Bad Girls of the Bible Part 5

Potiphar. Her meal ticket. Undoubtedly a big guy, and not only in position. Potiphar was the head of Pharaoh's bodyguards, and as such was surely a large man-wide shoulders, bulging biceps, broad chest. The biggest and baddest of them all. Been around awhile. Past his youth but not past his prime in the bodyguard business.

Everyone knew Potiphar.

No one cared enough to remember his wife's name.

Many a man enjoys having a trophy wife to display on his arm. She's mine, his eyes say as he pats his wife's soft hand possessively. Who knows if Potiphar's wife saw herself that way? It's possible she liked the t.i.tle, liked the flicker of admiration she saw in a stranger's eyes when she introduced herself as the proud wife of Potiphar, a man who had access to the Egyptian courts and to the ear of Pharaoh himself.

Or she may have grown weary of the limitations of the t.i.tle, of having her entire being defined by her marriage to a powerful man. With a house full of servants, she clearly had too few responsibilities and too much time on her hands. As one writer put it, "Idleness became the soil that nourished her sinful thoughts."1 Potiphar's wife. Even without a name she has become synonymous with l.u.s.t and licentiousness.

Did G.o.d know her name? Absolutely. Why is it not recorded in Scripture then? One commentator suggested, "There is no satisfactory answer to the silence of Scripture regarding the ident.i.ty of its nameless women."2 And there were lots of them, Good Girls and Bad Girls both, identified by what they did, whom they married or gave birth to, or where they hailed from. More than a hundred women are simply described in Scripture as the "daughter of," "wife of," "witch of," "woman of," "concubine of," "widow of," "nurse of," "Queen of" (well, that one has merit), and, naturally, the "mother of" someone more famous than she is.

I know that one well. At my children's schools, I'm the mother of Matthew, the mother of Lillian, or Carpool Mother #27. I have no name, no ident.i.ty. They recognize my minivan but not my name.

"Aren't you Lillian's mother?"

Sigh.

Potiphar's wife would've understood. Though she's infamously Bad to the Bone, she's also one of the no-names of the Bible.

I'll bet Joseph knew her name. Joseph, the Hebrew boy sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, then chosen-purchased, that is-by Potiphar from the Ishmaelites.

Our man Mr. Potiphar was known for physical prowess certainly. Intellectual strength? Maybe not. Yet he did realize what a fine bargain he'd made in buying Joseph. In no time Potiphar moved Joseph up the ladder from lowly servant to right-hand man for one reason: G.o.d was faithful to Joseph because Joseph was faithful to G.o.d.

Potiphar knew a good thing when he saw it.

So he left in Joseph's care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Genesis 39:6 Am I the only woman who sees a red flag waving here? Potiphar's only concern was...dinner? Breakfast and lunch, too. Snacks, maybe? One scholar suggested that Mr. P's preoccupation with food might have been due to the ritual separation outlined in Genesis 43, "because Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews, for that is detestable to Egyptians."3 Or, that Potiphar "worried really about nothing any longer except his own food."4 Consider Potiphar himself. The beefy bodybuilder, the head of the guards, the musclebound bouncer. A man with an oversized appet.i.te, busy caring for the needs of his stomach while ignoring the needs of his wife, who we'll see in a moment had a few hungers of her own that required tending.

Make no mistake. She is the Bad Girl in this story. But her inattentive husband, with his belly full of food and a busy work schedule, unquestionably contributed to her wandering eye.

And Joseph gave her plenty to gawk at.

Now Joseph was well-built and handsome. Genesis 39:6 Stop right there, girls. Most of our Bible heroes and heroines are not described in any physical detail. That makes these few words about Joseph-incidentally, the precise words used to describe his mother, Rachel-take on even more importance. Call Joseph what you will-beefcake, hunk-o-rama, stud m.u.f.fin-the man had serious curb appeal. He was young, attractive in form and face, bright, a fast learner, eager to serve, a natural leader.

He was also in waaay over his head.

Joseph, fresh from the fields and thrust into the corrupt luxury of city life in Egypt, had his faith and fidelity to G.o.d tested in short order. Hebrew to the core, he was nonetheless soon dressed "in the white pleated garments of his adopted country, shaved and perfumed, an Egyptian in all save his blood."5 Oooh baby.

Joseph not only looked good, he knew he looked good. Beautiful Rachel, who had waited so long to have a child, must have lavished her son with praise, as did his father, Jacob, who called Joseph his favorite son. A label which, as we know, bugged his brothers plenty.

