Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Seeds Of The Kingdom


(Audio Version; Music: "More And More Of You" (Fike/Lee/Riddle)--WorshipMob--Real. Live. Music.)


Introduction

            One of the by-products of being a pastor is trying to remind people that there is still hope even in a world that seems so evil and hopeless at times. This past week, two Palestinians entered a synagogue in Jerusalem wielding meat cleavers and guns and murdered five people worshiping there. Just in case it couldn’t get worse, Palestinians began dancing in the streets and celebrating the news. And not to be outdone, our shameful President chimed in with the comment that too many Palestinians have died too. Muslims have swept through large parts of the Middle-East purging the region of non-Muslims and reserving their greatest brutality for Christians, leaving some places where Christianity had existed for 2,000 years nearly cleansed of all Christian presence. Here in the west, Christians seem to face a barrage of sinful behavior from the surrounding culture on a daily basis that can leave even the strongest believer wondering how or if they can make a difference. And when sin is welcomed into our churches, hope can feel like sand slipping through our fingers as we seek God’s purpose for allowing good and evil to continue to coexist. We begin to wonder if things will ever change. Will things ever get better? It can be hard for faithful Christians to hold onto hope. It can be hard to find our place and purpose in the world because we don’t understand the place and purpose evil plays in the world. But Jesus, as usual, gives us a lesson of hope when He tells us a parable to remind us that He still has all things under control and we are part of His grand plan of redemption. Jesus tells us that for a time, it is His will that good and evil coexist. However, a day will come when there will be a great harvest to separate good from evil once and for all. Nevertheless, until that day, Christians play a very important part in God’s plan for His coming Kingdom as the Seeds Of The Kingdom.

Subject Text

Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43

24Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. 27The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from? 28‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ 29‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. 30Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”…36Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” 37He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. 40As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”


Context

            You could say that the context for our lesson begins back in chapter 11. Some of John the Baptist’s disciples brought a message from John, who is in prison, to Jesus. John knows that the long awaited Messiah has arrived yet he is still in prison and will soon be executed. John, like all Jews, believed that when the Messiah arrived, He would set all things right and return Israel to it’s national prominence. However, to John, nothing seemed to change since he was sitting in prison and Rome still had its thumb on Israel. But Jesus had in mind a far bigger mission than the temporal re-establishment of Israel as an independent and respected nation. Jesus’ mission was one of eternal reconciliation between God and all humanity. Israel was merely the first to receive that message of salvation and witness the Messiah at work when the blind received back their sight, the lame danced with joy, lepers returned to their families and communities free from the illness that had exiled them to the community of outcasts, the deaf could once again experience the sounds of joy, the dead got a second chance at life, and more important, the gospel of hope was being preached to those who had lost hope. Jesus inaugurated the kingdom of God on earth through Him and through His message of salvation. In doing so, the battle between those who believed His message and those who rejected that message began. It would be so much easier for all people if believers and unbelievers could do life separately but that’s not what Jesus intended because believers are an important element in reaching an unbelieving world. The text leading up to our Subject Text puts into sharp relief a world that, for now, will include believers and unbelievers and sometimes, it will be hard to tell them apart. Nevertheless, as our Subject Text makes clear, a day will come when there will be a great harvest and God’s angels will separate believers from unbelievers for their respective eternal destinies.

Text Analysis

24Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. 27The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from? 28‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ 29‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. 30Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

           Because of Israel’s agrarian culture, Jesus uses a parable centered on farming in vv. 24-30 to paint a picture of the end-time judgment. Now the NIV translates the Greek word zizania in v. 25 as “weeds” but that is actually a rather poor translation. There are a number of translations that get closer when they translate the word as “tares” and some get very close when they translate the word as “darnel.” Technically, the plant being referenced is a bearded-darnel. It is a “troublesome weed in grainfields…[also known as darnel, or cheat and it] resembles wheat [when both plants are still immature].”[1] I know this seems like an insignificant detail and my point is not to get tangled up in minutiae but it will be important later when we learn who is responsible for planting tares among the wheat. The deceptive nature of the plant is consistent with the deceptive nature of the one planting the seed. There is something else that I believe is not included by accident in v. 25 and that is the reference to the enemy planting his malicious seed among the wheat while “everyone was sleeping.” Maybe Jesus was trying to convey the message that the seed was planted in secret and I don’t want you to read meaning into the text that the text did not intend to convey. I just want you to think about our modern Church and when you see some of the perverse behavior that is not only accepted but welcomed in some cases, does it make you wonder if this all happened because we were sleeping? Something to think about. The instruction to the servants not to pull up the darnel in v. 29 seems clear because the appearance of the two plants in their early stages of growth is eerily similar. The owner of the field didn’t want to take the risk of pulling up the wrong plants knowing that there will come a time when the plants will be easily distinguished. At that time, the darnel can be collected separately in bundles according to v. 30 and made available for the only thing they are useful for—fuel for the fire! In the meantime, the contaminated plants must be retained and allowed to mature along side the true plants for the benefit of the cherished crop.

