032. Joseph--Trusted by Potiphar

Joseph--Trusted by Potiphar

Gen 39:2-6. And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man, and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand. And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him: and he made him overseer over his house and all that he had he put into his hand. And it came to pass, from the time that he made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake: and the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in the house, and in the field. And he left all that he had in Joseph’s hand: and he knew not ought he had, save the bread which he did eat; and Joseph was a goodly person, and well-favored.

Unless “the heart be established by grace,” in prosperity it will be elated above measure, and in adversity will be ready to sink under the weight of its woe. A principle of religion preserves the balance of the soul, and guards it equally from rising into insolence, or falling into dejection. It has been disputed whether prosperity or adversity be the severer trial of the two. In order to determine the question, it is necessary to know the character of the party who is tried. In some persons we meet with a stupidity, an insensibility of nature, on which change of circumstances makes no apparent impression. This endeavors to pass upon itself, and actually does pass upon superficial observers, for moderation in success, and patience in affliction. But the rock is not patient, because without murmuring it bears the incessant dashing of the raging sea; neither does the snail deserve the praise of humility, because it attempts not to fly. That moderation is estimable, which, awake to all the advantages of rank, and fortune, and success, offends not God by levity and ingratitude, nor man by haughtiness and pride. That patience merits admiration and praise, which feels, yet complains not; which sighs, yet submits.

It is very natural for men to flatter themselves that they could support prosperity with wisdom and propriety. But I believe experience will evince, that while success tends to relax, weaken, and extinguish the religious principle, calamity, by teaching us our own weakness and dependence, awakens, strengthens, and keeps it alive. The lot of most men alternately furnishes occasion for exercise in both ways. It is the office of genuine and solid piety, to instruct us “in whatever state we are, therewith to be content;” “to exercise men unto godliness, which is profitable unto all things, having the promise both of the life which now is, and of that which is to come.” The amiable and illustrious person on whose history we entered in the last Lecture, and which we are now to continue, affords a shining and affecting example of a mind unsubdued by the deepest distress, and uncorrupted by the highest degree of elevation. His affliction commenced at an early period of life. It was, of its kind, peculiarly bitter and severe. It came from a quarter whence it was least to be apprehended; and the transition was instantaneous, from a tranquillity and indulgence which knew no bound, to anguish which no language can express, no imagination conceive. As he was to be an eminent type of Him, who, “as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, not opening her mouth,” Scripture represents Joseph submitting to the barbarous treatment of his brothers, as doomed to perish of hunger in an empty pit, and sold into slavery to the Ishmaelites, without arguing, without upbraiding, without repining. Were it possible to form a stronger idea of the hard heartedness of Jacob’s sons than that which their cruelty to Joseph affords, it is to see them the calm witnesses of the anguish of their father’s soul, without being moved by all his misery and tears to divulge the important secret, and to pour into the fond paternal heart the cordial balm, which even the knowledge of his son’s being a slave in Egypt would have administered. As a dawn of hope would thence have arisen, that by some blessed revolution of events, the precious hour might perhaps at length arrive, which should restore him to his father again. What a dreadful thing it is to embark on a sea of vice! To return is difficult, if not impossible--to proceed is ruin.

Joseph, meanwhile, lives and prospers in a strange land. He has not lost all, he has lost nothing, who enjoys the divine presence and favor. The amiable youth is indeed from under the shadow of his fathers wing, but the protection of Heaven is not withdrawn; “the Almighty is his refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” A young man brought up like him, in fullness, liberty, indulgence, and ease, might have been supposed sullen and stubborn under a change of condition so sudden and so severe: or to have sunk into melancholy and despair. But with Joseph it was not so. With true magnanimity and spirit, he cheerfully accommodates his mind to his situation, and without murmur or reluctance, addresses himself to the discharge of his duty as a diligent and faithful servant. We have not power over our lot, to carve it out as we please; but the mind has power over itself: and happiness has its seat in the mind, not in external circumstances. The favorite son of Israel seems degraded and dishonored, even when raised to the first rank of servitude in Potiphar’s house; but Joseph, pious, modest, wise, and faithful, is equally respectable whether as a son or as a servant.

Never did Potiphar make so fortunate a purchase. The blessing of God enters into his house, from the moment Joseph becomes a member of the family. In many various ways are servants curses or comforts to those with whom they dwell. Let a servant have a conscience, and you have a certain pledge of his fidelity. Divest him of that, and where is your security, that either your property or your person is safe in his hands? Joseph demeaned himself as a good servant; Potiphar as a wise and a kind master. In vain do we look for affection and attachment in our inferiors, if we treat them with insolence, unkindness, or neglect. The great and affluent are much more in the power of, much more dependent upon their meanest domestics, than they are willing to understand, or to acknowledge. And surely, it is much more prudent to secure their affection as humble friends, by condescension and good nature, than to provoke their resentment or revenge, by pride and severity.

