Genesis 39:19-23

But the Lord was with Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison

Joseph in prison

A superior man will manifest his superiority in any situation.

In slavery, in prison, in exile, his worth will be disclosed and acknowledged. Joseph was a remarkable example of this. Though a prisoner in name, he soon was the actual warden. I invite attention to some of the lessons taught us by the experience and demeanour of Joseph in prison. Consider--

(1) What it is that gives one special power over men. Not great natural gifts merely, or original superiority of mind. Many people who possess these are without much influence. Neither is it the gifts of rank or fortune. Joseph had neither of these to commend him to favour. The Scriptures point to the true cause of his ascendency: “The Lord was with Joseph, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison”; and the latter committed to him the prisoners, “because the Lord was with him, and that which he did the Lord made it to prosper.” Since he was a good man, and obviously enjoyed God’s favour, he had influence and power over men. Right is mightier than wrong. As one clear, sweet voice singing in tune will bring a whole multitude of discordant voices into harmony with it, because it is right and they are wrong, and concord is superior to discord, so one godly man will prevail over many wicked. Men are always impressed by manifestations of a good conscience. They are persuaded that one who has a conscience void of offence toward God, is more likely to have one void of offence toward men also. His fidelity to his religious convictions wins their confidence. They will honour him, even though he vexes them by his scruples. Nicholas Biddle, we have been told, once had for a private secretary a Christian young man, whom he wished to keep at work on the Sabbath. The secretary objected to working on the Lord’s Day. “I shall discharge you,” said his employer, “if you do not conform to my wishes.” The secretary was poor, and had, moreover, a widowed mother dependent upon him; but rather than violate his conscience by doing what he considered wrong, he gave up his place. A day or two after, Mr. Biddle was in the company of some gentlemen who proposed to start a new bank, and the question was, where should they find a suitable man to be its cashier? “I know of one,” said Mr. Biddle; and he recommended to them his late secretary, saying, “He had too much conscience for my work, but none too much for the more responsible office you have.” And through his recommendation the place was given to him. In no way can parents do so well for their children, or so certainly insure for them positions of power and influence, as by an early religious training.

(2) Joseph’s demeanour in prison teaches the duty of patient accommodation to the situation in which God has seemed to place us. Evidently he tried to make the best of his prison life. He does not yield to despair and refuse to see any hope of good. He is cheerful and helpful to all about him, displaying there, in that uncongenial place, the same serenity of mind and the same religious faith as elsewhere. He rested in the Lord, and waited patiently for the manifestation of His will, never fretting over the peculiar hardship of his case, nor complaining because he was the innocent victim of the wicked devices of another. He believed that God would take care of him, and deliver him out of all his troubles. Though he could not see, what we see, that his prison was only a necessary way-station in his path to the lordship of Egypt, yet he knew that God was there, and that where God was it was safe for him to be, and not ill. His faith sustained him.

(3) Joseph’s life in prison teaches that there is good work to be done everywhere. Joseph discovered new capabilities of service in that dismal office. He shed upon it a humane and softer light. He reformed old abuses and introduced new improvements. He did noble work there, work animated by pity and mercy; such work as we impute to angels in their ministries of compassion among the suffering and wretched. It was work, too, which blessed his soul in the doing of it, and which paved the way to that future greatness to which he was advancing. The same thing may be true of the worst situation in which a man may be placed. He can, if he will, ennoble it by good work; make it bright by deeds of love and mercy; make it a field of great usefulness to others, and tributary to his own subsequent advancement.

(4) Joseph’s life in prison illustrates how all things work together for good to them that love God. “I have done nothing,” he said, “that they should put me into the dungeon.” It seemed a hard case. He was there through the slanderous spite of a bad woman. Falsehood and wickedness seemed to have triumphed over truth and innocence. But it was only that the person in whom they were represented might be the more exalted. Joseph’s case reveals how God can make everything bend to His purpose. (A. H.Currier.)

