Embracing God With the Life You Never Expected {Relating to Women in the Bible}
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Get a glimpse into the lives of fourteen women in the Bible like you never have before. Perhaps you'll see a bit of yourself in the them and glean nuggets of wisdom from what God did in and through their lives.
BUY ON AMAZON
Chapter Excerpt
Potiphar's Wife
Life Unrestrained
Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.
The Lord was with Joseph so that 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. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.
Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”
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. 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?” And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.
One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. 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.
When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, 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. When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”
She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home. Then she told him this story: “That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me. But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”
When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is how your slave treated me,” he burned with anger. 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, the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 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. 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.
Genesis 39 (NIV)
She had it all but even then she still hungered for more. Ecclesiastes says the more we have the more we think we need. I suppose that is why the sweet family in Tanzania Africa, part of the poorest tribe in Africa, was so willing to give me the only bananas they had.
Our desire grows for what we are gazing at and Potiphar's wife was gazing at Joseph. James tells us, when desire conceives it gives birth to death. Potiphar's wife is a perfect example. Her desires grew to the point she pursued him, initiated with him and then her marriage, reputation and the blessing God had brought to her and her family was taken away.
To think our desires won’t grow when we keep feeding them is a lie. Whatever you feed grows, whether good or bad. We are either feeding the flesh or the Spirit because we don't live in a stand still world. We are either going toward the Lord or away from Him. There is no in between.
Have you ever been there? Hungering for more of something the Lord hasn't given you? (What is your Joseph?) You're not alone. Potiphar’s wife was there. But not only Potiphar's wife, me too. And every other woman on this planet. We crave. That craving was given to us by the Lord for the Lord. That craving is beautiful when we are craving the right things, or the right person, namely the Lord. He is the only One who will truly fill and satisfy us.
Are you feeding the flesh or the Spirit right now in your craving? Are you setting your heart on the Lord or some other desire? If not the Lord, He's always ready to receive you, to hear you ask Him for strength, to hear you say you want to want Him the most. He is ready to give you all the power and ability necessary if you'll call out and rely on Him.
What does her story show you about God?
Write principles can you derive from her story?
What would it specifically look like for that to play out in your life this week?
Spend some time talking to the Lord about it what He showed you.