Doing the right thing in God’s sight does not always result in the right result in the sight of others....

This week, we are looking at part of the story of a man named Joseph that is recorded for us in the very first letter in the Bible, called the book of Genesis. Wednesday, we looked on as Moses revealed that Joseph’s bosses wife wanted to undress Joseph and acted on her desire by propositioning Joseph. However, Joseph responded to Potiphar’s wife’s offer to have sex by rejecting the offer. Potiphar’s wife was persistent and as Joseph went into his house to do his work as usual, there were no other servants in the house. Potiphar’s wife, taking advantage of this unusual situation, grabs Joseph by his clothes and aggressively takes the initiative: Joseph let’s have sex.

And once again Joseph was even more persistent when it came to his rejection of her offer. Joseph fled from Potiphar’s wife as she snatched some of his clothes off his back. Rejected and spurned once again, the frustrated wife of Potiphar releases her anger by falsely accusing Joseph of attempting to rape her. And as evidence, she points to the very piece of clothing that she had snatched from Joseph’s body.  Potiphar’s wife then shifted the blame onto her husband by accusing him of sexual harassment and an unsafe home environment in front of the rest of the slaves. Then she waits until Potiphar returns home. Moses records for us what happened next in verse 17:

Then she spoke to him with these words, "The Hebrew slave, whom you brought to us, came in to me to make sport of me; and as I raised my voice and screamed, he left his garment beside me and fled outside." Now when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spoke to him, saying, "This is what your slave did to me," his anger burned. So Joseph's master took him and put him into the jail, the place where the king's prisoners were confined; and he was there in the jail.

Upon returning from work, Potiphar got an earful from his wife: “The foreign slave who you brought into our home to harass me attempted to rape me, but I screamed and scared him off. Look for yourself; here are some of his clothes that he left behind as evidence”. Moses tells us that as Potiphar heard his wife’s accusations against him and his personal assistant Joseph, his anger burned. Now this phrase, in the language that this letter was originally written in literally means to kindle and become hot.

You see, Potiphar was fired up in anger; he was hot in rage at his personal assistant. Potiphar responded to his wife’s accusation by arresting Joseph and placing him in the maximum security prison, where those who rebelled against or displeased Pharaoh were confined. Now this morning, here is a question to consider: Why didn’t Potiphar just have Joseph executed? After all, in the culture of the day, execution was the normal sentence for such a crime. I mean, if he was so fired up in anger, why even keep Joseph alive?

While Moses does not give us the answer, I believe that instead of having his slave executed, Potiphar had him imprisoned, which would give him time to fully investigate the alleged crime. You see, I don’t think that Potiphar was fully convinced that Joseph had attempted to have sex with his wife. After all, Potiphar had seen the evidence of the Lord’s presence and activity in Joseph’s life. Potipahr had seen Joseph live his life in a way the revealed and reflected God to him. And the Lord was blessing Potiphar as Potiphar promoted Joseph. I mean this seemed so unlike Joseph.

Now imagine yourself as Joseph. Place yourself in his shoes. You know that the Lord has been present and active in your life. You know that the Lord has used you in Potiphar’s life. And you know that you repeatedly did the right thing, even though it was not the easy thing to do. And now you find yourself in jail, falsely accused, even though you did the right thing and trusted God. What would you be thinking? How would you be feeling? What questions would you be asking?

Now, I don’t know about you, but I would be tempted to ask, “God where are you and why did you allow this to happen?” And maybe you are here this morning and those are questions that you are asking. Maybe you have been doing the right thing, but you are not experiencing the right result of doing the right thing in your life. And you are wondering “God where are you and why did you allow this to happen? I am trusting you and following you; I am doing the right thing. Why am I not experiencing the right results, especially when it comes to how others are treating me”? We find the answers to these questions in Joseph’s life in verse 21:

But the LORD was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer. The chief jailer committed to Joseph's charge all the prisoners who were in the jail; so that whatever was done there, he was responsible for it. The chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph's charge because the LORD was with him; and whatever he did, the LORD made to prosper.

Moses tells us that while Joseph once again found himself enslaved, this time in jail, isolated separated from the relationships that he had developed, he was not alone, because the Lord was with him. And the Lord was not just present; in addition the Lord extended kindness to him. Now the word kindness, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means faithful devotion.

And in the Lord’s faithful devotion to Joseph, the Lord granted Joseph grace in the presence of the prison warden. Once again, Joseph found approval in the eyes of another that was in a position of power. And that favor and approval from the prison warden resulted in a promotion for Joseph. Even though Joseph was confined after being accused of a most serious crime, Joseph was promoted to the position of chief trustee. Joseph became the warden’s right hand man and was placed in charge of all of the prisoners. And just as it was when Joseph was Potipher’s right hand man, the prison warden did not concern himself with anything under Joseph’s control.

You see, as the prison warden looked at Joseph the prisoner’s life, he saw the evidence of the Lord’s activity in Joseph’s life. You see, the Lord’s activity in Joseph’s life resulted in Joseph achieving success in whatever he was involved in. And as the prison warden watched the success that Joseph was having, he recognized that it was the Lord that was responsible for Joseph’s success. Once again, Joseph was the vehicle that God was using to reveal himself to the warden, even when doing the right thing did not result in the right result for Joseph.

And it is here, in this seemingly tragic turn of events in Joseph’s life, that we see God reveal to us a timeless truth. And that timeless truth is this: Doing the right thing in God’s sight does not always result in the right result in the sight of others. Just as doing the right thing in God’s sight by resisting the advances of Potiphar’s wife did not result in the right result for Joseph in the sight of others, doing the right thing in God’s sight does not always result in the right result in the sight of others.

However, just as it was for Joseph, while doing the right thing in God’s sight does not always result in the right result in the sight of others, it does result in a life where the Lord is present and that the Lord can use to reveal His Son Jesus to others. You see, just because God is silent, that does not mean that God is absent. Just as a teacher is silent, but present, while their students go through a test, the Lord is fully present when His followers go through a test. And when we respond to the tests that we experience here on earth by doing what is right in God’s sight, even though we may not always experience a right result in the sight of others, the others will have seen Jesus in us. Because, as we have seen this morning, doing the right thing in God’s sight does not always result in the right result in the sight of others

So here is the question to consider: How are you responding to the tests that you face here on earth? Are you responding to those tests by doing the right thing in God’s sight, even though doing the right thing in God’s sight does not always result in the right result in the sight of others? Or are you responding to those tests by focusing on receiving the right result in the sight of others at the expense of doing what is right in God’s sight?