Genesis 39. I want to go back to that chapter. We read it last week, and we'd only got, I think, to the first two verses, so hope we can get a bit further this evening. But what a man this man Joseph is. And in these 14 chapters, Joseph has gone to dominate the story Although his father Jacob is the patriarch, you read these 14 chapters carefully, you'll discover that Joseph is mentioned twice as much as his father. And God has chosen to focus in on this man and give us so much about his life because there's just so much to learn from it. What a man he was. And Joseph grew up in what we would call today a dysfunctional home. He had a home where he had a father, four wives in the home, and four mothers, 12 sons, a daughter, maybe other children, we don't know. But certainly it was a home that was riven with strife, rivalry, jealousy, hatred for each other. It was a home that had idolatry present, and all kinds of other wicked sins that were prevalent in the family circle. And that's where Joseph grew up. And sometimes we make a lot of excuses. Sounds a bit like Lorne in many ways. We make excuses for people and say, well, they grew up in this circumstance or they had this type of an upbringing. Well, Joseph had as bad an upbringing that it was nearly possible to have. And yet, he never wavered. For 110 years, he's gonna walk with God and for God, in the home, in Egypt as a slave, as a prisoner, as prime minister. And at the very end of Genesis 50, we'll see him as an old man with his children and his grandchildren gathered around him. And what a testimony he has to them. and what instructions he gave to them before he died to let us know that he's still going on with God as an old man. Let's read verse 1. And Joseph was brought down to Egypt. Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him off the hands of the Ishmaelites, which had brought him down thither. The Lord was with Joseph. 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 put into his hand. And it came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptians' 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 all he had, save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was a goodly person and well favored. And it came to pass, after these things, that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph, and she said, Lie with me. But he refused, and said unto his master's wife, Behold, my master wanteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath into my hand. There is none greater in this house than I, neither hath he kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her to lie by her or to be with her. And it came to pass about this time that Joseph went into the house to do his business. And there was none of the men of the house there within. And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me. He left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out. It came to pass when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and was fled forth, that she called unto the men of her house and spake unto them, saying, See, he hath brought in an Hebrew unto us to mock us. He came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice. And it came to pass when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me and fled and got him out. She laid up his garment by her until his Lord came home. She spake unto him according to these words, saying, The Hebrew servant which thou hast brought unto us came in unto me to mock me. And it came to pass as I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me and fled out. And it came to pass when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spake unto him, saying, After this manner did thy servant to me that his wrath was kindled. Joseph's master took him, put him into the prison, place where the king's prisoners were bound, and he was there in the prison. But the Lord was with Joseph, showed him mercy, gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison. And whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it. The keeper of the prison looked not to anything that was under his hand, because the Lord was with him. And that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper. And then just put your finger in Psalm 105. We read this verse last week, but it's so important. in understanding what's going on in the background of the story of Joseph. Psalm 105 and verse 16 and 17 and 18. It says, moreover he, speaking of God, that's the pronoun, he called for a famine upon the land. He break the whole staff of bread. But then verse 17 is the key to understanding what's going on in chapter 39. He sent a man before them. Why is Joseph an agent? Because his brother sold him as a slave, you may say. Well, they were the agents that God used, the instrument, because of their evil motives and evil desires and their jealousy towards Joseph. But who was behind these individuals, permitting them and guiding them and directing them for his purpose through their evil actions, it was God. The reason Joseph found himself in Egypt, the reason Joseph finds himself in Potiphar's house, the reason Joseph finds himself then in prison, is because ultimately God had a plan and a purpose for Joseph and his family. Don't miss that. Because if you don't understand that, you'll start to wonder what's happening in your life. You'll start to see all the circumstances without God involved. And Psalm 105 tells us, he sent him, very clearly, a man before them. Even Joseph, who was sold for a servant or a slave, whose feet they hurt with fetters, he was laid in iron until the time