The Lord was with Joseph

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn to Genesis 39.
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It's only 23 verses, this chapter, so my plan is to read the whole chapter and go through the story as one message.
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And the title of today's message actually comes directly from the text.
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This phrase, the Lord was with Joseph, is given to us four different times in this chapter.
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And not all the same way, but it basically says the same thing four times.
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It basically says the Lord was with Joseph.
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The presence of the Lord is the key to this entire passage.
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Because Joseph's life is marked by turmoil.
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It is marked by suffering.
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It is marked by strife.
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In fact, in the 105th Psalm, Joseph is mentioned in that Psalm, and this is what it says.
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It says, Joseph, who was sold as a slave, his feet hurt with fetters, and his neck was put in a collar of iron.
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So that Psalm, just that one section of the Psalm, gives us a picture of the life that he had to suffer.
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But even in that, this chapter tells us, even in his imprisonment, even in his false accusation, even in his slavery, the Bible tells us the Lord was with him and that he was a success.
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It's hard to think of a man who was a slave as a success.
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It's hard to think of a man who was accused of being a rapist as a success.
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It's hard to think of a man who was in prison as a success.
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But the Bible says several times in this passage that the Lord was with him and that he was a successful man.
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What a wonderful thing to consider, that God sees success much differently than we do.
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Let's stand together and read chapter 39.
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Nate, bring the game down just a little.
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I feel like I'm a little hot this morning.
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Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, the officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had brought him from the Ishmaelites, who had brought him down there.
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The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master.
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His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands.
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So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had.
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From the time that he made him an overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake.
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The blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in his house and field, so he left all that he had in Joseph's charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he ate.
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Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance, and after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, But he refused and said to his master's wife, Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge.
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He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife.
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How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her, or to be with her.
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But one day when he went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was there in the house, she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me.
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But he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got out of the house.
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And as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, she called to the men of her household and said to them, See, he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us.
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He came in to me to lie with me.
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And I cried out with a loud voice.
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And as soon as he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house.
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Then she laid up his garment by her until his master came home, and she told him the same story, saying, The Hebrew servant whom you have brought among us came in to me to laugh at me.
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But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house.
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As soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, This is the way your servant treated me, his anger was kindled.
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And Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison.
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But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
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And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison.
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Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it.
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The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge because the Lord was with him.
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And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
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I pray even now, O God, that you would first and foremost keep me from error.
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Lord, fill me with your spirit, Lord, that your people might hear your word.
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And Lord, that through your word it might encourage, edify, correct, and instruct the believers.
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And Lord, for those who are here who may not know you, Lord, perhaps their hearts have not yet been converted.
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Maybe they have not yet bowed the knee to Christ.
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That today might be the day that they come to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith.
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We pray this in Jesus' name.
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Amen.
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Alright, you may be seated.
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One of the most celebrated television personalities of the last century was a man by the name of Bob Ross.
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Bob Ross had an infectious way of bringing delight to people.
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Not just because of his awesome hair or his radiant smile, but because he engaged people with art.
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And the title of his program was called The Joy of Painting.
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Often times when he would begin to paint his canvas, he would do so by making strokes that made no sense to the unintelligent observer.
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I would watch him take a big brush and he would just begin brushing paint onto the empty canvas.
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And he would say, this is the base coat.
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This will make sense later.
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And then he would bring another brush with another color and it was like he was just slapping it on.
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Like there was no rhyme or reason to anything that he did.
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But eventually, more and more that he placed paint onto the canvas, more and more the picture began to become very clear.
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And eventually, by the end of the 25 minute program, he had made a beautiful work of art by beginning with what seemed like just out of control brush strokes.
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He was an amazing artist and he was demonstrating the image of God.
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When we do things like that, when we create, when we build, when we imagine and make things, that's displaying the image of God that is within us.
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And Bob Ross was doing that.
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But Bob Ross was also demonstrating something else about God's nature.
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Because oftentimes in life, God is making brush strokes that don't make sense to us at the time.
