Genesis 39:2 Commentary and Bible Study

Joseph is brought down to Egypt as a slave, despite what he is destined to become later, and yet he prospers and becomes the key servant to his master, Potiphar. ‘And the Lord was with Joseph.’ He knew the Lord. He submitted his case to him. He set out to honour him above everything else. ‘If I'm going to be in a filthy prison or if I'm going to be serving in a household,’ he said to himself, ‘I'm going to do it to the glory of God.’ The Lord was with Joseph and he was ‘a prosperous man’. That word seems quite out of place. How can he be a prosperous man? He's a slave. He possesses nothing. The translators are trying to translate a Hebrew term which means something like, he was a pushing man, a pressing man. Probably the is that he put his utmost into everything, no matter how you might have expected him to react. He was always pressing forward, always doing his best. Prosperous is not bad in the old-fashioned sense of the word. He didn't get dragged back by self-pity, and that is our problem so often: to be so weighed down by our problems. His bearing was such that he becomes a favourite. Probably, Potiphar has many slaves, but this inferior one suddenly rises to prominence. His diligence, and trustworthiness, and the Lord’s blessing all he does, earns him the favour of his master. He was still a slave, serving in his master’s house, but he evidently served with good will and respect for his master, and he is rewarded with status in the house. ‘His master saw that the LORD was with him.’ Potiphar knew that the Lord was Joseph’s God, and it is obvious that Joseph was open about his faith and did not hide it from anyone. Potiphar took this seriously enough to conclude that the Lord was blessing Joseph, and blessing him in a most unusual way. ‘The growth of my house and land and holdings and prosperity and the satisfaction of everybody in it, this wouldn't be except for Joseph.’ To have a Joseph in your midst, even to an Egyptian, could lead him only to one conclusion. And the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in the house and in the field. God was with Joseph, and his honesty earned him the trust of his master. He served, not with eye-service, but whether or not he was in his master’s sight he sought his master’s good. These qualities are so rare that when Christian character is discovered, it often earns respect even from the unconverted. Joseph found favour with his master and his master greatly valued his service and knew he could trust Joseph to work for his interests. Integrity, honesty, hard work, and reliability were rare virtues in Egypt, and Joseph was very different to most slaves. He could relieve his master of much of the burden of running the affairs of his house. When a man shows himself to be trustworthy in lesser matters, he shows that he can be trusted in greater matters also. Honesty earns more trust, and Potiphar never saw Joseph to do anything to make him question this, and so he put all his affairs in Joseph’s hands. Joseph evidently also had the ability to manage other staff in the household, and was therefore given the position of overseer over the entire house. That would have relieved Potiphar of a great deal of trouble and effort, but he had complete peace of mind about handing over the running of the house to this Hebrew slave, and his household saw much blessing. Not only so, but it was obvious to Potiphar that this blessing was due, not just to Joseph skills and integrity, but to the Lord, his God. The blessing was coming from God, and though Potiphar did not worship the Lord, he could appreciate that God was blessing his house for Joseph’s sake. The timing of the improvement in his household affairs was very clearly linked to the time Joseph had been made overseer. Joseph ran the entire estate, including the use of Potiphar’s agricultural land. So great was his trust in Joseph, that he stopped even keeping a check on what he was doing, because he was so sure that Joseph would never cheat him of anything. Everything was left to Joseph, and all that Potiphar concerned himself with was his own daily provision of food. The last thing the passage tells us is that Joseph was very good looking, and this prepares for what comes next. He is only one of three men in the Old Testament who is described in these terms.