that the word came, the word of the Lord tried him. So why was he going through these terrible sufferings in the slavery followed by the prison and the betrayal by Potiphar's wife? Because God was working through it all. Because God wanted to test and shape and mold and make him a man of God. through it all. Now, that doesn't excuse the actions of the evil individuals, doesn't excuse Potiphar's wife, doesn't excuse his 10 brothers. They have to give an account for what they did. But God was working through it all for a greater purpose and plan. And if you miss that key, you'll read chapter 39 and you'll think, well, that's just a story of siblings falling out and Joseph having a bit of bad luck. And it just is another story. But you got to keep Psalm 105 verse 17 and 18 in your mind as you read chapter 39. And of course, Joseph himself will realize that. Maybe not immediately, but in Genesis 50 verse 20, Joseph will say, ye thought evil against but God meant it unto good." Eventually, Joseph worked it out. What was the purpose and the plan of God? And Joseph even said, God sent ye thought evil against you, me, but God meant it unto good to save much people alive. Joseph, I now understand why God sent me down to Egypt, why he allowed me to suffer this way, because he had a great plan, not just for Joseph, but for the whole family, in allowing this to come about him. So we must not miss the hand of God in this story. Now, it's interesting as you read chapter 39, that when Joseph was in Canaan, living with his father and his brothers, his brothers saw him as a great curse, as a figure of hatred and jealousy. But when he gets himself in Egypt, the people in Egypt don't see him as a curse. They see him as a blessing. And they discerned that Joseph brought a blessing into their lives, and Potiphar recognized it, the chief warden or the chief jailer recognized it, and then even Pharaoh himself, when he meets Joseph for the first time. In just a few words of conversation, a relatively short conversation, old Pharaoh himself recognized, this man is special. This man has the hand of the real God upon him. This man is an anointed man. And if you remember, in Genesis chapter 12, Abraham was told by God, if you leave your father's house and you leave the land, of your heir of the Chaldees, and you go to this land of Canaan, the land that I'll show you, which happened to be Canaan, the promised land. God told Abraham what? That he and his descendants would be a blessing to all the nations, all the Gentile nations. And really, Abraham's sons and his grandsons, by and large, were not much of a blessing. And his great-grandsons, at least the 10 older ones, But when it came to this chapter in Joseph, for the very first time, really, in the book of Genesis, we see a descendant of Abraham becoming a great blessing, not just a blessing, a great blessing to the Gentile nations. And Joseph is a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ in that. because Christ was the ultimate blessing from the Jewish people, from the descendants of Abraham to the Gentile world. There's no Jews here tonight, but we're all saved. Why? Because of a Jewish savior who came from the descendants of Abraham to die on the cross. Now, one other thing before we get into this chapter. Joseph wasn't just a blessing to others in Egypt. Certainly was that. But Joseph was a blessing to Joseph in Egypt. And you think, what do you mean by that? Well, before chapter 39, Joseph was the pampered son of a rich man with his own servants. And in many ways, he was born with a silver spoon, wasn't he? But by bringing him down to Egypt, putting him into slavery and servitude, forcing him to work the way he has to work down in Egypt, Joseph's life became a blessing to his soul. And God would use that pain, as Psalm 105 says, to try him, to test him, to shape him, to mold him, And there's going to be a different Joseph that will emerge from the end of chapter 39. And Joseph would never have developed the character. He never would have developed the testimony if he had stayed down in Canaan, growing up in the home, this dysfunctional home. with his father and his mothers and all his brothers up in Canaan. And let's go into Genesis 39 and let's dig out some more things from this story. It says in verse seven, I think we more or less ended there, that it came to pass after these thing. Now, what thing? Well, the things that happened in chapter 37 and in the first five, six verses of chapter 39. So what things were they? The betrayal, the being dragged down to Egypt as a slave, the tension of then being sold as a slave. Who will he be sold to? What kind of place will he find himself? And then the loneliness and fear and hard work of being a slave in Potiphar's house. And then rising from that, we could say the ashes of that humiliation, Joseph found himself as the head of Potiphar's house, Potiphar's estate, Potiphar's business. And that took him about 11 years. You say, how do you know it was 11 years? Well, you do the maths. He went down at 17, he'll become prime minister at 30, and he'll spend about two years at least in prison. So you do the maths. When this incident's now about to occur, he spent about 11 years, 10 or 11 years in Potiphar's house, those first six verses. And he's worked really hard. He's learned the language, he's learned the business, he's impressed Potiphar so much that he's been taken from the status of a mere slave to now the head of Potiphar's business. And Potiphar's learned to trust him so much that he doesn't even know what he owns, just leaves it in