JOSEPH IS PUT IN PRISON
Genesis 39:13-23
The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did. (23)
chapter 39
13. When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house,
14. 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.
15. When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house."
16. She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home.
17. Then she told him this story: "That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me.
18. But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house."
19. When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, "This is how your slave treated me," he burned with anger.
20. Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison,
21. the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.
22. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there.
23. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
1. When Potiphar’s wife saw how Joseph rejected her advances, she called the other servants. She showed them the cloak that Joseph had left behind in his haste to flee. She accused him of trying to sleep with her. She repeated this same story to her husband. As a result, Potiphar was enraged, and had Joseph thrown into prison. Joseph had done the right thing, fleeing from sin, but he ended up as a slave in prison.
2. Where was the Lord in all of this? The following verses tell us that the Lord was with Joseph. Even at his lowest point, the Lord was with Joseph. The Lord showed him kindness and favor. Just as Potiphar had entrusted everything to Joseph, so now did the prison warden. Joseph went from being a favorite son to being a slave and now a slave in prison. His circumstances did not suggest that the Lord was present, but the Lord was with Joseph. Joseph’s dire situation was not evidence of God’s absence—it was the Lord’s active involvement for his own good purpose. We can trust God’s presence in all things.
Prayer: Lord, help me to put my trust in you at all times, believing that you are with me.
One Word: Trust in God’s presence