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DEVOTION

GENESIS

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Gen 39:6-10

Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, 7 and after a while his master's wife took notice of Joseph and said, "Come to bed with me!" 8 But he refused. "With me in charge," he told her, "my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. 9 No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?" 10 And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.

NIV

There is a lot more to this story, but we should stop at this point for a moment. From what we are being told here it would seem Joseph is a man of great character, it almost appears he is sinless. But we know that is not the case, as Jesus was the only person in the flesh who walked a sinless life. But then he is God. Yet here we have a situation of great temptation and Joseph successfully avoided falling into sin. There are other circumstances here as well. Although Joseph kept from doing this wicked thing and he did not sin against God, we are also told he recited all his responsibilities and authority given to him by his master. He knew there was no one greater in the house than him. Evidently there were many other servants in the household and Joseph was in charge of them all. He was in charge of all the household as well as all the workers in the field. He knew if he did this wicked thing all that could and most likely would be lost. Was he really motivated by not sinning against God, or not wanting to loss he position in the household? We know this story does not end well for him in this household. The plotting of evil works against him. So what do we learn here? We know all sin is against God. That is not a new truth. But we also see it is possible to withstand temptations that lead to sin. Not only did Joseph refuse her temptations, he refused to be anywhere around her. We don’t know how big this house was, but it must have been large enough for him to keep from being in her presence. Perhaps she had her own quarters, as was the custom in some cultures. But the point is that Joseph tried to remove himself from the temptation. To say he was not tempted would being saying he was not a man. But we not only know he was a man, but he was a handsome well-built man. We all face some type of temptations in our lives. We all fall short of the glory of God. We all sin against him. But the point here is that it is possible to keep from sinning. Jesus taught that if our eye causing us to sin, pluck it out.

Matt 18:7-9

7 "Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come! 8 If your hand or your foot causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

NIV

Although what Jesus says here is in the context of not keeping little children from the kingdom of God, the point is the same. We are to make every possible effort to keep from sinning against God. Surely we are not actually to pluck our eyes out or cut a hand or foot off. But he is implying we take such as drastic effort to avoid sin. That means we need to leave it behind, move on, not stay in a situation where sin might grab us. We are continually bombarded with visions for our eyes. Advertisements are based on giving us visions of things which that want us to buy. Ads make everything look better than it is in real life. They create perfect worlds for us to lust for. We cannot live our day to day normal living without seeing something we could desire that might be the cause of some sin other than sexual immorality that is given to us in this narrative. Sin is sin and all sin is against God. We may never be totally free of all sin, but we can make every effort to run from it, instead of to it. We can see some people in our culture who lost everything, their careers and their families because of the sin of addiction to drugs. We have seen people lose everything, material and families because of the sexual sins. Theft, murder, adultery, embezzlement are acts which most of us would never do. But there are other sins we learn to live with. The pride of not sinning and other attitudes of our heart no one can see. These too we need to run from. As with Joseph, we should recall to ourselves all that we have, all that has been given to us our Master. We should give account of everything he has put us in charge of. He has given us the responsibility of being his ambassador to the lost in this world. He has given us charge over his word, to share it with those in need. He has given us gifts, to minister to those who have a need. He has given us fruit to share with those in need. If, like Joseph we know what we have, why then would we sin against God? Run from it.