It's time to get off the ride and RUN.
6 So Potiphar gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph there, he didn’t worry about a thing—except what kind of food to eat!
Joseph was a very handsome and well-built young man, 7 and Potiphar’s wife soon began to look at him lustfully. “Come and sleep with me,” she demanded.
8 But Joseph refused. “Look,” he told her, “my master trusts me with everything in his entire household. 9 No one here has more authority than I do. He has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God.”
10 She kept putting pressure on Joseph day after day, but he refused to sleep with her, and he kept out of her way as much as possible. 11 One day, however, no one else was around when he went in to do his work. 12 She came and grabbed him by his cloak, demanding, “Come on, sleep with me!” Joseph tore himself away, but he left his cloak in her hand as he ran from the house. - - Genesis 39:6-12
Reading this, I ask: what is the right response when tempted {sexually/romantically}? Do the right thing... How do we maintain our integrity, morality, and purity before both God and men?
{The short answer is - we can't, apart from the imparted righteousness and saving redemptive work being done in our lives, daily {hourly!} by Jesus. He takes us out from our cloud of confusion and self-infused slavery, into the Light as new slaves to righteousness (Romans 6). We no longer operate by default deaf, dumb and blind to sin, feeling our way through the dark, but rather knowing better, are now found without excuse... or fault. (Praise God for the mystery of His Grace!) He showed us, by example, how to withstand temptation (Matthew 4:1-11), and goes so audaciously/wildly/ beautifully further than we can ever humanly expect or grasp, by promising the safety/provision of His seal - of Himself - of His very Spirit - to do the work in, through, and for us, to light and guide us from the inside out... if we will just yield to Him (1 Corinthians 1:21-22). Who is this God?}
So what is the right answer?
On our human level, I see "the right thing" in Joseph when he tells her, "how could I do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God (v.9)", but also his failings (the warning/lesson): in sticking around (at first) (v. 10), and in being alone with his temptation (v. 11). Satan works some of his best tricks in secret places.
I also see the win - "Joseph tore himself away... as he ran from the house" (v. 12).
He ran.
He. ran.
Why wait in a heartsick wasteland? Why wait to fall, for ruin? Why wait when the answer is to run?
{The ultimate answer then becomes - know and love God, then act.}
Know and love God more than *them*, or "desire", or the illusion of what sin may bring.
See, without smoke and lights, an illusion is actually very lame - it's a dingy stage on a Tuesday night with a pair of gloved hands building a mirage out of tired tricks, hiding in the darkness trying to make people see something that's not actually there, to believe in something that's not real ... our enemy is the master magician (John 10:10, 1 Peter 5:8).
Your marriage (body, virginity, celibacy...) is a gift; you must fight for it, protect it; guard it with everything you've got... pray, RUN. Be fierce in protecting and honoring the LORD in your heart/person.
Stay on guard (Ephesians 6), and run when hit, in the opposite direction of death - to renewed vision and perspective in Jesus. He is the vantage point; the Truth over circumstance, and the quiet stillness that settles over the stage when the illusion is shattered, and we're ready to go home.
