Genesis 39:16

She then saw an opportunity of getting revenge on Joseph because he would not join her in evil. She called out for 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 very moment of the incident, she had a witness against Joseph that seemed conclusive. When Potiphar came home, she told him the same false story. Joseph's garment lay there as apparent proof of her evil accusation.

Because he kept his eyes on the God no one can see, Joseph pushed back the temptation and came through it unstained. He quietly suffered under the false charge of the shameless woman who tried to seduce him. Clearly this young man did more than resist her pressure. He was also careful not to wound his master by proving the wife's guilty passion and her still guiltier revenge on an innocent man. For lust, whether satisfied or not, soon turns into hatred.

The temptation came "day by day" (v. 10). The attacks grew more persistent until Joseph "flees" from the temptation and so defeats the devil. But having failed as the tempter, he now becomes the persecutor (vv. 13-18). The woman who had once cast her evil eyes on Joseph now testifies against him with a lying tongue. As an older writer said, "The bonds of truth will never hold those who have broken the bonds of modesty. It is nothing new for the worst of criminals to bring false charges of the worst crimes against the best of men." The result is that Joseph escapes from a bad woman and keeps a good conscience. But keeping a good conscience may cost a great deal. Joseph has to swap the comfort of Potiphar's house for the hardship of Pharaoh's prison.

We can easily imagine the difficulty the wife's treachery created for Joseph's master. On one side stood the proven, unquestionable trustworthiness of his slave. On the other stood his wife. A woman capable of such a proposition must long have shown her bad character in many ways, even if not in this one. That alone would make her word doubtful. Still, she was his wife. Whatever her bold, shameless, malicious fraud, we hear of no effort by Joseph to clear himself by exposing her wickedness.

In all this Joseph is only a picture of One whose sufferings were far deeper, just as His glory is far greater. During His life on earth He too was among us as One who serves, for He could say, "Man acquired Me as bondman from My youth" (Zechariah 13:5). He too suffered under the false accusations of the wicked. Again He can say, "They laid to My charge things that I knew not" (Psalm 35:11). He too was led to prison and to death.

In Genesis 39 Satan uses Potiphar's wife, and in Genesis 40 he uses Pharaoh's chief cupbearer. He used the first to put Joseph into the dungeon. He used the second to keep him there, through ungrateful neglect. But it was all in vain. God was behind the scenes. His finger was guiding all the springs of the vast machine of circumstances. When the right time came, He brought out the man of His purpose and set his feet in a large room.