Joseph. A handsome young man, a slave in name only, confident of himself and his G.o.d. Paraded before an older woman who was neglected, needy, and hungry for attention.

Honey, could anything but this have happened?

And after a while his master's wife took notice of Joseph and said...Genesis 39:7 Hold it.

"After a while"? How long? we wonder. What was she doing in the meantime? Spending time with another lover? Decorating her finely appointed rooms? Getting fitted for a collection of new, more revealing linen tunics?

Or was she resisting temptation? Looking the other way? Hanging around the clay ovens in the kitchen, longing to be near her famished husband, hoping he'd drop his bowl of lentils long enough to give her the time of day?

The truth is, we can't tell at this point in the story. This is her one big scene, after which Mrs. P is never mentioned in Scripture again.

She made quite an entrance, though, with her eye-popping opening line.

"Come to bed with me!" Genesis 39:7 The woman was not subtle. As the wife of a powerful man, she was clearly accustomed to getting exactly what she wanted. And what she wanted was Joseph, hubby's handsome slave. As a foreigner, Joseph was forbidden fruit, and Potiphar's wife knew that. It was undoubtedly part of the attraction. They were complete opposites. She was older; he was younger. She was married; he was single. She was Egyptian; he was Hebrew. She had no morals; he had high morals. She wors.h.i.+ped the flesh; he wors.h.i.+ped in spirit.

Opposites do attract. Here, however, the electricity was flowing in only one direction, as his response indicates.

But he refused. Genesis 39:8 Details, we want details.

We can picture her draped across a fifteenth-century B.C. version of a king-size sofa bed, batting her kohl-rimmed eyes in his direction. We can picture this chick-magnet with arms folded, chin held high, shaking his handsome Hebrew head.

But such pictures are left to our imaginations. We only know that he refused. Period. Then Joseph explained why.

"With me in charge," he told her, "my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. No one is greater in this house than I am." Genesis 39:8-9 Well, I guess he told her. Perhaps there'd been other slaves before Joseph who'd said yes to her advances. This one said no, not because he found her unappealing but because the very idea of abusing the trust of his master and the laws of his Lord made his freshly shaven Hebrew skin pale.

"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 G.o.d?" Genesis 39:9 There is no suggestion that Joseph was genuinely tempted by her offer. Remember, we know that he was comely; we know nothing of her appearance. Was she herself beautiful, used to having young lovers falling at her feet? Or was she a plain woman who, by propositioning her own slave, was willing, in essence, to pay for his services? Or-a third possibility-was she suffering an Egyptian midlife crisis, wondering if she still had what it took to catch the eye of a younger man?

The "why" really matters not. Adultery was a major no-no in ancient days, one of the most serious crimes. Only death was considered a sufficient penalty.6 For Joseph, it went deeper than that. He saw it as a sin against his G.o.d, Yahweh.

Ten points for Joseph. Zero for Potiphar's wife.

If she'd quit there, apologized, and begged his forgiveness, she'd undoubtedly have been relegated to our list of Bad for a Moment Girls. But as "the first sensualist in the gallery of scriptural women,"7 she pressed the point. Scorned by a slave-an uppity slave, at that!-she persisted in her pursuit of the stubborn lad.

And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her. Genesis 39:10 As the song (sort of) says: "And here's to you, Mrs. Potiphar; Joseph loathes you more than you will know. Whoa, whoa, whoa."

"Whoa" is right! Stop already with the come-hither glances and the languid smiles, Mrs. P.

But she didn't stop.

"Day after day" means we could hardly chalk this up to a weak moment on her part. She was morally corrupt and persistent to a fault.

She did lower her sights though, seeking a compromise with Joseph. "Just be with me then? Keep me company?" The words of a forgotten woman. Honestly, where was old Potiphar? Still banging together those pots and pans while his wife tried to get something cooking in their bedroom? Guarding Pharaoh when he should have been guarding his wife's reputation?

Hers was a sin of commission; her husband's, one of omission. He should've paid more attention to her, we might argue. Spent his time building hedges around their marriage with vines of love and affection instead of building a name for himself in Pharaoh's court.

But the worst sin Potiphar can be accused of is ignorance.

His wife, however, stands accused of sinning against a foreign G.o.d she didn't comprehend, one who has a moral interest in his people. What a concept for an Egyptian! Her only G.o.d was her body and its physical appet.i.tes. Though she didn't know Yahweh, her adulterous behavior still broke one of the cardinal rules of her age. Men of the time could have many wives, but a wife was bound to absolute fidelity and could belong to only one man.8 Mrs. P was Bad to the Bone indeed. She didn't give a fig or a grape leaf about Joseph's G.o.d or his morals. In fact, she no doubt found the challenge appetizing.

