Joseph: Desire for God’s Holiness

Take your Bible in your hands this morning. Look on the cover… what does it say? It says Holy Bible, doesn’t it? How come it doesn’t just say “Bible”? Why HOLY Bible?

Because the word “holy” means something that belongs to God. The Bible is the Word of God. It belongs to Him, not us. He wrote it. It isn’t just an ordinary book. It isn’t just the Bible, it’s the Holy Bible because it is connected with God.

Put the word “holy” in front of something and it becomes special. We talk about the Christmas and Easter holidays - literally “holy days”. Those days are special because of what God did on them. They are connected with God.

We talk about taking a trip to the Holy Land. Why is it holy? Certainly not because of what’s going on there today, but because 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ, the Son of God lived there. So that land is special because of that. It is a land that was touched by God. It has a connection to God.

Now would it surprise you to know that your life has the word “holy” attached to it? If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you are a holy person. Now you might say “Oh no, Pastor, not me. I’m not a holy person.”

Oh yes you are! The Bible says that if you are a Christian, you are a holy person. The Bible uses a special Greek term when it refers to the followers of Jesus Christ. It is the term “hagioi”, which means, literally, “holy ones”. That term is usually translated “saints” in our English Bibles.

The word saint comes from the Latin word “sanguis”, which means “blood”. A saint is someone who has been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. Now he belongs to God. He’s God’s property. He has become a holy one because of his connection to God. That’s why Peter said to the church “you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God.” (1 Peter 2:9)

Think of it! We belong to God. We’ve got his monogram on our lives. We are a holy people.

That ought to make a difference in the way we live. It certainly did in the life of a young man who lived 3,800 years ago in Egypt. He was conscious of the fact that he belonged to God and that had a profound impact on his decisions and on his destiny. His name was Joseph.

He hadn’t had an easy life. He was the eleventh of twelve sons, and although his father Jacob regarded him as his favorite, that only led to trouble from his older brothers.

Joseph’s brothers resented him so much that they sold him into slavery in Egypt, where he had come to be the slave of a man named Potiphar. Joseph went from being the favorite son in his father’s household, to being a foreign slave in an Egyptian household. But that didn’t break his spirit. He still regarded himself as belonging to God, even though he had had his freedom taken away from him.

The Bible says that God still had his hand on his life. We read in Genesis 39 that

“The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.”

Joseph could have become very bitter about the way his brothers had treated him. He could have seethed with resentment over what they had done to him. When he was growing up in his father’s house, he had been used to coming and going as he pleased. But now he was nothing more than a slave.

Now he had to get up at a certain time in the morning, work hard for his master all day, go to bed at a certain time at night. He didn’t have any say in what he would do and where he would go. He wasn’t his own boss anymore. He wasn’t even his own person anymore. He had had his rights and his privileges all stripped away from him.

Perhaps you can identify with Joseph at this point. Maybe your life has been hard, like his. Maybe you’ve suffered unfairly because of the selfishness of others. As you look at your present circumstances, you’re not overly thrilled. Maybe you feel like a slave. But there’s one thing you haven’t lost, and that is the ability and the freedom to choose your reaction to it all.

Joseph could have chosen to grumble and complain about the raw deal he had gotten. He could have wallowed in anger and hatred, with revenge on his heart. But he didn’t. Instead, he got busy and made the best of his new position. Life had given him lemons, so he went ahead and made lemonade.

And pretty soon, Potiphar sat up and took notice. It became obvious that God was with Joseph, because he succeeded at everything he did. So Potiphar began to give Joseph more responsibility and more privileges. He raised Joseph up to be the manager of his household. He entrusted to Joseph everything he owned.

When you determine to honor God wherever you are and whatever your circumstances, good things happen. God blessed Joseph. God gave him more privileges. God entrusted him with more responsibility. But there was a downside to all that blessing: Joseph became the target of greater temptation.

You see, God was preparing Joseph for a great purpose - a strategic mission that would involve the rescue and survival of the nation Israel. God was raising Joseph up to be a leader. But Satan wanted nothing more than to knock Joseph down; to defeat him, to ruin him and make him unusable to God.

The way Satan usually does that to leaders is through one of three things; money, sex, or power. If Satan can defeat a leader in one of these three areas: greed, lust, or pride, he will render that person unusable to God.