Joseph's hands. I mean, it's an amazing rise from the ashes for a foreigner, a slave, a man who doesn't know the language probably. He certainly wouldn't have understood the business of Pottyfer. His father was a sheep farmer in Canaan. how he's down in this luxurious land with their pyramids and their great engineering and their great mathematics and their great scientific thinking, because the Egyptians were the greatest nation on earth at this point. And Joseph has risen to the top in the little bubble that he lives in, in just 11 years. And the Bible says, it came to pass after these things. So after the great shame and the humiliation and the hurt and the betrayal of his brothers, he's found himself like the snakes and ladders going up the ladder. It's now at the very point where he seems to have made a decent living for himself. Got about as high as you probably could get as a slave, as a foreigner. This incident is going to kick in. It says that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph. So the master was watching Joseph. God was with him. God was watching him. But of course, if God's with you and God's watching you, and others are starting to notice God is working in your life, you can be sure the devil also is watching. And just as God had people that Joseph was a blessing to, the devil also has people to hinder and trip him up and undermine him. And that's always the way. This world is not heaven. And you'll meet the Potiphar's wives of this world. You'll meet the Saul's of this world. And they're allowed to be there by God because God has a purpose and a plan in allowing them there. They're going to be used by God. Psalm 105 will tell us to try you and test you and shape you and mold you. And in Joseph's case, it's a woman. And this woman, she has her eye on him as well, just as Potiphar has. But she has her eye on him not because she's impressed by his character and his work ethic and his integrity. Well, she has her eye on him for a very different reason. And it says, if you notice, at the end of verse six, and Joseph was a goodly person and well-faithful. Now, I pointed out last time, his mother was a very beautiful woman. That's why Jacob was drawn to her, you remember, in the first place. So it's not hard to do the math, the genetic math, that this young man, 30 years of age, in the prime of life, probably working hard, Physically well-developed. Very good-looking. And we know from this story that he was very intelligent. Very capable. A man, no doubt, that had great charisma, great leadership skills. That's why Potiphar put him into that place. She looked at him. And Satan is going to use her to tempt him. And she's very brazen. Look at verse seven, what she says to him. She doesn't try any great long-winded speech to Joseph. He just says to him, lie with me, steal away. She's direct. She's shameless. And we can imagine a man of Potiphar status, that the woman that he married would be a very attractive woman as well. and a very seductive character. And there's going to be a whole lot of factors in this temptation that Joseph is going to face that you and I need to slowly pause and break it down because it's going to help us. Number one, one big factor in the temptation is this for Joseph. He's lonely. He's by himself. He's been down there for 11 years. He's no family there. His mother is dead. His brothers have betrayed him, might as well be dead. His father and him no longer have any communication again, might as well be dead. And he appears to have no friends in Egypt, certainly no friends that were believers in Egypt. Number two, what made this temptation particularly strong was Joseph was young. He was very handsome. He's alone. And he could easily be flattered by the attention of a woman that no doubt was very attractive in her own way and a very powerful woman. Number three, Joseph had no Bible. And the 10 years that he's died in Egypt, we don't read of God speaking to him. Certainly there was no dreams recorded here or anything like that, that God spoke to him and said to him, Joseph, if you just wait another few years, you're going to be prime minister of Egypt. And then a few years later, after the first seven years of the famine's over or the good years are over, your brethren will come down and then you'll be reconciled with them. And you and your father will be brought back together. He wasn't told any of this. He's alone. And it seems, from what Joseph knows, that the barrier between him and his family is never going to be reached again. It's permanent. Number four reason is this. Joseph is away from home. There's an old expression, isn't there? When the cat's away, the mice will play. There's nobody there to restrain him. There's nobody there to warn him. There's nobody there to say to him, Joseph, let me give you some advice about people like this. From the benefit of maturity, especially benefit of spiritual wisdom. Number five, everybody around him is immoral. The fact that this woman approached him in such a way, and then approached the servants, gives the impression that everybody was like this. This was just culture. This clearly wasn't the first time she had been involved with the servants in acts of immorality. It seems even from the way she spoke of Potiphar that her and Potiphar didn't have a good relationship. What we know of Egyptian culture at this time, it was a very immoral culture, as well as a culture steeped in idolatry and all the kinds of wickedness. Another problem for Joseph in this temptation was this woman was his superior. He was meant to serve her. He was