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And we are going through battles or we're going through suffering or we're going through some kind of event that looks like someone just took paint and threw it all over the canvas.
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It doesn't make sense at the time.
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Now Bob Ross always did talk about happy accidents.
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But we serve a God who doesn't make happy accidents.
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We serve a God who decrees everything that comes to pass because he has a greater purpose that he is bringing about as he decrees the events of our lives.
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I want you to, for a moment, think about one verse.
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And this verse is a verse that you probably have memorized.
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Maybe you've memorized it in a different translation.
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But the verse is Romans chapter 8 and verse 28, which says what? All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.
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Now, I want to challenge you for a moment on that verse that I think the New American Standard Bible actually gets it the best.
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Because most of us say what we just said, all things work together for good.
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But the New American Standard Bible translates it slightly different based upon the underlying Greek language.
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I do think this is accurate.
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It says God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him.
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And by adding that word cause, I do think it's getting to the heart of what Paul is saying.
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You see, sometimes people say, well, all things work together for good as if we are some type of fatalists that live in some type of a world that's constantly in flux and just sort of happening.
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But God's going to take lemons and make lemonade.
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That's not what Paul is saying.
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Paul is saying that God is actively working.
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He's actively causing all things to work together for the good of those who love Him.
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He is the cause.
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In fact, I believe it's the Westminster Confession of Faith, it talks about God being the cause of everything that comes to pass.
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That God actually causes all things to come to pass because He has a plan and a purpose that He is working out in all of those things.
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I don't know about you, but that brings great comfort to me.
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Because when I look at my life and I think of some of the days that have been most hard.
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When I look at some of the things that have been the most difficult.
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When I look at the days where I cried the most tears or felt the most pain.
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I can look at those days and I can say, God had a purpose for that.
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There is no purposeless day in the life of Keith or in the life of Jennifer or in the life of Mike or Andy or anyone else.
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There's no purposeless pain.
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There's no purposeless hurt.
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There's no purposeless suffering.
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There's no purposeless evil.
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God has caused it all to work together for two things, His glory and your good.
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Now, with that in mind, we turn our attention to what we're about to read in the life of Joseph.
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Because I will say this, when you read the life of Joseph in this passage, many bad things happen.
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It begins with him being sold into slavery, which we saw back in chapter 37.
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His brothers beat him and put him in a pit, held him there.
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We're going to kill him.
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Instead of killing him, they decided to pull him out and use him for profit.
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They sell him to the Ishmaelite and Midianite traders who are going by.
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They sell him into slavery.
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And that's where the story leaves off.
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And then you'll remember, we looked at the life of Judah last time we were in Genesis.
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And chapter 38 takes us to the life of Judah.
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Well, now it takes us back to the moment that we ended in chapter 37, back to the life of Joseph and the events that are happening in his life.
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And we see, beginning in chapter 39, the story of Joseph's time as a slave.
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Now, the outline of today's text is simple.
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I'll give you the four points that are on the screen.
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Four points of outline today.
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One, Joseph is exalted in Potiphar's house.
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That's verses 1 to 6.
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Joseph is then propositioned by Potiphar's wife.
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That's verses 7 to 10.
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Joseph is then accused by Potiphar's wife.
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That is verses 11 to 18.
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And then finally, Joseph is exalted in Pharaoh's prison.
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So, let's begin simply by looking through the text.
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And we're going to read through it.
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I'll make comments as I go, as I normally do.
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It says, beginning in verse 1, Joseph is exalted in Potiphar's house.
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It says, Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there.
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Now, you can imagine for a moment what this scene would have looked like.
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Joseph has been sold to these slave traders.
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They have now put him into a slave market.
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So, they have probably put him up for sale.
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He's a young man.
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He's 17.
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It's going to say in just a few moments that he's a good-looking young man, probably very strong, probably very handsome, probably looks like a person who would be a good worker.
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He's put in the market.
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He's put up with the other slaves.
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And along comes Potiphar, a man of high esteem and reputation.
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The word Potiphar actually connects him to the sun god Ra, which was one of the gods in Egypt.
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And Potiphar is related to that name Ra.
