Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #8 in Genesis 39, and we will read Genesis 39:7-16:

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 wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand; There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing 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: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out. And 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. And she laid up his garment by her, until his lord came home.

I will stop reading there.  We were looking at Joseph’s wonderful obedience and faithfulness to God, as well as his dutiful faithfulness to his earthly master Potiphar, historically. 

We saw how he clearly lines up well as a great type of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Bible says, “For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.”   We would be hard pressed to find sin in the account of Joseph’s life.  Was the man Joseph a sinner?  Yes, absolutely, but from the record God gives us, we find him to be an extremely faithful man.  There may have been an instance where we could say that Joseph was committing sin, but I am not sure where that would be in the Bible. 

As far as this account, it is “glowing,” as far as Joseph was concerned.  He was doing everything correctly and in a right way.  We cannot say that about Potiphar’s wife.

Potiphar’s wife exhibited the character of an extremely wicked woman because she constantly sought to commit adultery, and then her commitment to lie concerning what had happened as she plotted and planned to deceitfully tell her husband something she knew was a flat-out lie.  She was a false witness as she charged Joseph with these things.  It was not a light thing at all.  This would be a very serious matter for anyone to force a woman, but for a slave to force his master’s wife could have led to his death.  We read it Genesis 39:19:

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.

He was furious, and he threw Joseph into prison.  And perhaps it was only because he had respect for Joseph and had seen his character aforetime that he was not killed.  He could have had some doubts about his wife’s story after his initial anger had subsided.  Typically, when a woman is adulterous to this degree, there would have likely been other occasions of this type, so it is very possible that Potiphar suspected his wife.  But he was married to her, and she was his wife, so he listened to her.  But by the fact that he threw Joseph into prison rather than having him killed may indicate that he had a little doubt about the nature of the accusation.  I am sure he had the authority to kill Joseph, but he did not.

Let us go back and look again at Genesis 39:7:

And it came to pass after these things, that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me.

The Hebrew word translated as “lie” is found four times.  It is also in verse 10, verse 12, and in verse 14 where she is recounting her lie: “He came in unto me to lie with me.”  Four times it is emphasized that she desired Joseph to lie with her, and then she claimed it was what he wanted.

This word “lie” is found in Ezekiel 23 in an account that I think relates to this.  It says in Ezekiel 23:2-5:

Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother: And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity. And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah. And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours,

Here, God is speaking about Aholah in verse 5, and remember that she is “Samaria,” and Samaria is in Israel.  And God said that Aholah, or Israel, played the harlot when she was God’s, as God was married to her.  And she doted on her lovers, the Assyrians, who were neighbors, and it goes on to say in Ezekiel 23:6:

Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.

Notice that it says they were desirable young men, and Joseph was a desirable young man in the eyes of Potiphar’s wife.  It goes on to say in Ezekiel 23:7-9:

Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself. Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her. Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.

You see, this gets into the subject of God’s judgment upon Israel, as well as upon the churches and congregations.  Regarding Israel, God was in a marriage relationship.  Remember, the Lord inserted a Law in Deuteronomy 24 allowing for a man to divorce his wife (never for a wife to divorce her husband) because God knew that He would “put away” national Israel at the time of the cross.  He would end that relationship with her.  Again, He did enter into a marriage with Israel, and she committed adultery with her neighbors.  Here, it was the Assyrians.  The princes and leaders of Israel would take notice of their neighbors and their false gods and idols, and the appearance of the Assyrians, and they would often indulge in idolatry with these same idols.  God would put up with it for a time, and then would come His wrath, and He would judge Israel.  He judged them by the hand of the Assyrians, the same nation that Samaria (Israel) lusted after, and God used them to destroy Samaria.

Then God repeats that information concerning Babylon.  For example, it says in Ezekiel 23:14-19:

And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion, Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity:  And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.. And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them. So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister. et she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.

Notice it says in verse 17: “And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom.”  This was an adulterous relationship that Jerusalem had because they were the people of God, but they were going after the Babylonians just as their sister Samaria in the north went after the Assyrians.

This also helps us to understand Revelation 2 where God speaks of Jezebel, “which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.”  That plays a big part in all this.  Keep in mind that the Lord is speaking of spiritual sin, not necessarily fornication between men and women.  It is mainly the spiritual adultery of lusting after other gods.  And this was in the churches where Jezebel taught God’s servants to commit fornication, and then we read in Revelation 2:21-22:

And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

Now we can see what happened to the churches.  The churches had their eye on the world.  They had been looking at the world to a certain extent throughout their history, but especially at the time of the end.  They were looking at the world and wanting the things of the world.  And what did we see?  We saw the world’s music come into the congregations.  We saw the free will gospels and their “instant pudding salvation.”  It was a lusting after the world and the idols of the world, and these things came into the churches.  So God cast them into a bed, and them that committed adultery with her into great tribulation.  Satan and his emissaries took over the churches and they were all thrown into great tribulation when judgment began at the house of God.

Again, this is language of an adulterous woman, but we have to keep in mind as we read this historical account in our chapter in Genesis 39, that it has to do with Israel and the first coming of Christ.  We know this because Potiphar is married to this woman. 

We read in Jeremiah 3:1-2:

They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith JEHOVAH. Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with…

The word “lien” is the same word we read in Genesis 39 where she said, “Lie with me.”   Here, God is speaking to Israel or Judah, and He is saying, “Look at your high places, and see where you have not been lien with, where you have not played the harlot and committed fornication with your high places.”  What is the spiritual meaning of “high places?”  They are false doctrines, false gospels, or lying signs and wonders.  These are all spiritual high places, and they are adulterous in God’s sight.  It continues to say in Jeremiah 3:2-3:

In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness. Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.

We can clearly see the spiritual application to the churches and congregations.  Then it says in Jeremiah 3:6-8:

JEHOVAH said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot. And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

Let us read one more verse in Jeremiah 3:20:

Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith JEHOVAH.

Remember that I pointed out in Genesis 39 that the word “house” was found 11 times.  And this was the wife in Potiphar’s house, and this represents the house of Israel.  This wife is a picture of an adulterous woman that national Israel (not spiritual Israel consisting of the elect) portrayed, just as did the New Testament corporate church.  The nation of Israel was as this adulterous woman, and God saw her adultery and her harlotry in her high places, and He finally put her away. 

But she served a very definite purpose.  Potiphar’s wife is key here.  She was instrumental in causing Joseph to be judged by Potiphar, and Potiphar poured out his wrath upon Joseph by throwing him into prison.  And that would not happen without his wife’s adulterous intent and desire, and her deceitful nature.  She would even lie in order to make sure this young Hebrew was punished. 

Do you see how national Israel fits that mold as they came against the Lord Jesus Christ, and they brought false witnesses against Him?  They were bound and determined to kill Him even though there was never any fault in the Lord Jesus.  They never found any sin in Him, so they resorted to telling lies against Him to make sure He was punished.  He had to die.  So the Jewish council turned him over to the Romans to be crucified.  It fits perfectly with this historical account, and the spiritual meaning we see in the New Testament fits perfectly with the information we are given here in Genesis 39.