Genesis 39:14

The temptation came "day after day" (v. 10), and the attacks grew more persistent. Then Joseph "flees" from the temptation, and the devil is foiled. But having failed as the tempter, he now becomes the persecutor (vv. 13-18). The woman who once cast her evil eyes on Joseph now bears witness against him with a lying tongue. As an old writer said, "Those who have broken the bonds of modesty will never be held by the bonds of truth. It is nothing new for the worst of criminals to accuse the best of men falsely of the worst crimes." As a result, Joseph escapes from a bad woman and keeps a good conscience. But keeping a good conscience can cost much.

We may regard Potiphar's wife as a type of the world, whose attractions she symbolises; and, failing to attract the prosperous servant of God, she becomes his fiercest and most unscrupulous foe. Evil company too often comes with prosperity. But for the God-fearing soul, prosperity tied to evil company cannot last. If he stays faithful, the evil company will destroy the prosperity.

She then saw an opportunity of getting revenge on Joseph because he would not join her in evil. She called out to other men, no doubt servants of the household. She told them Joseph had come in to rape her. She said she cried out, and he left without his garment. So, from the moment it happened, she had witnesses against Joseph who seemed to prove her case.

On the one hand stood the proved, unquestionable trustworthiness of his slave. On the other stood his wife. A woman capable of such an approach must have shown her evil character in many other ways long before, if not in this one. So her word was already doubtful. Still, she was his wife. Her fraud was bold, shameless, and malicious. Yet we hear of no effort on Joseph's part to clear himself by exposing her wickedness. A simple denial of her charge would not stand against a husband's natural anger. Potiphar had no wish to look closely at the terrible alternative.

The wicked woman's husband evidently did not really believe his wife's foul lie. It was perhaps only to keep up appearances that he made a show of punishing Joseph. If he really believed her story, it is hard to see why he did not have this Hebrew slave put to death at once. He probably knew her character well.

So here we see the holy young man resisting the tempter, bearing grief, and suffering wrongfully. And this is grace in the day of trial… Joseph could be no real type of the atonement. But of Christ suffering unjustly and in grace he was a blessed foreshadow.

In all this Joseph is only a type of One whose sufferings were far deeper, just as His glory is far greater… He, too, suffered under the false accusations of the wicked. Again He can say, "They laid to My charge things that I knew not" (Ps. 35:11). He, too, was led to prison and to death.