“How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” Genesis 39:9
Joseph must have been aware that Potiphar’s wife had her eye on him, and when it came out into the open, he had already settled the issue in his mind and heart: “I cannot do this.”
A godly life revolves around commitments, and without them your life will drift. In any situation of life, you need to ask: “What will be the big temptation here for me?” Name it, and then make a commitment before God to guard against it. An open mind in the face of temptation makes failure inevitable.
At the heart of a wedding is the giving and receiving of vows in which a man and a woman say to each other “I will be loyal to you with my body, my heart, and my mind.” The reason for such a vow is that the gift of sexual union is a sacred trust from God. When we receive it, we surround it with the protection of a lifelong commitment of love, faithfulness, loyalty, and respect.
Potiphar’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me” (39:7), but he refused (39:8). No mixed messages from Joseph. “And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her” (39:10). Joseph didn’t say, “I can’t, but maybe we could meet for coffee?” After this thing came out, Joseph gave Potiphar’s wife a wide berth. He knew that people who play with fire get burned, so he avoided her.
One day when the other servants were gone, Potiphar’s wife grabbed Joseph by his robe. And Joseph ran out of the house. Better to lose his robe, his job, or anything else than to sin against God, against Potiphar, and against the woman who was tempting him.
Are you trying to keep an open mind in the face of some temptation? Name it and make a commitment before God today to guard against it.
