Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #12 in Genesis 39, and we will read Genesis 39:17-20:

And 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. And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison.

Last time we were discussing how Potiphar’s wife developed a plan.  She had Joseph’s garment, and she claimed that he had come in to mock her.  Interestingly, she called him, “the Hebrew servant, which thou hast brought unto us.”  That reminded us of Jonah in Jonah 1 where the mariners asked him his occupation, or business.  And the first thing he said was, “I am an Hebrew.”  That is really fitting because if someone were to ask you or me our occupation, we would have to answer something more than our worldly occupation (like the Apostle Paul being a tentmaker), and that would be that our business is to be a Christian, and not in name only, but we are to serve God as the family of Christ.

In the case of Jonah, he was “an Hebrew,” and he served the God of the Bible.  And Joseph was a Hebrew, and he was a servant doing his master’s business in his master’s house, just as the Lord Jesus Christ did His Father’s business.

Potiphar’s wife told her husband, “The Hebrew servant, which thou hast brought unto us, came in unto me to mock me.”  It was simply not true.  It was a flat-out lie.  Joseph was concentrating on his business of serving his master, and he wanted to have nothing to do with her desiring to lie with him, and that is why he fled and got him out of the house, as he saw that she was even more desperate than usual.  He did the honorable and wisest thing, but she said that his reason for coming into the house was not business, but she said he came in unto her to mock her.

The word translated as “mock” is a word we find in Genesis 19, for example, when Lot was trying to convince his sons-in-law that they had to get out of Sodom.  He was desperately pleading with them, I am sure.  We read in Genesis 19:12-14:

And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place: For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of JEHOVAH; and JEHOVAH hath sent us to destroy it. And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for JEHOVAH will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law.

That is, they were not taking him seriously.  They may have thought he was joking, or playing with them, as this word is translated as “play” in Exodus 32 in the account of Moses going up to the mount for forty days.  The Israelites quickly showed their natural condition by wanting an idol to replace God who had delivered them.  We read in Exodus 32:3-6:

And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to JEHOVAH. And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

It is the word “play” here that was translated as “mock” in Genesis 19 and in our verse in Genesis 39 where she said that Joseph came in to mock her.

So here it really carries the idea of harlotry or adultery.  Spiritually, that is exactly what was going on.  Israel, who was married to God, was involved in harlotry, or spiritual adultery.  They were going contrary to the commandments of God, which the Bible likens to adultery.

So that is one way, perhaps, it is being used in our verse in Genesis 39 because it would have been adultery if Joseph had come in unto a man’s wife.  It would have been physical adultery.

This word is also found in Genesis 21 after Isaac had been born, and he was weaned, and we read in Genesis 21:8-9:

And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking.

Then Sarah told Abraham, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son.”  The son of the bondwoman was mocking the son of the free woman.  Remember that Galatians 4 tells us that these are the two covenants, or two gospels.  Sarah represented the true Gospel, and Hagar represented the gospel of works.  And their sons represented the respective gospels, and the one son was mocking.  I do not know how else to relate this to what is happening in Genesis 39, but I wanted us to look at that.

Let us look at one more verse, in Genesis 26:7-9:

And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon. And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife. And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife: and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die for her.

Here, I think this helps us to see how this word is used.  Isaac was sporting, or playing around, with his wife, probably in an intimate way, like touching and embracing – things that only should be done between a husband and wife.  And that convinced Abimelech that they were, in fact, husband and wife. 

So I think we can apply that idea to what Potiphar’s wife was saying: “The Hebrew servant, which thou hast brought unto us, came in unto me to sport with me.”  It is the idea of playing around between a male and female outside of marriage.  And it was completely wrong because she was married, and that is what provoked her husband to anger.  She goes on to testify to him in Genesis 39:18:

And it came to pass, as I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled out.

It was another lie.  She had never lifted up her voice to cry because Joseph was making advances toward her, but she was pleading with him to do so.  It was Joseph who fled out.  Perhaps she cried after him.  You know, sometimes when people lie, they try to insert a bit of truth, but they twist it, so she could have cried, “Joseph,” as in “Joseph, do not leave,”  And since she did cry out, she turned it to fit her false accusation, just in case some of the servants had heard her cry out.  That is what it said in Genesis 39:14-15:

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.