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And so, he had an esteemed position.
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He had an esteemed name.
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And here comes this man, this person who is of great wealth and opportunity.
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He comes to the slave market to purchase for himself someone to work in his home.
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And he sees Joseph there.
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And he sees the young man to purchase.
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And he purchases him.
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Now, verse 2, it says, The Lord was with Joseph.
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Now, a lot of times we read right past that.
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We go right past that.
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Don't think much of it.
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The Lord was with Joseph.
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Okay.
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The Lord's with everybody.
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The Lord's everywhere.
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But understand this, and this is probably the most important thing you'll hear in today's sermon.
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When the Bible says the Lord was with Joseph, this is not speaking of God in His omnipresence.
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This is speaking of God in His covenant faithfulness.
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There is a difference.
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Because I can say to anyone in the world, God is present.
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Because God is everywhere.
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We believe that nowhere you can go can you escape the presence of God.
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The Bible says in Psalm 139, You can go up into heaven or you can go down into Hades.
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You can go as far to the east or to the west.
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And you can never outrun the presence of God.
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You're never outside of God's presence.
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But that doesn't mean the Lord is with you.
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In the same way that the Lord is with Joseph.
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I cannot look at the pagan, I cannot look at the unbeliever, and I cannot look at a person who spurns the Lord Jesus Christ, or hates the gospel, and say the Lord is with you.
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Now I can say the Lord is present, but the idea of the Lord being with someone speaks of covenant faithfulness.
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It speaks of being with them, not only presently, but within a relationship.
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Like if I say to Brother Mike, and we're standing in the narthex, and I look at him and say, you know, I'm with you.
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And he says, well yeah, I'm with you.
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And we're standing there together.
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That's speaking of proximity.
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But if Brother Mike is about to face a difficulty in life.
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Let's say Brother Mike is about to have to confront a serious evil.
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Maybe he as an elder is having to confront someone.
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And I look at him and I say, Brother, I'm with you.
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See the difference? It's not now about proximity, it's about relationship.
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Now it's about, I'm standing with you.
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And you know the difference, right? You know the difference when somebody says, I'm with you, or somebody says, I'm with you.
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And that's what this means.
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The Lord was with Joseph in his covenant faithfulness.
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He's with him, not only proximately, but he is with him personally.
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He is with him in relationship.
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And therefore, because of the presence of God, it says, he became a successful man.
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And he was in the house of his Egyptian master.
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And his master saw, notice verse 3, his master saw that the Lord was with him.
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And that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands.
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Understand this.
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This is a fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham.
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What was God's promise to Abraham? I will bless you.
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And I will bless those who bless you.
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And I will curse those who curse you.
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What? Yes.
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Yeah.
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You could say that.
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The Lord was with him.
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The Lord was supporting him.
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The Lord was making him succeed.
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And the thing is, Potiphar knew it.
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Because it says right here, Potiphar said to him, or recognized in him, the Lord is with him.
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In fact, it says, what's interesting about this, is it says, his master knew the Lord was with him.
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But here's the thing.
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Potiphar probably did not know Yahweh as God.
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Potiphar probably knew the pantheon of the Egyptian gods.
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As I said, his name is named after the sun god.
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And so he would not have known God as the God of the Bible, that we know God as that God.
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But he knew this.
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He knew that the God of Joseph was with Joseph.
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And again, the promise of Abraham was this.
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I will bless you.
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And I will make you a blessing.
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And I will bless those who bless you.
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And those who curse you, I will curse.
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That's Genesis chapter 12.
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That is the Abrahamic blessing.
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And it's being inherited here by Joseph, who becomes a blessing to his master.
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Everything he does in his master's house is a success.
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Now, verse 4.
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So Joseph found favor in his sight.
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Of course he did.
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Man, if everything I gave you turned to gold, I'm going to keep giving you stuff.
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Right, Dale? If everything you do is a blessing to me, then I'm going to keep getting you to do things, because that's the natural thing to do.
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So he found favor in Potiphar's sight.
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He made him overseer of his house, and he put him in charge of everything that he had.
