Word of Salvation – Vol. 13 No.20 – May 1967

 

Joseph Tempted And Victorious

 

Sermon by Rev. Prof. Dr. J. A. Schep on Gen.39:6c-12

Scripture Reading: Gen.39:6c-12

Psalter Hymnal: 182:1,3; 100:1,2; 436; 420:8,9; 180:4

 

Beloved Congregation,

The story of our text is not just a story of a pious young man who withstood temptation as an example for us.  Much more was at stake here.

When Joseph’s brothers sold him, they committed a terrible sin.  But God used that wicked deed to fulfil His divine plan.  In Psalm 105 it reads that God sent Joseph to Egypt, before Jacob and his family.  God did it because there would be a famine in Canaan, and He wanted to keep Jacob’s family alive.

Was this for Jacob’s sake only or for the sake of his children?  No, God had higher aims in view.  From Jacob’s seed our Lord Jesus Christ was to be born.  God wanted to save Him for the world.  That was the deepest reason why God sent Joseph to Egypt.  It was part of God’s plan to prepare the way for Jesus Christ, our Redeemer.

Therefore we may call the story of our text the story of a forerunner of Christ.  We see this forerunner, Joseph…
first: sorely tempted by Satan;
secondly, victorious by the grace of God.

1.  Yes, this fore-runner of Christ was sorely tempted by Satan.

No doubt, the devil knew that there was something at stake for the kingdom of God when that God fearing young Israelite came to Egypt.  Oh, if he only could rob this covenant-child of his piety.  And turn him into a dirty pagan.  What a blow this would be for the kingdom of God.  What an obstacle in the way for the coming of Jacob’s family (and of Christ!) to Egypt.

There was a most suitable instrument available for Satan to tempt Joseph: the wife of Potiphar, his master.  She liked that fine young foreign slave.  She fell in love with him.  She tried to catch him in her snares.  Little by little her pressure on him became more passionate.  Finally she lost all self-control.  Shamelessly she laid hold on him, to compel him to commit adultery.

What a temptation for Joseph!  He was young, was he not?  The sexual urge must have been strong in him.  There was no one to advise and help him.  He was a slave and resisting this prominent woman must have terrible consequences.  Moreover, the opportunity was favourable: it could all be done in secret.  Oh, yes, Satan did a clever job.

If God had not been mindful of his covenant, with Abraham and his seed – if God had not been mindful of his plan of salvation in Jesus Christ – there would have been no hope for Joseph, and no hope for us!

Presently we shall see how Satan was defeated.  But, first we must realise the danger of Satan’s temptations for ourselves, too.  What happened there in Egypt was just one striking instance of how Satan all through the ages tries to thwart God’s plan of salvation, the coming of God’s kingdom in Christ.

Today that kingdom has not yet come to its consummation.

Oh, its foundations were solidly laid when Jesus Christ defeated Satan with all his temptations… on the Cross… and in the Resurrection.  And Christ performs this task through his Church, through you and me.  By our witness, by our Christian words and actions He is preparing the way for the full realisation of God’s plan.

Need we wonder that Satan too is active?  He knows that he has only a short time left.  Oh, how he tries and tries to damage the cause of God as much as he can.  How he tries to tempt God’s people, you and me, into sin.  That we might forsake the faith.  That we might become unfaithful servants of God.  So that God can no longer use us for the coming of his kingdom.  For if the world, if sin, takes hold of the church, how will the church ever conquer the world?

These temptations of Satan are manifold in character.  The devil can use anything to lure our hearts away from Christ.

But among the many forms of demonic temptations, one is always prominent: the temptation in the sexual sphere.

Satan knows that here he can easily make a bridgehead to enter the city of God.

Here, in the sexual sphere, Satan attacked Joseph.  And later on David (think of his sin with Bathsheba); and Solomon (think of his pagan wives when he was old); and think of many, many other instances.

Oh Yes, particularly in this field Satan is always active, today more than he was ever before.  He is the one who inspires the secularised business-world to use the most shameless sex-appeal to make money.  We can hardly touch a newspaper, a magazine, a book, a film, a T.V. or Radio program or we have to face an appeal to our passions and lusts.  The sin of adultery has become so frequent that the broken homes cannot be counted.  Sexual sins among teenagers are as common as eating and drinking.  Dancing and drinking work up the passions.  The sin of Sodom is whitewashed, and more frequently committed than ever before.

What a temptation for the church of the Lord Jesus.  For you and me, for old and younger ones.  What a temptation to forget that we are Christ’s, under the seal of the sacrament.  Called to enjoy God’s grace in Christ.  But also: to be God’s obedient servants in Christ.  Men and women, boys and girls, whose bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, and through whose words and actions the Kingdom must be extended.  What a temptation to become victims of sin and Satan, useless for the kingdom of God, and therefore on the way to eternal destruction if we do not repent.  Oh, don’t forget, beloved, that you are facing a sinister plan of Satan, each time the world tries to picture sin before your eyes in its most beautiful appearance.  And pray to your God that He may forgive you for Jesus’ sake when you have sinned.  And that He may keep you from sinning by His Holy Spirit when Satan tries to tempt you.

