In yesterday's passage Joseph interpreted two prophetic dreams for Pharaoh. These dreams warned the king of a coming famine, but before seven years of famine arrive there will be seven years of plenty. Joseph made some suggestions regarding how Pharaoh can start putting aside food now so his people won't perish during the difficult years. Pharaoh is so impressed with Joseph that (upon inspiration from God, even though Pharaoh doesn't serve Joseph's God) he makes him his right hand man. Now the only person in Egypt more powerful than Joseph is the king himself. Joseph's character is vindicated. He will never again be known as a Hebrew slave who sexually assaulted his master's wife. Pharaoh wouldn't make a convicted sex offender his second-in-command. Joseph is exonerated and his record is wiped clean. From now on he will be known as the second most powerful man in one of the mightiest nations that ever existed in the ancient world. When we think of Joseph, do we think of his years spent working as a slave? Do we think about the years he spent in a prison dungeon? No, we think of him as the man who sat at Pharaoh's right hand, who through the wisdom given him by God saved the lives of the Egyptian people and the lives of his own family.
A small ceremony takes place in Pharaoh's palace in front of all his officials to legally establish Joseph's promotion. "So Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.' Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph's finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. He had him ride in a chariot as his second-in-command, and people shouted before him, 'Make way!' Thus he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt." (Genesis 41:41-43) What a miraculous turnaround in Joseph's circumstances! He must almost feel like he's dreaming. He had hoped to gain his freedom after an audience with Pharaoh but he certainly could not have expected anything more than that, so I picture him in a daze of happy shock when he's escorted to a fine chariot and driven through the city with officials announcing, "This is Pharaoh's top man in Egypt now! Every time you see him, you must bow to him. If you are in the roadway, and you see his chariot coming, you better pull over to the side. You are to treat this man with all the respect and honor of Pharaoh himself!"
I like to think about that lying, immoral wife of Potiphar being on her way to the market and having to bow in subservience anytime Joseph rides by. It serves her right, doesn't it? The Lord probably disciplined her in more ways than just this for sending an innocent man to prison for so many years, but I enjoy the idea of her having to bow in reverent fear whenever she sees the man she wronged. Joseph would be within his rights to have her brought up on charges. He has the authority to order his guards to seize her and throw her in a prison dungeon. Pharaoh trusts Joseph so much that I doubt he'd even bother questioning why he had someone thrown into prison. But as far as we know, Joseph doesn't do a thing to her. I believe he's the kind of man who is content to leave her discipline up to God.
I'll tell you something I've observed in my fifty years of living: there almost always comes an opportunity to get revenge on someone who has wronged us. It may not happen til many years later, but time and time again I've noticed that it does happen. Joseph is in a position now that would allow him to take revenge if he wants to. I've been in that position too, when circumstances have worked out in such a way that later on I had the upper hand over someone who had treated me horrifically in the past. I'll be honest with you, when I was younger and more impulsive (and especially before I came to know the Lord Jesus as my Savior) I usually didn't hesitate to take the opportunity to "get back" at people who had deceived or abused me. But the satisfaction I gleaned from getting revenge was temporary at best. The gloating was pretty short-lived and nothing changed in my heart toward the person. That's not the case when when we hand the situation over to God and are content to let Him deal with our enemies. When we do that, we can go on with our lives while hardly thinking about them at all. I've learned as I've gotten older that it's far more satisfactory to wait and let God repay them. He has a tendency to do it with what can only properly be termed "poetic justice". He knows exactly how to make the sentence fit the crime and He knows how to discipline wicked persons in such a way that they may end up having a change of heart and turning to Him as Lord.
Does our own revenge ever produce such an outcome? I highly doubt it. We call ourselves by the name of Christ and identify ourselves as children of the living God, so when we take matters into our own hands and lower ourselves to the level of our enemies, they may feel more turned off than ever by Christianity. God's motive in administering discipline is of course to avenge His children but I think it's primarily to bring people to repentance who have so far refused to repent under any other circumstances. I could stop here to tell you how God has already repaid some wrongs that have been perpetrated against me in my lifetime, but it wouldn't bless you any to hear details about the things I've experienced. I could also tell you about someone whose heart the Lord has changed so drastically that I hope He never disciplines this person. This person has repented and humbled themselves and has turned to the Lord for salvation and I'm willing to let the past stay in the past. This person's conversion is absolutely genuine. So all I'll say is that it's far better to leave these things up to God. He'll handle them in the right time and in the right way. We don't have to dirty our hands and our hearts by sinking to the level of our enemies. The satisfaction of that won't last anyway, and we'll end up having to repent of harboring anger and bitterness in our hearts and of taking justice out of the hands of the Judge and Lawgiver. When we hang onto what we feel is our "right" to take revenge, we can't develop the love that's necessary for us to pray for that person to repent and come to know the Lord as we ourselves know Him. But when we are willing to leave matters of revenge up to our God, we can go on with our lives without being weighed down with hatred and bitterness. At the very least, we'll spare hardly a thought for our enemies and they won't be taking up space in our heads. At best, we'll find ourselves able to pray for their salvation.
Joseph doesn't lift a finger against Potiphar's wife, as far as we know, and when she bows to him on the street he's able to accept the justice the Lord has carried out on his behalf and he feels no need to do anything on his own behalf. I think it's possible that Joseph feels sorry for her and prays for the condition of her soul when he sees her. Maybe he even nods his head politely back to her with forgiveness in his eyes. What he does not do is call out to her from his fine chariot, "Who's laughing now? I could have you thrown in prison or beheaded for what you did to me. You better bow when I pass by. You better bow so low that your face is in the dust." No, Joseph sets an example for us to follow, and I really didn't expect our study today to take the turn it has taken, but maybe somebody needed to be reminded that it's God's place to avenge His children and that He will do it just as He promised us in His holy word. Maybe I'm the one who needed the reminded. But rest assured that God will handle these things and that He'll handle them in a way that's fits His holy character. He'll do it in a way that not only changes our hearts and gives us peace, but He'll do it in a way that may change the hearts of our enemies. We don't know whether Potiphar's wife ever repented and forsook the false gods of Egypt in favor of worshiping the one true God, but if she didn't it wasn't because Joseph hindered her faith by taking revenge or by gloating over his position over her now. Joseph lived centuries before the Lord Jesus Christ, but in a manner of speaking he asked himself, "What would Jesus do?" Well, what did Jesus do? Jesus prayed for His enemies. Jesus left vengeance up to the Father. Can we who are called by His name refuse to do the same?
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