            All teachings in the scriptures have their intended purpose. Some are more obvious than others but they all have their purpose nonetheless. You may not know this but there are 46 parables of Jesus in the gospels! Why so many parables? Again, there is a purpose and we learn the purpose in vv. 34-35 which I left out of our Subject Text. Matthew tells us that Jesus only taught the crowds who followed Him with lessons shrouded in parables and both were for the purpose of fulfilling Old Testament prophecies. In vv. 14-15, Jesus refers to the fulfillment of one of those prophecies found in the Book of Isaiah (Isa 6:9-10):

9He said, “Go and tell this people: ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ 10Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

And Mathew tells us that the second prophetic fulfillment is from the Book of Psalms (Ps 78:2):

2“I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old.”

Knowing now the reason why Jesus used parables to teach, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the disciples were confused.

36“Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”

            If you’re like me, you’ve read the bible many times so some of the mystery, suspense, and surprise can be lost if we’re not careful. We read through the verses to this point and already know what Jesus is talking about so a lot of the wonder of these verses is lost on us. So take a minute and try to recognize the sincere confusion of the disciples in v. 36. It’s hard because we can’t unknow what we already know but the disciples sincerely didn’t understand what Jesus was teaching. I suspect that part of their ignorance was wrapped around their own perception of how they believe the Messiah should be behaving. However, their ignorance was more likely rooted in the fact that God was only then revealing His eternal purposes for the salvation and judgment of humanity and with respect to our Subject Text “the great principle of bad [people] being tolerated for the sake of the good. It relegates to the end the judgment which the contemporaries of Jesus, including the Baptist, expected at the beginning of the Messianic kingdom.”[2] Consequently, the disciples sincerely don’t understand the point Jesus is trying to make through His parable of the wheat and the darnels.

37“He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39and the enemy who sows them is the devil.”

            There are really two parts to this parable and in order to understand the first part, it is necessary to accurately identify the key characters in the story in vv. 37-39a. This all seems really elementary but don’t forget that this is a whole new theological worldview for the Jews. Their theology always revolved around the relationship between God and Israel and Israel’s standing as a nation in the world. Note that there isn’t even a mention of Israel in Jesus’ parable. Jesus is shifting their nationalistic paradigm to get them to start thinking in terms of a Kingdom paradigm where the distinction will not be between Jew and non-Jew but between believer and unbeliever with all things revolving around Him. It is also important to note that believers are identified as the “good seed” and belong to Him while all the unbelievers are identified as the “bad seed” and belong to the devil. It only makes sense that the one who is called “evil” and “deceiver” would sow evil seed among the good seed that grows into something that is evil and deceptive. Again, this is a new theological perspective where Jews were automatically accepted because of their nationality while all non-Jews were on the outside looking in until they went through the prescribed rituals for acceptance into the Jewish community. However, unless they were ethnic Jews, they would never enjoy the same religious benefits and liberties as ethnic Jews. For example, even the temple had a separate area designated for Gentiles where they were permitted to worship. From a Jewish perspective, this is as close as a non-Jew would ever be able to come to participating in worship activities at the temple. Jesus is changing all that when he makes no distinction between Jew and non-Jew and instead implies by His judgment language that He is sovereign over all. “The field is the whole world and not simply Israel because, no matter how important Israel is to God’s purposes, as Lord of all creation, he acts on a worldwide canvas…The good seed is identified as the sons of the kingdom. This is a useful designation because it provides a bridge between the historic people of God (as the natural heirs of the kingdom...) and the actualisation of kingdom membership that is taking place with the coming of Jesus.”[3]

“The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. 40As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”