Joseph in prison

I. AN EXAMPLE OF THE MYSTERIOUS WAYS OF PROVIDENCE.

II. AN EXAMPLE OF THE STRENGTH OF GOD’S CONSOLATIONS IS THE WORST TRIALS.

1. He had a present reward (Genesis 39:21).

2. His goodness was made manifest. (T. H. Leale.)

Joseph’s conduct in the dungeon

I. THE TENDERNESS OF HIS SYMPATHY (Genesis 39:6). Suffering is absolutely necessary to capacitate us for sympathy.

II. THE PROFESSION OF HIS INNOCENCE. Of which notice the calmness and simplicity.

III. THE INTEGRITY OF HIS TRUTHFULNESS. Having undertaken the office of interpreter, he fulfilled it faithfully. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)

Joseph in prison; or, an epitome of heaven’s rule over the world

I. THAT GOD’S RULE OVER THE WORLD SUFFERS THE RIGHTEOUS TO BE GRIEVOUSLY OPPRESSED BY THE WICKED.

1. Joseph was the subject of cruel envy.

2. Joseph was the subject of the vilest calumny.

II. THAT GOD’S RULE OVER THE WORLD AFFORDS THE RIGHTEOUS AMPLE SUPPORT, EVEN UNDER THE GREATEST TRIALS OF LIFE. Joseph had three things in that dungeon to support him.

1. The approbation of his own conscience.

2. The respect of his circle.

3. The special presence of his God.

III. THAT GOD’S RULE OVER THE WORLD WORKS OUT THE GOOD OF THE RIGHTEOUS BY EVERY VARIETY OF INSTRUMENTALITY.

1. The evil passions of men.

2. The apparent accidents of life.

3. The mental visions of men.

4. The system of material nature.

Lessons:

1. The shortness of our trials compared with our destiny.

2. The unimportance of worldly condition compared with our moral character.

3. Greatness, however depressed and obscured, must rise one day through all obstructions to its rightful sovereignty. (Homilist.)

Life in a dungeon

I. THE PRISON. Literally, “the round-house.” Probably at first Joseph was confined in a dark and dismal subterranean “inner-prison,” where Psalms 105:18) he was put in irons. A gloomy condition! But this seemingly overwhelming misfortune is but one of the links by which a mysterious but all-wise Providence is to conduct him into ultimately far higher honours and far more important trusts.

II. JOSEPH’S IMPRISONMENT IS WHOLLY WITHOUT CAUSE. He was really suffering for his adherence to the right. He received the reward, which many have done since, of reproach, slander, and every injury, where the highest respect and honour were justly due. Instead of the admiration and lasting gratitude of his master, he was thrust into the prison, and his feet made fast in irons. But in this unwelcome and undeserved experience Joseph was but joining that illustrious company, swelled by subsequent ages to a mighty multitude, who have been made to suffer for well doing, many of whom have had to seal their testimony with their blood. The purest of all was “numbered with the transgressors.”

III. How JOSEPH DEPORTED HIMSELF IN PRISON. True to his beautiful antecedents, even in this black midnight he was still his noble self.

IV. THE LORD WAS WITH HIM.

1. Let me commend to your prayerful study the beautiful bearing and admirable spirit manifested by this young hero in this trying era in his extraordinary history.

2. Learn from this subject to be faithful under all circumstances, and to endeavour so to deport yourselves as to show forth a blameless and praiseworthy life. (J. Leyburn, D. D.)

Joseph in prison

A strange place, we might say, for a saint of God to be in! And yet a place in which the saints of God have often been found; for the world hath frequently misjudged them, deeming ill of whom it should have thought well, and instead of loving them for the example of purity and goodness which they have afforded, has made them the victims of its suspicion and hate. Thus it has come to pass that the excellent of the earth, the men worthy of thrones and palaces, have been ofttimes thrust into dark and noisome dungeons. State records have their stories of illustrious prisoners; and so also have the annals of the Church--and harrowing ones indeed they are. Samson, Micaiah, Jeremiah, John Baptist, Peter, Paul and Silas. And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of others who, in apostolic and post-apostolic times, were “in prisons oft,” and would joyfully have been there oftener, for the blessedness that they realized there from the presence of Him who can make of a prison a palace, and change dungeon darkness into heavenly light. We will now, therefore, return to Joseph, to whose imprisonment our text relates--“And he was there in the prison.”

