Ep 62: Tales of Temptation and Triumph - Exploring Joseph's Journey of Unshakable Morality

"Ever wondered how we find hope and guidance in ancient texts? Today we explore the complexities of unwavering integrity, the role of physical sight in temptation and draw even more parallels between Joseph and the Messiah."

Embark on a spiritual expedition with Pastor Teddy, aka Fred David Kenney Jr., as we traverse the trials of Joseph in Genesis 39, unearthing more invaluable lessons on faith and integrity. Discover how the biblical phrase "but God" is an anchor, reminding us of the Almighty's constant presence, even as darkness looms. We peel back the layers of garment-centric stories from Jacob and Esau to Tamar and Judah, culminating with Joseph's own entanglements and his ascent to power—untainted by deceit. As we confront our own moments of weakness and temptation, like losing our cool in traffic, Pastor Teddy's insights into Joseph's moral resilience offer a beacon of hope and a path to emulate.

Let's unravel the complexities of living with unwavering integrity, learning how physical sight can sometimes lead us into sin, a challenge faced by Biblical figures such as Job, Judah, and Samson. The episode takes an intriguing turn as we speculate on Potiphar's potential role as a eunuch and its implications in Joseph's narrative. In a culminating moment, we draw parallels between Joseph donning Pharaoh's robes and the unmissable return of the Messiah, instilling a powerful message of peace and God's ever-watchful care. Join us for a session of reflection and empowerment as Pastor Teddy guides us through the timeless wisdom nestled within these ancient texts.

Does any of today's podcast resonate with you? Let us know here:
https://playsonword.dm.networkforgood.com/forms/podcast-reviews
To Support Plays On Word Radio and Plays On Word Theater, please visit:
https://playsonword.networkforgood.com/

Plays On Word website
Plays On Word YouTube
Plays On Word Instagram
Plays On Word Facebook
Email us: team@playsonword.org

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Lord, you know you listen on the place of word. The radio is the best. Then the master came home. She waited till he came home and she basically told him the false story again, again. A garment Jacob with Esau. He dressed himself in a hairy garment to look like Esau. Tamar with Judah she dressed herself up. She wasn't a prostitute. Now, joseph with Potiphar's wife the garment. And when Joseph is clothed later on in Pharaoh's robes, the royal robes, there will be no deceit or question.

Speaker 2: 0:59

Hello and welcome to plays on word radio, where we discuss, analyze, work and play on the word of God. Thank you for joining us on this excursion. Today let's join Pastor Teddy, also known as Fred David Kenny Jr, the founder of plays on word theater, as he does a deep dive into the word of God. Yeah, we're diving off the dive.

Speaker 1: 1:20

Yes, yes, yes, amen. Welcome back all of you to plays on word radio. Thank you for tuning in, listening and streaming in the whole nine yards. Yes, thank you very much, katie Kenny and Josh Taylor also for that blessed intro. We are continuing in Genesis 39 and last week, man, we ran out of time. I was on a roll. Oh, I was Amen. Some of you still saying amen, your whole week was blessed from that, I bet, or your whole weekend, maybe the whole week. We're going to play just a little little clip just to bring it back to where, where we are in Genesis 39.

Speaker 1: 1:59

Check it out in the hours turned into days, and the days they turned into weeks, and the weeks they turned into years. And I'm a slave. I don't know. I don't know anything, 17 years old. But God, hey, now, elohim, god, the God of my father, yes, he was with me, hallelujah. When I was a slave in Egypt, he had the man Potiphar put me in charge of something and everything that I touched was blessed and prospered by God. Come on, man. Uh, we've been on this. But God theme for a minute. Yeah, verse chapter 39, verse two. The Lord was with Joseph Mmm, and he became a successful man.

Speaker 1: 3:07

And you know, in the in the Genesis Joe play we do kind of play on the theme of, not theme, but it is a statement he makes repeatedly the hours turned into days, the days they turned into weeks, the weeks they turned into pause. He pauses and then he says years, we don't even say months, the idea that you know the hours. The first time he says it he's thinking okay, my brothers, they were really upset with me, but this can't, this can't really be happening to me right now. This, this, um, not this, isn't they're, they're going to, they'll come get me, he says. And then he says the hours turned into days, and the days they turned into weeks, and the weeks they turned into years and they never did come get them. Then fast forward, when Joseph is thrown in prison, he thinks the same, he says the same thing. Now, this is not in the scripture. So don't you guys come after me and ask to emails or anything like that. Well, you're a heretic. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is this. Is that 2% where 98% scripture and then 2% is from my madness.