            Now that the main characters of Jesus’ parable have been identified, we come to the second part of the parable that itself serves two purposes: 1) Hope for believers that one day their suffering will end and they will receive their reward; and 2) A warning to unbelievers that one day their unbelief and evil will result in their eternal condemnation. Believers rightly anticipate this day because it will be a vindication of everything they have accepted on faith and it will also rightly be a day of great celebration as it marks the first day of an eternity spent in the presence of God. However, it also marks a day when it will be too late for unbelievers to turn back. It will be the day when they will suffer the consequences of their ongoing choice to reject Jesus’ offer of reconciliation and salvation. It will be a day of rejoicing for believers but not a day of gloating. Because just as believers will spend eternity in the presence of God in heaven, unbelievers will spend eternity separated from God in hell. This is not a game with winners and losers where everyone goes home at the end of the game. Only one side gets to go home; only believers get to go to a glorious home God has been preparing for them. Unbelievers never get to go home unless you consider hell home because that’s where they will spend eternity. No matter what you think of unbelievers, this isn’t something we should wish on the worst of them. It is a reality for unbelievers at the end of the age but until then maybe some of the unbelievers of today will become believers tomorrow. This is why it is so important that we understand the gravity of this parable and why it should motivate every believer to double their efforts to reach out to an unbelieving world with the salvation message of Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, the salvation message is two-fold and always has been. On the one hand the invitation for salvation is available to all who choose to believe and on the other hand it is a warning of condemnation for all those who, until the end, reject that invitation. Until that day of judgment, believers and unbelievers must coexist in order for God’s eternal will to be done and so that all those unbelievers who are destined to believe will have the opportunity to make a confession of faith even if it is with their dying breath. “In this world, even after the announcement of Jesus that the eschatological kingdom has already begun, those guilty of lawlessness—the people who belong to the evil one—coexist with the righteous, who are the people of the kingdom. There has not been, nor will there be, a dramatic separation of the lawless from the righteous until the harvest at the end of the age. The present age is thus one in which human society (and thus even the Church) is a mixture of those of the evil one and those of the kingdom. This can result in a confusing situation, especially when the wicked seem to prosper and the righteous suffer…But the ambiguity of the present situation is a temporary one, and with the end of the age it too will be brought to an end. Then, and only then, will there be a clear demarcation between the two, and each will receive their eschatological due: the lawless a dreadful punishment and the righteous extravagant blessedness. The evil will be shown for what they are, but the righteous too will become conspicuous. To this future expectation Matthew returns again and again, as a warning and encouragement to his readers.”[4]

Application

            You know by now that Jesus never says or does anything by accident so it is no accident that He refers to the “good seed” as “sons (and daughters) of the kingdom.” In a world constantly surrounded by evil, we can easily get discouraged wondering why Jesus doesn’t do something about it and what role we play in the overall plan. John records something Jesus said when He told His disciples that the time had come for His death. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds (Jn 12:24).” Jesus was clearly referring to Himself in this particular context but would it be such a stretch to think that He might expect the same thing from us? I don’t want to press the imagery of the parable too far but it is certainly something to think about and certainly something persecuted Christians often believe. The second century theologian, Tertullian, once said that “The oftener we are mown down by you, the more in number we grow, the blood of Christians is seed.”[5] Perhaps Jesus intends that some of that “good seed” He refers to in our Subject Text must fall to the ground and die as a means to produce a bigger crop; as a means to produce more believers; as a means to advance the kingdom of God. It doesn’t always have to mean a physical death. It can just as easily mean death to the persistent desire for a better more comfortable life. It can mean death to the constant temptation of trying to wrestle control away from God. It can mean death to what we think is best for us in exchange for what is best for others. It can mean death to the dreams we have for our life in exchange for the dream God has for our life. Anytime we die for our faith, or something in our life dies as a result of our faith, our faith doesn’t die. Instead, the example of our life and our faith multiplies and grows as a natural result of being Seeds Of The Kingdom.




[1] Frederick William Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000), p. 429.
[2] W. Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor’s Greek Testament, Vol. 1, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1983), p. 200.
[3] John Nolland, The Gospel of Matthew—The New International Greek Testament Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2005), p. 559.
[4] Donald A. Hagner, Matthew 1-13—Word Biblical Commentary, (Dallas, TX: Word Books, 1993), pp. 394-395.
[5] Francois Decret, Early Christianity in North Africa, (Cambridge, England: James Clarke & Co., 2009), p. 36.