I. WHY WAS HE THERE? What crime had he committed? Against whom had he offended? How had he sinned, that he should be found in such a place as this? Listen to the answer, for it is a rare answer. There is not one prisoner of a thousand respecting whom it could be truly given. He had not sinned at all! He had wronged no one l He was guiltless of any crime whatever! Then why was he there? I will give you the answer in a positive form. He was there because he chose to suffer rather than to sin--he preferred shame, and privation, and sorrow, to guilt. He would rather be an inmate of a prison--aye, for life--with a clear conscience, than the dweller in a mansion with an accusing one. Such is the answer to the question, Why was Joseph where we now find him? And it suggests a practical remark of very considerable importance and use, namely, that the highest integrity will not protect a man always from misjudgment and oppression. The very reality of goodness is the pledge that it will be tried, and these sufferings, attendant often--I might say uniformly--on a course of spiritual integrity, are just God’s way of trying it. Bear this in mind, dear friends, and you will not then be overwhelmed if, like Joseph, your fidelity to conscience and to God should bring you into circumstances of deepest humiliation and pain.

II. How DID IT FARE WITH HIM THERE? And this is a question which admits, as you will see, of a twofold answer--a sad and a pleasing one. At first it seems to have gone ill enough with this young servant of God “there in the prison.” He was made to suffer all the rigours of an Eastern dungeon. We learn from the one-hundred-and-fifth Psalm, that the simple record in Genesis does not tell us all that he underwent; for it is said there that his “feet were hurt with fetters,” that “he was laid in iron.” Indeed, it was a most trying lot, and must have been hard to bear, despite the consciousness of innocence to console and sustain the mind. And yet there was a necessity for it; a necessity, I mean, in connection with the wonderful drama which Joseph’s history was designed to form. Without all this trial and suffering, so undeserved, so apparently mysterious, there would have been wanting what gives the chief interest to the final development, and makes the whole so beautiful a lesson of trust in Providence, and patient waiting for the unfolding of God’s ways. And I would say, my brethren, there may be a corresponding necessity in your case for those circumstances in your lot which are most baffling and painful. It is not sent to you out of mere capriciousness on the part of your Heavenly Father; but because it is essential to the working out of His purposes of mercy in relation to you. Just as it was not only part of God’s plan that Joseph should be unjustly imprisoned, but also that his sufferings in prison should take, at first, a character of special severity; so everything in the circumstances of His people is equally the result of design, pointing to a future, hidden from them now, but hereafter to unfold itself, and to display to their astonished view wonders of Divine wisdom and faithfulness in the very events of their history which they had deemed the most painful and obscure. But I said that the question as to how it fared with Joseph in prison admits of a twofold answer. What I have just spoken to may be called the sad part of the answer. Let us now look at the more pleasing aspect of it. The severity was probably only temporary. At all events, we soon find the young man enjoying a degree of liberty and consideration that mark a wondrous change in his condition. But there is something more than this. That which the spiritual mind fastens upon here with most eagerness and delight is the statement about God’s regard to the suffering prisoner. This it is specially that forms the pleasing part of the answer, as to how it fared with Joseph in prison. Mark what is said at the end of the chapter--“But the Lord was with Joseph,” etc. You see that the one idea here is the presence of God with His servant; the favour of God, the prospering blessing of God. The mind of the sacred writer seems to have been full of that. It was in his estimation the grand thing, the salient point in the story--all. Joseph found his prison-life eventually not only not sad, but happy, because God was with him. Joseph won consideration and favour from his gaoler because God was with him. Joseph succeeded so well in every business matter entrusted to him because God was with him. Friendless and alone he could not be in that case. Inwardly cast down for long he could not be in that case. Now, the practical truth I wish to press upon you all here is the supreme value to be attached to the presence and favour of God. (C. M. Merry.)

Joseph in prison

I. "GOD WAS WITH JOSEPH”--WHERE?

1. God is no respecter of places. Men speak with bated breath of prison-houses.

2. A sample of God’s faithfulness. Potiphar, from very unworthy reasons, had withheld his favour from Joseph. Very likely many in the mansion had secretly rejoiced in Joseph’s fall. “He keepeth covenant for ever.”

