Genesis 39:1-6
Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there. The LORD was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD made all he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight, and served him. Then he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had he put under his authority. So it was, from the time that he had made him overseer of his house and all that he had, that the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the LORD was on all that he had in the house and in the field. Thus he left all that he had in Joseph’s hand, and he did not know what he had except for the bread which he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.

As I have counselled people over the years, one of the most common things people will say to explain their actions is some version of the statement, “I didn’t choose this!” The person in a bad marriage says, “I didn’t sign up for this! I didn’t ask him to cheat on me.” The unhappy parent says, “I didn’t want children, my spouse did! Now I’m stuck with it!” The unhappy employee says, “This is not what I dreamed I’d be doing at my age!” The angry teenager says, “I didn’t choose my parents, I’m stuck with them! I didn’t choose my school, my church – my parents forced that on me!”

All these are variations on the same theme: if someone makes a decision for me that I don’t like, then I don’t have to respond humbly or sweetly to it. I only have to be godly about the decisions I make, which are my fault. But any decision made by someone else which influences my life, I am allowed to respond with a bad attitude, complaining, murmuring or outright rebellion.

There is nothing supernatural about responding sweetly when things go your way. There is nothing unusual or gracious about responding to nice people with niceness, or to favourable situations with a cheerful attitude. Responding to what we find harsh, unfair, unkind, painful, unasked for, is the sign of someone else’s Spirit within us.

When we come to the life of Joseph, we find a man whose life circumstances were mostly decided for him by others. Other people made decisions for Joseph, decisions that, by any standard, brought suffering into his life. But how did Joseph respond to these decisions? How did he act in response to being betrayed, harmed, manipulated? Did Joseph murmur? Did Joseph adopt the victim mentality? Did Joseph become defensive and angry the rest of his life? Did Joseph become self-protective? Did Joseph become prickly and touchy about his life?

What we find in Joseph is an attitude and a way of life that the New Testament is going to call being filled with the Spirit. Joseph has all the marks of a man who chooses to live by faith, walking with God, bringing a God-consciousness into his situation, responding to life through a submission grid. As we study this portion in Genesis 39, we will see Joseph responding in godliness to the situation imposed upon him. And by that, we’ll see applications for all the situations in our lives we didn’t ask for.

Let’s remind ourselves of how Joseph finds himself where he does.

Genesis 37:23-28
So it came to pass, when Joseph had come to his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of many colors that was on him. Then they took him and cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty; there was no water in it. And they sat down to eat a meal. Then they lifted their eyes and looked, and there was a company of Ishmaelites, coming from Gilead with their camels, bearing spices, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry them down to Egypt. So Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh.” And his brothers listened. Then Midianite traders passed by; so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.

Genesis 37:36
Now the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.

Through the malice and greed of his brothers, Joseph has been illegally and deceptively sold into Egypt as a slave. His brothers originally wanted to murder him, but Reuben and later Judah end up pulling it back from murder to human trafficking. Against all his protests, he is put into irons according to Psalm 105:18 and marched across the desert, treated by the Ishmaelites the way you would treat a captured animal you intend to sell.

Once he’d arrived in Egypt, he would have been taken to a slave market, where the wealthy in Egypt would be shopping for the human equivalent of machines, labour-saving devices. Slaves in Egypt were either prisoners of war, or Egyptians who had sold themselves to pay off a debt, and in some cases, drafted slave labour. But no one is a slave because he wants to be. Everyone in that slave-market, including Joseph, is there against his will.

Genesis 39:1
Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there.

And Potiphar would have paid a little more than the brothers had paid the Ishmaelites, and Joseph almost certainly would have become a field slave, working outside from sun-up to sun-down. Perhaps in the kitchen, perhaps doing the worst and dirtiest of the household chores. Joseph did not begin as the manager of the household, you can be sure of that.