Speaker 1: 4:21

When he's, when Joseph is thrown in prison, he says the same thing. He's like okay, well, somebody's gonna speak up for me, somebody. You know, he was the manager, he was in charge of the whole household and it was all blessed. And he's thinking somebody will speak up for me, somebody. And he said. Then he said again he says the hours turn into the days, the days they turn into weeks, the weeks they turn into years.

Speaker 1: 4:41

Then at the end of his prison term, while he's in prison, the lowest point, the lowest point in the play is when the cup bearer forgets about him in prison. I mean, being a cup bearer to a king is way more than just holding a cup. Okay, this is like the chief of staff to the president of the United States. The chief of staff Right there, working with him at times an advisor, most definitely a eunuch, dedicated completely to you know the king. And Joseph is thinking oh man, it gets no closer to the seat of power than this guy and he's gonna speak to Pharaoh for me, get me out of here. And the last word to him was remember me and speak to Pharaoh for me and get me out of here, cause I was forcibly taken off from the land of the Hebrews and even here I've done nothing wrong to be thrown in a prison and a dungeon. Speak to Pharaoh for me.

Speaker 1: 5:43

And so it's a low point because Joseph, he said he's sitting there thinking and hoping. Okay, my guy is right there. And he says to himself the hours turned into days, and the days they turned into weeks, and the weeks they turned into years. A long pause there. And it's the lowest point in the play. And he says and he forgot me, everyone has forgotten me. And then Joseph looks up to God and says have you forgotten me too? And each time that phrase is said, the hours turned into days, days turned into weeks, weeks, it turned into years.

Speaker 1: 6:23

Each time afterwards, right after it is the phrase but God, and in the Hebrew, in the text, it says the Lord was with Joseph when he was a slave, sold as a slave, when he was thrown in, when he was a prisoner, thrown in prison, and when he was forgotten and all hope seemed to be lost. The Lord was with Joseph. The last one, the Lord. It was just shown that the Lord was with him because the doors opened up and they came to get Joseph and he was lifted up and exalted, raised to the right hand of Pharaoh, right hand of power. And it's a lesson for us in the depth of whatever you face, god is with you. If you have the Holy Spirit of God, if you are a bloodbought child of God by faith in Christ, you have the Holy Spirit, you have Emanuel, god with us, god with you, the Holy Spirit of God is with you, the Spirit of Christ, god is with you.

Speaker 1: 7:40

Now, do we live as if God is with us? Oh, that's a little tricky. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, and I'm not gonna ever lie to you. I will keep it real. Sometimes I don't and I wish I did always live as if God was with me, but this flesh is against the things of God, the things I wanna do. I don't do, the things I don't wanna do, these are the things I do. So if I do the things that I don't wanna do and I don't do the things that I wanna do, it's sin living in me, living in my flesh, in my members. What a skunk, what a wretch of a man I am. Who can save me from this body of death? Who can save me from this mess that I'm in? Thanks be to God, through Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Speaker 1: 8:34

If some of you know what I've been talking about, this whole little section, it's Romans 7 to Romans 8. And the Romans seven go back and read Romans seven and then Romans eight. There is now, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Now, who can save me? There's this war going on in the flesh, with my spirit that has been made alive in Christ, that loves God, that wants to do right. But, man, it's like this weight that keeps pulling me down. I can't be free, I can't fly because of this weight of sin that is still in this sinful flesh, this sinful nature, and that's why this flesh cannot enter heaven, cannot enter the kingdom of God, unless it dies or is changed one or the other, but your spirit. If you are a believer in Christ Jesus, your spirit has been breathed back to life and that's what Paul's talking about in Romans. That's what I'm talking about now.

Speaker 1: 9:39

Sometimes I do live as if God is with me and I do what's pleasing in the sight. Sometimes I don't. A lot of times when I'm in traffic I don't and I'm not proud of it. I have, I shouldn't even laugh. I've had murderous thoughts like I, oh man, I would just love to just run this person off the road. And then God's like, really man, then I feel bad. Anyway, I digress. Enough about me. I know some of you guys can relate, and if none of you, if there's somebody that said you can't relate, you're the best. Okay. So now verse six again. Now, joseph was handsome in form and appearance.

