Joseph in Potiphar’s House, and in Prison.
OUR last paper closed with the inconsolable grief of Jacob, at the supposed death of his favorite son, and with Joseph being sold into Egypt as a bondservant. The deception practiced by Jacob upon his father was thus, many years afterward, visited upon himself by his own children, in the falsehood they acted respecting the death of Joseph. God is a God of recompences. He shows us our nature portrayed in our offspring; and often does He recall to our remembrance, by the conduct of those closely connected with us, evil ways of which we ourselves have been guilty in time past.
Joseph was carried into Egypt, and sold by the Ishmaelites to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh. The Ishmaelites were, in a certain sense, allied to Israel, through their joint fore-father Abraham; and through Hagar they were also connected with Egypt, and became a channel of communication between the two. The Midianites, descendants of Abraham by Keturah, were concerned in the purchase of Joseph; both tribes are again linked together in oppressing Israel (compare Jude 77Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. (Jude 7) and,7:24). How far the result of one act of unbelief may extend! What a harvest of evil one little seed may generate! Abraham’s faith had failed during the famine, as related in Gen. 12:12-44, he goes down into Egypt, Hagar is there procured, the birth of Ishmael is the result; and now we find the descendants of this child of the flesh purchasing, for a few pieces of silver, one of the choicest of Abraham’s promised seed.
“The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man.” His sojourn in Potiphar’s house was like the stay of the Ark, in subsequent times, in the house of Obed-edom. The presence of the living God was there, and all was blessing. But the prosperity of Joseph was not merely his rise, as to outward circumstances, he was also prospering in his soul. The Lord was with him, and strengthened him to withstand the fierce temptation through which he had to pass. It was the purpose of God that this faithful one should have service of a higher character than the mere stewardship of Potiphar’s house. He intended to use Joseph in dealing with the souls of his brethren; and, moreover, he was to succeed to princely dominion. In order to be qualified for such exalted service, he must himself pass through deep exercise of soul. His acquaintance with his own heart, and with sin, as viewed in the sight of God, must be deepened if he would deal in a godly way with the hearts and sins of others. In order fitly to dispense God’s mercies to the needy, his own faith and dependence on God had to be matured; and that he might occupy the place of power, to which he was destined by the counsel of God, and, at the same time, preserve his lowliness of spirit, and be still the Lord’s servant, he had to pass through other periods of deep trial, and be raised a second time out of a kind of living tomb. Death and resurrection are the great truths which, when realized by faith, qualify the people of God for His service. To sow in hope, and patiently wait for the harvest, trusting that He who raiseth the dead, will, in due time, give the seed to the sower―to know of no extremity beyond the reach of God’s wisdom and grace―to labor on, seeking no present reward but the consciousness of pleasing Him―are some of the blessed results of faith to be sought by those who desire truly to serve the Lord.
The whole history of Joseph abounds in displays of God’s skillfulness in causing blessing, and life, and strength to spring out of circumstances of the deepest sorrow and trial; and one chief exercise of our faith, as children and servants of God, should be, in the knowledge of Him as the God of resurrection, even in our most ordinary circumstances. The death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus are glorious facts, not to be confined, as to faith, to the matter of our salvation only, but we should seek power from God to bring these great truths into daily use. In difficulties and dangers, in trials and temptations, in afflictions and necessities, the cross and glory of Our Lord are to be our strength, help, and deliverance; and we shall find how these blessed truths are made, by the Spirit to pervade, as it were, the Word of God.
