#11 "How can I do this great wickedness?"

Genesis 34; 37-39

Tape on board before class “The most important Human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life.” Charles Dickens

How many of you agree with this statement? How many of us LIVE by this statement? Don’t answer that until we talk about some other quotes I have here.
I have several other quotes and I want you to ask yourself if you feel this person/people live their lives parallel to Dickens quote or if you feel that what they say is definitely not in line with how they act?

“I don’t believe in sex before marriage. I go out with boys and we kiss, but that’s it.” Would you thing that by this quote that this person acts morally?
What if I told you that Britney Spears was the author of that quote, does that change things?

“It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities”
J.K. Rowling (author of Harry Potter) wrote that in one of her books.
Do you believe she lives that way?

“There is, in addition to a courage with which men die, a courage by which men must live.” Would you say this person lived a righteous moral life?
John F. Kennedy said that.

“When will I learn? The answer to life’s problems aren’t at the bottom of a bottle, they’re on TV!” What do you think this person’s life is like? It doesn’t surprise us to know that Homer Simpson from the Simpson’s said that does it?

“It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.” Mark Twain penned that one
Here is some from our reading assignment.

“My soul clave her, I love her, get me her to wife.” The guy who said these nice things, said them just after he kidnapped then rapped Dinah in part our reading assignment. (Shecham)(Gen. 34)

“Come…let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content” This guy sounds nice, like he’d be upstanding, yet this guy named Judah (Joseph’s brother) said this just after they decided to sell him to the gypsy’s instead of kill him. (Gen. 37)

*Nice words can be said by anyone, but it is the way they (we) act that defines their (our) character.
“Behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.” This sounds like a cocky statement, by one who is full of himself, however this person also said, “Here am I” (obedient to his father’s request) he was also described by others as, “one that the Lord was with, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand” and finally one of his greatest moments…when he says, “There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” He says this just before he takes off running from potipher’s wife who was tempting him. (Gen. 39)

What the brethren of the church want us to get out of this lesson is 2 things. 1-Learn how to make all experiences and circumstances work together for their good and 2-strengthen our commitment to obey the Lord’s standard of sexual morality.

I am motivated more from by good example than a poor one we are going to focus on Joseph’s experiences. If you want to know about the rapist and the adulterer you’ll have to do it on your own time!

So let’s go to Gen 37: 2 where we learn a little about Joseph, (what does this scripture tell us about Joseph?) He was 17 yrs. old at this time and he was a bit of a tattletale, always telling His father all the bad stuff his brothers did. We know that He was favored because the oldest son of Leah had given us the birthright and it fell to Joseph. 37:5-10 Joseph has 2 dreams, perhaps as a 17 year old he is either feeling a little cocky about his birthright and bragging or see it how I take it that he has a dream and it is perplexed about it and questions his family as to what it might mean. By their responses it sounds like they thought he was just being cocky about the birthright thing and didn’t like him for it.
The matter was dropped for now and they went to Shechem 65 miles away to feed the flocks. Jacob decides to send Joseph to be with them. I’m not sure about anyone else, but when I ask my teenagers to walk up the stairs and turn off the oven so the food won’t burn I get the meanest, dirtiest, looks and whininess the entire time they are going. Joseph’s response to walking 65 miles to check on his brothers was 27:13 “here I am” meaning sure I’ll go.
So he gets there and they aren’t there. We look at this and know the end of the story but we need to point out a couple of things. Normally a teenage boy would turn around come home and say, “sorry couldn’t find them” but this is where we see the Lord’s hand, we know that Joseph has to be in Egypt for his dream-prophecy to be fulfilled.(Gen. 50:18) So He (the Lord) sends a man to tell him that his brothers went another 15 miles further to Dothan. Well, Joseph being obedient went. Well we know the story, they throw him in a pit, but here is the scripture that makes me laugh. His brothers come up with a plan they think will mess up his life; 27:20 We will cast him into some pit, and we will say, some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams. I laugh because it is this course of action that puts the Lord’s whole plan in motion.
When things happen to us that are terrible do we rant and rave and question and fight what is happening? We should take a lesson here that even the bad things have a reason and a purpose in life, the Lord wouldn’t let a family squabble ruin His plan.
The brothers realize that there is a better plan, to sell him and profit off their brother’s loss. So he’s sold into Potipher’s house as a slave. Do we think this is coincidence?

Gen. 39:2 tells us that it wasn’t coincidence at all but that this is all part of the Lord’s plan.
*So here is a point where we can ask ourselves a question. How does Joseph know that this is the Lord’s plan? As a 17 year old boy taken from his family into a different country, could he really be seeing this whole thing as “the Lord’s plan” Isn’t the Lord’s plan supposed to involve families staying together?
So 39:3 tells us how Joseph knows that this is the Lord’s plan for his life, “the Lord was with him (spirit?) and the Lord made all that he did to prosper” Those 2 ways are indicators to Joseph that what he was doing was right.
Okay-but as with all of us, we all are tested to see if we will continue on with the Lord’s plan and continue to choose Him as our Master.
39:7-10 day by day Potipher’s wife came to him, day by day he refused, how many times of refusing it doesn’t say, but plenty I’m sure.
*How many times are we put in front of an immoral show, turn on immoral music, placed in positions at work where we are tested to see if we will choose righteousness time and time again; or if we will give in and justify that none of it matters.

We know she finally has been spurned enough and decides if he won’t do what she wants then she will have him fired, or better yet killed. In those days if a slave had really attempted to take advantage of his master’s wife he could be put to death. However the Lord’s work rolls forth. 1St off what does Potipher already know about Joseph’s character? Joseph had proven it over and over again. Potipher allows Joseph to be put in prison where once again it states in 39:21 “The Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy, (How did Joseph know the Lord was with him?) and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.” The Lord made it so things worked out for him, to be in this horrible place, true, but made it bearable.
*This reminds me of many times in my own life when I haven’t been in a great place and I wonder what I am doing wrong? It is always when I stop and ponder, pray, read scriptures to remind myself to look around and see and count my blessings, the ones I do have rather than the ones I don’t.

39:22 It didn’t take long for Joseph’s good, righteous character to shine through and with that kind of life and the Lord blessing him, he prospered, or rather everything he was involved in prospered, because the Lord made it to prosper-why? Because it was in the Lord’s plan all along.

Joseph was righteous, he was tested with temptations, he was tried by being taken from his family to a strange place, yet he never got down, he never complained, but just kept looking for the Lord’s hand in his life and kept making choices that kept him close enough to the spirit that when times were rough, he still was able to feel the Lord’s presence in his life.

We are faced with some of the same temptations that Joseph was faced with everyday. Do I support these immoral role models that Hollywood puts out? Do I listen to the music that comes from immoral characters? Do I take credit for a job I didn’t do to get my foot in the door or up the ladder?
Are we showing strength of character as we turn away, or run away from the immoral choices that may be placed before us? Are we allowing the Lord to guide our lives? Are we recognizing His hand even through the hard times? Do we trust that even the bad things that happen may be all part of the plan? I Bare testimony that all things that happen to us or for us are for our highest good; I testify that if we want to make sure that the Lord is guiding those things we need to stay in good moral standing so we can feel His presence, in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.