Wednesday, 1 January 2025

Goodness week1

  Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. 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. 

The LORD was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the LORD was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.

Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!” 

But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “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?” And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.

Genesis 39.1-10


Genesis 39.6 makes the statement that Joseph was ‘we’ll built and handsome.’ But Joseph’s spirituality was even more rugged than his physique, and so when Potiphar's wife seeks to lure him into a sexual entanglement, Joseph answers her out of a sense of his own moral goodness, ‘My master does not concern himself with anything in the house, everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. . .How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?’

Goodness is that fruit of the Spirit that does not hesitate to label all immorality for what it is, sin. Goodness never allows categories of sin and righteousness to become fuzzy by using more acceptable definitions of sin like goof-ups, no-nos, or indiscretions. Joseph knew immorality for what it was and was not willing to widen his definitions of sin to the point that he could call any kind of evil good. Goodness is the art of measuring ethical values with ethical norms. Goodness never excuses immorality by seeing it in some new and broader way.

So in the character of Joseph we see a man who’s goodness rises higher than those around him. Some scholars think of Joseph as the Jesus of the Old Testament. He was not perfect, as Christ was, for Joseph was a mere man. But sinful people can live a righteous life, and Joseph was very much like Jesus in that he sought the pleasure of God with a life that never confused the categories of good and evil.


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