So now think about seventeen year-old Joseph on day one of working in the field with the other slaves, dressed only in wrapped strip clothing that covered slaves from the midriff down to the knees, working in the blazing heat, eating slave rations, sleeping in slave quarters.

Think for a moment all that has been decided for Joseph by his brothers.

• His place. Where he will live for the rest of his life has been forced upon him. He is not an exchange student, he is not a tourist, he didn’t marry a beautiful Egyptian woman and then go to live near her family, he is not just working abroad. He is a slave, and that means life imprisonment in his new master’s service.
• With this new place, means a new culture. Far from the comforts of home, hearing his own language spoken, he is now going to hear a new language, with new customs, new religion. Joseph is from day one the foreigner who can only speak a few broken phrases of Egyptian, and treated like a simpleton because of that. He cannot read their hieroglyphics and will have to learn like a child how to understand anything. He is going to eat foods totally foreign to him, with no hope of change.
• His work. What Joseph will do for the rest of his life has been forced upon him. No shepherding, or managing the finances of Jacob, none of the rights and privileges and responsibilities of the firstborn for him. That has all gone up in smoke. Joseph will from now on do the work that is given him, whether it is back-breaking physical labour, whether it is nauseating work with filth and dirt, or whether it is the soul-destroying work of tedious repetition of menial and mind-numbing tasks. Slaves don’t have a career path. Slaves don’t bank on a few years experience before they are head-hunted by a personnel agency.
• His relationships. Joseph’s social life has been chosen for him. His first companions will be fellow slaves – either prisoners of war, or people who had bonded themselves to pay off their debts. These people, with their pagan habits, and language and food are now the people he must speak to, learn from, work with, and if his master allows it, marry. Family is gone forever. Joseph knows that his brothers will lie and tell Jacob that they don’t know what happened to Joseph, or claim he was killed by an animal. Jacob will not come looking for him. These people will be his society for the rest of his life.

Let me ask you, what would your response have been to being forced, against your will, with no way to change it, into a place you didn’t choose, work you didn’t choose, and relationships you didn’t choose? None of these things you chose, and none of them you want. So how do you respond?

One response would be the response of burning bitterness. Every word, thought and deed tinged with resentment. Everyone in your life would get the glare that would say, “Only the whip keeps me doing this!” This is the response of seething anger, plotting revenge, and spending every moment digging in your heels as deep as they can go to show that you are forced labour, a stolen slave, that you did not consent to being here.

Another response would be the response of depressed despair. Everything you do would proclaim that you had lost hope, and nothing in your life was going your way. You would plod from task to task, your countenance in a permanent droop, a deep sigh following every command. Sluggishness would communicate that with your dreams crushed, you had no zeal to do anything that you had not planned.

And whether you took the route of anger or despair or some mixture of the two, those around you would hear your murmuring, your complaints, your moans about unfairness and injustice, and what you deserve, and what has come to you.

Genesis 39:2-4
The LORD was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD made all he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight, and served him.

Now let me ask you, do you think an angry or despairing man will be promoted by an owner or a manager? Do you think an angry or despairing man will be used greatly by God? Do you think an angry or despairing man is a Spirit-controlled man? What should we then conclude about Joseph’s responses to his situation?

You can see three things which characterise Spirit-filled Joseph: the presence of the Lord, the blessing of the Lord, and the promotion of man.

I. The Presence of the Lord

We read here that the LORD was with Joseph. Verse 3 tells us that Potiphar could see that the LORD was with Joseph. What does this phrase mean? On one level, it identifies Joseph as belonging to God, a true believer. Wherever God’s presence rests is a sign of His identification with that people or place, and God identified with Joseph. He was a saved man, regenerate, a recipient of the saving grace of God, the power of the Cross of Christ working backwards for all peoples of all times.

But on a second level, it means more than Joseph’s status as a believer. It refers to Joseph’s walk with the Lord. Joseph’s life welcomed the presence of the LORD. Joseph lived in such a way that he became what he was, he lived out in practice what he was in position. God chose Joseph first. But then God having chosen Joseph, Joseph chose the LORD, again and again, setting the Lord before Him, loving God above all else.

