Joseph's Story - Unwanted Advances

 After some time his master's wife looked longingly at Joseph and said, "Sleep with me." (Genesis 39:7)

Usually when someone feels unwanted attention, it is a woman feeling the creepiness or the undesired advances of some guy who won't see that he is barking up the wrong tree.  But occasionally a woman chases after some guy who doesn't want to be pursued.  In most of these cases when a woman pursues a man, power is not an issue, so the guy is not threatened.  But in the case of Joseph son of Jacob, things were unusual.

A very powerful woman made it no secret that she wanted to have sex with him.  The woman was the wife of a very high ranking officer under Pharaoh named "Potiphar;" and saying "no" to her meant a loss of a good job and life in prison because she held all the cards.  To be clear he was a forced servant, but his job as a servant was as good as it got.

This scenario is played out in today's world (especially with women) when bosses or someone with clout insists on having sex with one who is trying to advance a career or simply keep a job.  Sexual favors are tools the more powerful one uses to reward the less powerful.

While his brother Judah was chasing prostitutes in another world, Joseph was trying to avoid being near the woman who had taken a liking to him.  But as in many such cases, there was no way to escape.  Every day she threw herself on Joseph and told him to sleep with her; and every day, Joseph tried to stay away from her.  But at last Potiphar's wife grabbed hold of Joseph by his coat and Joseph left his coat with her.

No one likes being turned down, and Potiphar's wife did not take rejection well.  She told her husband that Joseph tried to rape her and Joseph was put in prison.  Eventually even though he was in prison Joseph was able to secure a high position of governmental leadership.

LESSONS

Nobody should have to take unwanted advances from someone else who holds the power strings.  Even though you may lose a good job or advancement, rejecting the pursuer is the right thing to do.  Notice that Joseph faced jail time because he rejected Potiphar's wife.  Things got worse before they got better.  Your situation may get worse, but it is worth it in the end to take the step in doing the right thing.

Secondly, Joseph did the only right thing to do not only in unwanted advances, but in the case of affairs that are attractive - get out as soon as you can.  Run! Don't try to work it out with your feelings.  Don't try to explain it to the other person.  Don't sit around and expect that it goes away on its own.  Just run.  It may not seem like running is the right thing to do, and you may have emotional and rational objections to running away from the temptations and steps toward an affair, but if you find yourself moving at all in that direction, your best shot is to let the relationship go and walk away from it.  Don't convince yourself that you have what it takes to hold yourself back from a fall.  Get out of there.

Joseph fled. That part of us that is foolish thinks we can handle the journey but we get ourselves tangled up and finally trapped.

1 Corinthians 6:18 says, "Flee fornication." It is simple and to the point ("Fornication" as the Bible uses the word is a general term for any type of sexual behavior outside of marriage).