2.  Joseph, did see Satan’s snares. And the Lord kept him from sinning, for His name’s sake.

When that woman approached this covenant-child with her dirty invitations, Joseph had only one reply: NO…!  “But he refused,” says the text.

And he made it quite clear why he had to say no.  In the first place: it would be unfair against his master Potiphar.  Potiphar had made Joseph the manager of his household.  He had given him his full confidence.  Would it not be shameful to deceive such a master?  No! – for Potiphar’s sake: No!  But it was “No” in particular for God’s sake.  As a child of the covenant Joseph knew that the Lord in heaven forbids fornication and adultery.  Of that will of his covenant-God, too, Joseph spoke to Potiphar’s wife: “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?”…No… for God’s sake: No!

So Joseph withstood Satan’s temptation.  He did it not only once or twice, at the beginning, giving in later on.  No, the text makes it clear: many, many times Potiphar’s wife invited him to sin.  And just as many times Joseph’s answer was “No”!  No.. for the master’s sake.  No… for God’s sake!

And when the moment came that words were no longer sufficient?  When the woman finally took hold of him and crazy with lust tried to compel him?  Then Joseph loosened his coat by which she held him, left the garment in her hands and fled.  The heroic flight of faith.  The flight from sin and Satan.

Don’t say: what a tower of moral strength, that Joseph.  Don’t glorify man.  Rather see your God at work here, and his marvellous grace.  He strengthened Joseph, who certainly must have prayed very earnestly, asking for wisdom, and help, and grace.  He kept Joseph from sinning.

Why?  Certainly in the first place to glorify his name as the One who is stronger than Satan.  But He did it also with a view to his divine plan of Salvation.  Satan wanted to damage God’s cause by making Joseph useless for the kingdom of God.  God saw to it that his work could go on through Joseph.  That there would be a place for Jacob’s family in Egypt.  That in that family our Lord Jesus was kept alive in Egypt.  That we should have a Saviour, born according to God’s promise: “Out of Egypt have I called a Son.”  Let God be praised for this token of His grace and mercy.  And let us give that Saviour, whom God preserved for us in Egypt…. let us give Him our heart and life, in faith, gratitude, repentance, and love.

And let us take our refuge to God’s strengthening grace in Christ when Satan’s tries to tempt us into sin and to make us useless instruments for the coming of God’s kingdom.

Nobody can stand the temptation in his own moral strength.  Many decent people, many decent church people too have fallen into gross sins when the temptation became very serious.  The Lord Jesu taught us to pray daily: lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.  There should be much prayer that the Lord may keep us from sinning, particularly in our day.

We, older folk have to pray that way.  And our young people have to pray that way.  To pray that by the grace of God, by the power of the Spirit, we may say, “No”, when we are invited to sin against God.  And also tell those that tempt us why we say No: “should I do this great wickedness and sin against God?”

And let us stay away from places and things which constitute a special temptation for our flesh: the film full of sex-appeal in theatre and T.V. show; the dirty book or illustration in the stands at newsagencies; the company of friends who lure us away from what’s holy and pure; dancing and strong drink which so easily stimulates lust.  And let our women and girls show that they are not the slaves of mini-skirt and bikini fashions.  Even non-Christian girls have begun to protest against this indecent dress of which a young woman stated in one of our leading newspapers a few weeks ago: “That it invites men and teenage boys to commit sexual crimes.”  Our women and girls should dress in a decent way, whatever fashion tells them.

Finally, let no one say or think that in our day with temptations abounding everywhere, it’s impossible to live a pure and clean life.  Joseph was the only child of God in the midst of a pagan nation.  The temptation was as great as can be imagined.  A miracle was necessary to keep him from sinning.  God performed the miracle.  He gave Joseph grace to withstand the temptation.

The same God is living today.  And He will give the same grace to us, under whatever circumstances we have to live.  The Holy Spirit, poured out in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ and dwelling in the heart of every believer, He’s prepared to work miracles of grace even today, also in the lives of young people, no enslaver is so strong, that He cannot break its spell.

Read the reports of people who, full of the Holy Spirit, work in the big cities of the world among young drug-addicts, prostitutes and criminals.  The most miraculous conversions happen.

We have only to pray for it, and to trust God for it.  We have only to beseech God to forgive us for Jesus’ sake if we have sinned, and to fill us with His Holy Spirit, that we may not sin again.

Then the power of our Covenant-God will show its glory in our lives, too.  And we, like Joseph, will remain good instruments for the coming of God’s kingdom.  In us the world will see how great our God is, how glorious our Saviour.

Oh, the world may hate us for it, and persecute us, as it happened to Joseph.  But God will use us, and bless us, as He used Joseph.

And when the great day comes, the day of judgment, the Lord will say to us: well done, you faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord.

What will the Judge say to you in that great day, my brother… my sister… my boy… my girl… my teenager friend…?

Amen