Genesis 39:19

We can easily imagine the difficulty the wife's treachery created for Joseph's master. On one side stood the proved and unquestionable trustworthiness of his slave. On the other stood a wife who could make such a proposal. A woman like that must long have shown her evil character in many ways, even if not in this one, so her word was doubtful. Still, she was his wife. Whatever her bold, shameless and malicious fraud, we hear of no effort by Joseph to clear himself by exposing her wickedness. A simple denial of her charge would not stand against the natural anger of a husband unwilling to look closely into the terrible alternative.

The husband of this shameless woman clearly did not really believe his wife's foul lie. Perhaps he made a show of punishing Joseph only to keep up appearances. If he had 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 quite well... This is exactly why Pilate was so slow to agree to the crucifixion of "the Lord of glory." He knew the character of His accusers well. He did not believe Him guilty of death.

We may regard Potiphar's wife as a picture of the world and the attractions it holds out. She fails to attract the prosperous servant of God, and so she becomes his most bitter and unscrupulous enemy... How varied is the life of this future witness for God! First he was sold as a slave for carrying his father's love to his brothers. Now his master throws him into prison, because he had honestly guarded his master's property.

His steadfast refusal enraged the woman. She cunningly made up a story against him, her husband believed it, and it landed him in prison. But in Joseph's history we are going to see a striking example of a word from the Apostle Peter's First Letter. He wrote, "if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God" (1 Peter 2:20). He was brought low for a moment, only so that he might be lifted up in due time.

In both, Joseph suffered for love and for righteousness' sake. In both, Jehovah stood by His wronged servant, and caused His favour to rest on him even while he suffered... It was hard enough for a free man to be sold into slavery. It was harder still for a godly man to be condemned for a crime that the false accuser had invited him to commit in vain. But Jehovah was with Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him favour where it might least have been expected.

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

In all this Joseph is only a picture of One whose sufferings were far deeper, just as His glory is far greater. He too suffered under the false accusations of the wicked, for again He can say, "malicious witnesses rise up; they ask me of things that I do not know" (Psalm 35:11). He too was led to prison and to death.