meant to take her instructions, and he was trained to do that. His instinct was to obey, and it could be easily persuaded. I'm sure the devil was whispering and saying, You have to do what you're told, Joseph. You don't have any rights here. You're a slave. This is part of being what a slave is in Egypt. Of course, another issue that Joseph has to face in this temptation is Joseph had been riding the crest of a wave. Everything was going so well for him. since he was sold as a slave. He'd risen the rags to the very top, and you can be sure the devil was whispering in his ear, saying, Joseph, don't do anything stupid. You don't want to be back down again at the bottom. This woman is powerful. And it was a secret thing. It was something she did not openly before others, at least at this part of the story. And no doubt the devil was saying to him, Joseph, nobody knows. Nobody can see you. Everybody's doing it. Why don't you just give in? And of course, what else brought this a particularly difficult temptation to Joseph was the repeated nature of it. She just kept coming back to him over and over and over again. Now, how did Joseph, without a Bible, without any spiritual friends, a young man, lonely, torn from his family, betrayed by his family, that God didn't seem to have spoke to for many, many years. How did he overcome this powerful temptation from this very seductive source? and is worth reflecting on this carefully. How did he do it? Well, number one, notice in verse 8, he doesn't procrastinate. He didn't flirt with the sin. He immediately said to her, no. He didn't say, well, let me think about it. Let me weigh up my mind whether this would be pleasant or not pleasant. He immediately refused. It says in verse 8, but he refused. It's interesting, that's how it starts. He immediately said no. He knew the way to keep the devil out of your life was immediately to shut the devil. But then number two, notice this. In verse 9, Joseph named what she suggested, what God thought about it. He called it, number one, a great sin, and he called it great wickedness. Look what he says, there is none greater in this house than I, neither hath he kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness? Sin. Joseph didn't use any of these terms that the world uses today, an affair or liaison. No, Joseph said, this is the great wicked. And he said it publicly. He said it not just to her, he was saying it to Joseph. Number three, notice this. He recognized that this sin was not just a sin against himself and against Potiphar and Potiphar's wife, but the biggest aspect of this was a sin against God. Look at verse nine again. How then, he says, can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? God can see me. Potiphar may not be able to see me, but God can see. And I will not do this, sin against God's word. Joseph also recognized, of course, that it was a sin against others. He said in verse nine, there's none greater in this house than I, neither hath he kept back anything from me. But he says, if I was to do this, if I was to engage in this behavior, I would be sinning against my master. What if the one that God has placed in authority over this and over me, A fifth way Joseph helped deal with this was he confessed his sin and his faith to this woman. The one who was trying to tempt, he shut her up by giving her his reasons. You know, sometimes people just walk away, and you can do that. But Joseph recognized that one of the best ways to deal with a person like that is to call them out. is to tell him straight. It's a sin and a temptation. Then we notice sixthly how Joseph responded to this. Verse 11, it says, And it came to pass about this time as Joseph went into his house to do his business. So Joseph kept himself busy. We always say idle hands are the devil's playground. And Joseph recognized that and knew that if he was to continue to talk to this woman, mix with this woman, and converse with this woman, that she might be able to persuade him. As I said, she no doubt was a very attractive person and a very experienced seductress. This was not the first time I'm very sure that she engaged in this type of behavior. In fact, Potiphar's response suggests to me that he knew. Because I can't imagine that if Potiphar really believed that Joseph had raped his wife, or tried to rape his wife, he would have put him into the prison. He would have cut his head off. But somehow Potiphar wasn't fully convinced in her story. Because he knew her character, I believe. He'd heard rumours of her behaviour before. And Joseph kept himself busy and he avoided the place and the person who brought him the temptation. And you know, if you read the story of Samson, why Samson got himself in problems with women? If you read the story of Samson very carefully, you'll discover that Samson always was in the wrong place with the wrong people. And if you're in the land of the Philistines, you're going to run into women like Delilah. And I always say to our young people, if you go to the wrong place on a Friday night and a Saturday night, the devil will have the wrong people there. You don't meet a Delilah at a classical concert or a prayer meeting. Where would you meet a Delilah? in the bar, in the clubs. And if you go looking for the wrong places, you'll meet the wrong people. And Samson, he always kept going to the wrong places. He never learned from his mistakes. But Joseph, he knew that the way to avoid this woman and the temptation that she brought was to keep away from her. But then lastly, in this temptation, how Joseph responds, Notice in verse 12 