PONTIPHAR’S WIFE – ONE OF THE NAMELESS WOMEN IN THE BIBLE

During the May month, every year, American continent, celebrates Mothers’ Day. It is the second most celebrated event next to Thanksgiving.  Healing Words join American to celebrate moms. Even though Mother’s Day is every day, it’s the one day out of the year when everyone takes care of MOM. Moms are amazing and splendid; they deserve more… Sometimes we wonder how one can ever truly thank your mom enough for that entire she’s done and continue to do. We also salute them for everything they do to make our lives better. They’re there for our first steps. They dry our tears. They put up with our nonsense. And there’s no denying that they give the best hugs. Mother’s Day is all about spoiling and making your mom feel special, and you may choose to give her something she’ll cherish forever. As part of our way of honoring moms in this edition, we reflect a biblical character: Pontiphar’s wife – one of the nameless women in the bible.

According to Lindsay Hardin Freeman in her book Bible Women: All Their Words and Why They Matter Potiphar’s wife is one of 42 nameless women in the Bible. Among them, Potiphar’s wife seems to stand out, however, as perhaps the evilest nameless woman in the Bible. Mesu Andrews In a fascinating novel on Potiphar’s wife  based on Genesis 39, depicts Potiphar’s wife as the daughter of a king and the wife of a prince. Betty Dunn on What Do We Know about Potiphar’s Wife writes, “As a young woman, Potiphar’s wife rules the isle of Crete, the largest Greek island, with her mother while her father was out at sea. Though the young woman’s royal father wanted his daughter to marry the Egyptian pharaoh, she was given in marriage to the captain of the pharaoh’s bodyguard, chief executioner Potiphar. No doubt a no-nonsense type of man, Potiphar is also twice his wife’s age. Andrews speculates that Potiphar would “rather have a new horse than a Minoan wife.” Minoa was an ancient culture of Greece (and in the novel, Potiphar’s wife’s original home, to which she longs to return).” Andrew’s novel, a work of fiction, depicts Potiphar’s wife as a neglected, lonely, and unhappy trophy wife. Even though married to the notable prince, she didn’t act like a godly wife, whose virtues are praised in Proverbs 31.

This nameless woman mention in Genesis chapter 39, was a wife of a prosperous and influential Egyptian but she was unfaithful and vindictive, ready to lie in order to protect herself and ruin an innocent man. Her husband had a good job as the “captain of the Palace Guard” and could afford to fetch a good slave. After Joseph’s brothers sold him to the Midianites, they took him down to Egypt. Potiphar bought Joseph as a household slave whose personality and services met a trustworthy slave to manage his household while he engaged his work outside the home. Potiphar was blessed because Joseph the Lord gave him success in everything he did. ”Pontiphar was comfortable with Joseph character and duties and soon made him head of his household and entrusted Joseph with everything.

• Unfortunately, Potiphar’s wife, according to the Quran, her name was Zuleika; also enamored with Joseph. Her name means something like “brilliant beauty or lovely.” Joseph, her master’s slave mate was also described as “handsome, well built  and good-looking,” His master’s wife admired, lust after him and one day she asks him to go to bed with her. Joseph refused vehemently and said it was wickedness and a betrayal of the trust his master had on him as well as sin against God. Joseph further justified his refusal and said “No one is greater in this house than I am. His master put everything in the house in his care except you because you are his wife. The master’s wife did not give up seducing him but continued with her advance’s day after day and Joseph still maintained his refusal stance. This suggested that Joseph had a high regard for and respect for his master. One day while he is alone with her mistress in the house, she caught him, holding his garment, insisting that he make love with her, but Joseph ran out, leaving her holding his garment in her hands. She then called household servants; lied and accused Joseph coming to rape her but she screamed out for help. Then Joseph fled; left her garment in her hands and ran out of the house. This was certainly the beginning of Joseph problems –the evidence was true but the story false.
• Exacting revenge for his rejection, she kept the garment beside her until her husband returned from work. She reported to her husband that the Hebrew slave he bought came to humiliate her by making improper advances toward her. As soon as she screamed, he left his garment in her hands and ran out of the house. What a bold-faced lie? Betty Dunn on What Do We Know about Potiphar’s Wife? writes, “Potiphar believes his high-pedigree wife and throws Joseph in prison. God’s plan for Joseph continues during Joseph’s prison stay. He oversees other prisoners and interprets their dreams and the prophetic dream of the king of Egypt. When Potiphar heard her story, he became enraged and angry.  Many scholars seem to believe the punishment should have been immediate death.  Potiphar took Joseph and puts him in a prison for officials. Some scholars suggested that perhaps Potiphar doubts his wife’s account. Had to react to safe his face.” Mary Jane Chaignot on Potiphar and His Wife, opines, “Even in prison, the Lord is with Joseph, and the prison’s commander soon puts him in charge. The incident with Potiphar’s wife sets up the rest of the Joseph story and leads to his encounter with Pharaoh. Altogether, Joseph spends 13 years in Egypt before he is elevated to second-in-command by Pharaoh. During some of that time, he is imprisoned, but the rest of it is spent in Potiphar’s house.
•  Potiphar ‘s wife was a hollow woman whose soul was steadily decaying through the corrosive power of lust and hate. Surrounded by luxury, she was spiritually impoverished. Empty of God, she was full of herself.  She was a liar, manipulator and seducer. Potiphar’s wife was disloyal to her husband and God. Potiphar’s wife stirred her husband’s jealousy and made him throw Joseph in prison unjustly. She did not have a heart for honoring God. Rather, she lived to please herself. Her motives were all about self-indulgence and temporary pleasure, and she had no moral boundaries in place.
• ALI SHAW on Lessons from Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife – Purity and Temptation reveals, “Although Potiphar’s wife was not a follower of God, we can use her sin as a warning.
• Stop observing before it turns into lust.
• Stop lust, and repent, before a desire to act upon it develops.
• Stop the action, and repent, before it leads to another sin. (In Potiphar’s wife, dishonesty.)

When sin attempts to lure us, like Joseph, we can reject it by:

• Saying we reject it.
• Not listening to or heeding it
• Rejecting it with our actions
• Removing ourselves from it entirely

It was Joseph’s heart for honoring God that kept him pure. When we have a pure heart and pure motives, pure actions follow. Here are a few verses for your edification:

• • Gal 5:19 – “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;”

• • Matt 5:28 – “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

• • Eph 4:17-19 – So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. ¹⁸ They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. ¹⁹ Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

• • 1 Pet 1:13-15 – ¹³ Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. ¹⁴ As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. ¹⁵ But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;

• • 1 Pet 4:1-3 – Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. ² As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. ³ For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do

• • Rom 6:12-14 – ¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ¹³ Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

• • Phil 2:15 – ¹⁵ so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”^[a] Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky

Potiphar’s wife showed complete disregard for personal restraint when she invited Joseph to sleep with her, again and again, day after day. (Gen 39:10)

Christian women today can also be confronted with temptations of impurity. Unholy movies, novels, internet activities, worldly expectations, and even unholy relationships are all around us.  Thankfully, learning from both Joseph and Potiphar’s wife can both warn and encourage us to live with a pure heart set on honoring God.

The lesson that we learn from Joseph is that purity requires distance. Sexual temptation is not something that you’re able to resist when it’s up close and personal because you are designed to give into sexual desire. That’s the way that God has made you, for the good of humanity.