God With Us

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For the past twenty years I have spent three days each year with a group of Baptist historians, most of whom are professors teaching in Baptist universities and seminaries. Our friend, Dr. Walter B. Shurden, first gathered this group in September 2002 so that as young scholars (which we were then) we could read and discuss
Baptist primary sources—he assigned us thousands of pages of reading, all writings of early Baptists—and made us do presentations and led us in discussions. It was like a three-day doctoral seminar on steroids.

A few weeks ago I was in Atlanta for this seminar—17 other Baptist historians attended, and our topic was Baptists and the Bible. We read mostly 19th-century Baptists, including John Broadus and Crawford Toy, two well-known Baptist scholars whose names are now foreign to most Baptists. John Broadus was the second president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Crawford Toy was an Old Testament professor, who had to resign his position in 1879 because of his more progressive interpretations of the Bible.

Two of my take-aways from our seminar this year:

First, Baptists have from the very beginning disagreed, argued, and split over their understanding of the Bible. The conflict about how to interpret the Bible in 2022 is nothing new.

Second, there have always been Baptists who share the view of John Broadus, who repeatedly stated: “let the Bible mean just what it means.”

“Let the Bible mean just what it means.”

It sounds like such a good phrase—this idea that we all should take the Bible at face value, not read between the lines or add our own perspectives. We should accept what is on the page and live with it.

Yet I imagine we all have had those times of discovery that this simple, literalistic, unnuanced, somewhat superficial approach to the Bible is just neither helpful nor good use of our intellect.

The Bible is filled with stories that are hard to understand; some are painful and frightening. The Bible has many difficult passages that are confusing. The biblical text is set within cultural contexts that we know little about.

So “letting the Bible mean just what it means” is neither sufficient nor does it open the opportunity for us to engage in the text in ways that are informative and transformative for us as believers.

When Pastor Matt shared with me the narrative lectionary text for today—the Genesis 39 passage—I sat with it for a very long time, because it is one of those texts that is hard. This is a story about abuse of power, about sexual assault. It is a story that includes entrapment, loss of freedom, and fear.

And in spite of Pastor Matt’s gracious offer for me to preach a more familiar or easier text, I stayed with this hard Genesis story.

As I have read multiple takes on this text, I have discovered a good many preachers interpret the passage as: “When confronted with a challenge, Joseph took the moral high ground. Be like Joseph.” And while there is truth to their interpretation and they offer a lesson that is one we often need to hear, I believe this passage is much more complex.

There is so much more to this story—if we know more about the context and if we are honest about what was transpiring. And going deeper offers us greater insight and a richer appreciation of the text.

So I invite you to take a journey with me as we look back and remember Joseph’s story and then closely at this text in Genesis—and ask some questions, and think together about this story in a new way.

We all know the story of Joseph: Joseph the dreamer, the favorite son of his father, the brother who wore the special coat. We also know of Joseph’s dysfunctional relationship with his brothers and that his brothers sold him into slavery, and poor Joseph ended up in Egypt, first as a servant, then as a prisoner, and eventually as an
advisor to Pharaoh. Joseph became a national hero, much respected, and his leadership helped save his own people during a horrific famine.

Joseph’s story ended well—eventually, he not only succeeded, he thrived in Egypt, but there were times of great challenge, he encountered what seemed like insurmountable obstacles, and several times his life was in danger, he could have been killed.

Chapter 39 is one of those times of peril for Joseph—false accusations of rape by the wife of a prominent leader against an enslaved foreigner could surely have led to his execution.

That brings us to our questions, the ones that we bring to this text.

• Who were the players in this story?
• What was going on in the background of this story?
• Why was this story included in the book of Genesis?
• What are we to do with this story?
• What does it teach us about life, about ourselves, about God?

The story has three players:

Joseph, a new arrival in Egypt who is on the auction block, available for purchase by the highest bidder, a Hebrew with no rights, no voice, no say in where he will go, what he will do, nor how he will stay alive.

Then there is Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, a man with power and wealth, a man who owns multiple enslaved people who do his bidding.

