Persecuted, Not Abandoned: Genesis 39:1-23 - Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

My grandmother loved to tell me that I was her favorite grandson. She could do that because I was the only grandson she had. Elizabeth and I tell Rebecca that she's our favorite child, because she's the only one we have.

In Genesis, the patriarchs and matriarchs routinely favor one son over the others. Abraham and Sarah did it; Isaac and Rebekah did it; Jacob favored the sons of his favored wife, Rachel.

Jacob shamelessly spoiled Joseph, his eleventh and favored son. He dressed him in an ornamental robe (Genesis 37:3), and he didn’t make him work as hard as his other sons (Genesis 37:12-14). 

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Unsurprisingly, Joseph acted like a spoiled brat. He was boastful, rude, self-righteous, and entitled, and believed he was special, as evidenced by his dreams of ruling over his older brothers (Genesis 37:5-11).

He enrages his brothers so much that they conspire to kill him. But instead of incurring blood guilt, they sell him into slavery to Midianite traders for the paltry sum of twenty pieces of silver—roughly $660 in today’s money. Then, they go home and tell their father that his favorite son was mauled by a wild animal (Genesis 37:12-35).

dungeon by Albert Gößwein on flickr. CC BY-NC 2.0

Meanwhile, the traders sell him to an Egyptian named Potiphar, one of Pharoah’s a top officials and captain of the guard (Genesis 37:36).

Even though Joseph was a slave, God was with him. Joseph proved quite valuable to Potiphar—so much so that Potiphar made him in his top administrator.

Things were going quite well for Joseph until Potiphar’s wife began tempting him. Joseph refused to sin against God nor violate Potiphar’s trust. But she would not give up. This went on for a while, until she turns the tables on Joseph—accusing him of assaulting her. Potiphar trusts the word of his lying wife, even though Joseph never betrayed his trust. Potiphar throws Joseph in prison.

Once again, Joseph is a persecuted man.

I imagine, in those long, dark, and dangerous days, Joseph regretted his behavior towards his brothers. Joseph was wrong to act as he did. But he didn’t deserve this.

Today’s Scripture challenges us to consider our attitudes towards our persecutions and persecutors—because your attitudes will mean the difference between overcoming versus total defeat.

Joseph could have easily become consumed with rage, bitterness, self-pity, and hatred of his father, his brothers, Potiphar and his wife, and even himself. Furthermore, the injustice of his suffering gave him every reason to doubt the justice of God.

Jesus warns us that we will face persecutions for our identification with him. Much of that persecution will be a consequence of righteousness. It happens all the time that Christians lose jobs, money, relationships, friendships, and more by their refusal to lie, cheat, and steal. Christians have been subject to persecution for going to worship, praying in public, or even owning a bible.

Sometimes, religion has nothing to do with it. People persecute you because have something they want. People persecute you because they see you as a threat, even though you’re minding your own business and just trying to live your life. They persecute you because they think you’re persecuting them! I witnessed this the other day inside McDonald’s when a customer came in raising a ruckus because there were onions on his burger.

And sometimes, you wonder if God is the one who’s persecuting you, because you can’t imagine what awful thing you did that this hardship has befallen you. Could it be that God is denying you his deliverance because you don’t have enough faith or haven’t prayed hard enough?

Fear and anxiety are powerful persecutors, because they create persecutions they exist only in your mind. Yet you live as though they are real.

Time is a persecutor. Death is a persecutor.

But God is not in the persecution business. God is in the redemption business.

The persecutions of Joseph, the persecutions of God’s people in Egypt, the persecutions of the Church, and most especially, the persecutions of Jesus show us that God takes persecution personally.

God is with Joseph—and that’s how the bitterness and self-pity doesn’t get the best of him. That’s how he exercises his spiritual gifts and blesses those around them. That’s how he remains steadfast in righteousness in the face of temptation. All the while, God’s saving purposes are being fulfilled behind the scenes, until it becomes clear at the end that what the brothers meant for evil, God intended for good (Genesis 45:5).

You may very well face persecutions which have no end in sight, and the cross of Jesus shows you how bad they can get. But you have gifts Joseph did not: you have your Bible. You have your Church. You have the freedom to express the not only the faith that is in you, but the doubt that is in you, too. Most of all, you have the promise that all persecutions and persecutors will fail. If God can make salvation out of crucifixion, God can most certainly bring redemption out of your trials, too.

Your greatest act of defiance against your persecutors and your persecutions, whether they are people, illnesses, or the forces of nature, is to be still and know that Jesus is risen. God is near. The devil is not in charge. Death cannot win. Your salvation has nothing to do with luck or good fortune. God is near today. Salvation is happening now. You are already saved.