Saying No ... When Others Say Yes

Temptations successfully resisted may not bring expected results. I mean, right about now you want to say, okay, Lord, bless this guy.

Seventeen years turning down this woman? Seventeen years of uprightness and character? Now's the time to step into his role as Prime Minister.

Not yet. In fact, as a result of successfully resisting temptation, Joseph is now thrown in prison. And I can imagine him sitting there in a heap saying, Lord, thanks a lot. Have you noticed that people today are more likely to accept and approve of certain behaviors that used to be commonly condemned? Our battle with temptation is hard enough, but it's really hard to say no to sin when people all around you are saying yes. Maybe you find yourself struggling with temptation.

Maybe you have people in your life who even encourage you to do things that dishonor God. Today's lesson is for you. This is Wisdom for the Heart. Stephen Davey continues his series through the life of Joseph. We've come to a place in the story where Joseph is encountering persistent temptation.

Let's learn from his example next. We're going to talk about a subject that everyone faces sooner or later in life, and often sooner. It makes itself available to the young and to the old, to the spiritually immature, to the spiritually mature. It is the subject of temptation. And no one better than Joseph gives us some principles on how to say no when everyone else is saying yes.

So let's dig right in. Genesis chapter 39, and let's begin with verse 1. Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt, where Joseph's brothers have sold him to the Midianites for a contemporary value of about $50. Each of the brothers got about $4.50 out of the sale, but it was fine with them as long as they were rid of this dreamer because they hated, they were incensed with his dreams for one reason. They knew his dreams were going to come true, and they were not about to bow at his feet, and they were incensed that God had in effect chosen him rather than them. It says that Joseph had been taken down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there. I think it would help us, men and women, if we took a look at Egypt for just a brief moment because we're talking about a faraway country that we know little about. Historians tell us that Joseph went to Egypt during the 15th dynasty.

There were 31 dynasties in all. This was the Hyksos, or the 15th dynasty, which means that Egypt is a 1,000-year-old power. They are the dominating force.

They are the wealthiest nation in the known world. Egypt was astounding its contemporaries with their architecture as they had already built the pyramids of Giza. They were astounding everyone with their creativity because the Sphinx had already been carved by the time Joseph arrives in Egypt. They were astounding mathematically, architecturally, and in medicine.

They were the marvel. I can't help but imagine what it must have been like for Joseph, who was a wanderer, the son of a nomad, living his life in a tent, now being introduced to this magnificent civilization, this developed culture as Egypt. When he was taken by Potiphar, the colorful words of one expositor I think would be helpful.

F.B. Meyer writes these words, Potiphar was an Egyptian grandee, a member of a proud aristocracy, high in office and in court favor. Joseph would no doubt live in a splendid palace, covered with hieroglyphs and filled with slaves. The young captive must have trembled as he passed up the pillared avenue through Sphinx's guarded gates into the recesses of that vast Egyptian palace where they spoke a language of which he could not understand a word and were always so new and so strange.

While I can't imagine it, I have certainly tried, I think it would help us a little bit more to understand who Potiphar is. You probably know the text says that he was the captain of the bodyguard. What this means is that he was perhaps the most trusted man to Pharaoh. He was the individual responsible for his livelihood and he was the captain, which meant that he had somehow reached the top of the heap. A very wealthy man, a man whom Pharaoh had entrusted with great wealth. So here was a man with incredible power, with authority, perhaps ranking up there among the very top and Joseph is selected by him and all in this view I think can see the hand of God.

Let me lead you now to the temptation that he is facing. Let's look at verse two. And the Lord was with Joseph.

You want to underline that phrase in your text because it occurs seven times. It's a theme that runs throughout this chapter. The Lord was with Joseph. So he became a successful man.

Did you get that first? He was successful with God before the scriptures would record he was a successful man. And he was in the house of his master.

Now this is a little confusing because we miss the chronology. He became successful. Up until this point, Joseph was probably sleeping and quartering with all of the rest of the slaves.

But he became successful. He distinguished himself as a slave of great promise. And so Potiphar, according to the text, somewhere in there moves him into his house.

Now what happens next? Verse three. Now his master saw that the Lord was with him.

Interesting that the master saw. Circle or underline that because Joseph didn't tell him that the Lord was with him. I don't think he knocked on his door and he said, I want you to know that I am the servant of the living God.

No. He in effect lived in such a distinguishing life that sooner or later Potiphar took note that this man was led by his God. And perhaps in there somewhere Joseph was able to explain to him what had happened and how the Lord caused all that he did, last part of verse three, to prosper in his hand. So verse four, Joseph found favor in his sight and he became his personal servant.

