Joseph & Potiphar 2 - Genesis 39:7-9

39:7 - The household of Potiphar has been thriving under Joseph’s care and Potiphar trusts Joseph enough that he has completely taken a hands-off approach to his business dealings, this is a really big deal as people in Potiphar position don’t get there by taking a hands-off approach to anything. But here comes the rub, at some point Potiphar’s “wife case her eyes upon Jospeh; and she said, Lie with me.” This is an absolutely no-win situation for Joseph and as soon as she propositions him, he must have known that his days in Potiphar’s household were numbered.

If Joseph refuses, she could resort to any number of retaliatory actions, including but not limited to: falsely accusing Joseph of inappropriate behavior, making it her personal life mission to make his life miserable, etc. We know that anciently women didn’t have any rights, so she couldn’t really go much legally, or that she probably didn’t have any choice when it came to marrying Potiphar to begin with, and surely Potiphar was cheating on her, as was his right I think, and he’s a powerful man. She was stuck in a situation in which she had no control, and the shame and dishonor that she would bring Potiphar if her indiscretions were publicly known could have ruined his reputation, this seems like proposition Joseph for sex was very self-destructive for her, this was a no-win situation for her as well.

This really feels like all the stories you hear about people who do these crazy things and you think, “why in the world would you do this?” And then as you think about all the extenuating circumstances, it all comes together and makes sense. To me, this is a power play. Potiphar’s wife sees all the trust that he has in Joseph and probably gets jealous of their relationship, not consciously of course but subconsciously for sure. Then if she can get Joseph to have sex with her, then he’s not so perfect after all, and she’ll hold all the power over him, meaning that she can get him to do whatever she wants with the threat of “I’ll tell my husband that you had sex with him,” or more probably she would threaten to tell Potiphar that Joseph raped her.

This is absolutely a power play, she wants to be the most important person in Potiphar’s life and instead that person is Joseph, so she’s trying to gain power over him. I wonder if it occurred to her that he would have declined her proposition, and surely, she has done this before, I wonder how many other men had denied her before. Probably not very many. Was this just that Joseph was the most attractive man that she’d ever seen and just HAD to have sex with him? I doubt it, she would have been exposed to many attractive people in her lifetime, just statistically Joseph wouldn’t have been the best one. It was his position as the second most powerful person in Potiphar’s household that drove her action. And its really kind of sad because only people who are really hurt act like this.

39:8-9 - Joseph gives the expected response that any man who Potiphar’s wife propositioned probably gave, saying basically, “oh absolutely not, your husband will find out and kill me,” but Joseph gives another reason for declining her offer that was surely less common, “how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” She might have thought “sin against which God?” as the ancient Egyptians were polytheistic, and as far as I know, these ancient Egyptian gods weren’t particularly concerned with the chastity of their followers. In fact, as we’ve learned before, at that time, the people believed that a god’s power was only effective in a certain region, so when he cited his own God as the reason for his declination, he was suggesting that his God had authority in Egypt, even though surely other people didn’t believe that.

Another point that is interesting here is that Joseph cites God’s displeasure as a reason why he wouldn’t engage sexually with her, but we just read chapter 38 that talked about Judah, the man whose descendant was literally the Savior of the world, and he had sex with a prostitute and only at the end realized that what he had done was wrong, not because it disobeyed God, but because he had not fulfilled his legal obligation to his daughter in law. When Reuben had sex/raped Bilhah, he lost the birthright, not because of any religious reason, but because he had betrayed his father. There are so many accounts of sex between people who are not married to each other, who faced consequences for that, but this is the first time so far in the Bible where immorality is connected with God’s displeasure.

All of this means that Joseph had progressed spiritually to the point that he had a knowledge of God, his character, the general gospel principles, etc. This makes sense because in 2 Nephi there are several chapters that are quoted as this Joseph of Egypt’s prophesies and expansions of gospel principles. Joseph spent the first 17 years of his life at home with his father, the only known servant of God left at that point in human history. It’s possible that in those first 17 years he was taught gospel principles sufficiently to build a firm foundation. My guess though is that while he probably learned some stuff, and the basics, etc. anything else that he learned spiritually was taught to him by the Spirit during his enslavement in Egypt.

Joseph Smith was taught the gospel by the Spirit, most people learn the gospel in depth and what it means and what to do by the Spirit, that’s the only way that that learning is truly taken to the heart. But it also means that learning the gospel can happen anywhere, the brick-and-mortar church isn’t necessary for us to learn gospel truths, the best, most qualified teachers aren’t required. The only thing that is necessary in order to learn the gospel is a desire to do so, literally, that’s the only thing you need and God does the rest. He meets us where we are, and tells us what we need to know, building line upon line, precept upon precept. It also begs the question, if Joseph would have been able to make this spiritual growth if he had stayed with his family in Canaan. Maybe.

But there’s a video that I really like where a guy talks about God isolating you when it’s time for intense teaching and training. I resonated with that video a lot because I really feel like over the last year especially, I’ve slowly been left by everyone I used to rely on for support, and now literally, the only person I have to turn to is God. It’s been difficult and painful, but I’m solidifying my commitments to Him, and my spiritual positions, and it’s probably taking a lot longer than I bet he would have liked, but he knew how much time I needed. Anyway, Joseph’s isolation in Egypt was most likely necessary for him to grow spiritually the way that God needed him to so that Joseph could do the work God had prepared for him to do. It seems mean, and we could tell ourselves that surely, there must have been another way that was easier.

But if that was the case that there was an easier, less painful way for Joseph (or myself) to learn these lessons, but God chose to make him suffer more than necessary, the God would be cruel in forcing that isolation and suffering upon Joseph when it wasn’t necessary. And God is not cruel. So, when we think about how awful it was for Joseph to have to experience slavery, imprisonment, all these horrible things, we have to know that there was no other way. I think I needed to hear that today, everything that I go through prepares me for the work that God has for me to do, and there is no other way.