Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #13 in Genesis 39, and we will read Genesis 39:19-20:

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.

We are continuing to look at the spiritual teaching found in this passage.  I mentioned before that Potiphar is a figure of God; Joseph is a type and figure of Christ; and Potiphar’s wife is a figure of national Israel, a nation that brought false witness against Christ.

We are told that Potiphar’s wrath was kindled against Joseph, and then he took Joseph and put him into the prison.  What can we learn from this?  When  Israel tempted the Lord Jesus, and then they brought false witnesses against Him, their false witnesses did not agree with one another.  Finally, the high priest of Israel rent his clothes after Christ made a statement that indicated that He was the Son of God, and they turned Jesus over to the Roman authorities to be crucified. 

So let us ask the question: Whose wrath accomplished this?  Was it the wrath of Israel and their leaders?  Yes, that is true, but it was all done to carry out the wrath of God against the Lord Jesus Christ because Christ was demonstrating what He had done in bearing the sins of His people at the foundation of the world.  And when He bore those sins in His body at the foundation of the world, God saw the sin upon Him, and God the Father struck Him dead.  He smote Him as the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.  Again, that was done out of wrath toward the sin the Lord Jesus had taken upon Himself.  So, yes, Jesus had to be turned over to Pilot and the Roman authorities in order that He be crucified and killed.  And God did pour out His wrath upon Him.  We know that because when He was hanging on the cross He cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

We also know this from a passage we find in Isaiah 53, which is speaking of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, in Isaiah 53:3-5:

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

This is describing to us the outpouring of the wrath of God upon Him.  This fits with the spiritual understanding we are seeing in our passage in Genesis 39:19 where it says that Potiphar’s “wrath was kindled,” and he took Joseph and put him in prison.

One other verse concerning God’s wrath is in the book of Job.  Keep in mind that Job is a figure of someone under the wrath of God, just as Joseph is in our chapter in Genesis 39.  Job is speaking in this chapter, and it says in Job 19:6-11:

Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net. Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment. He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths. He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree. He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.

That is the picture in Genesis 39 when Potiphar’s wrath was kindled against Joseph, just as God’s wrath was said to be kindled upon Job.  But it was not for Job’s sake, but it was for the sake of the deeper spiritual picture that Job is portraying of the Lord Jesus Christ suffering under the weight of the wrath of God.

Let us go back to Genesis 39.  After we read that Potiphar’s wrath was kindled, it says in Genesis 39:20:

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.

Potiphar took Joseph and brought him to the prison where the king’s prisoners were bound.  I want to make an observation here.  Remember that Potiphar is said to be the captain of the guard, if we go back to Genesis 39:1:

And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmeelites, which had brought him down thither.

When we get into the next chapter, it says in Genesis 40:1:

And it came to pass after these things, that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker had offended their lord the king of Egypt. And Pharaoh was wroth against two of his officers, against the chief of the butlers, and against the chief of the bakers. And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound.

Did you notice that?  The butler and the baker were put in ward (prison) in the house of the captain of the guard. And who was the captain of the guard?  It was Potiphar.  And that was the same prison were Joseph was bound, so Joseph was bound in the house of Potiphar, the captain of the guard.  In other words, he did not have to go far.  Again, it says in Genesis 39:20:

And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound…

And we just read that the butler and the baker were put there by the king, so Potiphar had charge over this prison.  It was in his house.  It was somehow connected to his house, but we do not know how it was laid out.  But Joseph did not go very far at all, and it also tells us that Potiphar was able to keep an eye on Joseph.  Again, Joseph was in the prison of the captain of the guard whom he had offended because of Potiphar’s wife (who was really the offense.)  This tells us something about Christ.  Joseph was an innocent man thrown into prison, and that will teach us that Christ was sinless, and He had no sins laid upon Him when He went to the cross.  It was only at the foundation of the world that the sins of His people were laid upon Him, and He died for their sins. But when He went to the cross in 33 A. D., He had no sin, and He was simply demonstrating the earlier atonement.