Wednesday, November 19, 2014

You Are Who You Are When No One Is Looking


(Audio version; Music: "Forever Lifted Higher"--by Eric Hochhalter--WorshipMob)



Introduction

            In 2013, the President of the United States received the dubious honor of having uttered the “Lie of the Year” according to PolitiFact when he misled the American people about a key component of the signature piece of legislation that bears his name. Unfortunately for the President this week, a series of video recordings were made public featuring one of the prominent architects of the President’s landmark piece of legislation. In the recordings, the heralded college professor boasts how he worked with the President in the privacy of the President’s office on exactly how certain aspects of the legislation could be drafted so as to successfully deceive the American people in order to enact the legislation. As embarrassing as these revelations may be for the person holding the highest office in the land, it is a crushing indictment of him as a person. Here’s why—does it really matter what he says when you’re watching him if he’s deceiving you when you’re not? Let’s put aside the President’s perfidious behavior, it just happens to be the most public because of his position. You can see this behavior at work around you all the time—at work you know the employee who says and does all the right things in the presence of the boss and then says and does virtually the opposite when not in the presence of the boss. You go to school with the person who seems to be able to breeze through class to the delight of the teacher or professor only to learn that this student’s proficiency is attributed to cleverly disguised cheating. Let me ask you a few questions: Is lying only wrong if you get caught? Is cheating only wrong if you get caught? Is stealing only wrong if you get caught? There are clearly some people that would answer ‘yes’ to all these questions. Most people, however, fully acknowledge that these things are wrong regardless of whether or not anyone knows or whether or not you are caught. Remember, one of the things that made Jesus so angry was the religious leaders who spoke and behaved one way for public consumption but were vile hypocrites in the private company of their peers. Jesus called them whitewashed tombs filled with dead men’s bones (Mt 23:27). He also said that there is nothing hidden that won’t one day be revealed (Lk 8:17). The question is, what will Jesus reveal in you? Will the person that no one sees be revealed to be the same person that everyone sees? Don’t misunderstand me, this is not a matter of perfection because we all make mistakes. Instead, it is a matter of integrity because You Are Who You Are When No One Is Looking. There are countless examples of men and women of integrity throughout the pages of the bible but I want to look at one in particular this week found in the pages of Genesis.

Subject Text

Genesis 39:2-23

          2The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. 3When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, 4Joseph 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. 5From 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. 6So he left in Joseph’s care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, 7and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!8But 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. 9No 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?10And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her. 11One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. 12She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house. 13When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, 14she called her household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed. 15When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.16She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home. 17Then she told him this story: “That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me. 18But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.” 19When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is how your slave treated me,” he burned with anger. 20Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison, 21the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 22So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. 23The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.

Context

            This is such a good story that starts way back in Chapter 37 where we find that Jacob has twelve sons and the youngest one is Joseph. We also learn that Joseph is the favored son and is treated that way by his father. In fact, Jacob goes so far as to make Joseph a very special coat that Joseph proudly showed off to his brothers. At the same time, God gave Joseph dreams that prophesied the day when his whole family would bow down before him. However, Joseph would have to endure much pain and sorrow before that day would arrive. Joseph’s brothers had their fill of their father’s favoritism and Joseph’s boasting about one day ruling over his brothers that they dropped him in an empty cistern and told his father that he was killed and torn to pieces by a wild animal. However some of Joseph’s brothers had second thoughts about dropping their brother in a cistern to die. But it’s not what you think. A few of them got to thinking that it would be a waste to leave Joseph down in that cistern where he would die and they would get nothing out of it other than the satisfaction of getting rid of him. So they decided to hoist him out and sell him to a passing caravan that was headed to Egypt. When the caravan arrived in Egypt, Joseph was purchased by Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh’s guard. Once the favored son of Jacob who would become the nation of Israel, Joseph was now a slave in a foreign country far away from his father who believed he was dead. You might think that you learned all you needed to know about Joseph when he was strutting around his father’s home like a proud peacock wearing the colorful coat his father made for him. But we don’t learn much about people when all is well and things are going smoothly and a wonderful life is on parade for all to see and admire. We learn most about people when things go bad and they’re banished to a life they didn’t chose; a life of severe pressure and stress. This was the new life for Joseph; a life of relative obscurity. But this is when we find out just what kind of man Joseph is because You Are Who You Are When No One Is Looking.