Here again is another promotion. He moves out of the slave quarters into the home of Potiphar and now among all the servants there in that home, he is now the personal slave, the personal attendant to Potiphar himself. That's not all. Potiphar made him an overseer or could be translated in the Septuagint, steward over his house. And all that he owned he put in his charge. Now I have to stop here because the same thing happened when we studied the life of Daniel. You remember as I said that Daniel and Joseph are the only two individuals that the Bible records nothing negative about their lives. Both of them similar in their lifestyles, taken from their homes in a very pagan immoral society. And yet they both live such lives that God prospers them. But what I find fascinating is that both Joseph and Daniel had every reason in the world to chuck their jobs.

They had every reason in the world to do all kinds of little sabotage. You know, to try to bring down this pagan kingdom. If I had been Joseph I would probably be tunneling out, creating some way to escape maybe back home, but somewhere in all of this Joseph resigned himself that this was God's plan. And rather than be the slave that sloughed off, rather than be the servant that worked at getting out of work.

You ever worked around someone like that? Joseph was determined to be diligent. And as a result his master took him and promoted him. And note verse five, and it came about that from the time he made an overseer in his house and over all that he owned the Lord blessed the Egyptians house on account of Joseph.

We know behind the scenes that God's responsible. Thus the Lord's blessing was upon all that Potiphar owned in the house and in the field. As soon as he gives him the promotion, his cattle reproduce more rapidly, the crops are bumper crops.

This is great he thinks. So verse six, Potiphar is no dummy. He left everything he owned in Joseph's charge and with him, note this, he did not concern himself with anything except the food which he ate.

Now the text is about to set us up. Look at the next phrase. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. That's the biblical way of saying Joseph was handsome and well-built. He was handsome in form. That is this man was good-looking and well-built. There's nothing wrong with being good-looking and well-built.

It's just not fair. But this was Joseph. This guy had it made. We begin to cringe because we think of what may happen next.

Now let's stop here for a moment. Let me give you what one commentator has given as very helpful. Three kinds of temptations that you and I face. You could categorize these. I doubt this is comprehensive but most of what we face in our daily lives comes from one of these three categories.

The first is material. That is a lust for things and that can be a lust for something as small as a ring to something as large as a new home. But there is the flame that burns. It is a lust. It is a desire to have more thing and we all feel it.

We all face it. The second kind of temptation would be what we could call personal temptation and this is a lust for fame, for prestige, for honor, for position. And this kind of individual will make sure that he shakes the right hands.

He's seen with the right people. He does everything possible to somehow claw and scratch his way to the top of the heap because that's where I want to be. A lust for preeminence. We battle with that too, don't we? To have our way. There is a third and that is the sensual temptation and that is gratification of physical desires. Lusting after someone else. As I tried to apply this to Joseph I found that it matched in all three counts. Joseph is a man who is facing perhaps the material temptation because you remember what it was like back with the old people.

They're tending the sheep. There wasn't anything nice. There was rarely anything fancy. Why it was just plain old living.

Comfortable, yes. But affluent, no. And now he is taken from that and deposited in this wealthy, civilized world with all kinds of luxuries. Perhaps he faced the temptation of wanting, desiring to have what these Egyptians had.

Personal? Oh yes, I am sure that he was perhaps a bit heady at times when Potiphar calls him in and says, Joseph, I want to promote you. You don't live with the rest of the slaves.

Now you live in my home. And then he gives him the elevated position of steward and I can imagine Joseph looking in the mirror and saying, you are really something. You're coming up fast. Quite a guy. He's human. And then the sensual, the gratification of physical desires is about to knock at its door. Let's see how he handles it.

Verse seven. And it came about after these events. Pause just a moment. This has been now 17 years. He will be, I believe, 32 years of age when this happens. No longer a teenager.

He's a grown man. Now after these things, after all of these promotions that his master's wife doesn't even give her name, looked with desire at Joseph and she said, lie with me. Now this attack makes me blush to even preach this text.

She has no scruples, but you'll notice at the end of her comment, there's just a period. Now if you'll note down at verse 12, you should have an exclamation point. And I think that's significant because the first is something more like a suggestion. The latter one is an imperative.

It's a command. Well, the first time she approaches him, she probably, although the text doesn't tell us, but he refused. It gives us the nature of his refusal. Now you'll note that this time he stands and he talks with her, perhaps because she approaches him without that demanding that will come later.