what he does. He says, she caught him by his garment and saying, lie with me. So she comes again, the same temptation. And what does he do this time? He left his garment in her hand and slid, got him out. Remember what Jesus said? He said that a man may have to pluck out his eye and cut off his hand. People say, what do they mean by that? What do you mean with this? There are certain things you've got to cut out of your life. Not physically cut your arm off or pluck out your eye. He's saying, there are certain places of temptation that may draw you in particular. And you have to be wise enough to say, I'm not going, I'm not looking at that. I can't have that in my house. I can't have that in my life. There are certain people and certain places that I go to and they stir up a certain temptation. It may not affect other people, but it affects me. And I need to cut it off like a surgeon. And in this case, Joseph recognized that day he had to get out of that house. I remember one old preacher saying years ago, Joseph didn't flee from Potiphar's wife that day. He fled from Joseph, the old Joseph. He knew that if he stayed there, he could be drawn into it, the old nature as a believer. And he knew the only way to solve this was to get out of there. One old preacher said he left his garment or his clothes, but he kept his character like that. He got out of there. Now, this evil woman, this child of the devil, was no doubt not expecting or not used to being rejected, I mean, particularly by slaves. And this evil woman, her love, her supposed love for him, soon turned to anger and hatred. She called to the men of her house. Notice what she says in verse 14. These words suggest to me that the marriage was in trouble and the relationship was in big trouble. Well, she didn't call the husband. She was very cunning. She called the witnesses first. And no doubt she called people that Joseph had been placed over. Remember Daniel, people envied him because he was placed over them in Daniel chapter six. They hated him because of that. And no doubt she had observed that there were maybe Egyptians who worked in Potiphar's house that this Hebrew, this foreigner had been placed over and that must have irritated them. She called them in, people that she could manipulate. And she says, notice how she says of her husband, see he, blamed him, has brought in an Hebrew. She emphasised his foreign roots. You notice that. She didn't name him. Almost she couldn't say his name. See, that's foreigner. Slave. Well, she wants to stir up their anger, their jealousy. He's coming to mock us. Notice this in the plural. Not just mock me, but mock all of us. Oh, she's manipulating us. And she said, I cried with a loud voice. Didn't you hear me cry? So she's trying to get them all on side. She's got the, she's building the story, building the narrative, building the conspiracy. So that when Potiphar comes home, Potiphar is faced with a barrage of evidence and a barrage of witnesses. And he's left with almost nothing else he can do but throw Joseph out, deal with Joseph, because he's going to look so stupid in front of all his servants and all of his Egyptian, all these witnesses. How could he say he disbelieves his wife and all these other men, these other senior men? Glew's face. And she waits till Potiphar comes home. In verse 17, notice how she begins. She says, the Hebrew servant, again, she emphasizes, he's a nobody. He's a low life. He's the lowest of the low, the Hebrew slave. And then she puts the knife in. which thou hast brought unto us." It was you that bought him Potiphar. It was you that promoted him Potiphar. It was you that set him all over your estate and over all the other Egyptians that work for you. Oh, she's really, she's really working this, isn't she? And she says, came in unto me to mock me. And it came to pass as I lifted up my voice and cried that he left his garment with me and fled. She says, I've got the evidence. I've got the witnesses. They heard me cry out. I've got the evidence that his garment was there. She says, you brought him here. You put me in this place of peril. And you can see how Pontiff was trapped, can't you? Bit like the story in Daniel, where Daniel, in Daniel chapter six, these evil men got together to trap the king. with what Daniel had done in praying three times a day, and how they engineered it all, the conspiracy. And this woman and these men that were helping her, they engineered this conspiracy. And it says, verse 19, It came to pass, when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spake unto them, saying, After this manner did thy servant to me, that his wrath was kindled Now, whether he believed everything or some of it, whether he just felt humiliated by the situation, I don't know. But as I said earlier, I suspect he didn't fully believe the story. But in many ways, he was left with no choice in his mind, not saying he was excused for what he did. And he took Joseph And he put him into prison, verse 20, a place where the king's prisoners were bound, and he was there in the prison. Now, this is another dramatic reversal for Joseph. Remember we said about the snakes and ladders? Up the ladder, up the next ladder, oh, it's going so well, 10 years. And now, what happens? Roll the dice. Hit the snake. Back down. Only this time, Joseph doesn't fall back to the position of Genesis 39 verse 1. He falls far further. Because when he started out in Potiphar's house, he was asleep. He got his food and his bedding and he had a job to do. He had an element of freedom. He had the future prospects of promotion. He