Joseph and Keeping Pure

Joseph was a much favored slave in the home of Potiphar. He had been bought and paid for but because God and his blessings were with Joseph… Potiphar recognized Joseph’s abilities and elevated him to a level of friendship and partnership.

Somewhere along the way Potiphar’s wife recognized Joseph for other reasons and invited him to have sex with her. It must have come as a surprise to her that Joseph declined. My guess is that Mrs. Potiphar had never been rejected before.

In declining her offer Joseph tried to reason with her, he explained that her husband had been so good to him that he could not betray him and even more importantly could not betray God who had been even better to Joseph than Potiphar had been. But she was beyond reasoning. Every day she tried to entice him to have sex with her.

Lessor men would sooner or later have sex with her. That’s what she wanted why not give it to her? But Joseph believed in God and that belief propelled him to resist her and not be in a situation where he was alone with her. He was acting with his brain and not his hormones.

But one day Mrs. Potiphar set a trap for Joseph, she dismissed all her household servants and waited for Joseph to come in to attend to his duties. No doubt she was dressed in a revealing way and looked good and smelled good. Once more she grabbed his cloak to prevent him from leaving and begged him to go to bed with her but Joseph slipped out of his cloak and got away.

Realizing that despite her best attempts she would never have sex with Joseph she made up a story and accused him of attempted rape. If she couldn’t get him one way she would get him another way. And so Joseph went to prison.

I’m convinced that Joseph was no different than any other young man. He liked women and was attracted to what God had created for man but he also knew there was a line he could not cross.

Joseph is a great example for young men today. There is a class of women today who are very sexually aggressive whose only desire is to use their charms to achieve sexual victory over God’s people and over the spouses of God’s people… undoubtedly as agents of Satan.

Don’t sin against your body which is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Don’t sin against a husband and most importantly don’t sin against God who has done so much for us. Use the brains that God gave you and control yourselves.