“How could I do such a wicked thing?”

Joseph’s integrity was sorely tested when his boss’s wife got the hots for him. And Joseph being “well built and handsome,” Genesis 39:6, didn’t make the situation any easier for him either, nor that Potiphar’s wife was probably the pick of the beauties in Egypt that had netted her such a high official in the Egyptian government.

So here was this rivetingly beautiful and highly desirable woman offering herself and all her female charms to a red blooded male in his prime (7). And think of the added excitement getting away with a secret love affair too, and the little teasing winks to each other when in company with others on official business. Such fun it could have been. 

But faced with such fun and excitement, Joseph “refused” to give in to it (8). He tried reasoning with Potiphar’s wife to begin with, explaining his predicament, that her husband had entrusted “everything he owns to my care “ (8), and “he’s withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife” (9). 

And then we see what Joseph was really made of, because in what sounds like exasperation he cries out to her: “How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” (9). Or “How on earth can I go along with what you’re asking for when I know how God would feel about it?” 

But how did Joseph know it was “a wicked thing” in God’s sight to have sex with another man’s wife? The ten commandments didn’t exist yet, so there was no law against adultery. And yet Joseph knew adultery was horribly wrong.

It tells me that God equipped us with a moral compass, so we know in our heart of hearts what’s right and wrong, or good and bad. Paul spoke of it in Romans 2:15, that “God’s law is not something imposed on us; it’s woven into the very fabric of our creation. It’s something that God put deep within us so we know what’s right and wrong.” And Joseph responded to that, whereas Potiphar’s wife didn’t.

And what a lesson for today as our Western society seems bent on destroying our moral compass, so we – and especially the young – have no idea what’s right and wrong. No wonder the Christian message is so full of  hope for those who take God seriously, for “glory, honour and peace await everyone who does good” (10). Which is what happened to Joseph, who again and again experienced “God’s kindness and favour”….(next blog)