We don't know her heart, black as it appears. We don't know her history. We don't know if she was ruled by her l.u.s.t or lonely to the core. We do know that her pride wouldn't let her take Joseph's no for an answer.

One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. Genesis 39:11 Uh-oh. An empty house? At whose doing? "None" of the servants? It's hard to believe that wasn't arranged.

Enter Mrs. P, who might aptly be portrayed the way actress Tallulah Bankhead once described herself: "Pure as driven slush."

She caught him by his cloak and said, "Come to bed with me!" But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house. Genesis 39:12 Don't let that cloak thing fool you. Other translations call it his garment, which was actually an undergarment, a long s.h.i.+rt tied at the hips. After all, he was inside the house in a dry, hot land-no coats required.

Let's ask the obvious question: Why was Joseph close enough for her to grab his unmentionables in the first place? Was she hiding behind Curtain Number Three, waiting to grab him as he strolled by on his master's business? Or did Joseph get closer than he should have, then abruptly change his mind?

Since he faithfully refused her "day after day," we'll a.s.sume it was Mrs. P's antics all the way. Clearly she set Joseph up, caught him by surprise, and left him no choice but to flee into the courtyard, as one scholar noted, "completely undressed, at once disgracefully and honorably."9 Many a man has left evidence of his indiscretions, but poor Joseph was merely trying to get away with his virtue intact, if not his wardrobe. He could hardly risk going back, even though he surely knew where all this would lead.

Perhaps Paul was thinking of young Joseph when he wrote, "Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness."10 Joseph, righteous to the end, took off running. Try as we might to look at all viewpoints in this dramatic scene, there's no question that Joseph did right in the eyes of G.o.d and Potiphar's wife showed her true colors. Unlike Joseph's coat of many colors, hers came in one shade: solid black.

When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, she called her household servants. "Look," she said to them, "this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us!" Genesis 39:13-14 She hollered to her household servants, eh? The same ones she had sent outside while she pitched her woo? My, how this woman loved to order people around! She didn't succeed in committing adultery with Joseph, but she was very successful in lying, pinning the blame on "this Hebrew," insisting he shamed not only her but "us." Scorned by the upright slave, she turned her pa.s.sion into a prejudicial put-down.

"He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed. When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house." Genesis 39:14-15 Gee. I didn't hear a scream. Did you hear a scream?

Any scriptwriter worth his salt would flag such a glaring oversight. If Mrs. P had really screamed while Joseph was still there "making sport of her" as it were, wouldn't the servants have come running and stumbled over the hotfooting-it Joseph? Instead, after the young man was long gone, then she had to yell for them to come in.

They were servants, yes, but they were not fools. If the boss lady said she screamed for help, so be it. Notice, not a single response from the servants is recorded. Maybe they saw through her lies. Maybe they saw the fleeing Joseph-without his cloak, he would have been hard to miss, tearing across the courtyard. Maybe they'd all succ.u.mbed to her demands themselves at one time or another and now served as her kangaroo court, ready to pa.s.s judgment on the innocent Joseph, "that Hebrew."

Besides, she did have the man's cloak in hand. That was proof enough for anybody, even Mr. P.

She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home.

Genesis 39:16.

Any lingering drop of sympathy for the woman dries up with this single-line scenario. You can imagine her sliding her hands over the threads of the cloak next to her, perhaps even holding it to her face, breathing in the scent of Joseph's body, letting her l.u.s.t turn to anger, then revenge, then a bald-faced lie. She accused the innocent Joseph of the very behavior of which she herself was guilty.

An evil woman scorned is frightening to behold. One writer noted, "How quickly the heat of her pa.s.sion hardened into hatred."11 The vitriol of Mrs. P's dark soul echoes through the ages. How dare he reject me, the fool! Wait until Potiphar hears about this.

Might Mrs. P be the woman mentioned in Proverbs? "For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil; but in the end she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword."12 One smooth lie always begets another.

This lie was so smooth it sailed right over poor Potiphar's head.

When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, "This is how your slave treated me," he burned with anger. Genesis 39:19 Oh, that's rich. "Your slave." In other words, it was Potiphar's fault for bringing this Hebrew into her presence in the first place. I'm reminded of Adam's answer to the Lord's question about why he'd tasted the forbidden fruit: "The woman you put here with me..."13 In other words, "You gave her to me, Lord. Your fault! Your fault!"