The Lord was with Joseph when subjected to this sore and oft-repeated temptation, and enabled him to resist; at the same time, his soul was evidently being deepened in the truth that sin, as to its great wickedness, is against God. Of this he seems to have been, in measure, ignorant in his previous history, when he brought the evil report of his brethren to Jacob. Had he then viewed sin as against God, and not simply as an offense against their father, and their father’s name, he would have mourned over it, and have dealt in secret with God respecting it, instead of becoming a tale-bearer to Jacob. Now, however, he was able to take the right course in this temptation. He recognized the hand of the Lord as having placed him in his present circumstances of prosperity; that he was standing in the presence of the living God, and was His servant; against God, therefore, would be the sin if he were to commit it. His brethren had manifested their rebellion and unbelief of God. How could he follow their example? They had taken their father’s “ewe lamb and slain it; “how could he deal in the same evil way with his master? The circumstances of David’s sin, and subsequent confession, forcibly present themselves to our minds whilst meditating on this history of Joseph’s temptation; they have, however, been alluded to already in a previous paper.
Joseph was subjected to a still more severe trial—he was unjustly accused to Potiphar of having attempted to commit the very sin which he had, through the grace of God, been enabled so steadily to resist. No reproach, however, escapes his lips; neither does he attempt to vindicate himself: for he could only have done so at the expense of another. He commits his cause in silence to Him that judgeth righteously. “Surely my judgment is with my God.” Many a saint will resist a temptation of the former kind, but is unable to stand when falsely accused. Job was upright in his ways, and blameless as to yielding to the lusts of the flesh; but when unjust reproaches and suspicions were cast at him by his friends, then the evil of his heart was aroused, and he sought to justify himself, almost at the expense of the character of God. Joseph, on the other hand, was preserved from making any self-defense, by the conviction that the Lord was with him. He had referred the question of sin to God, he is able also to leave his own character in the safe keeping of God. How glorious is this triumph of faith; how like the ways of Him who did no sin; neither was guile found in His mouth: who, when He was reviled, riled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously (1 Peter 2:22, 2322Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: 23Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: (1 Peter 2:22‑23)). The 39th Psalm beautifully pour-trays the conduct of one in similar circumstances. The presence of the wicked keeps the mouth of the Psalmist closed, lest he should sin with his tongue; at length, unable any longer to restrain, he pours forth his heart in secret to God― “Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.” Thus he desires to be instructed as to the vanity of the creature, and, therefore, as to the impotence of his enemies, by learning how frail he himself is. “And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in Thee.” Since he waits on God, and all his expectation is from Him, there is no necessity for his attempting his own deliverance. Finally, “I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because Thou didst it.” The whole is traced to the hand of God, and this is an additional and conclusive reason for silence. May we be apt scholars in this particular school of faith!
In consequence of this false accusation Joseph is cast into prison; “But the Lord was with Joseph, and sheaved him mercy.” “The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy.” And thus, whether the captive slave in Potiphar’s house, or the prisoner in the dungeon, Joseph takes the lead, and becomes the master in both places; the ungodly are made to perceive that the favor of the Lord rested upon him. And now another exercise of heart awaits him. His sympathies are to be drawn out towards those who are subjected to the same captivity with himself. Grief is naturally selfish, and unless the sufferer is able by faith to east his care and sorrow on God, he will be so occupied with his own trials as to be unable to enter with true sympathy into the distresses of others. Every one also thinks his own affliction the heaviest, and this common habit of the soul steels it against entering into the sorrows of others. It was not so, however, with Joseph; he had been able to commit his ways to the Lord, and he had also cast all his care on Him, so that he was not unmindful of the grief of those around him. He is quick to perceive the sad countenances of two of his fellow-prisoners (no strange sight we should have thought in a prison); and yet this man of faith had found himself so happy in the Lord’s company, even then, that he cannot but notice the fallen countenances of two of his companions. “Wherefore look ye so sadly today?” Elijah had not faith to commit his trouble and danger to the Lord, he fled in terror from the sword of Jezebel; and the consequence was, that instead of taking the place of intercession with God, on behalf of the people of Israel, he made intercession against them. He was so engrossed by his own trial, that he had no heart for the miseries of