Today's promise: No temptation is too
great
How Do You Avoid
Temptation?
She came and grabbed him
by his shirt, demanding, "Sleep with me!" Joseph tore himself away.
Genesis 39:12 NLT
A man who fled from temptation
Like cream, Joseph rose
to the top. Each time he tackled temptation, he thrived. He was the
next-to-last son of Jacob, but the first son of Jacob's favorite wife, Rachel.
He had two significant dreams. We don't know how he told his brothers about the
dreams, in which they bowed down to him, but they hated him for the content.
His brothers tried to
kill him, but sold him into slavery in Egypt. At age 17, Joseph was carried
hundreds of miles away to Egypt, where he became a slave. Most people in his
situation would have become bitter. Not Joseph. He was a worthy worker. And he
rose to the top.
He was "handsome
and well-built" (Gen. 39:6), 300 miles from home, and single. That was a
set-up for someone like Potiphar's wife. She kept after Joseph "day after
day" (Gen. 39:10), but he kept saying no. When she tried one last time
(Gen. 39:12), grabbing him by the shirt, Joseph ran off minus his shirt.
The reward for his good
conduct was jail. Even there, Joseph rose to the top. After interpreting a
dream, Pharaoh made Joseph vice-president of the country. When, twenty years
later, Joseph's brothers came to Egypt to buy food, they didn't recognize their
brother. He resisted the temptation to pay them back for what they had done.
But Joseph showed them forgiveness.
Joseph was sold from his
father's house, seduced in Potiphar's house, and suffered in a prison house —
yet he remained faithful to God. He triumphed over temptation.
adapted from Men of Integrity Devotional Bible with
devotionals by the editors of Men of Integrity magazine (Christianity
Today, Intl), Tyndale House Publishers (2002), p 53
Content is derived
from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale
Publishing House
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