How Then Can I

An empty house in the middle of the day. There was none of the men of the house there within, and it had been building for weeks. She spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her.

Watch how he argues, because he does it aloud and in order. Behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand. There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife. He counts what he has been trusted with, names the one item withheld, and then draws the line, and the line is not where you would expect it. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? Potiphar is the man who would be robbed. God is the one he says he would be sinning against.

He loses. She keeps his garment, tells the house a story, tells it again to her husband that evening, and Joseph goes to the prison where the king's prisoners were bound. It is the second garment of his used as evidence against him; his brothers dipped the coat in blood and let their father draw his own conclusion. Both times the cloth talks and Joseph does not.

Nothing suggests he was rewarded for the refusal in any way visible from a cell. What the chapter does instead is repeat one sentence at both ends of his fall. The LORD was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man, it says while he runs the house. Then, after the accusation and the prison door: But the LORD was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison.

Printed twice, on purpose. That sentence is the promise, and it promises nothing about the story clearing up quickly. He is there for years and the record never says he knew what was coming. It says who was in the room with him, in the good house and in the bad one, on the same terms.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 334 is Not One Word Failed (1 Kings 8:56).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna, Year Two