Text Analysis

          2The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master

            One of the most difficult things to understand is that God doesn’t function the way we would or the way we think He should. If you didn’t know the whole story of Joseph, would v. 2 make sense to you? We read over this verse without thinking much about it but what if you didn’t know how God was going to use Joseph to save Israel? Try and put yourself in Joseph’s shoes. It’s not like God gave him an advanced plan so that he could just bide his time until everything unfolded and he would once again be the star. For all Joseph knew, being an Egyptian slave would be the rest of his life. There must have been times, even for Joseph, when he wondered if God had abandoned him. Some of you know exactly what I’m talking about. You’re not trapped as an Egyptian slave but you’re trapped in a life that for a variety of reasons is killing your soul or maybe your body and you’re convinced that God has abandoned you. What if you could step outside of your life and view it from God’s perspective to see that God hasn’t abandoned you and is, in fact, using the events of your life to accomplish something magnificent in you for your benefit and through you for the benefit of others. Isn’t that kind of what you’re doing when you read our Subject Text? You are standing on the outside of Joseph’s life and watching how God orchestrated the events of his life to accomplish something great in him and through him for the benefit of others. If you are one of God’s children; His friend, He is doing the same thing in and through you even if you don’t feel it or can’t see it. God is “with” you in the same way that He was “with” Joseph. “Clearly, Yahweh was not restricted to the shrines and patriarchs erected in Canaan. He was a universal God who acted beyond the borders of the Promised Land…God’s sovereignty was at work to bring about his purpose. Despite the hateful acts of his brothers…God was acting to fulfill his purposes, and nothing could thwart it, not even the evil intents of misguided individuals…Throughout the story, God’s protection is evident, his protection of Joseph as well as that of Jacob’s family.”[1]

          3When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, 4Joseph 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. 5From 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. 6So he left in Joseph’s care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.

            There’s an old saying that goes something like this, “When God gives you lemons, make lemonade.” You could say that God gave Joseph an entire trainload of lemons but Joseph appeared to use them all in vv. 3-6a. A person’s character isn’t measured when life is on cruise control. The depth of a person’s character can best be measured when life is crashing in on them. Joseph could have lamented the hand that God dealt him but he didn’t. Instead, Joseph allowed God to use him for His grand purpose. As a result, Joseph and all those associated with Joseph prospered. Think about this, Joseph was in charge of all the affairs of this very power official in Pharaoh’s administration. Joseph was free to do whatever was needed to carry out his daily task for Potiphar but he was not free—Joseph was the property of Potiphar. You have to realize what this says about Joseph. Joseph didn’t wait for conditions to be ideal to be obedient to God; to lean into the plan God had for him at that moment in his life. Look, Joseph still doesn’t know the big picture of God’s plan. It’s not like he knows how his actions will play into future events that will serve to perpetuate God’s ultimate plan concerning Israel. Joseph serves Potiphar faithfully because that’s who he is not because he knows how the story will end. Remember, for all Joseph knows, he will never be free again and will die in Egypt as a slave. We know God has a greater plan for Joseph but he doesn’t know that. Joseph has no idea that we would be reading about him thousands of years after he was dead. Joseph wasn’t performing for anyone who might be watching and that’s what is so important to remember here—You Are Who You Are When No One Is Looking! And Joseph would prove this point emphatically later in our Subject Text. “We have seen in the preceding narrative that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob repeatedly fell short of God’s expectations, though, of course, they continued to have faith in God. In the narratives about Joseph, however, we do not see him fall short. On the contrary, Joseph is a striking example of one who always responds in total trust and obedience to the will of God. Behind these narratives lies an emphasis that has been little felt in the earlier stories, where the stress has been on God’s overriding commitment and faithfulness to the promises…There is a human part to be played in the fulfillment of God’s promises. When God’s people respond with ‘righteousness and justice,’ as does Joseph, their way and God’s blessing will prosper.”[2]

          Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, 7and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!” 8But 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. 9No 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?” 10And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.