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And from the time that he made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptians' house.
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Again, that word blessed.
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I will bless those who bless you.
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He blessed the Egyptians' house for what? For Joseph's sake.
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Not for Potiphar's sake.
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Not because Potiphar was the believer, but because he was connected to a believer.
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Because he was connected to a blessed man.
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I don't know.
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I don't want to go too far off the beaten path with this.
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And this is just a thought.
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But I will say this.
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There are times where, if you think about employer-employee relationships, if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you should be an employee that is a blessing to your employer.
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You should be a person that they are thankful to have, because you are a person of integrity, because you are a person who does what he says he's going to do, and he arrives on time, and he does what he's called to do, because he's working not unto men, but unto the Lord.
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Right? And so, in that sense, as a way of sort of a long example of an application of this text, Joseph is a blessing to his master in that sense.
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We ought to be blessings in our places of work.
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The Bible calls us to that in the New Testament.
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It calls us to be obedient, and to do well, and to work hard, as unto the Lord.
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And everything that we do, we do it as unto the Lord.
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So, the blessing of the Lord was on all that he did, or excuse me, all that he had, his house and his field.
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Now, verse 6 is very important.
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It says, So he left all that he had in Joseph's charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything, he had no concern about anything, but the food that he ate.
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Now, you may think that doesn't seem like, I mean, that makes sense.
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Okay.
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Obviously, Joseph's not sitting there feeding him.
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So, the only thing he's going to care about is the food that he ate.
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But, this is an interesting play on words here, and I'm going to give you a thought about this particular sentence, because what it says, it says he had no concern about anything but the food that he ate.
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Rabbi Rashi is one of the ones who is an Old Testament commentator, and he talks about this particular passage, and he refers to the fact that the food here actually could be euphemistic in Hebrew to speak about his wife.
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Now, the reason why that's important is because in just a few verses, Joseph is going to say to Potiphar's wife, the only thing he's held back from me is you.
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So, if we go back up to verse 6, it says he had no concern about anything except his wife.
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That could be the way that this would be understood.
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Now, that is, again, that is based on somewhat of a euphemistic understanding of the word food here.
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It could simply mean the only thing he cared about was his food, because everything else was taken care of.
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It could simply mean that, and I'm just offering up an idea as how this would fit into the context, because later he is going to say to her specifically, the only thing he's kept back from me is you.
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The only thing he has not given into my hand is you, when she wants him to have that relationship.
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So, there could be a connection between verse 6 and what comes later.
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It doesn't have to be.
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I'm giving that as an option, as a thought.
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But the next part, I think, is hugely important.
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Second half of verse 6.
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I've actually talked about this a lot with my wife this week, because John Calvin gives what I consider to be the funniest interpretation of this passage in all of his writings.
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John Calvin is not known as a humorist, obviously.
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John Calvin is known as being a very serious scholarly theologian.
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And I don't think he was trying to be funny here, but he nailed it.
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And I'll give you the example.
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Here's what it says.
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It says, Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.
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And that word handsome is an interesting word, because it is only used up until this point, it's only been used of women.
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It was used of Sarah, who was considered to be so beautiful that every time Abraham went somewhere, he said, she's my sister.
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And it was used of Rachel, who also was, Isaac said, she's my sister, remember? No, I'm sorry, Rachel's the wife of Jacob.
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But anyway, this idea of beauty and being beautiful is the word.
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So, it's translated in ESV, handsome man.
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King James Version says he was a goodly man.
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But what it's really saying, he was a pretty man.
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He was a good looking dude.
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In fact, some of the translations say he was well built.
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But here's what Calvin said.
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I want you to hear this.
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This is Calvin's commentary on verse 6.
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Listen closely.
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Whereas elegance of form was the occasion of great calamity to holy Joseph, let us learn not greatly to desire those graces of persons which may conciliate the favor of the world, but rather let each of us be content with his own lot.
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We see how many dangers are exposed by those who excel in beauty, for it is very difficult for such to restrain themselves from all lavish desires.
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Let me translate that for you.