Look at the Christian leaders who have fallen in recent years - and there have been many. Their failure has usually come down to one of these things: money, sex, or power. Joseph was tempted in all three of these areas.

Here he was in charge of Potiphar’s household. He certainly had access to money. Verse 6 tells us that Potiphar left in Joseph’s hands everything he owned. Joseph managed the household accounts. Joseph wrote the checks. Joseph did the financial planning. Joseph made the deposits in the bank.

All General Potiphar cared about was that supper was on the table when he got home from the Pentagon. He trusted Joseph implicitly. If Joseph had wanted to, he could have ruined Potiphar. Or, he could have embezzled enough money to buy his own freedom. But he didn’t. He resisted the money temptation.

What about power? How could a slave be tempted in the area of power? Well, remember that Joseph wasn’t the only servant in Potiphar’s household. There were many others there too. But Joseph was placed in charge of them all. He was given a great deal of authority.

Given the fact that he had been so badly treated by his brothers, Joseph could have used his power in Potiphar’s household to stroke his own ego. It would have been easy for him to go on a power trip. How good it would feel to bark orders at the other servants, and get them to do his bidding. Yet there is no evidence that Joseph ever did that. He resisted the temptation to abuse his power.

Well, that left sex. And sure enough, that’s where Satan really zeroed in on him. Joseph was young and handsome. Potiphar’s wife was bored, beautiful, and had a bad marriage. With Potiphar in the army, he was gone much of the time. With a house full of servants, she probably had lots of time on her hands. She probably sat around watching Egyptian soap operas all day long. (As the Sphinx Turns) She was bored, looking for a thrill. And she began to notice this strapping young servant named Joseph.

She started to put the moves on him, and she wasn’t overly subtle. “Come to bed with me.” she whispered to him. And she kept it up day after day. Joseph tried to avoid her, tried to keep out of her presence, but one day she cornered him.

Genesis 39:12 She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.

Now if you were a Hollywood scriptwriter, this wouldn’t be how the story ended. If this were a miniseries on ABC, he most certainly wouldn’t have run out of the house. Knowing that there was no one else home, knowing that there was no chance of getting caught, knowing that he was the head of the household and could basically do whatever he wanted, knowing that this beautiful woman practically throwing herself into his arms was hot for him, the whole thing would have turned out differently.

But this isn’t Hollywood, it is the Holy Word. And this isn’t some soap opera hunk who lets his glands do the thinking for him, this is Joseph. The choice he made in this moment of decision was shaped by an attitude he expressed just a few verses earlier.

“How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”

Joseph recognized that he belonged to God. He knew that if he went ahead and made love to Potiphar’s wife, he would be directly disobeying the will of God. That’s what the Bible calls sin. Sin is falling short of the mark; failing to live up to God’s standard. And all sin is against God.

The reason Joseph refused to commit adultery wasn’t because it would be an offence against Potiphar or Potiphar’s wife. It wasn’t that she might get pregnant. It wasn’t that he might get AIDS or some other sexually transmitted disease. It wasn’t because he didn’t happen to have a condom with him at the time.

It was simply because it was wrong. God said it was wrong, Joseph knew it was wrong and so he refused to do it, because he belonged to God. That is holiness boiled down to its simplest terms.

But that is not what we think of when we think of holiness. We think holiness means being extra good. If C is a pass, holiness is when you get an A. We think being holy means going above and beyond the call of duty. Some people, like Mother Teresa and St. Francis of Assissi do this all the time - they’re saints. But the rest of us just muddle along trying to be good, but not perfect.

But that is not the Bible’s view of practical holiness. Practical holiness involves doing what God says is right and not doing what God says is wrong. It’s as simple as that. If you are a Christian, you’re going to face the question of practical holiness every day.

Especially in the area where Joseph faced his greatest temptation. We are living in a sex-saturated culture. Satan has been very effective in getting people to disregard God’s will for proper sexual behavior. It’s all around us, and it is getting more and more blatant all the time.

Last week, Madonna, who is one of the highest paid entertainers in America, premiered a book and a music video. The title of the book is Sex. The video is from her album entitled Erotica. Both the book and the video are pornographic.