Joseph has been faithful over a few things, he is made ruler over many things. “He made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand.” His personal accomplishments keep pace with his mental endowments, “he was a goodly person and well favored.” Beauty, like every other gift of nature, is good of itself, and therefore to be received with thankfulness. But alas, how often does it prove a snare to the possessor, and a temptation to others! This quality of Joseph’s had like to have proved more fatal to him than even the envy of his brothers. This last threatened only his body, but that endangers the soul. The one sold him into bondage, the other would have plunged him into dishonor. His master’s wife looked upon him with eyes of unhallowed affection, and attempts to make him a partaker of her impurity. To expatiate on the nature of this temptation, would be as indecent as it is unnecessary. It is a fearful example of the dreadful length which the human mind is capable of going, when the restraints of shame are once broken through.

Some kinds of temptation are boldly to be encountered, and resolutely overcome.--There are others only to be conquered by flight, and disarmed by removing to a distance. Joseph dwells only on one circumstance, in order to settle and determine his conduct--the all-seeing eye of God, and the danger of offending him; “how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God.”[*]Gen 39:9 Pleasure, and interest, and passion, blind the eyes; but conscience with scrupulous attention, always and everywhere reveres an omnipresent Jehovah. The lower principles of our nature respect and are regulated by consequences. This great principle is moved only by a sense of right and wrong. Interest and desire are contented with inquiring, “is there no danger of being found out!” But conscience is only to be satisfied by ascertaining, “whether it be sin or duty.” The consequence to Joseph, was such as might be expected from the temper of a shameless woman, false, lascivious, and resentful. The demon of lust turned into those of rage and revenge, she accuses of an attempt to seduce her, the man, whom no consideration of pleasure, or of advantage, could for a moment seduce from the right path. This accusation, however false, being uncontradicted, is admitted as true; and Joseph, as the reward of faithfulness almost without example, is immured in close custody, to be dragged forth at a proper opportunity to severer punishment. And here again we have a fresh instance of the greatness of his mind. He chooses rather to incur his master’s groundless displeasure, and to sink under the weight of a false accusation, than to vindicate his own honor, by exposing the shame of a bad woman; and he leaves the clearing up of his character and the preservation of his life, to that God with whom he had entrusted still higher concerns, those of his immortal soul. And thus, the least-assuming, the shamefaced, feminine virtues, temperance, and chastity, and innocence, and self-government are found in company with the most manly, the heroic qualities, intrepidity, constancy and contempt of death. No place is frightful to a good man but the dungeon of an ill conscience. Free from that, Joseph is at large, though in prison. It is the favor or displeasure of God that makes this or the other spot comfortable or irksome. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty; but to the guilty, the whole world is a place of confinement. God, who delivered him out of the pit accompanies him also to the prison. And what heart so savage that goodness cannot mollify, what nature so obdurate that the power of the Almighty cannot reach! The profession of a jailer s unfriendly to benevolence; it is a character which implies sternness and severity. But whether this man were formed of gentler clay, or whether the meekness and modesty of Joseph had wrought even upon a rocky heart; or whether Providence specially interposed to further its own deep designs, so it is, we find our good young man in high favor with his keeper. Wherever we find Joseph,--in Potiphar’s house, in prison, or at court, we find a man faithful, and diligent, and trusty; and we find a man honored, esteemed, and confided in, by all with whom he has any connection. Let a man be inflexibly honest and true, and he will never have reason to accuse the world of want of confidence. But it is no wonder if the dishonest knave find men full of doubt and suspicion. As his master’s house before, so the prison now, prospers on Joseph’s account. The world is not always sensible of its obligation to the presence of good men. But Sodom was in a fearful state the moment righteous Lot went out of it; and when the people of God, “the salt of the earth,” are all removed from it, the end of the world cannot be at a great distance. By a strange concurrence of circumstances, which the Divine Providence alone could have brought together, Joseph has for his fellow prisoners two of the chief officers of the king of Egypt, who had fallen under their master’s displeasure; and had been for some time in confinement, uncertain of their doom. The great God is whetting his instruments, making his arrangements, marshalling his forces, at very different times, and in very different places. The envy of Jacob’s sons, the lasciviousness of Potiphar’s wife, the disobedience of Pharaoh’s servants, the anger of the king himself,--all, all meet, strange to think! in one point, the elevation of Joseph to the right hand of the throne. Remove but one link, and the chain is broken asunder. Take away but a single stone, and the fabric falls to the ground. But “this work and counsel is of God, and therefore it cannot be overthrown.” “He willeth, and none can let it.”