And finally, we have Potiphar’s wife. We know very little about her background, her origin story, her age, or her place in Potiphar’s family. Was she the only wife, or one of many? Was she much younger than Potiphar and used primarily for his pleasure or was she older and ruler of the affairs of the household? We know almost nothing about her or her life in Potiphar’s house.

Really the only character in this story that we know much about is Joseph. Joseph has had a complete change in status—from his prior role as the favored son in a family that had plenty, plenty opportunities, plenty resources, plenty influence . . . plenty. And now Joseph finds himself with nothing, totally dependent on the one who owns him, without say in what he does with his time or his body, without opportunity to change his status from enslaved to free.

We also discover that Joseph works hard in his new role of serving the household, and he succeeds in all that he does. Despite the odds, Joseph succeeds.

And Joseph learns. He learns his new place, his new role. He learns a new way of relating to those in power. And he thrives—despite the odds, he thrives. And he is promoted to overseer, given more responsibility, provided the freedom to make decisions. He has fiduciary responsibilities. He now has power and influence in
the household. And suddenly his life situation is good again.

And then . . . a new challenge unfolded. His increasing visibility as an overseer in Potiphar’s household resulted in unwanted attention from Potiphar’s wife, this woman we know little about.

What we do know is that her role in the household gave her more power and more influence than Joseph had. She had the authority to order him to do things. She had the right to issue commands, and the command she gave Joseph was that he must sleep with her.

Potiphar’s wife clearly believed that she had the right and the power to use Joseph in this way even though her words and her physical contact were clearly unwelcomed. She used her position of power to demand that he be sexually available to her.

In 2022, we recognize the power differential between Potiphar’s wife and Joseph. She had the authority to tell him what to do and to expect him to obey. She was in control of him. So we can name this for what it is—abuse of power. And her command, we know, is sexual harassment, sexual abuse.

The text mentions that Joseph was attractive, handsome. And many preachers emphasize Potiphar’s wife’s attraction to good-looking Joseph. But her demands were not about his appearance nor her attraction to him—it was about her power over him. So again, let’s name this for what it is—a person with power, using her position to demand sex, is a sexual predator.

Joseph resists. He knows all too well that compliance will not end well for him. He knows Potiphar will take drastic measures to punish him should Potiphar discover Joseph has slept with his wife, and Joseph, because he is young and strong, manages to escape her advances, he manages to avoid the entrapment.

But Joseph is truly stuck—he can’t give in to her, he can’t report her to Potiphar—for Joseph knows he surely would not be believed. Joseph is left with no recourse. He has no one to tell, no one to trust, no one to help him.

This story has all kinds of intersectional power dynamics as well. Joseph is Hebrew and enslaved, which brings dimensions of ethnicity and class into the situation. Unlike Egyptian Hagar, who was enslaved to Sarah earlier in Genesis, Joseph refuses, escapes, avoids being sexually used. His gender becomes a factor. He has the physical capacity to resist.

But then the day comes when his plans of avoidance and resistance are not enough, Potiphar’s wife once again demands sex and rips his clothing. He flees from her—half-naked, and she falsely accuses him of attempted rape. She tells the workmen and then she tells Potiphar that the HEBREW that HE has brought in is laughing at her, at them, and that the HEBREW assaulted her, and when she cried out, he ran away and left his
clothes behind.

And of course, Joseph ends up in prison. Even though he is the victim, he is punished. He is not heard, not believed.

This story is a familiar one—sexual harassment, sexual assault, misuse of power—are ever with us in 2022—at our workplaces, in our colleges and universities, and friends, in our churches.

A survey by Stop Street Harassment in 2018 showed that an alarming 81% of women and 43% of men have been sexually harassed in their lifetime. 38% of the female respondents noted that the harassment happened in their workplace, and most stated that they never reported the abuse.

In fact, 75% of sexual harassment cases in the workplace go unreported—mainly due to fear of retaliation. In most of these cases of workplace sexual abuse, the perpetrator is in a senior position or is a person with authority.

The other fact that is important is that sexual harassment and abuse have lasting effects on the harassed, affecting their routines, their health, and their mental state. 37% of harassed women claimed harassment negatively affected their career advancement.

