Joseph and the wife of Potiphar.
I. THE GREAT TEMPTATION.
1. The time of it. Never perhaps had Joseph's prospects been brighter since he left his father's house than towards the close of that decade of years which he spent in the Egyptian officer's employ; and yet then it was that, like a thunderbolt shot from a clear sky, a fierce temptation burst upon him.
2. The occasion of it. This was the beauty of Joseph''s person. Things innocent and lovely in themselves may sometimes be a source of danger, and, if not guarded against, a cause of sin, to their possessors. In particular the good looks of men and women are often snares to others as well as fraught with peril to themselves, as the cases Of Sarah (Genesis 12:14), Rebekah (Genesis 26:10), and Dinah (Genesis 34:2) testify. Hence beauty of the person should neither be too eagerly coveted nor too proudly worn by either sex, as-by each its charms in the other should be moderately admired, and its allurements earnestly resisted.
3. The form of it. The special trial to which the young man Joseph was now subjected partook of the character of an assault upon his chastity. It is, however, a mistake to suppose that a good man is always assaulted at the point where he is weakest. On the contrary, it is one of the devil's blunders that, in directing his attacks against saints, he for the most part mistakenly selects the point where they are strongest. Joseph was permitted to be assailed by his lascivious mistress not because his own personal virtue was doubtful, but because in that direction he was best prepared to repel the fiercest onset of temptation.
4. The strength of it. There were elements in this assault upon Joseph's virtue which were calculated to impart to it a vehemence that in ordinary circumstances, i.e. with persons of less robustness of moral principle than Joseph, must have proved overwhelming. These were—
II. THE SPLENDID VICTORY.
1. The manner of Joseph's refusal.
2. The reason of Joseph's refusal.
III. THE REMARKABLE REWARD.
1. The slander of his mistress. The disappointed strumpet, thirsting for revenge, resolves upon accomplishing the ruin of the fair youth of whom the moment before she affected to be enamored. But indeed all illicit passion, whether gratified or baulked, has a tendency sooner or later to become transformed into hate. Laying up the garment which Joseph had indiscreetly dropped in his haste, she makes use of it to trump up a charge against Joseph of having attempted a violation of her chastity. There is no length to which the fierce resentment of a wicked woman will not proceed against those who have incurred her hate. It will commonly go hard with her if out of a straw her infernal ingenuity cannot manufacture a rope wherewith to strangle her victim.
2. The wrath of his master Potiphar, as was natural, at first felt inclined to believe his wife and to suppose that Joseph had foully betrayed the trust reposed in his honor. In this, of course, he acted hastily, and therefore sinfully. Even from the nearest and the dearest reports affecting injuriously the characters of others should not be accepted without investigation. But that second thoughts prevailed with Potiphar, who, remembering the bad reputation of Egyptian ladies generally, and knowing something possibly of the slenderness of his own wife's virtue, as well as recalling the previous high character of Joseph, began to doubt the truth of what was alleged against his favorite, and to think it more likely that his wife lied than that Joseph sinned, has been inferred from the circumstance that Joseph was not forthwith remitted to the executioner's block, but only committed to the tower.
3. The mercy of his God. As before, Jehovah went with Joseph to the prison, and comforted him with gracious thoughts concerning his affliction, with speedy favor in the sight of his keeper, so that the severity of his confinement was considerably mitigated, and with ultimate promotion to a position of trust within the prison, the charge of all the criminals being committed to his care. And finally, the Lord made him prosperous and successful as before in all his undertakings.
HOMILIES BY F. HASTINGS