Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 2 Timothy 2:22
Twice this summer I suffered the scourge of poison ivy. Both times it happened, I was working on clearing away unwanted plant growth from our yard. And both times, I saw the nasty, three-leafed enemy lurking nearby. I figured I could get close to it without it affecting me. Soon enough, I realized I’d been wrong. Instead of getting nearer to my little green nemesis, I should have run the other way!
In the Old Testament story of Joseph, we see modeled the principle of running from something worse than poison ivy: sin. When he was living in the home of Egyptian official Potiphar, whose wife tried to seduce him, Joseph didn’t try to get close—he ran.
Although she falsely accused him and had him thrown in prison, Joseph remained pure throughout the episode. And as we see in Genesis 39:21, “The Lord was with him.”
God can help us flee activities and situations that could lead us away from Him—guiding us to run the other way when sin is nearby. In 2 Timothy 2:22, Paul writes, “Flee the evil desires.” And in 1 Corinthians 6:18, he says to “flee from sexual immorality.”
In God’s strength, may we choose to run from those things that could harm us.
11 One day he went into the house to attend to his duties,r
and none of the household servantss was inside.
12 She caught him by his cloakt and said, “Come to bed with me!”u
But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.v
13 When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand
and had run out of the house,
14 she called her household servants.w “Look,” she said to them,
“this Hebrewx has been brought to us to make sport of us!y
He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed.z
15 When he heard me scream for help,
he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”a
16 She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home.
17 Then she told him this story:b
“That Hebrewc slaved you brought us came to me to make sport of me.
18 But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”
19 When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying,
“This is how your slave treated me,” he burned with anger.e
20 Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison,f
the place where the king’s prisoners were confined.
But while Joseph was there in the prison,
21 the Lord was with him;g he showed him kindnessh
and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.i
22 So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison,
and he was made responsible for all that was done there.j
23 The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’sk care,
because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.l
INSIGHT
- What’s your “poison ivy,” something that can infect you if you don’t run from it?
- What can you do to run from it?
When Joseph was confronted with sexual temptation (Genesis 39:11–23), he didn’t stay put and try to resist it; rather, “he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house” (v. 12). The New Testament commands us to “flee from sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 6:18). We’re to run away from it—not toward it—as fast as we can, and to keep as far away as possible (Proverbs 5:8). We should beware of overestimating our ability to resist it and underestimating its power. Running from sexual temptation by the enabling of the Spirit isn’t the act of a coward; it’s the strength of a person committed to following Jesus.
PRAYER
God, You know what I’m getting too close to right now. Help me to run from it and not look back. Please give me the courage and wisdom to not let anything get between You and me. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen!!
Read: Genesis 39:11-23 (NIV) | Bible in a Year: Job 14-16 ; Acts 9:22-43