Speaker 1: 10:24

Verse seven and after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said lie with me, look at this setup Once again. Notice it starts with the eye. It is the gate to the soul. If you let in bad stuff, bad stuff's gonna govern you and bad stuff's gonna come out and happen. Job said I made a covenant with my eyes that I'm not gonna sin against God, a covenant. Now, this affects both men and women. Both we need to guard what we look at. We need to guard what we look at In her case, in Potiphar's wife's case, she was already corrupt and she saw, just like Judah.

Speaker 1: 11:16

Remember In a few episodes back Judah he went to Timna and he saw what he thought was a prostitute and he was off the rails. Nothing was governing him, no morals, and he ended up sleeping with her and she gets pregnant. It turns out it was his daughter-in-law. Yeah, starts with the eyes, samson starts with the eyes, seeing. So once again, she saw how handsome Joe was. He looked good, had all his hair, all his teeth looked good. I mean, he was 17, young, strong, maybe 18 at the time, but probably 17, either way. Yeah, I wish I was 18 again, man, and had the strength I had then. Yeah, yeah, they used to call me Ted Tostarone. Anyway, that's a whole other story. It is possible that the husband that Potiphar. It is possible that Potiphar was a eunuch, so she might have really been out there as far as fleshly desire.

Speaker 1: 12:23

In the Hebrew, the word for officer of Pharaoh's court or officer under Pharaoh he worked for Pharaoh. The word is eunuch and it's the same word that is used in the book of Daniel and other places in scripture, like Jeremiah, where talks of eunuchs that have been castrated. They were castrated men overseeing the king's domestic interests. They were part of the king's cabinet, but they were castrated because they oversaw not just the domestic interest the thing that the interest of the king domestically but specifically they oversaw the harem. Oh, you can't have An uncastrated guy taking care of the harem. Nah, we see that in the book of Daniel. We see it in the book of Esther. We get a little insight into the workings of the court. We see it in Jeremiah the eunuchs know what's happening, you know, and there this term is also used for Potiphar. It's also could be that he's just a court official, maybe not castrated, but that's not probable because of the culture. It also reduces the challenge to the throne.

Speaker 1: 13:39

You know, like I said, ted Tostaron, before Tostaron, you know, I was also knucklehead. I was ready to scrap, I was ready to. If you told me I wouldn't, I couldn't run through a wall, I would try to run through a wall. I'd be like what do you mean? You, I can't just hard hit it. And Tostaron, and not being castrated, that makes men challengers, and the older I get, the more I, the more testosterone I need. I'm trying to get back to Ted Tostaron. So pray for me, verse eight.

Speaker 1: 14:11

But he refused and said to his, said to his master's wife, because she had just said come to bed with me. And he was like whoa, whoa, whoa, behold, my master has not withheld anything from me in this house. He's put everything that he has in my charge. He's not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me, except for you, because you're his wife. Now, this guy here, joseph, is 17 years old. He's not castrated. We know that because he has kids later he's 17. The integrity this guy's got, you know, he's 17 years old.

Speaker 1: 14:51

Notice the contrast, though, with Judah in the previous chapter than 38. Look at the contrast, judah, he saw and had nothing governing him. Joseph is put in a position where he could clearly take advantage of the situation and he doesn't. But Joseph says to Potiphar's wife my master has no concern, meaning trust. And trust is absolutely important for anybody overseas, anything, any believer, any Christian. We need to be trustworthy, not looking for dishonest gain, as it says in Timothy and in Peter, not looking to beat anybody, not looking to be crooked. Okay, so we think of.

Speaker 1: 15:37

Actually. Let me take you back to grammar school. Does anybody know what the word integer means with math class? Yes, arithmetic, integer. It means basically no fractions or percentage. It's a whole, complete number. Now, whole numbers are like zero, one, two, three, four, five, six. An integer is just like a whole number. It's basically a whole number, but it also includes negative numbers. So you know negative, two, negative, one, zero, one, two, three. Those are integers. The word integrity comes from the Latin integratus, meaning whole, complete, trustworthy, not crooked or corrupt. Integrity comes from the same root as integer whole. And Joseph showed integrity, trustworthiness, complete, not halfway doing things.

Speaker 1: 16:40

Look at verse 9. How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? This is fascinating. I'm 17 years old. You contrast that with Judah in the previous chapter, who didn't even consider God. And, just as a side note, it was going back with Judah in 38.

