“Lie” With Me

Genesis 39

One of Aesop’s fables is about two men traveling together: one man was a liar and the other man only told the truth. On their journey they came to the land of the monkeys. The monkeys noticed the travelers and the monkey, who was clearly their leader, ordered these two men to be detained. He wanted to know what these men thought of him, so before the men were brought before him he ordered the rest of the monkeys to line up before him in a long line to his right and to his left, while a seat was prepared for him to sit on (for he had seen a human emperor do this very same thing). The men were then told to come forward and the chief monkey asked, “Who am I?”

The liar responded, “You are clearly the emperor.”

Then the monkey asked, “And these you see standing before me, who are they?”

“They must be your noble companions, your chancellors, your advisors, and the leaders of your army!” the man replied.

Because these lies flattered the monkey and his troops, he ordered that the man be showered with presents. All the monkeys were fooled by his flattery.

Meanwhile, the man who always told the truth thought to himself, 'If that liar received such rewards for telling lies, then surely I will receive an even greater reward for telling the truth.' The chief monkey said to the second man, “Now you tell me who I am, and who are these whom you see standing before me?” And the man who always loved the truth and never lied said to the monkey, “You are clearly a monkey, and all of these are monkeys as well!” The chief monkey immediately ordered the monkeys to attack the man with their teeth and claws because he had spoken the truth.

Sometimes it seems more profitable to lie. That’s certainly the case in this story. This fable doesn’t really offer much incentive to tell the truth. That’s where I turn to Scripture. Except in today’s story, Potiphar’s wife concocts a lie which gets Joseph thrown in jail, despite his integrity and honesty.

In English, the word “lie” can mean both “to say something that’s not true” and “to recline, like on a bed.” The word used in the Joseph story only has the second meaning “to lie down”, and it carries a seductive implication. Despite that, truth and untruth are still a theme in today’s story. Remember that Joseph is the carrier of God’s dream, so the question addressed by this episode is: can God’s dream survive against the deceptions and lies of the world?

The story of Joseph is a story about the involvement of the power of God with the power of an empire. God’s power is represented by Joseph and by the dream he carries, the worldly powers are represented by the Pharaoh, and by Potiphar, and by their wealth. The seduction of Potiphar’s wife gives a voice and a personality to the similar seduction of these worldly powers. Whereas she commands Joseph to “lie with him,” the powers of this world command us to “lie about them.”

What is this lie we are encouraged to tell and trust? Simple. The ultimate lie is to believe that the powers of this world have everything we need. Here’s the thing, this world does have many of the things that we need. It provides food, and water, and shelter, and air. But everything we need? God designed this world to provide for our needs, but did not design this world to replace our need for God. Believing that the things of this world can replace God is the baseline formula for constructing idols. This belief is tempting, seductive…or as Scripture puts it in the 3rd chapter of Genesis, this belief looks good, delightful, and is easily desired. “Go ahead,” hisses the serpent, “you can replace God! Take a bite.”

Joseph’s response to Potiphar’s wife reminds me a lot of this seduction scene from Genesis 3. Adam and Eve were put in charge of everything in the garden, and simply told not to “eat” from one specific tree. Just so, it is said that Joseph was put in charge of everything in his master’s house, and his master “had no concern for anything but the food that he ate.” Some scholars suggest that “the food he ate” is a euphemism for a more “adult” indulgence. But, whereas Adam and Eve were seduced and ate, Joseph remained a man of integrity.

When Adam and Eve were caught having eaten the fruit they had been told not to, they were kicked out of the garden, separated from the immediate presence of the power and promises of God. When Joseph refuses to “lie” with Potiphar’s wife, she concocts her own lie to get him kicked him out of his master’s house. Joseph is separated from the worldly powers and imprisoned, but, here is the important part, he is not separated from God. Verse 23, “The LORD was [still] with Joseph.”

It seems unfair that this woman could lie so blatantly and manipulate the outcome of Joseph’s life. Just as it was horrendous that Joseph’s brothers concocted a lie to cover up the fact that they sold their brother into slavery. In each of these occasions, the liars use a garment of Joseph’s for their own cover-up of the truth. But God’s truth has been planted deep inside of Joseph. “Clothes do not make this man. It is the dream that makes this man and that [cannot be taken from him.]”[1]

The dream is only lost to us when we choose to trust in the lies of the world over the truth of our God. And we are subject to ceaseless temptations and seductions. This week we have faced tremendous seduction to believe lies in the wake of displays of violence and hatred. Lies which lure us to hate our enemy, lies which stroke our own pride, lies which tell us exactly what we want to hear. So many lies dangle before us, and depending on our taste we are tempted to take and consume certain ones as truth. It doesn’t matter on which platform you stand, both major political parties seduce us to “lie” with them. And look what happens when leaders stand with integrity and refuse to “lie” with the other members of their party. They’re slandered, publicly humiliated, discredited, even released from their positions. Sometimes it seems more profitable to lie. How do we learn from Joseph to act with integrity? Especially when we know that our refusal to be seduced might earn us the scorn of our friends or family?

Can God’s dream survive within this world of lies? Can we live faithfully in the midst of a world of sin and shame and scorn and seduction? Can we live in the world, but not be of the world? Can we allow our faithfulness to God to bless the world through us without allowing the lure of the world to blemish our faithfulness to God? Paul’s letter to the Romans captures the temptation to sacrifice one for the other. “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.” Just another way of saying that they decided to locate everything they needed in the powers of the world, they were seduced by the ultimate lie.

The Joseph story does not claim that just because God is in charge that everything will work out as we want it to, nor does it claim that faithfulness to God rescues us from the trouble and scorn of the world. Such promises would be lies; and these are the same promises that Satan makes to Jesus: serve me and I’ll give you power, wealth, protection—serve me and life will be easy, you’ll have exactly what you want. So if these are lies, then what’s the good news for us? The good news is that those who say that there is victory in hate and violence and anger are liars. The good news is that even though Joseph was persecuted and imprisoned by lies, the truth was still with him. The good news is that Jesus stood for the truth, died for the truth, and was raised again to witness to and judge the truth of God’s amazing love on our behalf. The good news is that God is not thwarted by the lies we tell, we might be seduced to abandon God, but God will never be tempted to abandon us. The good news is that there is nothing, not death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor the powers of this world, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Find strength in this good news to stand with integrity, to speak truth to power, to trust in God, and to bring God’s Kingdom ever closer. Amen.

[1] Brueggemann, Walter. “Genesis” from Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. 315.