When you apply for a job, as I did years ago before coming here, one of the questions they ask you is to list your hobbies and interests. Here's what I put. I can’t remember if it's on the application form for this job or not: the best quality coffee in the world, hiking and running, the books of John Le Carré, and the films of Laurel and Hardy.
Now, for those of you who do not know, Stan Laurel, an Englishman, paired up with Oliver Hardy, an American, and they produced over 100 films, mostly under the directorship of Hal Roach, mainly in the 1930s. And they are a classic.
Now, if some of you go and go down this YouTube rabbit hole as a result of this introduction, half of you will wonder what on earth your assistant minister is on—what on earth has happened to his sense of humour. The other half of you will go, "Where have I been all my life?" and it'll be some time before you resurface from that particular rabbit hole.
This duo are just mishap-ridden. If anything can go wrong, it will—and it does, and frequently. One disaster after another has already happened, and just when you think it couldn't get any worse, something else goes wrong, which gives rise to one of their little catchphrases. As the exasperated Oliver Hardy turns to Stanley and says, "Well, there's another fine mess you've got me into." Beautiful stuff.
One of their most well-known films is called The Music Box. Los Angeles is built on a series of hillsides, and often, to get from one street to another, for pedestrians there are a series of staircases that allow you to climb without having to go around the long way. Stan and Ollie have got us set up a business as delivery people, and they've been tasked with delivering an electric piano to a professor who lives at the top of several flights of these stairs.
The number of times where they have to stop to pick something up halfway up the slope, or let someone come past, only for the whole thing to slide back down to the bottom again, is painful. They get to the top of the hill—and of course there is a fountain behind the highest step. So, having got to the top, they keep going—and into the fountain.
Now, if you think that is the end point of the disaster, just watch. It has several more layers to get worse from that. Just genius.
Sometimes, life feels like you are caught in a Laurel and Hardy film. Something happens in your life that hits you by way of a disaster—but it's not funny, because it's real, and it's you. And before you can dust yourself off and recover from what you've just gone through, another disaster strikes, and things just turn from bad to worse to even worse.
And that's particularly challenging if you're a Christian. Because if you have trusted God through the first series of disasters, you start asking yourself: why did He not help? Why did He allow there to be more sadness? Why did He not rescue me out of the first one? Where has He been?
And God has given us the story of Joseph to encourage us and to help us at all seasons of life—but especially if you've known times like that.
Recap story so far
Let me just recap the story for us very briefly. Jacob, who was the grandson of Abraham, had 12 sons. Joseph was his favourite. This became widely known, and so his brothers hated him and sold him into slavery. They took Joseph's cloak, covered it in goat's blood, and took it to his father to try to trick his dad into believing that Joseph was in fact dead.
This is not the last time that an item of Joseph's clothing will act as a proxy for Joseph himself—to mislead somebody as to what has just happened.
And we left Joseph's story in chapter 37:36: "Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard."
We then had a little detour last week as we followed Judah's story for about 50 years—a couple of generations—in chapter 38, although as we will see today, not quite as much of a detour as it might appear.
And we pick up in chapter 39, verse 1, which looks very like the end of chapter 37: "Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. And 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."
And so Joseph's story continues.
A tale of two houses: Bad to worse
Today's story is framed by two scenes that feel rather similar to one another, both set in a house. We start in Potiphar's house, where it's clear that Joseph has landed on his feet. Potiphar, it is made clear to us as he's introduced, is a very important man, and he gives Joseph great privilege and responsibility. He actually gets to live in Potiphar's house—he doesn't serve him out in the fields under the baking Egyptian sun; he serves him in the house, inside.
He's put in charge of everything, until he becomes Potiphar's personal assistant—or we might say valet or butler—and everything Joseph touches succeeds. And the narrator makes sure we are clear why that is: it is because God was with Joseph.