We would call Joseph a Spirit-filled man, even though the Holy Spirit had not yet come to indwell believers permanently as He does today. But He could come and enable and strengthen and fill, for the same reasons He does today. When you choose to submit to the Lordship of Christ, choosing to love Him and His will more than your own, the Holy Spirit will fill you. And as someone has said, being Spirit-filled is not you getting more of the Spirit, it is the Spirit getting more of you.

Now what’s significant in verse 3 is that being Spirit-filled is noticeable to others, even those who are not believers. It’s noticeable because when you are being controlled by the Holy Spirit, you respond completely differently to the way the world responds. Can you imagine how Joseph’s fellow-slaves acted? What do you think the morale was like among the slaves in the field, the slaves in the kitchen, the slaves cleaning the human waste, the slaves cleaning up after the animals?

Think about someone else that Joseph foreshadows here.

Philippians 2:5-8
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Jesus found Himself as a slave, doing His Father’s will, in a place and among a people that were nothing like the glories of Heaven. But what was Christ’s attitude to His place of service among us?

1 Peter 2:23
Who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously;

Being Spirit-filled gives you a different attitude, and different treatment of others. Look at Ephesians 5.

Ephesians 5:18-21
And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.

Now Paul goes on to show how Spirit-filled wives treat their husbands, how Spirit-filled husbands treat their wives, how Spirit-filled children treat their parents, how Spirit-filled fathers treat their children. And then in 6:5, he describes how slaves, like Joseph are supposed to treat their masters.

Ephesians 6:5-9
Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ; not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free. And you, masters, do the same things to them, giving up threatening, knowing that your own Master also is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.

This is probably an exact description of Joseph in Potiphar’s house. Work with a deep reverence for God, with sincerity, with Him as the object and recipient of your work, working from the heart to God.

Consider some other Scriptures which describe real, New Testament, Spirit-filled Christianity.

1 Timothy 6:1-2
Let as many bondservants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and His doctrine may not be blasphemed. And those who have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather serve them because those who are benefited are believers and beloved. Teach and exhort these things.

Titus 2:9-10
Exhort bondservants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.

1 Peter 2:18
Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh.

How do you do any of those things? You make Christ’s will your will. You make His glory your joy. You yield yourself to Him.

Have you ever heard these kinds of statements: “I don’t have to do this stinking job, I didn’t ask for it!” “I don’t have to have a good attitude when my boss is such a cruel, heartless tramp of a human being!” “When my pay is so low, do you really expect me to do my best?” “I would work hard, if there was some incentive!” “For me, I just do what I have to do, but Friday can’t come soon enough!” “It’s okay for me to take a bit of the office’s stationery – they make it all back in how little they pay me!” “If they don’t respect me enough to give me what I’m worth, why should I respect them?”

That is not what the New Testament says. It says, be like Christ. Submit from the heart, with respect. Show respect not only to the good, but to the mean and unkind. Be loyal and honest, when no one is looking. Do your best, as unto your ultimate manager in heaven. Do your work as a ministry, with all your heart, laying up eternal rewards. Leave off all murmuring, complaining, gossiping, manipulating, scheming.

Do the will of Christ. Seek to please Him above yourself. Seek to do His will, and be His ambassador at work. So too at home. So too, in church. Whatever has been decided for you by others, you can still choose the Christlike response today. You can choose to be filled with the Spirit.

I want you to see what God did with Joseph’s choices to submit Himself to God sweetly, and be faithful.

II. The Blessing of the Lord

Genesis 39:2-4
The LORD was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD made all he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight, and served him.