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Sometimes it's easier to be ugly.
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That's exactly what he's saying.
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He's saying Joseph was given the burden of beauty.
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Because that burden of beauty made him appealing to this woman.
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And I think Calvin might have said, it may have been easier if he looked like Quasimodo.
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He may not have had such a hard time if he was a little rough looking.
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But he wasn't.
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He was a goodly man.
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He was a handsome man.
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And because of that, Potiphar's wife turns her attention towards him.
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This is where we get to verse 7.
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It says, After a time, his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and said, Lie with me.
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Now right away, she ain't wanting to take no nap.
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Just to be clear, there was a certain, according to ancient documents and historical records, there was a certain promiscuity, which was very common in the aristocratic or higher society Egyptian people.
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And therefore, this actually would not have been that uncommon.
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That there would be an illicit relationship that was taking place among the rich, high society, if you will.
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And of course, Potiphar's wife would have been among those.
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He works for Pharaoh directly.
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He's a very well-off man.
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And his wife probably has everything that she wants taken care of.
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She probably has every desire fulfilled that she has.
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And now she has a young man in the house who has tickled her fancy in a sense, has made her interested.
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And she wants that too.
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And so she goes to him directly and says, Lie with me.
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And here's the amazing part.
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Verse 8 is amazing.
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But he refused.
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You say, why is that amazing? Because from the perspective of a worldly...
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Well, from the world's perspective, Joseph is...
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He's been mistreated.
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He's been beat down.
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He's been put into slavery.
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And now he has the opportunity to fulfill what is a natural desire among young men.
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And yet he refuses.
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He chooses to do what's right rather than what's pleasurable.
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He chooses to do what's right rather than what maybe his flesh may have desired.
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He says he refused.
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And he said to the master's wife, Behold, because of me, my master has no concern about anything in the house.
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He has put everything that he has in my charge.
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He is not greater in this house than I am.
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Nor has he kept back anything from me except you.
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Because you are his wife.
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How then, notice...
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How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? By the way, the word God there, very important.
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Because generally, we see the word God as the word Yahweh, which is the covenant name of God, but not this time.
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This time it is the word Elohim, which is the more generic use of God.
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But when Elohim is used in this context, it's almost always in regard to God being the ruler or judge of the world.
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God is the judge.
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How can I stand before the judge of the universe and do this thing? Here's the thing to consider.
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Joseph had a lot of respect for his employer.
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That's true.
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When I say respect, I mean he treated his employer well.
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He was a good worker.
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He did what he was supposed to do as a worker.
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But he did not sin against Potiphar just because he loved Potiphar.
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He didn't sin against Potiphar because he loved God.
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Understand, hear that again young men.
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Joseph didn't choose not to sin against Potiphar just because Potiphar he loved.
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He chose not to sin because he loved God.
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And notice what he says.
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He says, how can I do this thing and sin against God? Do you understand young people? Do you understand old people? Do you understand men or women that when you sin, it is not just a sin against another person, but when you sin, you are sinning against a holy and righteous God.
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Please hear this.
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I really was thinking about this all week.
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I have heard so many young people.
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I've heard old people too.
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People in general are bad.
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You don't have to be young to be bad.
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Everybody is bad.
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But I've heard so many people say this.
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It doesn't matter what I did.
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I didn't hurt nobody.
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Have you heard people say that? Who cares what I'm looking at at 2 o'clock in the morning when I'm by myself.
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I'm not hurting nobody.
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Who cares what I think about in my mind and how I let my mind mull over these horrible, vicious things and I house in my soul hatred and bitterness.
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I ain't hurting nobody.
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Sin is first and foremost an offense against God, not your neighbor.
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This is why David, when David sinned against Uriah and he took his wife Bathsheba into his home and that prophet Nathan came before him and said, thou art the man and he pointed to him with that little crooked prophet finger and he said, thou art the man and David realized his sin.
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He writes Psalm 51 and Psalm 51 says these words Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.
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You say, that's not true David.
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You sinned against Uriah.
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You took his wife and had him murdered.
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You sinned against Bathsheba.
