Genesis Essay, Research Paper

Analysis Paper

Genesis 39: 1-23

In this passage, there are many spiritual factors in this chapter. God uses many phrases to translate into spiritual factors that were used back then and today also.

In verse two it says, The Lord was with Joseph. This saying is the main theme throughout the chapter. This saying goes all the way back to Isaac and Jacob. Now it is being used here with Joseph. God s word still has not changed. When God told Joseph this he had just been sold into slavery and he still had God with him. Psalms chapter 9 verse 10 says Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you. God is still with us and he will always be with us. In this verse God is trying to teach us that He is with the people who seek Him.

In verse nine Joseph tells Potiphar s wife, How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God. In this statement that Joseph made he is implying that it would be a sin against Potiphar, his wife, himself and that it would also be a sin against God if he slept with her. In this verse God is showing us that we should stay pure until we get married and that it is clearly wrong to commit adultery. It is obvious that Joseph knew how much God hates adultery and that he feared God enough to resist this temptation.

Once again in verse twenty-one God is still was with Joseph because he was faithful to God. God gives Joseph favor with the prison warden and causes him to show

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Joseph kindness. Even in prison God blessed all that Joseph did and Joseph was put in charge of the prisoners. This shows us that no matter how bad a situation may seem that God is always with those who love Him.

There are many practical factors that are found in this chapter. We can apply many of them to the way we live our lives today and compare them to the way they lived their lives many centuries ago.

In the first few verses of the chapter it tells about how Joseph was sold into slavery and then Potiphar bought him. Even though Joseph did not want to be a slave nor did he deserve to be one, he was forced into this position. After he was made a slave he worked very hard as one and he did all of his tasks to the best of his ability. This is the way we should be in our jobs today, no matter if we do not like it or if we do not like our boss. We should still work to the best of our ability.

Potiphar s wife tries to convince Joseph to sleep with her everyday. Joseph showed us that if our hearts are dedicated to God that we can resist temptations even if they occur on a daily bases. The way Joseph ran from her when they were the only two in the house should be an example of the way that we should flee from temptation.

God s plan is clearly one man and one women committed to each other for life in marriage. This is the way God always wanted it to be, for us to practice abstinence before marriage, but Potiphar s wife let her desires and her wants get in the way of her relationship with God. Joseph loved and respected God enough not to give into carnal desires. Most people in the twenty-first century do not practice this way of living and

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most of them do not honor and stay loyal to their wife or husband. People s lack of respect for God and His commands have led to many problems in society. Some of the results to this rebellion is broken homes, emotionally torn adults and their children, and sexually transmitted diseases.

Joseph s life is an example that bad circumstances are not always a result of our disobedience to God. We should not question God or His plan for our lives even when things do not go our way.