The end of the story is very different. Joseph is sent to prison—but literally, he's sent to the prison house. And we are meant to see these two stories as parallel: Potiphar's house, the prison house. They're both called houses. In both cases, Joseph gets put in charge. In both cases, we're told twice that the Lord was with him: verse 2, "The Lord was with Joseph"; verse 3, "When his master saw that the Lord was with him"; verse 21, "The Lord was with him"; and verse 23, "Because the Lord was with Joseph."
And in both cases, we are told that everything Joseph did, he succeeded or prospered. So verse 2, "The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered"; verse 3, "The Lord gave him success"—same word—"in everything he did"; or verse 23, "The Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in everything he did."
Two different houses, but his circumstances were very different. So the question is: how did Joseph go from being in Potiphar's house to being in a prison house? How did he go from being a slave to being still a slave—but also a convict?
And the answer to that is the story that happens in the middle. The story in the middle tells you how Joseph came to go from bad to even worse. And this story is put here to teach us, as we live in a world in which the people of God sometimes go from bad to worse.
And I'm going to let this story speak to us this morning by looking at some of the characters that we meet within it.
Joseph
And the first character I want to look at is Joseph. And he's here to teach us the need for godly integrity.
The first hint that not all will be well comes at the very end of verse 6, where it says, "Now Joseph was well-built and handsome." This man, who has been blessed by God in so many ways—he's got one endowment too many. Just too good, in fact.
This is the exact phrase that is used of Rachel, his mother. So chapter 29, verse 17, says, "Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel had a lovely figure and was beautiful." Exactly the same phrase used of Joseph. Now, we're not actually explicitly told that Jacob was an ugly fellow, but we are being told that he very much had his mother's looks. And this comes to the attention of Potiphar's wife.
As we watch what happens, we just see Joseph's integrity and his godliness shine through. And we're told exactly what he's thinking—we're let into his head. So Potiphar's wife is a woman (at this point in the story) of very few words. She says, in verse 7, "Come to bed with me." In the original, that's just two words. And in response, Joseph gives this great long speech, as he lets us into his thoughts.
Verse 8: "With me in charge, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house. Everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. 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?"
In short, Joseph knows that there are boundaries in life.
It's easy to forget that there are boundaries. Easy to forget there are boundaries when life's going well. So many people—life is a success, one after the other—until they assume this attitude that they are entitled, and anything that falls in their lap is theirs to take, whether it's theirs or not.
It's easy to forget that there are boundaries when life is hard, and you just find yourself thinking, "I'm due a break." Some money lands in your bank account. If it's not actually meant to be yours, rather than ring the bank and return it, you go, "I think I'm owed one."
Well, Joseph knows there are boundaries. There are certain things that are off limits. And Potiphar's wife is one of those things that is off limits.
Just by the way, somebody else's husband or wife is always off limits. And that means if you're married, then everybody else is off limits too. Which doesn't mean you get to play around if you're single either—but we'll talk about that in some evenings we're planning for March. This is just a little point that the story is making, I think: other people's husbands and wives are off limits.
And Joseph was loyal to those who placed their trust in him—to Potiphar. And he was loyal to God. "How can I do such a wicked thing," he says, "and sin against God?"
He's not just a decent bloke. He's a godly bloke. And Joseph won't be worn down. It says, day after day—answer: no. Tomorrow? No. Next day? She asks again—no. It says he won't even lie next to her or be with her. He knows—"Just come and lie next to me for a bit, Joseph." He knows how that slippery slope works.
He's the exact opposite, by the way, of Judah in the previous passage, where we met Judah, who had absolutely no self-control. And with Joseph, we see an almost inhuman degree of steely resolve not to get anywhere close to compromise.
Until one day, nobody else is around, and she grabs him. Nobody will know what happens next. Here's her opportunity. Here's his. What does Joseph do next?
What he does next shows us that actually, he wouldn't mind what's on offer. Maybe because he was actually attracted to her. It may be just because he knows that really, he feels the pressure—slaves don't get to say no. But either way, he knows he has to get out of the situation.
So he leaves his shirt in her hand and he runs. Literally, he flees, and he goes outside into the street. But just off, composes himself, and walks down the street—probably not stark naked. He probably left his shirt, or his outer garments. But he's out in the street in his underwear, trying to look composed, as if nothing has happened.
