Leading A Rebellion Pt 2 Joseph

Leading a Rebellion Pt. 2:

Joseph

           

Tonight we are doing part 2 of our “Leading a Rebellion” series. If you remember from last week we established a definition that we will be using when we discuss rebels. For our purposes a rebel is a person who resists any authority, control, or tradition. Some examples of people who have control and/or authority over you are parents, teachers, bosses, youth pastors, police officers, government officials, and even our friends and peers. If your friends can influence you into doing something you know to be wrong, then they have control over you. We also looked at another term “counter-cultural.” Counter-cultural refers to anything that goes against what the rest of the culture considers normal.

What are some examples of good rebels? Bad rebels? Good counter-culturalist? Bad counter-culturalists?   

Tonight we will be looking at someone who rebelled against his culture, and did what was right in the Lord’s eyes. Last week we looked at our first rebel, Noah. He rebelled against his culture, found favor in God’s eyes, the world was destroyed, and he and his family alone were saved. Basically, he rebelled against his culture, did what was right in God’s eyes, and everything worked out for him. But what happens if you rebel against the culture, do what’s right in God’s eyes, and it doesn’t work out for you? That’s what we’re going to look at tonight in the life of Joseph—specifically his time serving Potiphar.

The story so far: Joseph was one of the twelve sons of Jacob, the second youngest, but first born from his favorite wife Rachael, so he was definitely Jacob’s favorite. His other brothers found the whole situation quite annoying. If that wasn’t enough he had two dreams where his eleven brothers bowed down to him, and through bad politics he decided to tell them about his dream. This got his brothers grumbling and scheming. One day when they were out in the fields, Jacob sent Joseph to check on his brothers. When they saw Joseph coming in his fancy coat daddy bought him, they devised a plan to kill him and make up a story about a wild beast devouring him. One of his brothers convinced them not to kill him, and was planning to rescue him later, when the rest of them saw some people walking by and came up with the idea of selling him into slavery. Joseph was sold a second time and ended up working for a man named Potiphar.

Potiphar was not just any man—he was the chief executioner for Pharaoh. This meant that he was a ruthless, cold hearted dude. Back when the electric chair was still being used to execute people, they used to have three different switches (one live switch and two dead switches). Three different people threw the three different switches at the same time so no one would know who actually killed the man. This was a way to help the executioners not have to deal with so much emotional baggage of knowing they killed someone. Even in firing squads, they gave some of the gunmen real bullets and some blanks. Potiphar didn’t seem to be concerned so much about any of the emotional baggage. He made a pretty good political career out of killing prisoners, and enemies of Pharaoh.

Through hard work, and the Lord’s blessing Joseph rose in the ranks of Potiphar’s staff of servants. He eventually became so powerful, and trusted in the house that Potiphar didn’t concern himself with anything except the food that he put in his mouth. He left Joseph in charge of everything. The only thing that was restricted to him was his wife, Mrs. Potiphar.

The Bible clearly states that Joseph was a handsome young man (Gen. 39:6), but we have to assume that Mrs. Potiphar was also an attractive young lady. In that culture, it was not uncommon for really old men to marry much younger girls. So it is not hard to imagine that Potiphar was an old man (maybe 50-60) and that Mrs. Potiphar was a young girl (maybe still a teenager or early twenties) and that she held no physical, or emotional attachments to her husband. So when Joseph showed up, and started becoming a rising star, she started making plans. He was young and hunky. She was young and hot. Let’s pick up the story there:

Genesis 39:6-23 “⁶ So he left all that he had in Joseph's charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he ate.Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. ⁷ And after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.” ⁸ But he refused and said to his master's wife, “Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. ⁹ He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” ¹⁰ And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her.

¹¹ But one day, when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was there in the house, ¹²  she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house. ¹³ And as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, ¹⁴ she called to the men of her household and said to them, “See, he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. ¹⁵ And as soon as he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house.” ¹⁶ Then she laid up his garment by her until his master came home, ¹⁷ and she told him the same story, saying, “The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to laugh at me. ¹⁸ But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house.”

¹⁹ As soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, “This is the way your servant treated me,” his anger was kindled. ²⁰ And Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison. ²¹ But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. ²² And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. ²³ The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge, because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed.”

Every day she came out and tempted Joseph and said, “Lie with me!” What would the rest of society do in that situation? They probably would have had sex with her. Even in today’s culture it would be the same result. I mean, seriously. This was like “Desperate Housewives, 3,000 B.C.”

Joseph decided to do what was right in the Lord’s eyes, rebel against what the rest of the culture considers to be normal, and trusted God with the results. Last week we discussed two athletes who rebelled against what the culture considered to be normal: A.C. Green, and Tim Tebow. A.C. was a professional basketball player in the NBA. He was an outspoken Christian, and was outspoken about his commitment to remain a virgin until he married. He began and ended his 16 year career a virgin. Most of the other players had a new and different girl in each city. He remained pure even while his “friends” and teammates sent prostitutes to his hotel room while he was on the road. Tim Tebow is the modern day A.C. Green, but in the NFL. Perhaps it was people like A.C. that paved the way, making Tebow’s commitment easier. This is the reason why we study these rebels. Not because they are so wonderful, but because we can follow their example. Billy Graham said, “Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.” Joseph, A.C., and Tim have taken a stand to rebel against the culture. Let’s stiffen our spines and join them.