Monday, July 4, 2016

ABOUT  TEMPTATIONS (Part 1)

The devil is wicked. No, scratch that.
The devil is VERY wicked.
He has no iota of good in him. When he looks at a man, all his thoughts are geared towards hurting, destroying, and bringing that man down.

I say this because one day I was thinking about the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife. It’s on oft-repeated tale about the Master’s wife trying to seduce a dedicated slave. The Bible says, “She kept begging Joseph DAY AFTER DAY, but he refused to do what she wanted or even to go near her”.  Gen 39:10 (CEV).

Why Joseph? He was not the only man in that large house. Potiphar doubtlessly had other male slaves in that house who would be more than happy to oblige her, so why would she keep insisting to sleep with Joseph?

I was somewhat bothered about this until one day it occurred to me that, though there were dozens of male slaves in that house, only Joseph had a throne in his DESTINY! Joseph may have been a slave, but sitting inside him was the ruler of Egypt! Potiphar’s wife may not have been able to know this, but the devil inside her that was instigating her lust definitely knew.

If she had said to Joseph, “Come lie with me, no one will ever know”, she would have been absolutely right. NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW!

Potiphar wouldn’t know
The slaves wouldn’t know
The Egyptians wouldn’t know
And yes, YOU AND I too wouldn’t know

She was right, Joseph’s destiny would have closed up there and then and his bones would be part of the sands of Egypt today.
The glorious story of Joseph moving from slavery to being the de facto ruler of Egypt that we read about would never have occurred and we probably would never have known anything about him, at least that was the plan.

The devil is very wicked.

“Don't give the devil any opportunity to work”. Eph 4:27 (GW)
“So place yourselves under God's authority. Resist the devil, and he will run away from you”. Jas 4:7 (GW)
“Put on all the armor that God supplies. In this way you can take a stand against the devil's strategies.” Eph 6:11 (GW)
“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”.  (1Co 15:57)
“Now thanks be unto God, who always causes us to triumph in Christ”.  (2Co 2:14)

AMEN.
We’ll continue on these thoughts tomorrow.
More Blessings Await you today, you’ll not miss them in Jesus Name.

GREG ELKAN

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