It is not at all surprising, that he who had been preparing his work in places and in minds so remote from, so unlike to, and so unconnected with each other, should bring it to a conclusion by means somewhat uncommon and supernatural. It happened, that in one and the same night, the chief butler and the chief baker of Pharaoh dream each a dream, which laid fast hold or their minds and memory. And being men, like the rest of their country strongly tinctured with superstition, and at that time in circumstances which peculiarly disposed them to receive superstitious impressions, their spirits are considerably affected by the vision of the night; not doubting, that it portended the speedy approach of some great good or evil. Joseph attending them in the morning, in the course of his duty, observed the deep concern which was engraved on their countenances; and sympathy being always one of the native effusions of an honest heart, he kindly inquires into the cause of it. By the way, how pleasant is it to observe this excellent young person with so much cheerfulness and good nature performing the humble offices of a jailer’s servant? He was accustomed to be waited upon, to be ministered unto; but duty calls, and with alacrity he ministers to the necessity of others. But what do I see? An under jailer starting up all at once into an interpreter of dreams, possessing a sagacity that reaches into futurity, directed and taught by a Spirit whose piercing eye penetrates into eternity, and discerns all the wonders of the world unknown! Flow much wiser, how much more noble, how much more excellent, are they who live in communion with God than other men! For though they do not all attain the gift of prophesy, the gift of working miracles, the gift of speaking with tongues; yet they all are dignified by the spirit of prayer, the spirit of adoption, “the spirit of faith the spirit of love, and of a sound mind.”

Joseph, from the different complexion of their several dreams, and inspired no doubt by wisdom from above, predicts their approaching doom; the speedy restoration of the one to his former trust and dignity; a sudden and ignominious death to the other. Nothing but inspiration could have borne Joseph through a declaration so bold and decisive, and which was to be brought to the awful test of confirmation or disappointment in so short a space as three days. So confident is he of the certainty of his interpretation, that he founds all his hopes of enlargement upon it. And there is something inexpressibly tender and pathetic in his application to the chief butler to that effect, “but think on me when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house. For indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews and here also have I done nothing, that they should put me into the dungeon.”[*]Gen 40:14-15 The event justified the prediction; and it is an awful and affecting illustration of the observation of the wise man, “the king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.”[*]Pro 21:1 A youth, a stranger, a prisoner, could have no power over the counsels of Pharaoh. But the power which controls all the potentates of the earth, and marshals the whole host of heaven is bringing his own word to pass, and performing his own pleasure. The chief butler, we may suppose, readily promised Joseph his best services when he should be again restored to place and power; but like a true courtier, he thinks no more of his promise, nor of his fellow prisoner, after his own turn was served. So selfish, so thoughtless, so ungrateful is man! Had he been under no personal obligation to the young stranger, for his tender assiduities while in confinement, and for the agreeable and certain intelligence which he received from him of his approaching deliverance, common humanity, awakened by the simple tale of innocence and misery which he had told, ought to have prompted his immediate and most earnest exertions in his behalf. And yet he suffers two full years to linger away, without caring to reflect whether such a person existed or not. And when he thinks of him at last, it is not the generous recollection of kindness and attachment; but the selfish remembrance of courtly adulation, eager to gratify his prince, not to rescue talents, and innocence, and worth, from unmerited oppression. Pharaoh hanged him not for the offences which he had committed against his sovereign, but for his forgetfulness and ingratitude to Joseph, let him be hung up an object of detestation and contempt to all generations of mankind.