The 2021 State of Women in Baptist Life Report was released by Baptist Women in Ministry this past June. It revealed that one in four Baptist clergywomen have experienced sexual harassment or have been sexually assaulted while serving in their ministry setting.

The report notes that 51% of respondents to a survey BWIM conducted said that sexual harassment and assault were discussed rarely or never in their congregations.

Also consider that sexual harassment is often experienced by immigrants, refugees, and undocumented workers in this country, those who are more vulnerable and have even less agency and less safety in reporting abuse.

Sexual harassment and assault are ever present in 2022. And Genesis 39 tells us that this hard reality is nothing new. Sexual abuse has happened since the beginning.

It is time, my friends, to think about our other questions:

• Why was this story included in the book of Genesis?
• What are we to do with this story?
• What does it teach us about life, about ourselves, about God?

While I can’t speak for the biblical writers or those who produced our canon of scripture, I do have an opinion about why this horrifying story was included and what we are to learn from it.

This story makes plain the hard truth that Joseph’s godliness did not protect him nor rescue him from false accusation and imprisonment. Bad things happened to Joseph—many of the situations in which he found himself were not of his own making. He encountered injustice and malevolence. He was assaulted, abused, imprisoned.

Bad things happen—bad things happen to everyone, including to those who follow God. And bad things happen to us.

Our godliness, our relationship with God, is no guarantee that we will escape unscathed. That’s the hard truth of our faith journey—the rain falls on the just and the unjust and floods and fire and disease and violence fall on the just and the unjust.

The other hard truth in this story is that doing the right thing, resisting evil, taking the high road sometimes will land us in deeper trouble—Joseph did what was right and went to prison.

This story is a realistic recognition that standing up to or calling out sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace and even in the church may have devastating consequences. So what are we to do?

In 2016, while I was serving as executive director of Baptist Women in Ministry, I led in the formation of a Clergy Sexual Abuse Task Force and partnered with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in addressing the hard issue of sexual abuse in the church.

I learned so much in that process—and here is what I know. As people of faith, as church members, we have to educate ourselves about harassment and abuse. We have to know what it is. We have to write strong prevention policies and enforce them relentlessly in our churches. Education and prevention are critical. Active intervention and open dialogue are critical. Sexual abuse happens among us—even in our “safe
churches.”

Our Task Force created resources for use by churches—and I encourage you as a congregation to make use of those resources and learn together what you can do to prevent and address harassment and abuse.

My friends, Genesis 39 is a hard passage, a difficult story, a painful text. And honestly, this is a hard, painful sermon—as one who often enters the pulpit as a guest, I don’t generally have to preach the hard passages, and honestly I haven’t found much joy in writing or delivering this sermon.

Yet as Baptists, the Bible is central to who we are and what we believe, and so we have to take the Bible seriously. We can’t skip over the hard passages. We can’t glibly say that “we let the Bible mean what the Bible means.” We have to read it carefully and take on the hard texts.

But this morning, I am left wondering what good is there in this passage? Is there any hope to be found? And there is, there is.

In verse 2 and then again in verse 3, we are told that “the Lord was with Joseph.” Verse 5 says that the Lord blessed Potiphar’s household because of Joseph, and verses 21 and 23 both say again, “the Lord was with Joseph.” FIVE times in 23 verses we are told that the Lord is present, the Lord cares about Joseph!

The good news today is that in the midst of his darkest days, in times of crisis, in moments of injustice, and in periods of fear and uncertainty, Joseph was never alone. The Lord was with him—through it all, the Lord was with him.

Henri Nouwen, in his book, Bread for the Journey, wrote: “The truly good news is that God is not a distant God, but a God who is moved by our pain and participates in the fullness of the human struggle.”

God is a nearby God, a God who is with US—God hears us, even our quiet sighs of despair, God feels our anxiety and our heartbreak, God know our tears and cries with us. We are not alone.

Joseph’s story reminds us that God is not distant but is near us, with us. We are not alone. Through it all GOD is WITH US.