by Charles R.
Swindoll
Read Genesis 37:36; 39:1-6
The sovereign God of Israel was intimately involved in Joseph's
life. He guided him. He gave him facility in the Egyptian language. On top of
all that, he gave him favor in the eyes of Potiphar. Clearly, God was the secret
of Joseph's success. Luck had nothing to do with it.
Joseph didn't have to tell Potiphar that the Lord was with him;
Potiphar could see it for himself. "Now his master saw that the LORD was with him" (v. 3). Furthermore,
Joseph didn't use his spirituality as a manipulative tool to get benefits from
his boss. Simply because the Lord caused all that Joseph did to prosper, Joseph
found favor in his sight. Notice, it doesn't say that Joseph asked favors from
Potiphar; he found favor with Potiphar.
With greater success
comes greater measures of trust, which, by the way, lead to greater times of
unguarded vulnerability. Regarding the latter, F. B. Meyer writes
insightfully:
We may expect temptation in the days of prosperity and ease rather
than in those of privation and toil. Not on the glacier slopes of the Alps, but
in the sunny plains of the Campagna; not when the youth is climbing arduously
the steep ladder of fame, but when he has entered the golden portals; not where
men frown, but where they smile sweet exquisite smiles of flattery---it is
there, it is there, that the temptress lies in wait! Beware!
What a wise exhortation! This warning is not of concern to the
person who is down and out. Its message is addressed to the successful, to the
up-and-coming executive, to the man or woman on the way to the top of the heap,
to the individual who is experiencing the benefits and favor of God, who is
reaping the benefits of increased privacy and trust. Thomas Carlyle, the
Scottish essayist, was right when he said, "Adversity is sometimes hard upon a
man, but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will
stand adversity." The temptations that accompany prosperity are far greater (and
far more subtle) than those that accompany adversity.
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