            It is one of the great frustrations in the life of being a follower that no sooner do we survive one battle and begin to thrive that we are confronted with some other challenge to our faith and obedience. It can be wearisome and can push us to the brink of giving up. Say what you will about Joseph’s lot in life, he seemed to have reached the point where he could enjoy the lemonade he managed to squeeze out of the lemons God gave him. But vv. 6b-10 demonstrate that God is never really done preparing those He intends on using for something bigger down the road and Joseph is no exception. Aside from his freedom, Joseph pretty much had it made. He probably didn’t want for much of anything and had the autonomous authority to act on behalf of his master, Potiphar. It was the perfect life in the midst of imperfect conditions. What could go wrong? Well part of the imperfect conditions for Joseph are the same as those we face every day—doing life in the midst of a sinful, self-prioritizing world that either doesn’t know God or has rejected Him. Joseph finds himself in a terrible quandary when Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce him into going to bed with her. Without being overly graphic, she wants Joseph to have sex with her. Again, we know the story so we don’t sense the monumental stress this must have placed on Joseph. Think about it in terms of your own life. What if your boyfriend or girlfriend threatened to break up with you if you didn’t agree to have sex with them? What if your boss offered you a raise or promotion in exchange for sex or what if you were threated with losing your job if you didn’t? What if a teacher offered to reward you with an “A” in class if you agreed to have sex or threatened you with an “F” if you didn’t? Think about it in terms of something other than sex since infidelity and sex outside of marriage isn’t all that uncommon these days. What if you had the opportunity for a raise or promotion and all you had to do was cut a few corners and maybe just cheat a little? What if you had the opportunity to get an “A” in class without having to do all the work required by cheating just a bit here and there? What would you do if you had the chance to get what you want; get ahead; become successful; get rich; have it all by being dishonest if you believed that no one would ever find out? Would you do it? That was the decision that Joseph had to make when Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him. Who would know? Who would dare tell even if they did know? Aside from Potiphar, the deception involved the two most powerful people—Potiphar’s wife and Potiphar’s right-hand man. If they didn’t say anything, no one would ever know. But we learn a little more about Joseph when he refuses the advances of Potiphar’s wife. Joseph knows that Potiphar trusts him implicitly and that is more valuable to him than the short time of personal satisfaction he might experience if he agreed to go to bed with Potiphar’s wife even if no one ever found out about it. But whether or not anyone ever finds out is irrelevant to Joseph because he knows that God would know about it and that’s all that really matters to Joseph. Joseph had to know that he was in a lose-lose position from a human perspective—if he concede to the wife’s advances, he would have offended Potiphar but if he refused the wife, he ran the very real risk of offending her. However, from a divine perspective, Joseph had only one choice that wouldn’t offend God and he chose correctly regardless of what the temporal consequences of that decision may have been. Adultery was a serious matter in many cultures of the ancient near east including Egypt. “The Egyptian Tale of Two Brothers, echoing the sentiments expressed by Joseph to Potiphar’s wife, calls adultery a ‘great crime,’ which is not even to be considered by an honest man or woman. This was an attack on a man’s household, stealing his rights to procreate and endangering the orderly transmission of his estate to his heirs. The act itself defiled both participants. Since it was not only an attack on the sanctity of the household, but also a source of general contamination, adultery served as a reason for God to expel the people [of Israel] from the land.”[3] Let me repeat something, even the Egyptians considered adultery to be a serious crime and not something an “honest” man or woman would consider. We really don’t know anything about Potiphar’s wife but let me ask you something, do you think this was the first time Potiphar’s wife either considered or did something that was less than honest? To believe that she went from being honest and honorable to suddenly wanting to jump into bed with someone other than her husband stretches credulity especially since she daily persists in wanting to seduce Joseph according to v. 10. There is no reason to believe that the public’s perception of her was anything other than honorable but the person she presented for public consumption obviously did not reflect who she was privately and who she was privately tells us everything we need to know about her because You Are Who You Are When No One Is Looking.

          11One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. 12She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house. 13When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, 14she called her household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed. 15When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”

