…She called her
household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “this Hebrew has been brought to
us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed. When
he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the
house.”
She
kept his cloak beside her until his master came home. Then she told him this
story: “That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport
of me. But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran
out of the house.” [#metoo]
When
his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is how your
slave treated me,” he burned with anger. Joseph’s master took him and put him
in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. [Genesis
39:14-20]
Joseph, the 'slave' in this story was actually a powerful
man. He was in charge of all of the properties, possessions, wealth, and the
whole estate of the captain of Pharaoh's guards. Women in Egypt of the Pharaohs
had a lot less power than do women of today. Potiphar's wife spoke out about
this powerful man in her husband's employ taking advantage of her: there was no
guarantee her husband would believe her over his right hand man. You can see
she even needed the support of his staff to back her up. She confided in them
that this servant of her husband's was here to make sport of them. She took a
chance, she spoke up, and Joseph lost his job without warning and wound up in
prison. There was no trial, you wouldn't want to disgrace Potiphar's wife any
further. Even her identity is forever protected. Her name is never mentioned in
the official record. She is protected.
Recently in Ontario the leader of the Opposition Party was
accused of similar things by two anonymous people from years gone by and he
lost his job and was condemned by the PM, the Premier, his own party and others
in a matter of hours. Over night he lost his job and his reputation. His
accusers are protected; they went to the media; they didn't face him. He didn't
get a trial. He has affidavits and evidence that even seem to clear his name.
One day he seemed poised to be the next ruler of this province and the next,
with reputation besmirched, his staff turned on him (even as those reporting to
Joseph seem to have abandoned him) and he now he is trying to get his job back and who knows what his future holds.
Joseph we know was innocent but he went to jail.
As well as false accusations from others, there are real
abuses that real people do suffer at the hands of people in authority over them
which is why we have things like #metoo. I am a part of an hierarchical
organization and have certainly been privy to stories of apparent abuses of
power. Power, however, be it the power of a teacher, a politician, an employer
or a high-ranking employee, may indeed be tenuous. No matter how secure we may
feel, doing the work of God or the work of man, we are indeed vulnerable. We
can feel completely secure in our job and our life; we can feel we are completely
safe and secure, in charge of all of the business operations of a powerful
person or a company or a ministry; we can even poised to become premier of a
country's largest province... and then we aren't.
Our Lord and Saviour was executed for treason Today is
the second Sunday of Lent. Do we know what Lent is about? Why do many
Christians observe lent? It is to get us ready for Easter and Good Friday: the
death and resurrection of our Lord. Lent is an opportunity for repentance,
prayer and fasting. It reminds us of the forty days Jesus spent fasting in
preparation for ministry. Traditionally people give up eating meat (other than
fish) on Fridays and some people will also give up chocolate or something else
for Lent.
I think that a key way to prepare ourselves for worship of
the Lord through Lent is to realize that indeed God is in control of our lives.
In the lectionary for today there are readings from Genesis 17 where God
reminds Abraham that YHWH is the one who is going to bless Abraham. Abraham won’t
achieve things, God will provide them. We can’t achieve things, the LORD will
provide. And Romans 4:13-25 speaks about the faith of Abraham and God’s
faithfulness. This is important. Salvation comes from Christ alone. There is
nothing we can to do to achieve it. Our perceived security through wealth,
position, intelligence, or integrity is a lie. We cannot be self-sufficient.
Proverbs 16:18: Pride comes before a fall
Joseph, had a significant amount of power – I don’t know if
he was at risk of becoming proud. I do believe, however, that these accusations
from Potiphar’s wife which precipitated his time in jail must have hurt him a
lot. He must have realized just how vulnerable he was. He must have realized
that it is not by his might that he survives but purely by the grace of God.
Job 34:14-15: “If God were to withdraw his Spirit, all life would disappear and
mankind would turn again to dust.”
And so it is with us today. It is in moments of insecurity
that we turn to the Lord for security. It is when we are broken that He can
make us whole. It is when we are fallen that He may lift us up
This week Billy Graham was ‘Promoted to Glory’. He always
put the gospel in its most basic form. We need salvation. Psalm 46:10:
God: “be still and know that I am God.” Lent is a time to be still and focus on
God rather than on ourselves. It is reminiscent of Jesus’ time in the desert
and can remind us of Joseph’s time on his way to prison. So today I encourage us not to rely on our
positions, our strength, our skills, our talents, our smarts, our looks, or
anything else – just like with Joseph in Genesis 39, they can all disappear in
a moment but let us instead look to our Saviour for our Salvation. For
salvation comes from Christ alone.
Check out new blogs daily at
Posts
