Potiphar's Wife

INTRODUCTION

Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken there…Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household and he entrusted to his care everything he owned…after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph”. Genesis 39:1,4,7
When Joseph was betrayed by his brothers he never thought that incident would be the first of many to come into his life. But lucky Joseph understood that all the events in his life would work out for his good and God almighty would be glorified. This paper will briefly discuss one of those events: the time when Joseph became second in command. The bible tells us that when Joseph came into the palace he had favor from the officials and God placed him in charge of many things. Even though things looked good for Joseph Satan had other plans once again for Joseph. The lady that many saw as blessed due to her place in the kingdom as Potiphar’s wife, had her own plans mind. She always got what she wanted, she was Potiphar’s wife. But even through the midst of her plans to discredit Joseph God was still faithful to fulfill his word. God used this incident for Joseph’s good and for the good of the Hebrew people.

Potiphar’s Wife

As we read the Word of God we discover that along side this great leader (Potiphar) was a woman that scripture simply calls as ‘the wife of “. Scriptures tell us that more than hundred women are simply described in as “widow of”, “nurse of,” “witch of,”  “woman of,” “concubine of,” “widow of,” “nurse of,” “Queen of”, and naturally, the “mother of” someone more famous than she is.  The question here arises… “Why is Potiphar’s Wife is not mentioned by her actual name?” To be honest we do not  know exactly, but God knew her name. God knew everything about her and even through her craziness; he used it to make history.
The bible explains in Genesis 39:7…“And after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”  Let’s look at this one fact; the bible says “that after a while” she took notice of Joseph, it is not sure if she was checking him out for a couple of months or a couple of days but it is clear that she became interested in someone she couldn’t have. In reading the scriptures we have to understand that these people were real people with real problems. As crazy as it may seem,
“We don’t know her heart, as black as it seemed. We don’t know her history. We don’t even know if she was ruled by her lust or lonely to the core. We do know that her pride wouldn’t let her take Joseph’s no for an answer.” 

She already had her eye on Joseph and “day after day” it was the same respond “NO”.  Genesis 39:10 says “And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her”. The last time Potiphar’s Wife insisted she managed to get a piece of his coat which she kept as evidence against Joseph. The bible says… “She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” but he left cloak in her hand and ran out of the house. (Genesis 39:12) We can ask the very obvious question: Why is Joseph close enough for her to grab him? Maybe, she was hiding behind something.

“Since he faithfully refused her “day after day,” we’ll assume it was Mrs. P’s antics all the way. Clearly she set Joseph up, caught him by surprise. And left him no choice but to flee into the courtyard, as on scholar noted, “Completely undressed, at once disgracefully and honorably.” He could hardly risk of going back, even though he surely knew where this would lead.” 

The point of this situation is that Joseph had the right intention; he wanted to obey God and he did.
After,  Potiphar’s wife show her husband the piece of coat she says in Genesis 39:19…”When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is how your slave treated me,” he burned with anger.” Notice how she says “your slave”, what she was saying really meant this… “It’s all your fault! You brought this boy into our house”. This is the same story for Adam when he and Eve sinned and he blamed it on God for putting him with that woman. Isn’t this the story for so many of us? We blame the person or God for what is really going on in inside of us. I believe that Potiphar got angry with Joseph but he believed him. The reason for this is proven in scripture, Potiphar entrusted Joseph with a lot. Trust and favor like that is hard to be broken when you have seen a person’s integrity on a daily basis. Soon after when he puts Joseph in jail and not to death, Joseph is placed in charge of the jail and eventually starts interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams. The bible explains that when Joseph gets into the phrase of his life with Pharaoh God opens another door and Joseph becomes Pharaoh.

CONCLUSION

In my opinion I believe that Potiphar’s Wife really thought she was going to sleep with Joseph but God shut that down quick. Now at the end of chapter 39 what happened to this lady without an actual name? Scripture tells us that after this incident happened she is never heard from again. Like it was said earlier God cared about this woman and for sure Joseph knew her by her name but we can all learn a couple of things from her.  Potiphar’s wife was the proverbs chapter 7 woman, the one to be real careful with.  The woman was full of lust and she didn’t care what happened to a Joseph’s reputation. He was young and she was older but praise the Lord he did what was right in the sight of God.  I also believe that if Joseph would have slept with her God’s grace would have helped him but I don’t think things would have worked out the way they did. We all have to pay for our actions. As sad as it may be that we have no other remembrance of this woman but that she was out to get what is wanted.  Her mention in the history of the book of Genesis is very valuable even to this day.  In my opinion I wish we had more information on her as an individual but God wanted it that way. God wanted to make it brief and to the point. I believe that sin is a very deadly thing. “So, a man thinks in his heart so he is.”

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I wrote this paper about Potiphar's Wife...the lord spoke to me about this lady and has been telling me to consider my ways...

Copyright by Celeste Polanco 2009