            If you had any doubts about this woman, vv. 11-15 should tell you all you need to know about the kind of person she is. Imagine what these days must have been like for Joseph who was simply trying to go about his daily chores. Try to put yourself in Joseph shoes except that you don’t have the option of not going to work or not going to school or staying at home and hiding. Joseph had specific duties that made it impossible to avoid coming into contact with Potiphar’s wife. What’s more, if Joseph failed to perform his daily duties, he would have had to explain why. What could he do? What would you have done? Go to work and he has to face Potiphar’s wife. Don’t go to work and he has to face Potiphar and answer why. It would be so easy to just go to bed with her and get it over with. No one would know and life could just get back to normal. Would it really be so terrible to have sex with Potiphar’s wife? I mean the text doesn’t say that she’s an ugly old hag or anything. Potiphar’s a pretty important man so it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that his wife was beautiful. How bad would it be and then maybe she would leave him alone. And besides, God can’t possibly expect him to be faithful under such extreme circumstances. Come on, be honest, wouldn’t these thoughts be going through your mind? It can’t possibly be adultery under these coercive circumstances could it? Could you be faithful under similar circumstances? Well Joseph is. Joseph is faithful and his faithfulness would cost him the few freedoms he did enjoy. Joseph was faithful to go to work and Potiphar’s wife was there waiting for him. Since her passive attempts to entice Joseph failed, she becomes more aggressive and physical with Joseph but he refuses to surrender to her new advances and this time abandons his duties leaving his coat still clutched in her hands. So she does what seems most natural to her, she lies! There’s an old saying that seems to apply to Potiphar’s wife, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” She screams and when her servants arrive, she accuses Joseph of attempting to rape her. Joseph is in serious trouble for sure but Joseph did all he could do and that was to be faithful and obedient to God. I know some of you are thinking that it would have been better if Joseph had just given in this one time. I mean, God is all about grace isn’t he? But there are some of you who are wondering why God doesn’t do something to rescue him. He certainly could if He wanted to, right? Those are both fair questions. In fact, how many times have you asked those questions when faced with the choice to be faithful or compromise? Can God forgive your compromise? Yes. Can God miraculously save you from your circumstances? Yes. But what if there’s another option? What if God wants to use you through whatever consequences you might have to endure as a result of your faithfulness? Is it possible that there is something more important than trying to avoid what might be dire consequences of being faithful? We know the right answer but I know from personal experience how hard it is to accept and believe. But hopefully the story of Joseph can be an example of what faithfulness looks like and how God can use that faithfulness even though it seems to us that there must be a better way for God to accomplish His will. “The story of the spurned woman who takes her revenge on the upright male is doubtless a universal one, because such situations recur in every generation in every society. But this tale is no more included to applaud male propriety over female infidelity than the story of Tamar and Judah [Gen 38] is inserted to prove the reverse…Undoubtedly, Joseph is here portrayed as a model, the wise man who fears God, who is totally loyal and dependable.”[4]

          16She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home. 17Then she told him this story: “That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me. 18But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.” 19When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is how your slave treated me,” he burned with anger. 20Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined.

            With nothing to show for her efforts and having been thoroughly rejected by Joseph, Potiphar’s wife repeats the deceitful accusation to her husband in vv. 16-20a when he returns from wherever he happened to be. It seems clear that she has managed to hide her true self even from him. Why else would the text tell us that he became furious. Would he really be that angry if he suspected that she may have initiated the confrontation with Joseph? Probably not. Imagine how Potiphar must have felt when he heard his wife accuse Joseph of trying to rape her. He might have doubted her were it not for the fact that she had Joseph’s cloak. He trusted Joseph! He put Joseph in charge of everything! Did Joseph really think no one would find out? If you’ve never experience profound betrayal then it may be difficult for you to understand how Potiphar might have felt. The text doesn’t say but would it really be that difficult to imagine that Potiphar and Joseph had become friends over the years? The text tells us that Potiphar was very angry but I wonder if he wasn’t even more hurt by what he believed was a betrayal by a trusted friend. It can be hard to tell the difference when we read the story in the Bible but some of us know the difference very well. For those of us who have been betrayed by someone close to us, we know the difference. The anger is real but the pain of betrayal makes the flame of anger burn red-hot. As a result, Joseph is rewarded for his faithfulness with imprisonment in a prison reserved especially for the king’s prisoner. Don’t miss what just happened here. Potiphar was well within his right to have Joseph put to death immediately. Instead, he incarcerates Joseph with the king’s political prisoners—prison yes but not exactly hard time. Was there still a soft spot for Joseph in Potiphar’s heart of or was this really just the next part of God’s will for Joseph? I believe it’s both. If you didn’t know the story then you would probably never think that it would be God’s will for Joseph to be falsely accused and then go to prison but that’s exactly what happens and it puts Joseph on the precise path necessary to accomplish the next part of God’s plan to care for Israel. However, Joseph didn’t know that. All he knew was that he was faithful and obedient to God and that landed him in prison. What do you suppose must have been going through Joseph’s mind? He was innocent, faithful, and obedient but now he’s sitting in prison. Wow! It hardly seems worth it and it certainly doesn’t seem fair. Nevertheless, this is who Joseph is as a person and this is precisely the kind of person that God will use to do great things. “[Potiphar’s wife] did not disturb the physical scene, keeping the garment at her side. She repeated essentially the same commentary as before, but she bluntly burdened Potiphar with culpability for the crime, since he had elevated the ‘Hebrew slave’ in the household…She blames Potiphar, and she implies that he had better do something about it. She explained that the slave ran, escaping at her scream. She cast Joseph in as poor a light as possible. First, he took advantage of the favor Potiphar had shown him, and second, Joseph was an inept rogue. She, on the other hand, was the innocent damsel in distress who valiantly screamed. Such provoking vividness in her lie inflamed the passions of the offended husband…[The term] ‘his master’ reinforces the idea of the power that Potiphar had over the life of Joseph, and their master-slave relationship exacerbated the alleged betrayal. She does not let this pass when she belittles Potiphar’s lack of control and judgment…Only after hearing the emphatic accusation ‘your slave’ does the master become incensed. His wife ignites his rage when she rubs the betrayal in his face. Since he ‘burned with anger,’ it is surprising that he did not demand Joseph’s death. The hidden hand of God preserves the young man’s life once again.”[5]