Speaker 1: 17:02

It was going relatively well for Judah. It was going good. I mean, yes, his wife died, but he was going to shear a sheep and have a party and look, count his blessings and all that, his wealth, I should say. And it's not really going that good for Joe.

Speaker 1: 17:18

Yes, he's been exalted to managerial position in the household, but he's not free, and in Judah's case, it's easy to forget about God in prosperity. It's just easy to forget about God, the things of God, when you're prospering, when you feel like you don't need them. That's the Me, and my buddy Mike Morgan we've talked about this at length Got to have him back on the program. We've talked about this at length. The church, the Western church, particularly in America, feels as if we don't. Many times we don't need God, and not just a church, just the West in general. Do we need God? It's so prospered, we feel as if we don't need God. It's easy to forget about God and the things of God when you are prospering. It's something else to remember them, though, when you're not prospering and you have nowhere to turn. There's no atheists in foxholes when things are blowing up all around.

Speaker 1: 18:17

So I would encourage you, as my buddy Steve Schwartz would say. Pastor Steve, he would say I would encourage you, don't forget about God in your prosperity. When he blesses you, you thank Him. We always need God. Thank Him, bless His soul, praise Him. Do not forget God in your prosperity.

Speaker 1: 18:37

That was always the problem with Israel. And then you read the book of Judges. They forget about them. They get oppressed. They reach out to them. Oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord, he saves them. And then they forget about it again and it's just the sin cycle. Do not forget about God if you are at a low point. Do not forget about God if you are at a high point. Do not forget about God if you are at a midpoint. He is with you. Emanuel, god Almighty, is with you in every step of your way. Don't ever forget that.

Speaker 1: 19:17

Verse 10, as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he wouldn't listen to her. Yeah, he wouldn't even listen to her until I beside her or to be with her. Notice the onslaught. It didn't stop. The onslaught didn't stop. We need to be prepared for waves of attack, not one and done. The enemy doesn't usually play like that. We're to resist him and he'll flee from you. Yes, but we need to expect that we are going to get hit with temptations and stuff that will appeal to the flesh. The only thing that's going to appeal to a saved, reborn spirit is the word of God. That's the only thing that will appeal to that. But still, the things of the world and of the enemy still do appeal to the flesh. We have to fight that and resist it. But one day, when he went this is Joseph he went into the house to do his work. None of the men of the house was in there and she called him by his garment saying lie with me. But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house. This was a setup. Joe has done no wrong this entire time. He has been a man of integrity, a whole, complete man Verse 13,. As soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and fled out the house verse 14, she called to the men of her house and said to them wait, where were these guys at? They were at the heart there and then all of a sudden they're there.

Speaker 1: 20:44

In the play we make a little bit of a joke. Joseph comes in and he's like, well, I wonder where everybody's at. And he just Figured they, they all went to pyramid depot because they've been having some sales over there lately. It's actually a very funny line. I think I'll play it for you. Not right now, um. And then when he runs out the house, that's when all everybody comes back from pyramid depot. Everybody's on their way back.

Speaker 1: 21:10

And verse 14 she called out to the men of the house and said see, he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us. He came in to lie with me and I cried out with a loud voice she's straight up lying. And as soon as he heard it that, I lifted up my voice and cried out. He left this garment beside me and and fled out and got out of. That's a straight lie, man. Then the master came home. She waited till he came home and she basically told him the false story again, again.

Speaker 1: 21:45

A garment. Jacob with Esau. He dressed himself in a hairy garment to look like his brother, jacob, to look like Esau. Tamar with Judah she dressed herself up. She wasn't a prostitute, but she dressed herself up and he thought she was prostitute. Now, joseph with pot of her, pot of her's wife, the garment, and when Joseph is clothed later on, this garment. Theme goes throughout Genesis. When Joseph is clothed later on in Pharaoh's robes, the royal robes, there will be no deceit or question. And when Jesus, the Messiah, returns, he will be clothed both unmistakably, as king Maranatha. Hallelujah. No one will question who is that? What is he? What is the deal? No one's going to question because it will be unmistakable. Every eye shall see, everyone Will recognize him for who and what he is. Hallelujah, hmm, amen, hmm. Are we out of time again? We are out of time again. Oh Well, until next Friday. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you.

Speaker 2: 23:33

Peace. This program was made possible by the plays on word family of supporters. To find out more, check out our website at plays on wordorg.