others. On the other hand, the blessed Lord could weep over Jerusalem. although well aware that they would shortly be His betrayers and murderers. We shall find enlargement of heart towards the Church of God, and also toward an ungodly and perishing world, just in proportion as we are assured of our own rest in the heart of God, and are able to cast our every care and burden upon Him. This sympathy of Joseph for the two prisoners opens the way for him also to proclaim to them the name of the Lord― “Do not interpretations belong to God?” And thus he was enabled to lead their souls to the right path; namely, to faith and dependence ell God. Surely he did not neglect to speak to them of the living God, who had given not only the interpretation but the dream itself; and who had foreknown and appointed the circumstances that were thus revealed to them before-hand. So will it come to pass with ourselves. Let our hearth be increasingly open to the sorrows and miseries of others, and we shall find that the Lord will thereby open to us a very blessed way of testifying to them His truth. We shall find the fitting opportunities of revealing to them the secrets of God―the great mysteries of His salvation. Men are living in a dream, like these servants of Pharaoh, and often earnestly desire an interpreter; hopes and fears flit before the soul like the visions of the night; and who can tell the interpretation of the future but those who, like Joseph, are walking with God, and have already found salvation through the death of Christ? Have we not, in the history of these two dreamers, a striking inti, intimation of what is about to happen? “Yet, within three days,” the one was exalted to be near the king, the other was lifted up to suffer the penalty of the curse. The resurrection day draweth nigh, when those who have been ordained in the sovereignty of God’s grace unto eternal life, will be raised in glory; but the ungodly will receive the sentence of perdition, of which already they have been warned.
This remarkable interference of God, in favor of Joseph, seems to have been too much for his faith; he begins to judge by sight, and not by faith; and so he trusts in the memory and gratitude of the chief butler, instead of still placing his sole reliance for deliverance on the Lord. The two remarkable dreams which he was enabled so truly to interpret, and the fulfillment of which was so fixed in his soul, that he speaks to the chief butler in full assurance as to the future, should have been the means of strengthening his own trust in the Lord; and he should have remembered his own former visions of glory, and have patiently waited for the time when God would as surely fulfill what he had then promised. But the temptation of having a friend who could speak to Pharaoh was too great; the means of escape seemed to be within his own attainment, and he looked upon the prison bars and bolts to be withdrawn rather at the bidding of Pharaoh than at the command of the Lord of Hosts. How little are we to be trusted with our own matters; how quick are we to discern a fancied way of escape that suits our own thoughts and counsels, and how slow to trust the deep and unsearchable wisdom, and mighty power, of the living God!
“Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forget him.” What is the value of man’s gratitude, or of man’s remembrance? Fickle, changeable, selfish, and engrossed with the circumstance of the present moment, man has no continuance; there is no certainty in his promises, no endurance in his ways. “Cursed the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh.” Such must have been Joseph’s condition when the year rolled on; and again, another passed, and no notice was taken of him, still a prisoner unjustly confined. His expectations withered―hope deferred must have made his heart sick; and this was, doubtless, the most trying period which he ever experienced. To be apparently so near to release, and then to be so grievously disappointed; to find that he had leant upon a broken reed, and to perceive no symptoms of God’s interference in his favor. How all these, and a thousand more, perplexing thoughts must have passed through his mind! It was the purpose of God, to teach him the experience so blessedly set forth in the 62nd Psalm―to wait, and to trust only in God. To have no expectation but from Him, no refuge but in Him, (mark how often the word only is repeated in this beautiful psalm). It is to this period of the history of Joseph that verse 19 of Psalms 105 seems to refer, “until the time that His word came; the word of the Lord tried him.” He was tried as to whether he could rest assuredly on the word of the Lord, or whether he looked to other sources of help and deliverance. The human aid, on which for a while he depended, was made to fail: and then the word of the Lord alone must have been his confidence. And is not this also the way of our God and Father in dealing with us, His children? Does He not instruct us “to hope and quietly wait for His salvation,” whether as to out circumstances here, or our glory that is to come? Many a hope and trust in man, or in our own counsels, does lie frustrate and disappoint, in order that we may learn to trust only in Him, and to rely upon His word. “Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie; to be laid in the balance they are altogether lighter than vanity.” “In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength and my refuge is in God.”