II. “GOD WAS WITH HIM.”--IN WHAT MANNER?

1. God’s best gifts are spiritual. There was no miraculous vindication of Joseph. Yet, though unseen, God was there, with hands full of blessing.

Did Joseph retain his hold on God, and often speak to Him in prayer? God nourished that faith. Did Joseph cherish a peaceful assurance, that God would over-rule this disaster for good? Then God was dwelling in him.

2. God gave him mercy, This hardship led Jacob to faithful self-examination.

3. God lightened his burden. The effect of God’s presence was twofold, viz., inward and outward. The real worth of Joseph was patent to the governor of the gaol. It was soon felt by warders and prisoners alike that Joseph was an injured man.

4. God made him useful. In that grim gaol his life was not doomed to inglorious idleness. So in the prison Joseph did his very best; nobly exercised his talents; lived as a king: and prepared himself to be ruler of Egypt. There were lessons to be learnt here which he could not learn elsewhere; a good school this.

III. “GOD WAS WITH HIM”--WITH WHAT RESULT?

1. There was prosperity. That is, there was order, peacefulness, good discipline.

2. Knowledge was gained. Joseph learnt how little mischief bad men and bad women can do to a good man.

3. It was a stepping-stone to sovereignty. Very likely the advantage in the formation of Joseph’s character was immense. Excrescences were pruned away. Good principles were better rooted. A generous forgetfulness of self was fostered. He was daily growing into a nobler and purer man. (J. Dickerson Davies, M. A.)

Joseph in prison

I. FAITHFUL JOSEPH SUSTAINED IN PRISON BY A FAITHFUL GOD.

1. By manifestation of personal friendship.

(1) “With him,” to comfort him in his peculiarly trying position, his character being falsely accused.

(2) “With him,” to impart strength and skill for the proper discharge of duty.

2. By giving him favour in the eyes of others.

(1) By God’s interposition, he becomes the warden’s favourite.

(2) Unbounded trust is, through God’s grace, placed in one whose character has been assailed.

(3) It is God’s prerogative to dispose the hearts of men toward His children (Proverbs 21:1).

II. THE MYSTERIOUS POWER OF DREAMS USED BY GOD IN BEHALF OF HIS WRONGED CHILD.

1. The tyranny of ancient monarchs.

2. The activity of the mind.

(1) While the body sleeps, the mind continues wakeful and full of thought.

(2) This mental activity during sleep, which we call dreams, God has frequently used in all ages for providential purposes.

III. TO INTERPRET DREAMS A DIVINE PREROGATIVE.

1. A dream from God, like a speech in an unknown tongue, cannot be understood until interpreted by one who knows the language.

2. If a dream is designed to reveal a Divine purpose, that purpose must be distinctly explained by special communication by God.

3. The folly of assuming intelligence enough to interpret dreams without special revelation from God.

Lessons:

1. The advantages of true piety in the practical affairs of life.

2. A lesson for resignation under most trying circumstances. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.)

Joseph in prison

I. If we take our whole impression of his prison-life from the Book of Genesis, our impression cannot be either accurate or complete. For, though the inspired narrative tells us that Joseph was bound; though it records his earnest entreaty that the cup-bearer, when he was released, would do his utmost to deliver him; though it represents him as speaking with a certain bitterness of having done nothing to deserve that he should be “thrust into this hole”; though, therefore, it implies that Joseph was the victim of a gross injustice, and had a keen sense of the injustice done to him, it nevertheless leaves the impression on our minds that, for a prisoner, his condition was a singularly happy one; that he enjoyed an altogether exceptional freedom, and rose to no small measure of official place and dignity. But, as we learn from a supplementary Scripture, Joseph was by no means of our mind, nor were his circumstances altogether so happy as we have supposed them to be. In Psalms 105:17, we read: “He sent a man before them: Joseph was sold for a slave. They tormented his feet with fetters; his soul came into iron, until the time when his word came; the word of the Lord cleared him.” The light shed by these words shines into the dark Egyptian dungeon, and enables us to see the prisoner and his condition more distinctly. Honoured and trusted as he was, he was nevertheless “tormented with fetters.” He was a prisoner, although a favoured prisoner, and thought more of his captivity than of the favour which softened its rigours. Through long bitter months he bends sad questioning eyes on a heaven no longer flushed wit-h rosy dawns of hope, but dark with the hues of doubt and despair. Yet, as we know, the road to the throne lay through that “hole”; and but for the hateful fetters which tormented him, he would never have worn the signet from Pharaoh’s hand, nor the golden chain which Pharaoh flung round his neck. The night in which he sat ushered in a long and brilliant day.

