CAST HER EYES UPON JOSEPH – Genesis 39:7
Genesis 39:7 And it came to pass after these things, that his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me.
Joseph was a slave in Egypt. Because Potiphar saw that God was with Joseph, he gave Joseph great responsibility. However, Potiphar was not the only person who noticed Joseph, Potiphar’s wife also saw Joseph and she allowed the desires of her heart to grow to the point that she was willing to commit adultery with Joseph.
Jesus taught us that sin starts in the heart. In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ showed us that if a man lusts after a woman in his heart, he has already committed adultery with her. While Joseph and Potiphar’s wife never had sexual intercourse, Potiphar’s wife had already committed adultery with Joseph in her mind. Potiphar’s wife saw something she desired and she allowed her personal desires to control her actions.
The sin of Potiphar’s wife was the result of her being unable to control her eyes and her heart. When she first saw Joseph and started desiring him, Potiphar’s wife needed to exercise temperance in her life to restrain herself from desiring that which was not proper. By exercising self-control, she put herself in a position where she was willing to yield to the temptation of committing adultery.
When you sin and fall short of the glory of God, most of the time, you allowed yourself to be put into a position where you would yield to the temptation. By failing to properly guard your mind, you allowed your mind to dwell upon that which is not right. The longer you dwelt upon the sin, the more ways you find to justify the act itself.
You must learn to take control over your mind. Rather than allow your mind to be filled with things that are not pleasing to God, you must fill your mind with scripture. Rather than meditating upon the lusts of your flesh, you should be meditating upon the words of God and HIS will for your life.
Just because you avoid committing the act of adultery, it does not mean that you are free from committing the sin of adultery. Not only must you exercise self-control over your actions to avoid putting yourself into the position where you will yield to committing an act that is displeasing to God, you must also exercise self-control over your mind so that you do not allow your heart to long to commit an act that you know is a sin.
Most people easily understand how the act of adultery is sin. However, they have a hard time understanding the teachings of Jesus that lusting in your heart is also the same as committing adultery. In order to understand the teaching of Jesus, one should think about an orange. Looking up into the tree, the orange may look ripe and tasty. However, if a worm got inside the orange, when you picked the orange off the tree, it would be soft and mushy, not fit for consumption. The same is true with our lives; the sin of lust in our heart destroys us inside-out destroying our testimony for God.
Potiphar’s wife may never have committed the act of adultery with Joseph but her heart had already yielded to the sin and if Joseph had not remained strong, they both would have been guilty of adultery. Do not be deceived; do not allow your eyes and heart to dwell upon that which is not proper. We serve an all knowing God and HE sees both your actions and your heart.