And so he basically gives her three reasons, and I love this, why he will not sin. The first, if you're taking notes, he basically says, I would break the trust of my master. I would violate or break the trust of my master.

Look, he says in verse eight, he refused and said to his master's wife, behold or look with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house. And he's put all that he owns in my charge. That is he's left everything up to me. He's given me great responsibility. I can't violate the trust of this man in my life. He had professional integrity.

That is incredibly rare. But he doesn't stop there. He says, not only would I violate my master's trust, I would also violate my character. Look at verse nine.

I love this. There is no one greater in this house than I. I think this could be translated. There's no one with greater responsibility than I. And he has withheld nothing from me except you because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil? You know that?

How then could I do this great evil? One man wrote that he is about to lose his coat, but he will keep his character. I like that. He would not violate his character and do this great compromise, fudge a little bit, you know, start a romantic affair, an alternate lifestyle.

No. While our society today gives all kinds of clever little phrases about things that go on, Joseph nails it down. He says this great evil. And he says, I cannot violate my character.

It is worth more to me than you. He goes on to say, I think the third and the most powerful element in this refusal, he says, let's begin with verse nine. There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil? And number three, sin against God. In other words, I would forfeit my fellowship with God.

I would violate the trust of my master. I would violate the nature of my character, and I would violate or forfeit the fellowship with my God. And I think it's interesting that seven times you hear the phrase, his God was with him somehow, some way. He lived with the sense that God was involved in his life. And I think that strikes at the very core of personal purity, saying no to temptation.

That is having a relationship with God that we fear more than anything else we would violate. Plato used to tell a story to his students of a shepherd boy who discovered a ring out in the field. And when he slipped that ring on, it would make him unknown or unrecognizable to anyone in his village. So he was given anonymity. And the shepherd prior to this discovery was a very moral young man, an upstanding, hard worker.

But he began slipping that ring on, and soon Plato says he became a terrible, wicked sinner. With that thought in mind, I have thought of Joseph, who has been given anonymity. Nobody knows him in Egypt. Nobody.

If there is a perfect time to sin, it's now. No one recognizes him. All of his family's back way over there somewhere. He doesn't think he'll ever go back. And listen, I can come up with some good reasons why I should do this.

I'm young, single. God has, it seems, abandoned me. This is the lifestyle.

This is accepted. And no one will know. And yet, even in the light of anonymity, Joseph says no. Well, you come to the last part of that verse, and you kind of go, whew, wow, man, glad that's over with. Next verse. And he came about as she spoke to Joseph day after day.

Man, what a woman. That he did not listen to her, to lie beside her, or, note this, be with her. He makes it clear now that he's going to try to steer clear of this woman, because every time he sees her, it's another proposition. So he tries to stay away.

He tries to steer clear. It doesn't work very well, because it says she spoke to him every day. So somewhere along the line, she corners him. You know, in terms of a woman who doesn't know God, Joseph had every reason to be attractive to her.

Handsome, young, moral, upright, hardworking, Joseph was a catch. And it's interesting, if you study Proverbs, chapter 6 and 7, who does the temptress or the tempter seek after? It is the what? The precious life.

It's people like you. It's the one who is seeking to glorify God. It is the individual who is seeking to live an upright life. That's the kind of person that's attractive to a needy and a lost world that has no moral bearing.

You're a very attractive person to the world system. Finally, verse 11, she sets the stage. Now it happened one day, and I think she planned it, a little rascal, that he went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the household were there inside. In other words, she'd gotten rid of all of the servants.

No one was inside. And she caught him by the garment this time, saying, exclamation point, lie with me. It was a demand. And I've tried to understand why she felt she had the right to demand.

And I think if you go back into that culture, you have to remember he's still a slave. She feels like she owns him. She felt like she had rights. And I imagine that Satan could whisper in his ear, she does have rights.

She owns you. He may have been a slave, but she didn't own his soul. And he left his garment in her hand and fled and went outside.

The Hebrew indicates literally to the street. He left the garment in her hand and ran out into the street. I've often wondered what he did out there. He probably just stood there waiting for, he knows what would happen because of what she'll do next.

I like the King James here. He fled. He got himself out. It's like nobody else will get me out of here, so I'll get myself out of here. And he ran out here and he ran out into the street.

She's not finished. When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and then fled outside, she begins literally to scream. Verse 14, she called to the men of her household and said to them, see, he came into me to lie with me and I screamed. And it came about when he heard that I raised my voice and screamed that he left his garment beside me and fled.

