar’s wife as evidence that he had assaulted her. The fact that Joseph ended up in an Egyptian prison rather than on the gallows may suggest that Potiphar found his wife’s allegations less than entirely convincing, but that would be little comfort to Joseph. Once again, he was at rock bottom, falsely accused and found guilty of a terrible sin. So what is the point of the story? Dare to be a Joseph and you too could live miserably ever after?

It was in prison where the deeper, much harder, temptation that faced Joseph began—the temptation to doubt God’s goodness. We can understand why we suffer when we sin, but why do we suffer when we do not sin? If God loves me and loves justice, why doesn’t he reward my (rare) moments of good behavior? Why did Joseph’s spotless obedience cost him his liberty in this way? Where is the God of justice?

The first answer to these questions is that there was no immediate answer for Joseph. God didn’t rend the heavens and come down to explain how this all fitted into the divine master plan. Joseph was left there in prison to work through it by himself. Yet he was not on his own. There in prison too, in the depths, we read that the Lord was with him (Gen. 39:21). There were no answers to his questions except “I am with you.” God was with him in joy and in suffering, with him in success and in failure. That was what God had promised Joseph’s forefathers, and that was what Joseph experienced in the Egyptian dungeon: that God would be his God, a present help in time of trials.

The second answer was slow in coming for Joseph. It was not until many years later that he saw what God had been doing. Ultimately, though, he came to understand how even this imprisonment was part of God’s plan. Joseph told his brothers in Genesis 50:20: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.” If his brothers hadn’t sold Joseph into slavery, he would never have gone to Egypt. If he hadn’t been falsely imprisoned there as a result of this accusation, he would never have met Pharaoh’s servants. If he hadn’t met Pharaoh’s servants, Joseph would never have been able to save his own family when the famine came. He only saw what God accomplished through his suffering after it was over. We too don’t always get that answer here on earth, but we do have the assurance nonetheless that God is working our suffering too for good (Rom. 8:28).

There is a third answer also to the question: “How can God allow me to suffer for doing what is right?” The answer was not given to Joseph, but it is given to us who live in the Christian era. The answer is Jesus. Jesus was the only truly righteous man, the only one who ever suffered completely without fault of his own. He experienced much greater suffering as his reward for righteousness than Joseph ever did. So why did Jesus suffer? Was it because God is not just? Was it because God was not able to prevent such sufferings? By no means. We—sinful humanity—meant his sufferings for evil: We wanted to do away with this sinless one because our deeds were evil, and we hated the light. But God meant it for good. In our very act of doing away with Jesus, God’s redemptive purpose for our salvation was accomplished. His death cleansed us of our sins and gave us his righteousness. His wounds were the means by which we were healed.

The undeserved sufferings of Christ are the model now for our response to sufferings (1 Pet. 2:20-25). His sufferings are what brought us light and life, and a restored relationship with the Shepherd of our souls. We see more clearly than Joseph could ever have the way in which God’s perfect plan unfolds itself. So now, since God has loved you more deeply and more profoundly in Christ than you could ever have imagined, you have a reason to endure undeserved sufferings with even more patience and hope than Joseph did. We can be confident that God will be with us in the midst of our pain and will use whatever sufferings he sends into our lives for his glory and for our good.


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Iain M. Duguid

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