BOM-BITES Episode #506 – Genesis 39:7–20 – powered by Happy Scribe
Hey, guys, what’s up? Derek here from Bombstocks with another day of Bombites where we feast upon the words of Christ, and as always, we do it one bite at a time. Today’s story is kind of a fun one, but it’s kind of a crazy one, and it’s a very relevant one, I think, to our days. You’re into chapter 39 nine. You got Joseph, who is made Overseer of Potiphar’s house.
He’s awesome. Everybody loves him, including Potiphar’s wife. Okay, so you get into chapter 39, verse seven came to pass. It after these things that his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph, and she said, lie with me. Here’s a situation that is close to him right now.
You got Potiphar’s wife saying, Joseph, come be with me here. So come follow me for this week. It gives kind of a cool little way to study this. It says, with the Lord’s help, I can flee temptation. So when you’re tempted, Joseph’s example can give you encouragement and strength.
As you read about his experience in Genesis 39, notice things Joseph did to resist temptation. For example, verse eight, it says, he refused and said unto his master’s wife, Behold my master, what is not or knoweth not what is with me in the house. And he has committed all that he has to my hand. So it’s like, boom, he refuses. Now.
I wish when Satan comes and tells us, he’s just like, oh, sorry, my bad. I didn’t know that you didn’t want to do that. We’re good. I’ll make sure I leave you. Yeah, he doesn’t do that.
Satan is going to keep tempting you and tempting you and tempting you until you are dead. He’s going to keep focusing on those things that he knows and that, you know can tempt you. You go to verse nine. Verse nine is a wonderful verse. Seminary, doctrinal mastery.
There is none greater in this house than I, meaning man. I’ve been given a great responsibility. Neither hath he kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife. How can I then do this great wickedness and sin against God? And I love how he doesn’t say, I would be in so much trouble with your husband if we did this.
How can I do this? Wickedness and not sin against your husband, but sin against God. So we recognize that sinning would offend God and others. So we recognize that right off and again. Here’s where Potiphar’s wife?
She doesn’t say, oh, I’m sorry, my bad. I didn’t realize that we’re good. No. Verse ten came to pass as she spoke to Joseph day by day, every day this happened, Betty harkened not unto her to lie by her or to be with her. And I think that’s an interesting thing because he doesn’t even entertain the thoughts he Enos where he could be tempted, and he stays away.
He doesn’t even listen to her. He doesn’t go by her or with her, he stays completely away from it. There’s a great example for us with that, because that temptation is just going to keep coming at us. I remember when I was young as a teenager, and many of you know this from your own life. You go back 30 years ago.
If you would have wanted to view something pornographic, you would have had to really seek it out. You would have had to go to some back alley bookstore in some CD part of town and find magazines. Nowadays, in 2022, it comes and finds us. It comes day by day. And so it’s an important thing to understand there where it’s going to keep coming at you.
The important thing is to stay away. If you need to put your phone away, you need to delete an app off your phone. Whatever you need to do, go for it. So it continues. Here.
It says he left his garment and he fled and got him out. This is where Joseph is in his house, and she comes along again. Lie with me, he runs, she tears part of his clothes, he runs away. And she then frames him and says, Joseph tried to be with me and he wasn’t supposed to and he tried to assault me. And so Joseph ends up in prison because of this, which we’ll talk about tomorrow.
However, with that said, with Joseph’s example in mind, consider making a plan for avoiding and resisting temptation. For example, you could think of a temptation you face, write down situations to avoid, and make a plan to rely on Heavenly Father when that temptation arises. I think that’s a phenomenal idea. In fact, it gives you a cross reference here of Second Nephi Four, verses 18 and then 27 to 33. Many of you know that is the Psalm of Nephi, which is one of the best chapters in all scripture in my opinion.
If you go to Second Nephi Four, verse 18, it says, I am encompassed about because of the temptations and sins which do so easily beset me. Here’s Nephi recognizing I have temptations coming all around me and it happens all the time and they are easily besetting me. Then it takes universe 27 and why should I yield to sin because of my flesh? Why should I give way to temptations that the evil ones have place in my heart to destroy my peace and afflict my soul? Why am I angry?
Because of my enemy or whatever it is? It’s tempting me and I love verse 28, Awake my soul no longer drooping sin, rejoice on my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul. That’s a great way to look at those verses as you look at other examples. When you are feeling tempted, look to examples from the Scriptures where people have done it. Right now, Joseph ends up in prison.
We’ll talk about how that’s a blessing to Joseph later on. But as I was reading through this, I remembered a quote I heard years ago from Spencer W. Kimball. He was the Prophet of my youth. And I remember President Kimball saying this and this being referred to often.
We hope we can help our young men and young women to realize even sooner than they do now that they need to make certain decisions only once. We can push some things away from us once and have done with them. We can make a single decision about certain things that we will incorporate in our lives and then make them ours without having to brood and redesign 100 times what it is we will do and what we will not do. My young brothers and sisters, if you have not done so yet, decide to decide. I have such a great quote because I think there are times where you can’t just wait for that temptation to come up.
We’ve got to have a plan. You’ve heard it said, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. So this is one of those times where you put a plan into action and you do it when that temptation is not there. I would imagine one of the reasons the Lord was with Joseph. I would love to know what things Joseph did in his life to be able to have the Lord with him.
Joseph read his scriptures. Joseph said his prayers. Joseph communed with God. He, as President Nelson has asked us to do, took time daily to find time to be with God. And when you do those things, it enables you to build up that strength.
And you make those decisions to the point where when those temptations come in, you spit in Satan’s face, you tell them it is none of his business. And you move forward in your life to the point where those temptations, even though they will keep coming. We’ve been told elder Neela Maxwell said this is the temptation is always going to knock on your door, but it’s your fault if you ask it to come in and have dinner. It gets to the point where when those temptations do come, as Neifai said, I’m not going to give place to the enemy of my soul. I’m going to push it away and I’m going to keep moving forward.
And so I love this message from Joseph about when temptations do come to you, you flee and you run. Now, again, like I said, this particular situation, Joseph ends up in jail because Potiphar’s wife lies about him. However, we see again, you come back to that little Ted talk thing that I brought up to you, the 90 ten principle. It’s 10% of what happens to you, 90% of how you deal with it. And we’re going to look tomorrow to see how Joseph deals with it.
And he does so well. Thanks for watching. Thanks for subscribing and thanks for sharing these messages. We love that. Go check out our amazing gospel theme socks@bombshax.com and you guys have an amazing day.
Godspeed see you tomorrow. Bye.
Guest Author
dyejo