The video was premiered at midnight two Fridays ago on MTV, with a lot of advance fanfare. MTV just happens to be the most watched cable channel among the children and youth of America. “I want my MTV!” the kids say. If your kids are watching MTV, maybe you should have a look at what they’re watching.

In connection with the book, there was a gala party in Manhattan. The literary movers and shakers of the publishing business were there. Madonna’s book is being published by Time/Warner. (They’re the people who brought you Ice T - the rapper who recommends that we kill cops.) Time/Warner is one of the leading names in the publishing industry in America. It has its headquarters in Rockefeller Center. It used to be a name you could respect. I guess that Time/Warner has concluded that there is a great deal of money to be made on sexual perversion. They’re now in the porn business.

So is Holiday Inns, who are the leading purveyors of video pornography in the country. They’ll pipe it right into your hotel room.

So is K-Mart, through their subsidiary, Walden Bookstores. Walden Books has recently introduced a new line of pornographic romance novels entitled Fire and Spice. They are specifically targeted for teenagers and are displayed on the shelves in the youth section of the Walden bookstores.

This is the culture in which we live. We’re surrounded by inducements to set aside God’s standards for sex. Day after day in our media, we are bombarded by images of people who do so without seeming to reap any negative consequences. Our public schools are trying to sell our kids the message that safe sex is the way to go.

And in the midst of all this, here we are as Christians - a holy people belonging to God, and we’ve got to make a choice. What are we going to do? Are we going to look at this stuff? Are we going to read this stuff? Are we going to do this stuff? Or are we going to be different, and do things God’s way? Are we going to choose to be holy?

Joseph made his choice, and in the short-run, it seemed to cost him dearly. The woman who one moment was panting for him, the next moment lied through her teeth to frame him. That’s a good illustration of the deceitfulness of sin. Sin looks so appealing, so attractive, but in the end, it turns on you and kills you.

When an Eskimo wants to kill a wolf, here’s what he does: First he coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. Then, he adds another layer of blood, and another, until the blade is completely concealed by frozen blood.

Next, the hunter plants his knife into the ground with the blade sticking up. That night, a wolf picks up the smell of blood, and follows his nose to the source. He discovers the knife, starts licking it, and tastes the fresh-frozen blood. The wolf begins to lick the knife blade faster and more vigorously. The taste of blood fills his senses.

So great is his appetite that he does not realize that he has licked the blade right down to its razor sharp edge. He doesn’t notice the pain as it cuts into his own tongue and he doesn’t realize that the blood he is now tasting is his own. His carnivorous appetite just craves more and more until at dawn, the wolf lies dead in the snow.

That’s what sin does to you. It gives you the illusion of satisfying you, while all the while it is bleeding you to death. Listen to these words from Proverbs 7:

I noticed among the young men, a youth who lacked judgment. He was going down the street near the corner of the adulteress, walking along in the direction of her house at twilight, as the day was fading, as the dark of night set in. (Here was a man who was going out of his way to be tempted; putting himself in harm’s way!)

Then out came a woman to meet him, dressed like a prostitute and with crafty intent. She took hold of him and kissed him and with a brazen face she said: “Come, let’s drink deep of love till morning; let’s enjoy ourselves with love! My husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey. He took his purse filled with money and will not be home till full moon.”

With persuasive words she led him astray; she seduced him with her smooth talk. All at once he followed her like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer stepping into a noose, like a bird darting into a snare, little knowing it will cost him his life.

Joseph lost his job as manager of Potiphar’s household and was thrown in jail. He spent the next several years of his life there. But if he had sinned with Potiphar’s wife, he would have ended up much worse off. Going to jail was actually a promotion. It was God’s way of putting him into position for the greatest opportunity of his life.

Little did Joseph realize it at the time, but that jail was to be the final stepping stone to the palace of Pharaoh. Joseph was going to go from that prison cell to being second in command of the Egyptian Empire. In that position, as Prime Minister of Egypt, he would save his father and his brothers and their families, and thus preserve the Jewish nation.

But it all turned on his choosing to be holy in that crucial moment of decision. If he hadn’t sought God’s holiness in the shadows, he could never have become the leader who would one day deliver God’s people.

1 Peter 1:14-16 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.

Is practical everyday holiness important? Well, after looking at what happened to Joseph, you tell me.