Mercy and favour

But the Lord was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it. The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because the Lord was with him, and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper. – Genesis 39.21-23

Potiphar’s wife did not handle rejection well. The old saying ‘hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’ really and truly applied to her. She was ashamed and felt rejected and her pride was hurt by this servant’s rejection.

So she took vengeance on him. She reported that Joseph had tried to rape her and she had the evidence. There were no witnesses so who was anyone going to believe. And, beside, who was going to argue against Potiphar’s wife.

So it is off to jail.

But in jail, once again, Joseph finds favour with God and favour with men. The prison keeper entrusted the other prisoners to Joseph’s care.

This is hard to explain except for God’s intervention.

God showed Joseph mercy
God gave Joseph favour with the jail keeper.

God did not want Joseph out of the jail for the time being. So God didn’t sort things out. He let him stay, but while he was there he gave Joseph mercy to carry on favoured in the jail keepers eyes.

God is not always going to get us out of jams when we want out or they way we want, but He will get us through.

While we are going through our own trials let us depend on God’s mercy and trust Him to give us favour with us.