I Didn’t Do It

I am still thinking about Jacob’s son, Joseph.   Once Joseph arrived in Egypt,  he was sold as a slave you would think everything turned around, and life was good, right?  Wrong!  He was a good worker.  In fact, he was so good and trustworthy that Potiphar put him in charge of his house.  Things were indeed looking up for Joseph until Mrs. Potifar noticed Joseph.  By noticed, I mean she made sexual advances because Joseph was “hot”.   Joseph had a choice.    He could give in to the advances of Potiphar’s wife. After all, Joseph was stuck in a foreign country against his will.  What would it hurt if he slept with Mrs. Potifar?  Potiphar would be getting what he deserved.  Right? The other option was to follow his conscience and God and refuse to comply with her demands, even though, the lady would be mad.  Don't think for a moment that he chose the easy road.  No, he chose to ignore her advances even though others might have complied.  Even then, what she wanted was not unheard of and who would blame him for giving in to her demands?  Because of his conscience, he was falsely accused.   Now how many of us can relate to that?  You are asked to lie about business practices and when you say “no,” you end up in trouble, not the ones who deserve to be in trouble.   Maybe you need a good recommendation and the one who can give it insists that you slip him some money.  You refuse and get accused of trying to bribe the person.  Perhaps you lost a job because you dared to question the practices of those over you.  Most of us can relate to false accusations.  We will or have all faced this giant at some point in our life and, to be honest, can hurt as much as the hatred because we know we were doing the right thing.  Here we are smelling like stinkweed rather than a rose.  Right about here is where I would be throwing in towel and having a pity party.  Joseph sitting there in prison decided to be above reproach even in prison.  In fact, even in a dirty, smelly prison Joseph's conduct was so good that The warden put him in charge of the prison.  Imagine that, a prisoner in charge of a prison.  He chose not to be bitter even in bitter circumstances.  Now that is an example that I want to follow.