Tehillah Generation Chapel
Daily Manna | Thursday, September 20, 2018 | Topic: Conscience 129
Scripture: And when they saw Joseph afar off, even before he came near to them, they conspired against him to slay him. Genesis 37:18
Note: Many reasons have been advanced by people in their attempt to rationalise the unrelenting sexual advances of Potiphar’s wife towards Joseph, as she unleashed a full assault of lust arsenals on the young man. One of the historical reasons that seems more likely to have been the reason was due to wife abandonment by Potiphar. The wife of Potiphar, by name Zuleika, according to the historical records, was reckoned to have been married to Potiphar during her mid-teens. Thus, she was relatively very young when she got married to Potiphar, who happened to be the 3rd highest officer in Egypt and a General. Potiphar was well advanced in age when he married Zuleika, whose name wasn’t mentioned in the Biblical records.
Ancient Egypt didn’t encourage slavery. Joseph’s entry into Potiphar’s household was therefore a combination of the parochial interests of powerful people in society. Joseph was exceptionally handsome (Gen 39:6) and this made him a prime target for both Potiphar and his wife. Potiphar was unfortunately, bisexual. During his old age, his attention had been drawn either towards the eunuchs in his household or to the lady attendant to Zuleika, who was her personal servant. This attendant happened to be much younger than Zuleika. Potiphar’s wife felt frustrated within the marriage.
The presence of Joseph in the household, whose handsome appearance was corroborated by the girlfriends of Potiphar’s wife as being as handsome as an angel, during a party in her house, must have come as an encouragement to Zuleika that she was very fortunate to have Joseph all to herself. This emboldened her in her resolve to get laid by him. Due to Potiphar’s obnoxious double standards as regards His sexual preferences, the eunuchs weren’t enough sexual gratification for him. Joseph became an additional target as well. Thus, Joseph was caught between two power brokers in the same household looking for a piece of his flesh to savour.
Potiphar’s failed attempt at sodomising Joseph, when the God of the Hebrews rebuked him and rendered him impotent during the process to sexually assault Joseph, brought Potiphar’s attention to the power of the only true God on the earth. He was left in no doubt that God was with Joseph. Thus, this paralysis of Potiphar’s sexual capability further aggravated his wife’s situation, putting her in an awkward position where she was starved of sexual gratification. However, Zuleika might have seen Joseph as a source of comfort in getting her natural needs met and in the process pay Potiphar back in his own coin for abandoning her for many years in their marriage during the good old days. The trumped up attempted rape charge against Joseph was a severe payback to Joseph for a crushed dream and for getting her slighted during her moments of need.
Food for thought: When the covenant relationship between married couples is broken with impunity, grave consequences would be the result.
Declaration: Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find? Proverbs 20:6
©Author: Rev Fred Aboe