had the future prospects maybe even of his freedom if he worked hard enough in Potiphar's house. But now he doesn't have the status of a slave in a rich man's house, no doubt well fed and taken care of in a rich man's house. Joseph's a slave, he's a prisoner. He's a prisoner of one of the most powerful men in Egypt and he's accused of a crime of a very personal nature against this man. That's not a place you want to be, is it? And if that's not bad enough, he's a foreigner. So he's a slave, he's a foreigner, he's a prisoner, and he has committed a crime or accused of a crime. and regarded as guilty of it, of one of the most powerful, influential men in Egypt. Now, what do you think his prospects are now, humanly speaking? Really grim, business. And he's in this prison not because he's done the wrong thing, not because he's made a mistake, but for the very opposite. He's done the right thing. He's honoured God. He's confessed his faith. Now, let me ask a question, and with this I'll close. What was going through his mind as he lay in the stocks, in the chains, in that prison cell down in Egypt? Have a think about that. Now again, remind yourself, he doesn't have a Bible. He doesn't have the story of Joseph to encourage him. He doesn't have any words from God that he's ever gonna get out of this, become prime minister. He doesn't know any of this information. Now, he does have these dreams that God gave him that spoke and said that one day his brethren would bow down to him. That's all he has. a promise of God in the past, through a dream. Now you can be sure the devil was working overtime attacking Joseph. You didn't see those dreams at all. You imagined that. And if God really cared about you, why'd he put you in prison? Why did he let this happen to you? If God that you serve really rewards the righteous, how come? You got sold into slavery. How come your brothers hated you? How come your family have turned against you? How come none of them have come looking for you? No doubt the devil was saying to him, you're going to die in this prison, Joseph, and no one care. No one knows you. You're just going to be a statistic and your father Jacob will never know. that you died in this humiliation down there. And if your parents, if your father and your family even knew, they would be ashamed of you, of what you're accused of. Where's God? And you could imagine the devil was really assaulting this man's mind and his heart, mocking him. And I'm sure what his brother said to him as he arrived that day in Dothan. When they said this, we shall see what shall become of his dreams. You remember that? Huh? We'll see. I'm sure the devil was saying your brothers were right. You're the fool, Joseph. And if he'd just given in to this woman, sure nobody would have seen. None of these problems would have come upon you if you hadn't have tried to be so holy, holy, so self-righteous. But you know, with this I close. Joseph, in verse 20, is exactly where God wants him to be. And the path to the throne, the path to the prime minister's office, runs not from Potiphar's house to Pharaoh's house. No. God wanted the path to run down through the prison, because God had a purpose and plan for Joseph in the prison. And we're going to see this next. Because Joseph is going to learn things about what palace life is like, which he would never have learned in Potiphar's house. From the chief butler to the chief baker, he's going to learn something about who Pharaoh is. He's going to learn that God is going to bring him to the prime minister's role, not Joseph. and not part of it. And when Joseph finds himself in the future as prime minister over this nation, the greatest nation on earth, the greatest empire on earth at this time in history, there was no greater empire in history at this point. From the time of Adam and Eve to the time of Joseph, this was the greatest nation. It was the most advanced nation, the most advanced civilization, the most powerful, wealthy nation on the planet. And God is going to take this boy, the son of a farmer, a foreigner, a prisoner, a nobody, accused of a horrendous crime, with no prospects, seemingly no future. God's going to take him from the bottom of the pit to the palace. Not in 10 years. but in 24 hours. And when it's all over, Joseph's going to be able to say, only God could have done it. The fall was great, yes. The humiliation is great, yes. But the rise is going to be even greater by the time God's finished in this story. We'll learn that lesson next week. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for this great story Not great because the people in it are great. In many cases, many of them were some of the worst characters around. But the story is great because God is great in it. And what seems to be a disaster is going to turn out to be the greatest blessing to Joseph and his family and his people. It's going to be a great moment in redemptive history in protecting the chosen people from the potential of a terrible famine, so that they will emerge out of Egypt hundreds of years later as a powerful nation that God is going to send the Messiah of the world through. Thank you for this story, for all the things that we have learned through it and from it. Help us to apply these things to our own lives and reflect that life is not a very simple matter. There's many forces at work and ultimately the greatest force at work weaving a pattern through all the lives of those around us and in our own life is God. the sovereign, all-powerful, all-knowing God. For these things we ask in Jesus' precious name. Amen.