The word for successful is the idea that Joseph saw good results in all his work. Now, on the purely human level, people with Spirit-filled attitudes don’t need a supernatural miracle to bless their work. Whatever task Joseph was given, he did it well. He did it properly, thoroughly, diligently, zealously. He did it faithfully. People like this achieve a lot, and people see it. Managers and owners see the people who do their work with this kind of attitude.

But in addition to this, we read in verse 3, everything Joseph’s hands touched, God blessed with success. Joseph was not guaranteed this by God, but as Joseph lived as a submissive, godly, faithful servant, God allowed him success. God blessed Joseph’s responses of submissiveness with this reward of prosperity and success. Whether it was success in completing tasks swiftly, or persuading others, or seeing a project through to its end, it amounted to good results. Potiphar could see it. Potiphar not only saw the diligence, honesty, industriousness, faithfulness, cheerfulness, he saw something else was present, blessing what Joseph did.

God may not always favour you with great profits, or an extra sale, or seeing major results at work or at home. But when someone is living so counter-culture, so obviously in submission to Christ, God is often pleased to bless your submission, and make it clear to you and to others that generally speaking, Psalm 1:3 is true in the life of a Christian:

Psalm 1:3
He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.

God may not always grant you material success, but the more Spirit-filled you are, the more God will use you – that is for certain. The more you yield to Christ in every area, the more God will do through you in the lives of your family, and co-workers, and neighbours.

So when you see this kind of diligence combined with the added blessing of God, if you are a wise manager, you get that man out of doing menial labour and you put him where his unusually good attitude, and unusually successful actions will do you most good – in places of more responsibility.

III. The Promotion of Man

Then he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had he put under his authority. So it was, from the time that he had made him overseer of his house and all that he had, that the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the LORD was on all that he had in the house and in the field. Thus he left all that he had in Joseph’s hand, and he did not know what he had except for the bread which he ate.

You cannot keep a truly Spirit-filled man down. Potiphar promotes Joseph to being the overseer of all, and once again the same attitude and blessing of the Lord comes upon all Potiphar has. There is only one thing which Joseph does not have authority over, and that is Potiphar’s diet. The Egyptians did not eat with Hebrews, and probably Joseph wanted no part in food that had some pagan connotation.

But the point is that Spirit-controlled people are useful to God, and it is likely that God will allow man to promote them. We think of men such as Daniel in the courts of Nebuchadnezzar, or Nehemiah in the court of Artaxerxes. Spirit-controlled people are often promoted.

Proverbs 22:29
Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before kings; He will not stand before unknown men.

Now I am not saying that being Spirit-filled always brings promotion.

Psalm 75:6-7
For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.

But what is clear is that when someone is Spirit-controlled, he is a mighty tool in God’s unfolding purposes. As Joseph spends these years in Potiphar’s house, he is learning the Egyptian culture, the Egyptian language, and even learning from Potiphar the kind of Egyptian high culture that he will need when one day he stands before Pharaoh. There is no accident here, no coincidence. The choices that were chosen for Joseph were permitted by God. Joseph made his own choices, which were the right ones and God blessed them. But God is busy preparing this man to be the leader who will save Israel from destruction, bring them to Egypt and allow them to grow into a mighty nation.

You see, no one ruins your life. No one ruins your day. Whatever has been chosen for you by others, your family, your place, your work, your health, is ultimately God’s will for you right now. But what you can choose is to ruin your experience of God’s favour by an ungodly attitude. You can grieve the Holy Spirit, instead of yielding to the Holy Spirit by choosing anger, resentment, self-assertion, murmuring, bitterness, dishonesty, laziness, rebellion. But that’s what actually ‘ruins your day’. And add enough of those responses up, and that’s what actually ‘ruins your life.’

You always have the final choice on what others have chosen for you. And when you yield your choice to respond in a way that pleases Christ, you are allowing the Spirit to work through you.

Two choices – we read in Galatians this morning. Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16)

You can respond in yourself. Or you can respond in the Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. And then, whatever your situation, it will be said of you, “The LORD was with him. The LORD was with her.”