Who was Potiphar’s wife? Scripture doesn’t even give her a name. It simply records her actions against Joseph.
But wouldn’t you have liked to know her thoughts or her motives for her actions?
Maybe we don’t really think about her much because we can’t imagine being like her. Or maybe we can relate to her all too well.
Adultery—or the attempt of such—defined her character. Her marriage was obviously not a happy one. Why else would she seek attention elsewhere?
But what might it have been like to live her life? What emptiness or void was she trying to fill that caused her to keep demanding her way with Joseph and then lie about the eventual outcome?
Have you ever been tempted to do something you knew was wrong? Ever tried to justify your actions even as your emotions were waging war within your heart?
I wonder if Potiphar’s wife even saw her desires as temptation. We see her as tempting Joseph to sin, but did she think her actions wrong?
As I’ve studied ancient cultures, I’ve discovered that what they did was often done in ignorance. After all, they did not have God’s laws. They did what they thought right in their own eyes. Much like ancient Israel did when they ignored their God and tried to follow the culture.
But there were exceptions to the followers of popular culture. Ruth and Rahab were two foreigners who didn’t accept the degrading society in which they lived. Potiphar’s wife…not so much.
One other thing I’ve noticed about ancient cultures is their common disregard for morals and for life. Many cultures that surrounded Israel sacrificed their children to the fire on bronze altars. Sexual immorality expanded to include so many different versions of sex that God told Moses in detail what He considered acceptable and unacceptable. A third common trait was violence. And some took this to such extremes, especially in war, that even today we cringe to read about it.
Potiphar’s wife lived in a culture that accepted a pantheon of gods and tolerated so many belief systems—except belief in one God—that she had no clue, other than her conscience, that her desire for sex with Joseph, who was not her husband, was sin. I wonder what she felt when Joseph told her he could not sin against God by sleeping with her.
Rejected? Spurned? No doubt these were some of the emotions she faced. But rather than look in the mirror and evaluate why she felt that way, she lied to her husband and then we never hear of her again.
Do you think she ever admitted the truth, even to herself? Or did she spend her years in denial? Or seek some other servant on which to fill her loneliness, her emptiness?
It’s easy, even today, to fall into this woman’s pattern of thinking. All of us have needs and longings and no one escapes life unscathed by rejection or hurt or emptiness.
For those who know Jesus Messiah, we don’t have to stay in that place. God is waiting to fill our empty places with Himself. When we reach the end of ourselves, stop denying that we’ve done or are doing wrong, when we’re ready to give up our self for His purpose, our life for His, we won’t feel that emptiness any more. Potiphar’s wife’s end will not be ours. She had no hope. We have a Savior.
We will never be nameless when we know Jesus. He knows our name. And He will never stop loving us.
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