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You sinned against the nation.
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You sinned against your family.
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You sinned against yourself but David said no against you and you only have I sinned.
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Why? Because David knew that the weight of his sin was not on his neighbors but on the God who they are made in his image.
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So Joseph looks to the wife of Potiphar and said, how can I do this wicked thing and sin against God? The Lord who is with me.
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How can I do this? Well, verse 10.
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She spoke to him day after day.
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What's funny about that? That's Hebrew yom yom.
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The word yom in Hebrew is day.
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You've probably heard about that from like the Genesis day argument whether or not yom means day or not but when you see the word yom yom sounds like a dish, yom yom.
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Yom yom literally means day to day, every day.
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And it literally says, verse 10, it says she spoke to him day after day after day saying lie with me, lie with me.
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Just come lay beside me.
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Notice it says here he would not listen to her to lie beside her or to be with her.
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Not only would he not lie with her but he didn't even want to be around her.
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By the way, this is a good example of what the Bible says young men.
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It says to flee fornication.
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It doesn't say flirt with it.
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It doesn't say entertain it.
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It doesn't say make her your best friend at work because you've got a work wife.
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That ain't how it works guys.
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I'm not talking to anybody in specific but if it's you and it's your feet and I'm walking on them then get ready because I'm not here to be your friend today.
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I'm here to tell you what it is.
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And if you are making these relationships and you're creating these flirtations and you're producing in yourself a desire for somebody other than your wife the Bible tells us to repent and flee from that.
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I'm going to be preaching in a couple of weeks.
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Brother Andy and I take turns on Wednesday night.
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He's in Proverbs 4.
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In a couple of weeks I'll be in Proverbs 5.
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And young men you should read Proverbs 5.
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Proverbs 5 is what Brother Mike always prays about that whorish woman.
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It's true.
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The woman who's a deep ditch who will drag you down like a pit.
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You know what the Bible says? It says delight yourself in the wife of your youth.
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Delight yourself in your wife not somebody else's wife.
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Or women, not somebody else's husband.
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Right? To delight yourself in your wife.
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So Joseph knows this.
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Joseph says I don't want to be near you.
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I don't want to have the opportunity to do this.
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So he wasn't with her.
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But one day, verse 11.
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One day when he went into the house to do his work none of the men of the house were in the house.
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Now it doesn't say that this was intentional.
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But I got a feeling.
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Again, a little bit of sanctified imagination.
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It wasn't normal that there wasn't other people there.
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This was new.
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This was different.
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I think they might have been sent away.
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Maybe it was a celebration.
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Maybe there was something going on.
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But the wife knew it was just going to be me and him.
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So she caught him by his garment which would have been like a long t-shirt.
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And she said lie with me.
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But he left his garment in her hand and he fled and got out of the house.
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Now I got to say if it is like a long t-shirt as I imagine it is it probably didn't come off super easy.
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I mean she grabbed a hold of him and he wiggled away.
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He squirmed and got away.
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He did exactly what the Bible said to do.
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The Bible says make no provision for the flesh.
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Romans 13, 14.
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2 Timothy 2, 22 Flee youthful passions.
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Pursue righteousness.
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1 Corinthians 10 No temptation has overtaken us.
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It's not common to man.
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God is faithful and he'll make a way of escape.
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He had a way of escape and he took it.
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But Potiphar's wife was not going to be she was not going to be denied.
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In 1697 poet William Congreve wrote these lines in a play.
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You've probably heard these lines before.
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It says this Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned and hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
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Well she's not happy.
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She's been told no and in a position that she was in she was not used to being told no.
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And as soon as she saw verse 13 As soon as she saw that he had his garment in her hand and he fled out of the house she called to the men of the house and she said to them See he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us.
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By the way the word Hebrew there would have been somewhat of a racial slur because she's indicating that this young man was not one of us that's been brought in here.
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Also the term laugh there is better probably translated mock and she's accusing him of rape or attempted rape.
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He came in to lie with me and I cried out with a loud voice.
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And then notice what verse 16 says.
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Then she laid up his garment by her until her master came home.