II. Now, the prison experience of Joseph is by no means an exceptional experience. Its value for us lies mainly in the fact that it helps us to understand the common lot of man. It would seem to be a law of the Divine government that in proportion as men are great in capacities for service, they should have their capacities developed by bitter and long-sustained afflictions. We can be patient and hopeful when once we are assured that all our defeats and disappointments, our failures and reverses and broken illusions, are parts of the discipline by which God is training us for the work we long to do, and are qualifying us to enjoy the freedom we crave. If only our character is being moulded and hardened, and its capacities brought out by suffering, then it is not unjust of God to inflict suffering upon us. If we can become perfect only through suffering, shall we not thank Him for the suffering which perfects us? If only as we learn to rule in the prison of deterred opportunities and defeated hopes, we can become fit to rule over the “many cities” of the heavenly kingdom, shall we shrink from the prison which leads to the throne? If the iron must enter our souls that we may be strong amid the flatteries and the adversities of fortune, shall even the fetters which torment us be unwelcome to us? (S. Cox, D. D.)

Free though bound

Though his body is in fetters, Joseph’s pure spirit is still free. The one, man may load with irons; the other, God alone can bind in the prisonhouse of torture. With integrity preserved, the prison may be a palace. With God’s favour there may be happiness in a dungeon; without it, wretchedness in a royal court. There may be spiritual liberty while shackles are chafing the weary limbs, there may be the bondage of sin while no visible chains are eating into the quivering flesh. In point of fact, Potiphar’s wife was the slave--the slave of sin; Joseph the freeman, the emancipated of the Lord. “He is a freeman whom the truth makes free, all besides are slaves.” Many, alas! though their limbs are unshackled, are yet bound captives, to human appearance hopelessly fettered by iniquity. Who is there so lost to honour that he would not prefer Joseph’s situation to that of his assailant? purity to impurity? God’s favour in a prison, to God’s displeasure in the decorated halls of wordly grandeur? (J. S. Van Dyke.)

True prosperity

Now, do let us all be thoroughly instructed from this, what it is that constitutes true prosperity. It is said of the soldiers of a certain king, in ancient times, that they lost a great battle by mistaking the shadows for the ,persons of their enemies. They discharged their arrows at the empty resemblance, instead of the living and moving ranks of men. How many make a similar mistake with regard to prosperity I They mistake the shadow for the substance; and thus they take a wrong aim. All their energies and all their efforts are directed to something short of the mark. Outward distinctions and outward blessings, considered in themselves, form only the shadow of prosperity. It does not consist in greatness, or grandeur, or riches, or plenty, or ease. These are all sometimes possessed by the wicked; and sometimes they are possessed by those, who, instead of being prosperous, have actually to groan through the very disquietude of their heart. True prosperity is something different to this, and independent of this. It can flourish without such things as these, and make us happy either with or without them. It consists in what Joseph had--the favour, and presence, and blessing of Almighty God, our heavenly Father. This can make us happy in every place, and in every state. (C. Overton.)

Uses of adversity

It is good for man suffer the adversity of this earthly life, for it brings him back to the sacred retirement of the heart, where only he finds he is an exile from his native home, and ought not to place his trust in any worldly enjoyment. It is good for him also to meet with contradiction and reproach, and to be evil thought of and evil spoken of, even when his intentions are upright and his actions blameless, for this keeps him humble and is a powerful antidote to the poison of vain glory; and then chiefly it is that we have recourse to the witness within us, which is God, when we are outwardly despised, and held in no degree of esteem and favour among men. Our dependence upon God ought to be so entire and absolute that we should never think it necessary, in any kind of distress, to have recourse to human consolation. (De Imitatione Christi.)