This is Joseph's integrity and his self-control working itself out. It reminds me of a verse in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 18, in which the Apostle Paul tells us to flee—same word—flee from sexual immorality. What Joseph does is what we must do: get out of the situation and run, literally if necessary. So Joseph is somebody who consistently knows his boundaries, stays clear on them, stays clear of them. He doesn't stray as close to the edge as he thinks he can get away with. He's loyal to God
That’s Joseph.
Potiphar’s wife
Now, let's look at Potiphar's wife. Potiphar's wife—we're not told her name—she shows us the appeal of godless desire. The appeal of godless desire. She's driven by lust. So verse 7 tells us that, after a while, his master's wife took notice of Joseph—literally lifted up her eyes to Joseph. Now, there were lots of eyes in this chapter. The jailer claps eyes on Joseph, Potiphar claps eyes on Joseph. Both of them see somebody in whom they can place absolute trust. Potiphar's wife claps eyes on Joseph and just sees someone to sleep with.
As I say, just two words—I mean, she must have said more to try and persuade him, of course she did—but for the writer of our story to condense it down to just two words just shows this was somebody consumed by her appetites. Day after day—how long, months maybe—until she knows how to spot the opportunity to try to manipulate the thing she wants.
Now, just pause. By the way, some people worry that putting this story in here and painting Potiphar's wife in this light could put women in a bad light. It could imply that women kind of play this kind of negative role in life. Please don't be worried by that. Genesis is so balanced about such things. Remember, this story follows chapter 38, where we said that Joseph is in a detailed contrast to Judah in the previous chapter. But Judah, in that chapter, is deliberately portrayed to look just like Potiphar's wife. So, in the space of just two chapters, we have first a man and then a woman equally out of control of their appetites, with equal disaster. This is not about women. This is about people.
And so she's left holding his shirt. Now, it's not clear at this point whether this gives her a problem or an opportunity. It could be it gives her a problem—she goes, "Ah, somehow I'm going to have to explain why I've got his shirt." It could give her an opportunity: "If he's going to refuse me, he's going to pay, and I can now see what I have to do." Either way, she tells this story to her own servants to tee up some witnesses, and then she places the garment next to her—the place, remember, that Joseph refused to go. It's almost as if she's saying, "Joseph, there you are, you're next to me now." And she waits. And she waits until her master comes home.
And by the way, interesting to notice that, isn't it? This is about Potiphar's wife waiting for her husband. But what she's thinking in her head is not that she's waiting for her husband, not that she's waiting for Potiphar. But she's waiting for his master. You see that? So his usefulness to her is not as her beloved partner and husband, but as the person who has a relationship with the Joseph that I really want.
And so we then get the story told three times—first by the narrator, then by Potiphar's wife to her servants, and then to her husband. But notice how she changes the order. She's very clever. See what happened is this: she grabbed the shirt, he ran off, and she called out to her servants. But when she retells the story, it goes like this: she called out, so as a result he ran off. She's twisted it, so suddenly she looks like the virtuous one who called out and protested at this abuse, and Joseph looks like the naughty boy who ran away—away when he got caught.
And so it is that Joseph goes to prison. But even then, God is good. Two little clues that God is being really kind to Joseph at this point. First is he gets to prison. Now, the normal punishment in this era, I'm told, for rape would be execution. They didn't shoot people in those days—I know that. But if you had two people who were free people, one tried to rape the other, the guilty party would be “shot”. If they’re not free people, but a slave tries to rape his master's wife—well, that's definitely going straight to the gallows. But somehow, he ends up in prison instead.
Is this because—maybe, I'm speculating slightly—did Potiphar know his own wife quite well and wonder to himself if the story wasn't quite all he was being told? But also, he goes to the royal prison where the king's prisoners were kept, not to the pit where the commoners would get chucked to suffer if they were guilty. He goes to the five-star prison, not the two-star prison.
Well, so what—that’s his master’s wife, that's who she is—what do we make of her part in the story?