Application

          But while Joseph was there in the prison, 21the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 22So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. 23The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.

If vv. 20b-23 don’t cement in your mind the type of man Joseph was then you haven’t been paying attention. These final verses serve as the perfect application for our lesson. Joseph’s station in life continues to go backwards. In case being a slave in a foreign country wasn’t bad enough, Joseph is now in prison as a slave in a foreign country. Nevertheless, we learn that Joseph picked up in prison right where he left off with his diligent service to Potiphar. Soon the prison warden put Joseph in charge of all prison matters to such an extent that the warden didn’t even pay any attention to what Joseph was doing. Joseph didn’t sulk; he didn’t complain; he didn’t question, and we never see him blame God for his circumstances. Instead, he was faithful precisely where God placed him. There will be times in all of our lives when we might feel justified in watering down God’s call to be faithful and obedient; when we will have an opportunity to compromise; an opportunity to cut corners; an opportunity to cheat; an opportunity to lie, whether you’re the President of the United States or a student sitting in a classroom. How you respond to those opportunities will say everything about the kind of person you are. You see, finding more and more clever ways of getting away with lying, cheating, and stealing doesn’t enhance your character it defines it. Your public persona is irrelevant if it contradicts your private persona because it renders your public persona a façade that will one day be removed to reveal the real you. The current President of the United States is learning that lesson the hard way right now. When he was first elected, there was great hope that things would be different when he promised to inaugurate the most transparent administration in history. Six years later, his administration is considered by many people as the least transparent administration in modern American history and in place of the honorable military title of Commander In Chief he is often referred to by the dubious title of Liar In Chief. He was in the ideal position to be faithful and put that faithfulness to good use—he had money, power, and popularity. Instead, most Americans have come to realize that very little of what he says can be trusted as more of his deceptive plans concocted in private are revealed. Complete freedom doesn’t generate faithfulness just like complete lack of freedom doesn’t generate unfaithfulness. Circumstances can’t dictate the degree to which we are willing to be faithful. Joseph’s character isn’t manufactured, it’s just who he is. It is forged in the furnace of his relationship with God. Hidden in the depths of prison where no on is watching, including those who were specifically in charge of watching him, Joseph is still the same faithful man because You Are Who You Are When No One Is Looking.




[1] Willem A. VanGemeren, gen. ed., New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis, Vol. 4, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), p. 808.
[2] Tremper Longman III & David E. Garland, gen. ed., Genesis-Leviticus: The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008), p. 280.
[3] T. Desmond Alexander & David W. Baker, eds., Dictionary of the Old Testament Pentateuch, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), p. 296.
[4] Gordon Wenham, Genesis 16-50—Word Biblical Commentary, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publisher, 1994), pp. 377-378.
[5] Kenneth A. Mathews, Genesis 11:27-50:26—The New American Commentary, Vol. 1B, (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2005), pp. 736-737.