Joseph was truly a great man of God. Here he is, a slave in a foreign country, and all of the sudden he is being seduced by his master’s wife. Considering Potiphar was a man of considerable means, his wife was probably considerably attractive. On top of that, he was sold into slavery by his own brothers after recieving a dream from God. No one here knew anything about him or about his God. It would have been easy for him to fall into temptation here. No one would have to know. And yet he resisted temptation.

Joseph does two important things when confronted by Potiphar’s wife. The first is that he remembers how his sin will effect others. He keeps in mind his master and how it would hurt his master to have such a relationship with his wife. Even if Potiphar never knew, Joseph still would have been hurting the husband/wife relationship. He also tells her that he can not do this because it would be a sin against God. Despite all of his hardships, he has kept God close in his thoughts, knowing that this action would be a sin against him. He refuses her both because it would be unloving to other and unloving to God.

Despite being pressured day after day, Joseph stood strong. One day Potiphar’s wife was with him alone, grabbed his cloak and tried to force herself onto him. Joseph would have nothing of it. He pulled away so quickly that he lost his garment. He did not tarry for it though. Knowing that temptation was there, he ran away as quickly as possible. This is another aspect of Joseph we need to emulate. We must run away from sin. It is at times desireable to hang around temptation, flirt with it a bit. To do so is to flirt with danger. We must flee from sin as quickly as possible, not giving it a chance to worm itself into our hearts.