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Can you imagine that look? Just sitting there I know you can't see me over there but she got the garment right here and she's just waiting for Potiphar to come home.
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So that she can unload her vicious anger at her husband who she blames.
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You'll notice in the text The Hebrew servant whom you brought among us came in to laugh at me.
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Now I want to say something this might not be popular but I'll say it.
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I'll deal with the outcome later.
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Feel free to send Andy or Mike an email.
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I almost titled this sermon Hashtag Believe All Women.
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Now if you're not familiar with what that means a few years ago there was a man who was being vetted for the Supreme Court.
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While he was being vetted for the Supreme Court a woman came and said that in his youth that he had raped her.
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And the common response among the news media and in the popular culture was she's a woman therefore she must be believed.
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In fact the hashtag and if you're unfamiliar with the hashtag praise God because they're just silly but they're just these little notations that go out on social media.
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The hashtag was Believe Women meaning that if a woman says something she's automatically to be believed.
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And then it became it actually morphed and became Believe All Women.
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That is until a woman made an accusation against Joe Biden and then it was not Believe All Women anymore.
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I'm not getting political I'm just saying that's what happened.
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It's very clear that it's only believed some women as long as they're on the right political position or wrong political position.
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The point is this we don't believe anybody without any evidence because everybody can lie whether you're a man or a woman.
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Whether you're old people say old people don't lie.
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Old people lie and kids will lie.
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Don't you tell me your kid is too good to lie.
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I love it when parents say well my kid wouldn't do that mine would and I know it.
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You come with an accusation I'm most likely going to believe you because I know their heart is desperately wicked.
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Jeremiah 17 tells me they have little wicked sinful hearts.
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They're able to lie they're able to do these things and my job is to use the rod of correction to push that foolishness out of their heart until the Lord so wills to correct them by way of regeneration.
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Until they're regenerated it's the rod that's what does it.
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But you understand the point right? Nobody is to be given carte blanche and the idea of hashtag believe all women that's a foolish idea.
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There's no such thing.
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If you want the proof it's right here in the text.
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Potiphar's wife was a woman and even our new Supreme Court justice nominee we could say she's a woman.
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A grown adult female.
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That's what a woman is.
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By the way if anybody asks you I don't know what a woman is.
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It's a grown adult female.
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That's the definition.
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There's only two genders.
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Genesis 1, 26, 27 God made them in His own image male and female made He them.
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There ain't no such thing as a third or fourth or fifth or sixteenth or seventy second gender.
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You're either a man or a woman no matter what you dress like.
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Now I said all that.
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Because look how foolish we've become that we even have to say that.
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Ten years ago that sentence would have made sense.
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But this is a woman who has lied and she is willing to see a man be punished for her lie.
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We ought to keep that in mind.
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So now verse 19 As soon as the master heard the words his wife spoke this is the way your servant treated me his anger was kindled and Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison the place where the king's prisoners were confined and he was there in prison.
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Now I want to say something about that section.
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Many commentators and myself included in this are uncertain as to what Potiphar is actually angry about.
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Because a lot of people would say well he's angry because a man tried to rape his wife.
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However in this particular time in Egyptian culture when a man tried to rape another man's wife especially a man in a position of authority the result would not be prison.
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The result would be death.
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The result would be execution.
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And the fact that Potiphar does not seek execution for Joseph but rather incarceration is an indication that he may not really believe everything that his wife is spitting out.
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But he has to do something.
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So the anger that's here may be an anger of frustration with the situation more so than absolute anger and hatred at Joseph who maybe or maybe not tried to touch my wife.
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And again in a culture of promiscuity he might not have been the only one to try to touch his wife.
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But in this situation he says I'm not going to have him killed I'm going to have him put into prison.
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Now there are some who translate this next section where it says the keeper of the prison as being Potiphar himself because Potiphar was the captain of the guard would have also made him likely to be over the prison as well.
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So some people think that basically Potiphar just took him out of his house and said okay he can't be near the wife anymore I'm not going to kill you I'm going to put you in prison and you're still under my authority.