Joseph & Potiphar 1 - Genesis 39:1-6

39:1-6 - As if the Judah and Tamar event was never mentioned, we get back to Joseph's story. Last we heard from him at the end of chapter 37, Joseph was sold to Midianites as a slave and then sold to Potiphar, who was "an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard," in Egypt. We don't know exactly what Potiphar's responsibilities were as "captain of the guard," it has been speculated as being anything from the highest ranking official in the Egyptian military, to Pharaoh's personal bodyguard, or the head of the police force, or even the man in charge of the executioners, which will come up here shortly. As a slave to Potiphar, "the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man." Now in what ways could Joseph have been prospered by the hand of the Lord, because personal prosperity and enslavement don't usually go together. Let's look at Joseph's father Jacob's prosperity that came to him while he was a servant to Laban. Jacob was in charge of breeding sheep, and the sheep that he bred were abundant and healthy. If Joseph had been in charge of planting crops, maybe his crops grew abundant and healthy.

As far as how Joseph "found grace in (Potiphar's) sight," as a slave, there are a lot of factors that go into it. Sure the Lord made Joseph's tasks prospered, but it had to have been so much more than that. I saw a video recently that was talking about the selection process for Special Forces in the US military and the guy drew a graph on the board with the x-axis representing "trustworthiness" and the y-axis representing "skill level." He said that in the selection process, candidates are rated according to their skill level and trustworthiness, giving 4 sections that someone could fall into. There were guys who were rated as being low skilled and low trustworthy meaning that they would not have been competent in a combat situations they would be sent to and they wouldn't have been able to trusted by their team members. This guy was not selected to be an SF member.

One the opposite end there was the category of highly skilled and highly trustworthy, this person was obvious the standard and selected to continue training. Then there were the other two categories, highly skilled but low trust, and lower skill level but high trust. They presenter then said that they would rather choose the guy who was lower in skill level but high in trust than the guy who was highly skilled but couldn't be trusted. The standard was "I could trust you to have my back on a mission, but if I can't trust you at home with my wife or my money, then you can't be on my team." The other person could have their skills trained up on, they could improve, they could be given a job that magnified their strengths instead of their weaknesses, but all that was worth it if they could be trusted to do the right thing at all times, to have their integrity intact, that was the person who was selected.

The lesson from that is the importance of integrity and loyalty and faithfulness, I mean even the Marines slogan that they live by until the day they die is Semper Fi, meaning always faithful. Looking back at my understanding of slavery in the southern US pre-civil war, those slaves who were chosen for leadership positions within the system were those who the plantation owners believed that they could trust implicitly. All this means that Joseph didn't just show up as a slave and everything he touched turned to gold, it wasn't the Midas touch. The prosperity that came to Potiphar's household when Joseph showed up absolutely came by the hand of God, but that wasn't the only factor, God's favor could only have been an enhancement of what Joseph brought to the table, which would have been hardwork, initiative, and loyalty.

All this improvement that came to Potiphar's hosuehold with Joseph wouldn't have been obvious immediately, it would have taken some time for Joseph to get involved in the household and in his work, and then that hard work would have been compounded by God's blessings to the point that not only did Potiphar notice that he was doing better than usual, but that it was all attributed to Joseph. As Joseph worked in the household and proved himself, Potiphar "made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand." You don't appoint someone to manage your whole life unless you trust them WITH your life. Imagine the damage that one person could do to another if put into that position with ill intent. I'm sure the "head overseer" position wasn't just given to him and that he arrived in that position after carefully proving himself in lesser leadership roles, and that took time.

As the overseer of the whole estate "the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in the house, and in the field." So let's speculate, based on that verse, on what were some ways that God could have blessed Potiphar's household through Joseph. Maybe babies were concieved and delivered healthier and more abundantly, both human and animal. There could have been fewer and less significant illness and injuries. Better business deals could have been bartered, either through Joseph's negotiating skills or through just opportunity. There could have been less contention among household members, but family and staff, maybe because of Joseph's conflict management skills, maybe because life was easier with the blessings, or maybe just because there was a spirit of peace in the household. The fields could have yielded larger and more robust harvests, those are the kinds of things that you can't explain away by "oh Joseph is just particularly skilled at planting" or something. Just like when Jacob's sheep were born the color that they agreed on, then when Laban switched it, the sheep were born the other color, like there is absolutely no way to attribute that phenomenon to anything other than the hand of God, there's just no other way.

It got to the point that Potiphar "knew now ought he had, save the bread which he did eat," which I think means that he became so hands-off in regards to his livelihood that he basically showed up for dinner and didn't concern himself with the rest of the household affairs. The level of trust you have to have in someone to allow them to control your entire holding like that is just immense. Potiphar was not a lacksidaisical guy, he was one of the highest ranking guys in some sort of military, police, bodyguard, violent position in the whole kingdom of Egpyt, he had a huge, thriving household, estate large enough to need mutliple slaves.

His equivalent today would be like the vice-president or secretary of state or defense director or something like that, and the people who make it into those positions don't get there by taking a "hands-off" approach to their affairs. All this is to state the importance of Joseph to Potiphar's prosperity. A lot of the good stuff came from God, but God could only build on what Joseph already provided which was hardwork, loyalty, and integrity. This is an importance lesson for us today, God can only expand our own efforts. We have to be ready to receive the blessings that he has for us, and we show our readiness by working hard to keep His commandments and take care of our responsibilities, remain loyal to the covenants that we make with him, and maintain our integrity regardless of what situation arises. Interesting thoughts.