| “And the Lord was with Joseph … and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian” (Genesis 39:2). |
| “And Joseph’s master took him, and put him into the prison … But the Lord was with Joseph” (Genesis 39:20-21). |
| When Joseph was brought down to Egypt, he was sold to a man named Potiphar, the captain of the guard. It must have been very hard for Joseph, for he was only seventeen years old when this happened to him. Yet he worked for Potiphar, and as our verses today tell us, the Lord was with him. Everything he did in Potiphar’s house went well because the Lord was with him. |
| But then something happened. Potiphar’s wife wanted Joseph to do something very wrong, and Joseph refused to do it. Then Potiphar’s wife pretended that Joseph had assaulted her, and her husband believed her. As a result, Joseph was put into the prison, along with bad people. This must have been very hard for Joseph too, for he had not done anything wrong. But once again, we read that even in the prison, the Lord was with him, and Joseph was put in charge of all the prisoners. |
| All this teaches us something about the Lord’s care for us, even today. Sometimes we seem to be going along fine, and everything works out well for us. We sense that the Lord is with us, helping us with what we are doing. This is what happened when Joseph was in Potiphar’s house; everything went well. |
| But then Potiphar’s wife accused Joseph of doing something he did not do, and he ended up in prison. Sometimes in our lives things go badly for us, even though we have not done anything wrong. In that case we can accept it from the Lord, and even in these hard times, we will sense that the Lord is with us. Joseph must have felt very bad when he was put in prison, but I am sure that he sensed that the Lord was still with him, and would bring some good out of it. This is exactly what happened, as we will see. |