I think it's teaching us this: if we want to be like Jesus, we want to live for Jesus, aware that God is in charge, respecting our boundaries, being self-controlled, fleeing from sin. It won't be easy. And this isn't just about sexual sin and sexual temptation. This is saying—if you try to live like Jesus, you will be inconvenient to an awful lot of people who have other agendas and you get in the way of what they want.
So there are forces and there are people who will want you to conform to their agenda and compromise. And Satan is real. He wants you to fall over and fail. And therefore, when you stand firm, there will be people who will be able to make your life difficult because you've done that. So don't expect following Jesus to be easy.
There's Joseph. There's Potiphar's wife.
God
The last character is the most important character—is his finger we can trace all the way through the story—and this is God. And what we see here is the consistency of God's blessing. Remember the refrain from the two houses that Joseph was in: God was with Joseph, and this was the key to Joseph's success. Verse 23: "The Lord was with Joseph, and therefore gave him success in everything he did."
But we have to look at how this success, this blessing, this God being with him—how it works out. There—notice a few things with me. First thing to notice: God blesses Joseph in the situation he's in. God blessing Joseph doesn't mean he rescues him from prison or delivers him from slavery. No. He blesses him as a slave in the prison.
Next thing to notice is that Joseph's integrity does not mean he gets rescued by God either. In fact, as he seeks to be faithful to the God who's with him, it is that faithfulness that means that things get worse. He goes from being in the house to being in the prison, from being a slave to being a convict.
And the next thing to notice is that we know that God is with him because the narrator has told us, but Joseph, who says plenty in this passage, does not at any point say on his own lips, "God was with me." So God is with him, but that may not mean that Joseph is aware that God is with him. So what we see here being lived out is the truth that God is with his people even when they are in trouble and going through impossibly difficult times. But that God being with us in those seasons does not mean he will rescue us from those troubles. Does not mean we will feel his presence—he might feel far away. Does not mean things will get better if we can just be faithful.
But—all those caveats out the way—he's with us, and he will make us prosper. Just don't misunderstand what that looks like. So often you might look at your life and say, "Another fine mess." We see here there's so much to knock us off track, but we can and we must be both godly and self-controlled, and God will bless us—even if that doesn't amount to him just waving a magic wand.
Jesus
Now, now we're nearly done, but before we finish, I just want to show us one more thing, because I want us to see that God is actually showing us Jesus in all the mess of this chapter. Joseph is tiny compared to Jesus when it comes to being somebody who lived God's way, even when he was enticed to go differently.
Do you remember the devil offered Jesus all the kingdoms of this world if you will just bow down and worship me? "Come and sleep with me," said the devil. And Jesus refused—for 40 days. And that refusal meant that Jesus had to be king of the world God’s way. It led him to the cross. Being faithful did not make things better for Jesus, but God was with Jesus, and God blessed him. In case you'd forgotten—he rose from the dead, and he is now king of this world.
What we're seeing here is a verse from earlier in Genesis being lived out, worked through, which is Genesis 12 and verse 3. Here—Genesis 12:3—God is speaking the defining promises to Abraham, and he says, "I will bless those who bless you, whoever curses you I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
God won't just bless Abraham. He will bless those who bless Abraham. Well, Joseph is Abraham's great-grandson. He's blessed by Potiphar—he's promoted—and as a result, everything in Potipher's house and in the field and everything else in between prospered, and the more responsibility Potiphar gives Joseph, the better everything becomes to him.
Jesus is the one God has promised to bless. He was Abraham's great-great-great … —grandson! God has blessed Jesus, even though Jesus's faithfulness led him to a worse place. All peoples on Earth will be blessed through Jesus. Those who bless Jesus will be blessed.
Therefore, attach yourself to Jesus like Potiphar did. Place everything in your life so that he is in charge of it—including making him your own personal attendant, who even looks after everything to do with you as a person. Put everything under his charge. Put him at the centre. And then you will be blessed in all that you do, even if it may not always feel like that is what God is doing.