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Set against the backdrop of Joseph’s brother Judah pursuing a harlot who was actually his daughter-in-law, here we have a polar opposite response. Genesis 39 is a valuable lesson on dealing with temptation.
Joseph did not allow even a hint of sexual immorality to fill his mind. First, he was honest with himself and with Potiphar’s wife. He called it like it was. She was married and Jospeh was adamant about not shaming Potiphar. But the more powerful point to consider is that Joseph saw this temptation as a path to doing evil in God’s sight. Often, we convince ourselves that our sinful choices are done in the darkness where no one else can see them. Joseph knew that God was watching and this was his most potent deterrent.
“When I regarded God as a tyrant, I thought sin a trifle; but when I knew him to be my father, then I mourned that I could ever have kicked against him. When I thought that God was hard, I found it easy to sin; but when I found God so kind, so good, so overflowing with compassion, I smote upon my breast to think that I could ever have rebelled against one who loved me so, and sought my good.”
Charles Spurgeon
Joseph understood the command to flee from sexual immorality because he loved His Father in heaven far more than temporary pleasure.
Run from sexual immorality! “Every sin a person can commit is outside the body.” On the contrary, the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body.
1 Corinthians 6:18 HCSB
This is literally what Joseph does! Notice, it is not the threat of God’s wrath or the thought of breaking the rules that stops Joseph from sinning. It is his love relationship with God the Father. I wonder… how much different would our lives be if we thought along these same lines?