CRITICAL NOTES.—
Genesis 39:9. Sin against God.] Joseph uses the common name for God in addressing this Egyptian.—
Genesis 39:11. About this time.] Heb. At this day. The day on which the occurrence now related took place.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 39:7-12
THE TEMPTATION OF JOSEPH
I. The strength of it. Joseph had been severely tried on the side of endurance of adversity, now he is tried by the more perilous temptation of sensuality. This was a most fierce temptation, when we consider—
1. His youth. Joseph was young and of beautiful form and countenance. In youth endowed with high health and vigour the sensual passions are violent and impetuous. The temptation to gratify them is strong.
2. The force of opportunity. Joseph’s beauty proved a snare to him. His master’s wife “cast her eyes” upon him. (Genesis 39:7.) He had not to seek to draw her into temptation. She solicited him.
3. The prospect of advancement which his compliance would secure. “He saw this pleasure would advance him: he knew what it was to be a minion of one of the greatest ladies in Egypt: yet resolves to contemn.”—(Bp. Hall.)
4. The repetition of the temptation. It was renewed day by day. (Genesis 39:10.) Many are able to withstand temptation in the first instance who yet fail to hold out to the end. Eve resisted the tempter at the first outset, but was overcome by the second. Samson refused at first to satisfy Delilah’s insidious questions, but was at last conquered by the tears and importunities of that fair woman. The assaults of temptation may prevail even over sturdy virtue by repeated blows.
II. His resistance of it. Mark the grounds upon which he refuses the base proposal. He says nothing about the wickedness of the tempter. He utters no word of reproach for her sensuality and faithlessness; but simply considers his own obligation—what he ought to do.
1. He pleads the law of honour. His master had reposed great trust in him, and he must not abuse that confidence. (Genesis 39:8-9.)
2. He pleads the law of chastity. “How then can I do this great wickedness?” It was a moral wrong in itself, an invasion of the rights of another, a crime against society.
3. He pleads the law of piety. It was “a sin against God,” a direct violation of His commandment. He recognises a supreme authority over human conduct. It would be trespass against heaven to break through God’s distinct prohibition. He must be faithful to God as well as to man.
III. His victory over it.
1. It was obtained by flight. (Genesis 39:12). He was firm in refusing, and yet he would not imperil his virtue by remaining in the neighbourhood of temptation. He would not expose his strength to too severe and to an unnecessary trial. Therefore he consulted his safety by taking to flight. Such flight is more honourable than the most heroic deeds. He who would avoid being vanquished by temptation must use his own prudence in taking the first way of escape. Divine aid is only for those who are willing to work in harmony with it.
2. It was obtained through loss. He retained a good conscience—the approval of God, but he lost his good name. His real character in the sight of God was preserved pure, but his reputation in the sight of men was gone. He would rather lie humbled in the dust, under the imputation of evil, than rise by sinful means. “How much had he rather leave his cloak than his virtue; and to suffer his mistress to spoil him of his liberty, rather than he should blemish her honour, or his master’s in her, or God’s in either of them?”—(Bp. Hall.)
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 39:7. After these things. A man is to expect, if he live out his days, to be urged to all sins, to the breach of every branch of the ten commandments, and to be put to it in respect of every article of our creed.—(Trapp.)
The times of our advance in the world may prove the times of our greatest temptation.
Circe may enchant us, the cockatrice slay us with her sight. “Let her not take thee with her eyelids,” saith Solomon (Proverbs 6:25); as larks, while they gaze in a glass, are taken in a day-net.—(Trapp.)
All the spite of his brethren was not so great a cross to him as the inordinate affection of his mistress.—(Bp. Hall.)
Genesis 39:8. Joseph, as an example of chastity, stands here in the brightest light when compared with the conduct of Judah in the previous chapter.—(Lange.)
He refused, though this wicked woman could easily have taken her revenge upon him for it.
To argue from bounty to duty is but right reason; but to argue, as most do, from God’s liberality to liberty in sin, is the devil’s logic. Joseph will not deal so basely with his master, though an Egyptian. To render good for evil is divine; good for good is human, but evil for good is devilish. The “goodness of God should lead us to repentance,” saith Paul. (Romans 2:4.) And this Peter picks out of Paul’s Epistles, as one of the choicest sentences, and urged it upon those to whom he wrote. (2 Peter 3:15.)—(Trapp.)
Verse 9. He considers his obligation as heightened by the generosity and kindness of his master, who withheld nothing else from him. Eve reasoned at first on this principle (Genesis 3:2.), and had she kept to it, she had been safe. When we are tempted to covet what God has forbidden, it were well to think of the many things which He has not forbidden, but freely given us.—(Fuller.)
Though the iron entered into Joseph’s soul, sin could not; because it was fraught with God’s fear. He had “set God at his right hand,” and “therefore he was not moved.” (Psalms 16:8.) Satan knocked oft at that door, but there was none within to answer or open. He struck fire, but upon wet tinder. Joseph in Egypt, like a pearl in a puddle, keeps his virtue still, wherever he comes.—(Trapp.)
It will not only be treachery to my master on earth, but daring wickedness against my Master in heaven. God is our Maker and our Judge; and if honour required Joseph to be faithful to his master, much more did religion, which is a far stronger principle, oblige him to be faithful to his God; if gratitude bound him not to sin against the former, how much more strong ought that feeling be towards God?—(Bush.)
The fear of God is the keeper of all other virtues.
Genesis 39:10. Joseph finds it necessary to shun her company. This showed—
1. His great sincerity: for if we throw ourselves in the way of temptation, or be not careful to shun it when occasions offer, in vain do we talk against sin.
2. Great wisdom: for though he had been kept hitherto, he was not sure that he should be so in future.
3. Great resolution and perseverance: for it is not every one who withstands a temptation in the first instance that holds out to the end. Job endured a series of trials and sinned not; yet afterwards spake things which he ought not.
4. Great grace. “Can a man go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?” No; if we voluntarily go into temptation, we shall assuredly be hurt, if not ruined by it; but when God by His providence leads us into it for the trial of our graces, we may hope to be preserved in it, and brought victorious out of it.—(Fuller.)
Genesis 39:11-12. We are reminded here of Solomon’s description of an impudent woman. (Proverbs 7:13-23).
The Church “comes from the wilderness,” that is, through troubles and afflictions, leaning on her beloved. (Song of Solomon 8:5); choosing rather to suffer than to sin. The good heart goes in a right line to God, and will not fetch a compass, but strikes through all troubles and hazards to get to Him. It will not break the hedge of any commandment, to avoid any piece of foul way.—(Trapp.)
This second time is Joseph stript of his garment; before, in the violence of envy, now of lust; before, of necessity, now of choice; before, to deceive his father, now his master; for, behold the pledge of his fidelity, which he left in those wicked hands, is made an evidence against him, of that which he refused to do; therefore did he leave his cloak, because he would not do that of which he is accused and condemned, because he left it. What safety is there against great adversaries, when even arguments of innocence are used to convince of evil? Lust yielded unto is a pleasant madness, but is desperate madness when it is opposed; no hatred burns so furiously as that which arises from the quenched coals of love.—(Bp. Hall.)