Doing right doesn’t always ‘work’

So it was, when his master heard the words which his wife spoke to him, saying, "Your servant did to me after this manner," that his anger was aroused. Then Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were confined. And he was there in the prison. – Genesis 39v19-20

Doing right is no guarantee that things are going to go right right away.

Joseph had done everything right. He had remained pure. He had honoured his master. Despite her best attempts to do otherwise he had not sinned with Potiphar’s wife. We might thing that the result of this would be his reward and honouring. He had done right, surely God would bless him for it.

But, that sure doesn’t appear to be the case. For all his good Joseph ends up in jail. Mrs Potiphar was furious when she got rejected, called the guards, and lied about Joseph. She said that Joseph tried to rape her. He was arrested and thrown into jail.

But wait a minute; I thought God was with Joseph. If that is the case why would He let something like this happen? How could a man who had God on his side go to jail?

We might find ourselves doing the right thing and suffering because of it. That doesn’t really seem fair, does it?

Joseph may easily have felt like that. He had let a chance to have a little fun pass in order to do right and now he was in jail. How could that happen? How can that happen to us.

God wasn’t done with Joseph. We are going to see that God had a greater plan in mind. Those who know that story know what is coming, but that is because we have the blessing on hindsight.

Do right is always right, even if we don’t see the immediate result of it. Sometimes we just do right, and trust God with the results.