How very differently do God and men often judge of one and the same object! If there be in all Egypt a person more forlorn and inconsiderable than another, it is an Hebrew slave in a dungeon. But “God raiseth the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill, that he may set him with princes.” Pharaoh himself now begins to act a part in this wonderful drama. For kings, in the hand of God, are only instruments of an higher order, and of more extensive operation. Kings are liable to hunger and thirst like other men; kings must sleep, and may be disturbed by dreams like other men--and thus it happened to the mighty sovereign of Egypt. With vision upon vision, in one night, was his rest troubled; the strange coincidence and mysterious import of which greatly perplex his waking thoughts. In a country teeming with gods, and overrun with superstition, no circumstance was overlooked which in any manner seemed to portend a future event. No wonder then that the prince, who has not always the best informed nor the firmest mind of any man within his dominions, should be rendered uneasy by a repetition of dreams, so singular in themselves, so similar to, and yet so unlike one another. It is not less wonderful, that in a country so prolific of magicians and soothsayers^, not one should be found bold enough to affix a meaning, or guess at an interpretation. Was it that the true God confounded and silenced their vain imaginations? or that Pharaoh, dissatisfied with their idle conjectures, and prompted from above to make farther inquiry, rejected the usual modes of solution, that, heaven-directed, Joseph might emerge out of obscurity to save a great nation, to preserve his father’s house in famine, and to fulfill the prediction and promise made to Abraham, concerning the future fortunes of his posterity? The king’s vexation interests and affects the whole court. And then for the first time, the chief butler bethinks himself of his faults. and of his promise, and of his obligations to his fellow prisoner, and relates in the hearing of the king, the very extraordinary circumstances of his own imprisonment and enlargement; of his dream, the interpretation and the issue. He is of consequence led to mention the character and situation of the interpreter. This instantly effects for Joseph, what his friendship, had it been exerted, perhaps would not have produced--an immediate order to set the prisoner free, and to bring him without delay into the royal presence. When men can be subservient to the interest, the pleasure, or the ambition of princes, they are in the sure road to preferment; and a man is often more indebted for success to a fortunate incident than to a righteous cause. Joseph’s affairs are now in a train such as his warmest friends could wish; and again we see another saying of the wise man verified “Seest thou a man diligent in his business’. He shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before mean men.”[*]Pro 22:29

Pharaoh’s expectations are not disappointed. He relates his dreams; and God, the author of the visions, and who had sent the interpreter and the explanation, by the mouth of Joseph unfolds its meaning and import. Pharaoh’s dream had puzzled himself and all Egypt by its first aspect; but now that it is explained, flow easy, how simple, how applicable, how natural every thing appears! The greatest discoveries, after they are made, appear so obvious and so plain, that every one is ready to wonder he did not lilt upon it first; and this, instead of diminishing, greatly enhances the merit of the first discoverer. Upon the manifestation of the import of Pharaoh’s redoubled vision, it is found, that God, who had given formerly to two of the servants an intimation of their approaching fate, was now giving to the sovereign a premonition of the visitations of his providence, to this great, populous, and wealthy empire. A previous notice of good renders it a double blessing; a warning of evil prepares us to meet it, and thereby diminishes its weight.

Joseph’s interpretation carried conviction along with it; and Pharaoh immediately resolves to act upon it. There is a certain indescribable charm in true wisdom, in unaffected goodness, that forces approbation, and carries the heart captive at once. There is a native dignity in virtue, which, while it never assumes, nor pushes itself forward, is never timorous, embarrassed or awkward. Joseph possesses unaffected case and composure in the presence of Pharaoh and all the court; and the court on this occasion, we have reason to think, was a very splendid, public, and crowded one. So good a thing it is to have the heart established by the fear of God. It casts out every other fear. But the days of his depression are now ended, and every step he has trod through this valley of humiliation, is a progress made to the glory that follows. And here we break off, having conducted Joseph to the right hand of the throne; and beholding him ready to mount the second chariot, while admiring nations proclaim before him, “bow the knee.” The next Lecture will exhibit the son of Jacob in all the splendor of high life; armed with all the authority of a minister of state, possessing a plenitude of power over the whole kingdom of Egypt.

Turn for a moment from Joseph, and behold a greater than him. “The prince of this world came, and found nothing in him.” Temptation addressed to “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life,” had from his lips an instant repulse, “it is written, it is written.” “In his humiliation his judgment was taken away;” he suffered as a malefactor, though “he did no sin, neither was guile found in his lips.” He was condemned and put to death upon a false accusation. From the triumphant ignominy of the cross, he dispenses life and death to his fellow-sufferers; paradise to the one, everlasting shame to the other. “Who hath known the mind of the Lord, or, being his counselor, hath taught him?” “The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, lie hath declared him.” “No man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son shall reveal him.” “He made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, lie humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath also highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”[*]Php 2:7-11 “Fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory!”[*]Luk 24:25-26 “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne”[*]Rev 3:21 “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”[*]Rev 2:10

I conclude all in the words of the beloved disciple, who thus describes a more august vision than ever appeared to Pharaoh: “And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb, as it had been slain: having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I, saying, Blessing, honor, glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever.”[*]Rev 5:6-14