Adam didn't get away with that one.

Did Mrs. P's blame-s.h.i.+fting work for her?

Potiphar got angry, but at whom? Joseph was the obvious target of his wrath, although if Potiphar had been truly convinced of the young Hebrew's guilt, the punishment would've been clear and swift: death for the foreigner. Wasn't Potiphar the chief guard? All would've believed Potiphar.

But Potiphar believed Joseph, the man he had entrusted with all his worldly goods. He couldn't kill a man he knew in his heart to be innocent.

Joseph's master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined. Genesis 39:20 Prison, yes. Death, no. In fact, Joseph was soon put in charge of the prison, started interpreting Pharaoh's dreams, and...well, you know the rest.

But what of Potiphar's unfaithful wife? One author suggested that Potiphar's "fierce, possessive love blinded him to the wickedness thinly veiled to all but him."14 That veil isn't thin, babe; it's transparent. I think Potiphar had sufficient gray matter to see through his wife's lies, enough to spare Joseph and, in truth, to avoid adding to his own shame.

The innocent got hauled off to jail. The guilty got away with murdering a young man's reputation. In one fell swoop, Potiphar's wife managed to commit a whole host of sins without blus.h.i.+ng, let alone repenting. Sadly, "she was not only a sensualist but a coward who could not admit her own guilt."15 This one's for you, Mrs. P: There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among.

brothers. Proverbs 6:16-19.

Seven points for Mrs. P-all on the losing side.

While Yahweh stood by Joseph, in jail and everywhere else, Potiphar's wife was left alone in her own sort of prison, its iron bars forged from l.u.s.t, revenge, and lies. Her warden? Hubby dearest, his eyes smoldering with a lingering distrust.

What Lessons Can We Learn from Mrs. P?.

We gotta stay on our toes.

We never know when temptation will arrive at our doorsteps. We can't a.s.sume that because we're happily married or content in our singleness a hunky delivery guy or a cute carpenter working on our new guestroom can't possibly s.h.i.+ft our fertile imaginations into overdrive. It happens to Christian women every day, with tragic consequences. Stretch those toes, girls!

Be very careful, then, how you live-not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:15-16 It's smart to surround ourselves with support.

Mrs. P sent the servants away. Bad move, honey. Let's leave the office door open when we meet with a male coworker. Take the kids with us when we sit outside to chat with the handsome handyman. Not to mention making sure we're appropriately dressed! Carry along a photo of hubby when we travel, and display it on the nightstand. We're one-man women, right? Married to an earthly husband or a heavenly one, our motto is: Never leave home without him foremost in our hearts and minds.

Put on the full armor of G.o.d so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. Ephesians 6:11 Let's seek out our husbands before not after.

If movie stars and paperback heroes are filling our minds with images that don't honor G.o.d or our husbands, suppose we find those men of ours-in the kitchen, the garage, wherever-wrap our arms around their broad shoulders and whisper the same words that Mrs. P first said to Joseph. If you're married to the man, it's not only legal, it's biblical! Trust me, Joseph may have refused, but your hubby will undoubtedly be delighted with your invitation, however unexpected it may be.

"Your desire will be for your husband." Genesis 3:16 When we stumble, confession beats a cover-up.

How easy it is to blame someone else when we're tempted to sin. It's "his" fault, "her" fault, or when all else fails, it's G.o.d's fault. Potiphar may not have seen through his wife's lies, but the Lord we love looks straight into our hearts. Instead of going for a cover-up, let's confess and repent. The snazziest lipstick in the world can't compete with clean lips...and a clean heart.

Save me, O LORD, from lying lips and from deceitful tongues. Psalm 120:2

Good Girl Thoughts Worth Considering.

1. How do you feel when people refer to you as "the wife of," "the mother of," "the daughter of," or "the secretary of"? Is there a tactful way to share a wider view of your ident.i.ty, for their sake and your own?

2. What are some ways you can take pride in your various roles, without letting them become a wall you hide behind?

3. The story of the scorned adulteress is a common one in movies and literature. Can you think of any examples? Do the stories ever have a happy ending? What are the repercussions?

4. Was Potiphar at all to blame for his wife's wandering eye? If so, how did he fail her? What could she have done to garner his attention? In your own life, if you're married, does your husband ever behave like Potiphar? How might you get his attention? Might a woman make the same mistake, ignoring her husband and pus.h.i.+ng him into another woman's arms? If you're single, how can you avoid "catching" such a man and convincing yourself that if his wife can't make him happy, you can?