Providences of God

We are tried by our disappointments, we are tried by our successes. God heaps mercies upon men, and then takes them all away. He blesses, enriches, and establishes men, and then shuts them up, impoverishes, and subverts them. The whole train of the dealings of God with them in respect of the providential ordering of their affairs is either to break the hold of this earth upon the human soul, through its senses and passions, or else to inspire its religious faculties to take hold upon God and eternity. This is the secret of the whole round of unspeakable and so-called mysterious providences of God towards men; unspeakable and mysterious because God is acting in one way and they are acting in another. (H. W.Beecher.)

A prisoner kindly treated

It is said that when John Bunyan was in Bedford jail, some of his persecutors in London heard that he was often out of the prison; they sent an officer to talk with the gaoler on the subject, and in order to discover the fact he was to get there in the middle of the night. Bunyan was at home with his family, but so restless that he could not sleep; he therefore acquainted his wife that, though the goaler had given him liberty to stay till the morning, yet, from his uneasiness, he must immediately return. He did so, and the gaoler blamed him for coming at such an unseasonable hour. Early in the morning the messenger came, and interrogating the gaoler, said “Are all the prisoners safe?” “Yes.” “Is John Bunyan safe?” “Yes.” “Let me see him.” He was called, and appeared, and all was well. After the messenger was gone, the goaler, addressing Mr. Bunyan, said, “Well, you may go in and out again just when you think proper, for you know when to return better than I can tell you.”

When God commands the life all goes well

“In the course of my inspection of the lines that morning, while passing along Culp’s Hill, I found the men hard at work entrenching, and in such fine spirits as at once to attract attention. One of them finally dropped his work, and approaching me, inquired if the reports first received were true. On asking what he referred to, he replied that twice word had been passed along the line that General McKeller had been assigned to the command of the army, and the second time it was added that he was on the way to the field, and might soon be expected. He continued, ‘The boys are all jubilant over it, for they know that if he takes command, everything will go right.’” (One Thousand New Illustrations.)

Equanimity of character

The equanimity which a few persons preserve through the diversities of prosperous and adverse life reminds me of certain aquatic plants which spread their tops on the surface of the water, and with wonderful elasticity keep the surface still if the water swells, or if it falls. (J. Foster.)

God with His people in trouble

Think not that the presence of God with His people is limited to palaces or to churches. It has been often manifestly seen that He was with them in prisons, in caves or dens, on gibbets, in fiery furnaces. Ask not, why He does not snatch away His people from such dreary places, if He is present with them? Why should you think yourself wiser than God? You know why Christ, though He was the Son of God, did not come down from the cross, that His enemies might believe in Him. The sufferings of Christ were necessary for our salvation. The sufferings of the saints are necessary for their own salvation, though in another sense. (G. Lawson, D. D.)

Integrity repaid by confidence

Joseph, diligent and trusty, finds friends even in the prison. Integrity invariably secures confidence. The conscientious, the honest, and the truthful commonly find those with whom they deal willing to exhibit the same qualities. On the other hand, the deceitful and the unprincipled are extremely liable to be paid in their own coin. Indeed, so strong is the disposition to judge others by ourselves, that we are tolerably safe in concluding that those who charge the world with want of sympathy are not themselves extremely sympathetic; that those who pronounce mankind unprincipled will bear watching. Since the world is a kind of mirror, we are quite apt to see in others only a reflection of ourselves. Since its polished hardness approaches flintiness, our treatment of the world is liable to be turned back upon ourselves--the force of the rebound as well as its nature being determined by our own conduct. If we love our fellow-men, they will love us; if we hate them, they will hate us; if we aid them, they will aid us; abuse them, and abuse returns, sometimes steeped in the poison of malice. Hence it commonly happens that he who can control himself can usually determine the treatment he is to receive from others. Joseph’s kindness secured a return of kindness even from the Egyptian jailer; his integrity was repaid in confidence. He who has the love which our Saviour recommends possesses the means of securing kindness from most persons, and respect from all (J. S. Van Dyke.)

.