KEY TEXT: GENESIS 39:6 – 10. Thus he left all that he had on Joseph’s hand, and he did not know what he had except for the bread which he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.
And it came to pass after these things that his master’s wife cast longing eyes on Joseph, and she said, “Lie with me”
But he refused and said to his master’s wife, look, my master does not know what is with me in the house, and he has committed all that he has to my hand.
“There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife, ‘How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?
So it was, as she spoke to Joseph day by day, that he did not heed her, to lie with or to be with her.
In view of what is happening to the values in our society, Potiphar’s wife is the most relevant to our generation today. Potiphar’s position and rank indicated that there was no doubt she was an Egyptian. Egyptian women cherished beauty, dressed in some of the finest linen clothing on the planet earth.
Mrs Potiphar portrays our generation’s blind culture where she knows exactly how to get him to notice her. It would have been easy for Joseph to see only this woman in all her
tantalizing beauty. The scripture states, “So it was, as she spoke to Joseph day
byday…..”(GEN. 39:10 NKJV)
What we see in this story is an episode between the devil and me, Potiphar and God. We have a culture set before us. Set before the children, youth and married couples. A culture of no boundary between right and wrong, good and bad, and moral and immoral. The culture of immorality reaches beyond the immoral acts of individual people to constitute the very fabric of our society and the values it extol and promotes.
The culture propagated in Egypt is what our society is propagating through media such as internet, TV, Newspaper and billboards. Given the sexuality permeating Egyptian culture, where woman’s sexy appearance and erotic gestures is exposed, and they say, “Everybody is doing it, “and nobody knows it. ‘One must keep his or her own natural desires and tendencies under control of God’s grace.
Joseph was well – built and handsome. His master’s wife took notice of Joseph. Joseph could notice whom he perceives between himself and the devil who call himself a friend. He makes a firm decision not on basis of some moral standard but on accountability to the master who has put him as a trustee of everything except his wife. More importantly on a higher level, he sees himself accountable to God. “How then can I do this great
wickedness, and sin against God? “(Gen 39:9 NKJ)
The behavior of Joseph is founded on a firm principle within certain values. He had set his life within moral boundaries that established his relationship with God that became central to his moral excellence. In absence of rules and standards that guides one’s behavior, that erodes morals and leads to moral compromise, there is absolute truth, the scripture. Moral compromise is a failure to see significance of accountability in our Christian lives. We must trust in God by having firm conviction in him. Potiphar watched everything Joseph did in his home, and he was convinced that Joseph’s faith in God brought in all success into his home. Joseph’s master’s faith in God started to develop.
We must have firm moral and ethical conviction based on biblical value system. Every time I turn to web pages, I meet colourful posters of all kind. The pictures are saying,
“Click me, I’m Free” you could almost imagine his or her voice whispering from the screen.
Joseph was able to resist temptation to sexual comprise because he consciously challenged his culture’s prevailing value system. He rejected his proposition, leaving no room for debate.
E.G. White states: “As we approach the close of time, as the people of God stand upon the borders of the heavenly Canaan, Satan will, as of old, redouble his efforts to prevent them from entering the goodly land. He lays his snares for every soul…he employs the same agents now as he employed three thousand years ago. By worldly friendships, by the Charm of beauty, by pleasure seeking, Mirth, feasting or the wine cup, he tempts to the violation of the Seventh Commandment” (Patriarch and Prophets, P.214)
If that is true, in light of what we can see taking place in our society, TuskerProject
Fame, Holly wood both in TV and Internet, we need a clear look at Joseph’s experience.
E.G. White states; “Arriving in Egypt, Joseph was sold to Potiphar, captain of the king’s
guard, in whose service he remained for ten years. He was here exposed to temptation of no ordinary character. He was in the midst of idolatry. The worship of false gods was surrounded by all the pomp of royalty, supported by the wealth and culture of the most highly civilized nation then in existence. Yet Joseph preserved his simplicity and his fidelity to God. The sights and sounds of vice were all about him, but he was as one who saw and heard not. His thoughts were not permitted to linger upon forbidden subjects. The desire to gain the favor of the Egyptians could not cause him to conceal his principles. Had he attempted to do this, he would have been overcome by temptations, but he was not ashamed of the religious of his fathers, and he made no efforts to hide the fact that he was a worshiper of Jehovah”
(E. G. White P. 214)
The things he was seeing, the values that were pressing upon, he refused to study or respond to. He would not give himself the luxury of even thinking about them.
Joseph guarded his thinking against the verbal and visual stimuli by turning then out in an environment he had no control.
In today’s, we would say, we cannot afford to miss the lesson study. We cannot miss worship service on Sabbath. We cannot miss the bible study. We cannot miss prayers. We cannot miss to witness Jesus to my friends.
The scripture states; “For your obedience has become known to all. Therefore I am glad on your behalf; but I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil.
And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. (Romans 16:19-20 NKV)
Seventh-day Adventist Church Nairobi Central
Youth Ministries
TITLE: MEDIA EFFECTS ON CHILDREN