First, let us look at this word “prison.”  Today the justice within our justice system is being destroyed, as sin is corrupting it, but even today the idea behind going to prison is that someone has broken the law.  In our legal system, a judge and jury will sentence that man to prison for a certain length of time in order to pay the penalty of breaking the law.  So we see that prison is a place for lawbreakers to pay their penalty for breaking the law.  Of course that has everything to do with God and His Law in the Bible.  God has given His Law to mankind, and mankind is duty-bound to obey the Law of God, and yet man fails to do so, and God gives sentence for the transgressors of His Law to the sinner: “For the wages of sin is death.”  The Bible also says, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”   So going to prison is like coming under the wrath of God because in prison the offender has to pay for his crime or transgression.  And that is what we see when we go the New Testament.  That is the picture that God draws for us in Matthew 5:25:

Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.

Do you see that?  The judge delivers you to the officer, and you are cast into prison.  What did Potiphar, the officer of Pharaoh, do to Joseph?  Again, let us read Genesis 39:20:

And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound…

This is exactly how it is described in Matthew 5:25.  And God is saying to agree with your adversary quickly while you are in the way with him.  Yes, we know that Satan is said to be the adversary of God and His kingdom, and Satan means “adversary.”  That is true, but who is the adversary of a sinner?  The sinner is already in the kingdom of Satan in the kingdom of darkness.  Satan is on his side, so Satan is not his adversary.  God and His Law is his adversary.

So God is saying, “Agree with thine adversary quickly,” and doing so “quickly” has to do with it being during the day of salvation.  That is, agreement with your adversary (God) would absolutely have had to take place during the day of salvation while you were still in the way with Him, and it must happen before Judgment Day.  So that time is past, but we can still understand that we were to agree with God when His Word pronounced our guilt, and it condemned our sin.  His Word judged us and said, “You are a lawbreaker.  You have offended God.  Therefore you are not good, righteous, or just.  You are a sinner subject to the wrath of God, and you should go to prison under the wrath of God, and you will suffer and die, and be no more at the end.” 

That is what our adversary was telling us in the day of salvation, and that is exactly what the elect child of God agreed was true.  We agreed with God, just as David did when he was convicted of sin by Nathan the prophet whom the Lord had sent to him, and then David wrote this in Psalm 51:1-4:

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

Do you see that agreement?  There is no fighting or resistance.  There is no stubborn rebellion in trying to justify himself and his sin: “Well, I did wrong, Lord, but I grew up in a bad home, and my circumstances were hard.”  There were no excuses or reasons given to try to justify the sin.  There was just agreement: “You are right, O, God.  You were right to send Nathan the prophet.  I was wrong.  I am guilty, and I am worthy to die.  I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me, and I can never remove it from thy sight.  All the sin I have done is against you, O, Lord, and I tell you these things because you are justified when you speak and clear when you judge.  Your judgment will be just and righteous, and I agree with it.”  There was no resistance, and no fighting against God, but there was a bowing down before Him as a guilty sinner, full of shame.  And there one could have pleaded with God in the day of salvation: “O, God, there is no reason for you to forgive my sins.  I do not deserve your forgiveness.  I have not earned it, but what I have earned is the rod of your wrath and death.  But, O, Lord, you are a merciful God.  Please have mercy upon me.”  Again, I hope you understand that I am speaking of the day of salvation when we could cry for mercy.  That time is now past.

But that is the idea, and that is why it says to agree with your adversary quickly.  There was no time to waste by foolishly trying to get around the Law of God, or to get around the fact that “all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.”  We know God knows our hearts.  We know He knows everything, and we can only admit, agree, and acknowledge that, and then we could have gone on to cry for help, and to cry for grace and mercy and His undeserved favor because He is a God of mercy.  And that is what these verses are telling us about agreeing with one’s adversary.

We are going to stop here, and when we get together in our next Bible study, we will continue to talk about “prison.”  Joseph was cast into prison.