Maybe she did exclaim, “Joseph,” very loudly, and this was her cover story to protect herself.  It seems to fit in with the overall tale she made up.  God commands against this very thing in the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:16:

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

The word “false” is also translated as “lying” in 1Kings 22:22: “And JEHOVAH said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.”  Significantly, it is in the mouth of false prophets.

It is also found in Ezekiel 13:22:

Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life:

They are lies, or false declarations, and this verse condemns the churches and congregations of our day of their false free will gospel that only serves to make the hearts of the righteous (the true elect) sad, but it also strengthens the hands of the wicked: “Oh, I have accepted Christ, so I do not need to read your tract.  I accepted Christ years ago, and I don’t need to go to God for mercy.  God and I have it all worked out.”  But they were told lies, and it strengthened the hands of the wicked in his wickedness, and he would not return from it because he had received a promise of life from a pastor or elder, who was more than likely “twofold more the child of hell” than himself.

We also read in Deuteronomy 19:15:

One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.

That is the biblical principle for coming to truth.  What God tells us about false witnesses has everything to do with the Gospel and the faithful testimony of the truth of the Word of God.  When you, I, or anyone, teaches from the Bible, and we say, “This is what the Bible says, and this is the truth of the Word of God,” it is a witness to the Scripture, and it is either a true witness or a false witness.  The way to find out is to check out what is being said by the teacher by comparing spiritual with spiritual, or Scripture with Scripture, and each Scripture is itself a witness.  So we look at this verse or passage, and we ask, “Does this witness agree with the understanding that is coming forth as the teaching?”  And if that agrees, then we look to another place, and another place. 

It is not literally just “two or three,” but we must harmonize every doctrinal teaching with all of Scripture, and that is because the mouth of two or three witnesses is really a reference to God Himself, the Triune God.  And the Spirit of God testifies when we are checking the Scriptures, and the Father, Son, and Spirit are all involved.  Christ is the Word, and the Spirit is our guide into truth.  So as we compare Scriptures to try to either confirm or disprove, but we really should search the Scriptures with a positive mindset, searching the scriptures daily, whether those things are so.  And then we are able to confirm that this has agreement in the Bible, within the Godhead, with all the scriptural witnesses, that it is the truth.  Then we testify and personally witness, “This is what the Bible says.”

On the other hand, there can be an apparent witness, or a seeming declaration, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”  And there seems to be a witness to that in Romans 10:9, but then there are other Scriptures that say man’s heart is dead in sin, and no one can believe.  “All men have not faith,” the Bible tells us, so how can you believe from a dead heart?  How can you exercise your will when you are spiritually dead?  Then all kinds of Scripture lines up to witness that this conclusion is not true because a sinner cannot exercise his free will and believe from his heart because he is “dead in trespasses and sins,” and Romans 10 says that one must believe from one’s heart.  So that will not harmonize and agree.

But some people just take one or two witnesses, and they string together a few verses, but they do not have the agreement of the Godhead.  They do not have the agreement of the Word, who is Christ.  And they do not have the agreement of the Spirit that leads into truth, as many Scriptures oppose their false gospel, and yet they will teach it anyway because it is the stance of their church; or it was what they were taught in seminary; or it is what their theological commentaries say; or it is the way of understanding in their denomination, and so forth.  And they become false witnesses, which is exactly what God is warning against in Deuteronomy 19.  Then it says in Deuteronomy 19:16-19:

If a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong; Then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before JEHOVAH, before the priests and the judges, which shall be in those days; And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother; Then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shalt thou put the evil away from among you.

There is a good law.  If someone testifies falsely, and if the penalty for whoever they are testifying against is death, and if the witness is found out to be a false witness, then he is the one who would take the penalty, even unto death.  That would really make people fear when they went to court, put their hand on the Bible, and swore to tell the truth, and nothing but the truth.  If the charge against the defendant would be 20 years in prison, and if you were found to be telling a lie and being a false witness, then you would be liable to spend 20 years in prison.  How many more people would tell the truth if that were the case that false witnesses were sent to prison or executed?  There would be a lot more truthfulness.

But man thinks he is wiser than God, and man knows it all, and he does not need the Bible, so our court systems have become a mockery – and anything but just – in many cases.

Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study, we are going to look a little bit more at Deuteronomy 19 and the statement that the judges shall make diligent inquisition.  We will look at that and how that applies to the whole matter of a false witness.  Again, we will pick that up in our next Bible study.