And he's out there in the street. So she left his garment beside her until his master, her husband, came home. Then she spoke to him with these words. The Hebrew slave, who you brought to us, came into me to make sport of me. And it happened as I raised my voice and screamed that he left his garment beside me and fled outside. Now it came about when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spoke to him, that his anger burned.

You know what's missing? Who is his anger burning against? Here is, let me conjecture with you for just a moment that his anger is not at Joseph because he is the chief executioner. And if this young slave has attempted rape, he's dead.

But you know what he does? He took him, verse 20, and put him into jail. Whose jail? The place where the king's prisoners were confined. In other words, he puts him into the prison that he is responsible for.

He puts him in with those in bonds that he oversees. He allows him to live. I think if we could pull back the pages of history and observe that occasion, that Potiphar was very angry with himself. I have no doubt that he knew his wife well. In fact, she indicates in verse 14 her disrespect of him when she says, see, he has brought in a Hebrew slave, this husband of mine, an indication that there were problems.

He's also angry at her, but he allows him to live. Note what happens, verse 21, but the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer. And the chief jailer committed to Joseph's charge all the prisoners who were in the jail, so that whatever was done there, he was responsible for it. The chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph's charge because the Lord was with him. It's like he gave him a key ring, and he said, Joseph, you look over everything and make sure everything is in order. So God promotes him even there.

And whatever the last part of verse 23 he did, the Lord made him to prosper. What a story. Familiar and yet so applicable. In fact, let me give you two. Let's take an honest look at temptation.

Any kind, whether it's material, whether you are struggling with something you want to purchase, you want to have, or personal. Perhaps you feel God isn't dealing you the right deck, and so you're going to scrape your way to get just a notch higher. Perhaps it's sensual. It is struggling with the gratification of physical desires. Let's take an honest look.

Let me give you two things. First of all, from this story, from this story, we learn temptation, once resisted, may not immediately disappear. That's why I said an honest look, because I don't really like that. We'd like to think that if we resisted once, God goes poof, and God took care of that one. I'll never face that again in my life.

No, it does not immediately disappear. In fact, with Joseph, it was a reoccurring theme for perhaps 15 years. Secondly, temptation successfully resisted may not bring expected results.

That's obvious. I mean, right about now, you want to say, okay, Lord, man, bless this guy. Seventeen years turning down this woman? Seventeen years of uprightness and character? Now is the time to grease the skids. It's now time to step into his role as prime minister.

Not yet. In fact, as a result of successfully resisting temptation, Joseph is now thrown in prison. And I can imagine him sitting there in a heap saying, Lord, thanks a lot. You see, we're built that way. We like to think that if we find $1,000 in a wallet and we return the wallet, that they're going to split it with us as a reward. We're going to get a thank you. I read recently of a young fellow who was writing in his paper route, and he discovered a sack that had somehow fallen off or gotten lost, I have no idea how, but a brink armored car. And in it was something like $60,000. And this guy returned it. What a guy. And they gave him $500. And the paper quoted him saying, I wish I had kept it all. I think I would have too. I know what I would have done.

I had to call them on the phone and say, look, I'll return this if you, you know, and then give them a figure. We would like to think that when we resist, God rewards us. It's time for thanks. And Joseph feels the dampness of a prison cell surrounded by legitimate criminals. One phrase makes it worth it all. He doesn't know this right now, by the way, but you and I can read it. Look back at verse 21. But the Lord was with Joseph.

He'll discover it very soon. But look back at verse two. And the Lord was with Joseph, that is as a successful servant, rising the ranks, being a steward and responsible for all that his master has. God was with him.

And we say, yeah, that's obvious. God's with them. But verse 21, God was with him in the prison cell. You and I can in no way resist the constant bombardment of temptation apart from that phrase, the Lord was with him.

That is the cultivation of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And I trust that you can say, the Lord is with me. He is giving me the strength when others say yes to say no.

Just like the Lord was with Joseph, the Lord is with you, and he wants to help you overcome the sin and temptation in your life. Thanks for joining us today here on Wisdom for the Heart. This daily broadcast features the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davey. I encourage you to install the Wisdom International app to your phone so that you can quickly access all of our Bible-based resources. That app contains the audio and the transcript of each of these daily messages. We also make available the archive of Stephen's Bible teaching ministry with the full-length sermons arranged by Book of the Bible. You can follow along in our daily Bible reading plan and more. The Wisdom International app will work with your smartphone, your tablet, or a smart TV.

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