No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” – Genesis 39:9

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 30, 2018): Genesis 39

William Faulkner in “As I Lay Dying” writes “People to whom sin is just a matter of words, to them salvation is just words too.” If our sin is hypothetical, then so too is our salvation. Within religions like Christianity, coming to that moment of our confession of what is wrong in our lives is important. We have to understand our sin beyond the words that we use to describe it. It has to be real. And in the moment that our sin becomes real, our salvation becomes real as well.

But the flip side is that means that there must be a difference in our actions. Our conviction and our morals are not supposed to be just words that pass through our lips. Admittedly, this has been the ultimate mistake of many Christian, leaders, teachers, and musicians. We can sing and talk about our convictions, but we often seem to struggle more than a little when it comes to living those convictions out in our lives – especially in those moments when we are alone, and no one is watching what it is that we are doing. Our moral convictions must make a difference in the way that we live and the things that we are willing to do, especially in those moments when we think that no one is watching. If that is not true, then our convictions are just words that carry no weight as we journey through this life. Our sin and our salvation is nothing more than words that we speak.

In many ways, here we begin to see the maturation of Joseph. At one point, Joseph was little more than a spoiled brat, the favorite of his father and the enemy of his brothers. But regardless of how much time had passed, it was a life that Joseph struggled to remember. He had been attacked by his brothers, sold into slavery, sold once again to an important man in Egypt, and had risen through the ranks in his master’s house to the point that there was no one else who was as important as he. And it seems that Joseph also recognized that his life could have been very different. And he was right. Each step of the way, God had led him, until this moment of conflict in his life.

The spoiled brat had also emerged from his experience with a deep sense of right and wrong. It was likely something that he had learned from his parents at a young age, but now he had internalized the moral direction so that it guided his actions, and not just his words. And in the face of temptation, he recognizes that violating his beliefs would not just be a sin against his master – it would be a sin against his God as well.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 40