The Fork in the Road...

If you have never popped a hot cherry tomato in your mouth, you have my profound pity. ;) I love them, and will often put them in soup. They usually maintain an undamaged skin even during the cooking process. When I put the slightest pressure on them with my teeth, they burst open, and their rich flavor floods my tongue with their sweet acidic taste. In contrast, my husband dislikes tomatoes in general and hot cherry tomatoes in particular; he says it's like popping an eyeball. 

Lord, grant me patience and understanding.

So anyway, having provided you with that visual, I'll move to Genesis 39, where we're back to Joseph after our Judah/Tamar rabbit trail from yesterday. 

From the get-go of his arrival in Egypt, Joseph does well. Flourishes. You'd think, as a slave - which he is now, having been sold into Pharaoh's captain of the guard's household - he would have acted more like a proper slave, bowed over, oppressed. 

The Scripture doesn't say much in this chapter about Joseph's personal feelings, but it talks a great deal about the results of Joseph's actions. He proves himself worthy, and his master Potiphar puts him in charge of everything in his house. Potiphar gives Jacob a bundle, and Joseph's caretaking and stewardship of that bundle is so notable, so full of integrity, that Joseph -- a Hebrew slave (Hebrew is used during this time in a derogatory sense) -- is given complete trust in the household of an Egyptian.

Naturally, where the Lord is working, the enemy is crouching in the shadows, watching carefully for an opportunity to destroy. The Apostle Peter reminds us to "be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8).

The prowling enemy tries to nip this potential-filled son of Jacob in the bud when Joseph told the truth to his brothers while relating two prophetic dreams to them. Because he steps outside of his father's (and later his brother's) legacies of deception -- his brothers sell him into slavery in Egypt.  

Truth comes into play again in this chapter as the enemy pounces once more. 

Joseph is handsome, well-built, maybe muscly and rugged. Probably could have graced the cover of Teen Vogue, had there been such a thing in those days. However he looked, he managed to gain the attention of his master's wife. 

She tells Joseph: "Come to bed with me!" 

Joseph shakes his head. "With me in charge," he tells her, "my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?" (Genesis 39:8-9)

This invitation doesn't happen only once. It happens again... and again... and again. "And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her" (Genesis 39:10). She batters his defenses, lays siege to his fortress, but Joseph is unyielding.

He honors God in the middle of a pagan land and among a people who do not acknowledge the one true God. He brings the Lord into the conversation at a time when he is weakest and needs to be strongest, and so he uses the Lord as the ultimate safeguard. He's got excuses: I'm responsible, I'm a good steward, Potiphar wouldn't like it... but the biggest thing: "How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?"

I imagine Joseph is just as subject to temptation as any other young man, and it has become evident in this study of Genesis that sexual fidelity is not always top of the list even among the patriarchs (see Judah's story from yesterday). However, Joseph knows that this taking of another man's wife is an aberration, a wicked act before the Lord.

So he refuses. 

No one else is in the house. He refuses.
He could have gotten away with it. He refuses.
In that situation, it might have been the "safer" thing to do, given what ensues. He still refuses.

Joseph's integrity, his truthfulness, his lack of deceit is like the rising sun here (Proverbs 4:18), a sharp contrast to his father's legacy of deceit and trickery to gain his own ends. Joseph begins to sow some seeds that will yield a harvest down the road.

But there's no fruit from that harvest just yet. In fact, it seems like the storms are about to obliterate the freshly-sowed crop. 

The last time Potiphar's wife entreats Joseph to come to bed with her, and the last time he (once again) refuses her, she grabs his cloak. Joseph is so intent on leaving temptation behind, on fleeing the appearance of evil... he leaves the cloak with her. 

The woman is so manipulative, that had he tried to wrestle the cloak away from her, she could have cried foul, claimed rape, whatever. So he leaves the cloak and runs away, likely knowing full well that this also will result in unpleasant consequences. Joseph is backed into a corner.

The enemy sees his opening. He pounces. 

"She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home. Then she told him this story: 'That Hebrew (remember, derogatory term) slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me. But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house'" (Genesis 39:16-18).

In case it's not clear, this is a blatant lie.

Potiphar believes his wife's lie and is (understandably) furious. He puts Joseph in prison. It's not the worst prison ever - it's the place where the inmates of the king are confined, so maybe there are lace doilies and potted plants, curtains and wallpaper (joking). Either way, Joseph's circumstances have changed yet again.

Joseph goes from favorite son of Jacob, father of the Israelites... to slave in Egypt. 
Joseph goes from master of Potiphar's household, head of Potiphar's slaves... to prisoner in the king's dungeon.

And look what happens: "But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him; He showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph's care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did" (Genesis 39:20-23).

In Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus tells a story about a wealthy landowner who goes on a journey and leaves his funds in the care of three of his servants. One servants gets the most amount of money, the second servant gets the middle amount of money, and the third gets the least amount of money. After the master leaves, the first two servants practice excellent stewardship techniques. They invest the money, use it wisely, and when the master returns, he finds that the money he'd left with the first two servants has been doubled. But the third servant hides his money in a hole in the ground, and as a result... nothing happens. He's squandered his chance to make good on his opportunity... and as a result, loses his master's trust.

Joseph is given a bundle, and he multiplies that bundle, not necessarily through his stellar management techniques, although it seems he does display such qualities, but through his shining example of integrity, his commitment to truth even in the most dire of circumstances.

Those dire circumstances squeeze Joseph just enough that the good interior shows through. Back to those cherry tomatoes: had he remained on the counter, cool as a... tomato... in his comfortable skin, never would his territory have been expanded to produce the abundant harvest he was planting. It took heat, pressure, hardship, to burst him from his comfort zone and reap the rewards (seen later).

2 Corinthians 4:7-9 reiterates this example for us: "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not abandoned, struck down, but not destroyed."

In the crushing, Joseph's testimony of integrity is sweeter than had he not been tested. If you look at his life story, you wouldn't wish his circumstances on anyone, and yet, God takes his testimony and uses it to make him great, even in the land of his enemies.

Joseph's circumstances are crushing. Maybe he feels that there's no way out. Maybe he feels so pressured by them that he can't breathe. Maybe he looks across the nation where he finds himself and realizes... all his securities, all his safety thresholds, all his familiarities have disappeared. 

The only thing he has left... is God.
The only thing he can cling to... is faith.

We're coming up on Thanksgiving, a traditional holiday for Americans that often means family get-togethers. Familiar faces. Full bellies. Delicious aromas coming out of a laughter-filled kitchen. This year, our normalcy has been stripped away. This year, many are striving for a shadow of our tradition, but it's only a shadow. 

Our nation huddles under the effects of a virus, our political leadership struggles ineffectively, our global representation is dashed to pieces. We are broken within and without.

The only thing we have left... is God.
The only thing we can cling to... is faith.

"Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly, we are wasting away, yet inwardly, we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

Don't be afraid of the pressing. The harder the pressing, the further the flavor of our integrity spreads. 

Shakespeare memorialized this idiom in The Merchant of Venice: "But in the end, truth will out." Jesus puts it better: "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32).

Joseph consistently rejects deception. His integrity and reliance on God's truth does eventually set him free and puts him into a place of prominence. I'd argue that he is already free, even right there in the middle of his harsh circumstances, because he puts his faith in God ahead of the temptation of sin. 

He finds himself at a fork in the road, and he makes a poignant decision. He blatantly ignores the easy path that leads to destruction and death, striking out instead into the difficult, rugged, uphill battle that leads to freedom.

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by... and that has made all the difference."