Think of some of the movies, TV shows, books, or magazines that are currently popular. What are the standards of morality presented by those media offerings? How do those standards differ from the Lord’s standards? While the moral behavior of society often fails to reach the high standards set by God, the Lord’s standards never change. Today’s lesson reviews the experiences of one man who followed the Lord’s standard of morality and other men who did not.
His brothers sold Joseph into slavery --
(Genesis 37)
Jacob married Leah and Rachel, his cousins, and their handmaids, Zilpah and Bilhah. These four wives were the mothers of the twelve sons who were the beginnings of the twelve tribes of Israel. (As we know, the Lord changed Jacob’s name to Israel. See Genesis 32:28). Jacob’s eleventh son, Joseph, as the eldest son of Jacob and Rachel, received the birthright when Reuben, eldest son of Jacob and Leah, lost it through unrighteousness (1 Chronicles 5:1-2).
Genesis 37:3-8 reveals that Joseph’s brothers
were jealous of him because he was his father’s favorite and because he shared
a dream he had that indicated that he would rule over his brethren.
Genesis 37:13-14 - When Joseph was asked by Jacob
to check on the welfare of his brothers and their flocks in Shechem, 45 miles
away, he replied without hesitation that he would do so.
Genesis 37:15-17 – His brothers had moved their
flocks to Dothan, another 12 miles further, but Joseph journeyed on without
complaint. From this account, we learn
that Joseph was obedient and persistent in doing his father’s will.
Genesis 37:18-20 tells us that his brothers
conspired to slay Joseph as he approached them. But, upon further discussion,
they were persuaded by Reuben not to take Joseph’s life. Instead, they sold him to passing Midianites
as a slave.
Genesis 37:28, 31-34 reveal what they did to deceive
their father about Joseph’s disappearance.
Joseph refused to “sin against
God” (Genesis 39)
Genesis 39:1-4 records how Joseph was blessed by
the Lord after being sold as a slave.
Genesis 39:5-6 teaches that as Joseph remained
faithful to the Lord, he was blessed with a great ability to serve his master,
Potiphar, a wealthy officer of Pharaoh.
Potiphar’s wealth increased as a result of the Lord blessing him through
Joseph’s stewardship.
Genesis 39:11-12 – When tempted by Potiphar’s wife
to commit sexual sin, Joseph fled rather than comply with her worldly
wishes. As we should know from this
example, we too should immediately flee from the presence of temptation rather
than succumb to it. Of course, if he had wanted to give in to the advances of
Potiphar’s wife, Joseph could have invented and used numerous excuses. The practice of making excuses to justify
sexual sins is commonplace today. We
see it constantly in the “entertainment” media. But the Lord gives no merit to any excuses or worldly
justifications for indulging in sexual immorality.
Genesis 39:12-20. The lies and false accusations
of Potiphar’s wicked wife resulted in Potiphar’s imprisonment of Joseph because
he thought Joseph had tried to assault his wife. So, he went from being the trusted overseer of the estate to a
lowly prisoner as a result of his virtue.
In today’s world, the virtuous are sometimes ridiculed and excluded from
social activities, but often they are respected for their wholesome values and
righteous behavior. Of course, the
greatest pressure to engage in immorality is on our youth—and unfortunately,
too many of them fail when put to the test.
Genesis 39:21-23 emphasizes that while Joseph was
imprisoned, the Lord was with him. This
assures us that Joseph continued in righteousness instead of blaming God for
his problems since he was only following the Lord’s commandments. Because of his faith and sincere desire to
follow the Lord no matter what the cost, Joseph’s bad circumstances were turned
into good ones.
Elder Hartman Rector Jr. explained: “[The] ability to turn
everything into something good appears to be a godly characteristic. Our
Heavenly Father always seems to be able to do this. Everything, no matter how dire, becomes a victory to the
Lord. Joseph, although a slave and
wholly undeserving of this fate, nevertheless remained faithful to the Lord and
continued to live the commandments and made something very good of his
degrading circumstances. People like
this cannot be defeated” (Ensign, Jan. 1973, 130).
While Joseph was valiant in the face of temptation, not all of his family and acquaintances were so valiant. Shechem (with Dinah), Reuben (with Bilhah), and Judah (with Tamar) failed the test of sexual temptations. (Genesis 34:1-12; 35:22; 38:1-30).
Genesis 34:3 describes Shechem’s feelings for
Dinah, but If he had truly loved her, he would not have defiled her. People’s excuse that “We are in love” as a
justification for immoral behavior doesn’t ring true. People in love don’t
cause each other to sin and suffer guilt just to satisfy physical desires. Behavior that makes it hard for people to
pray, makes them unworthy for entrance to the temple, and breaks up families is
not motivated by love.
Genesis 49:3-4 compliments Reuben’s good
attributes, but Jacob’s blessing condemns Reuben for his moral sins. He was judged to be “unstable as water”. Just as his sins cost him dearly, the
spiritual and temporal consequences of sexual sin today are serious in the
sight of the Lord. The Lord places
great importance on being morally clean.
Genesis 28:10-19 is the story of “Jacob’s ladder”
that reached up to heaven. Jacob named
the place Bethel, which means “house of God”.
Today that name refers to the temple—the house of God. Elder Marion G. Romney stated, “Temples are to us all what
Bethel was to Jacob” (Ensign, May, 1971, 16). In preparation for a return to Bethel, Jacob
asked his family to make specific preparations—“Put away the strange gods
that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments:” (Genesis
35:2). They were to be temporally
prepared to go to that sacred place just as we have responsibilities to
properly prepare for temple attendance. They took off symbols of their strange
gods (rings and earrings, etc.).
Elder Spencer W. Kimball said: “The Lord has blessed us as
a people unequaled in times past. The resources that have been placed in our
power are good, and necessary to our work here on the earth. But I am afraid that many of us have been
surfeited (supplied
to excess)
with flocks and herds and acres and barns and wealth and have begun to worship
them as false gods, and they have power over us. Do we have more of these good
things than our faith can stand?… In spite of our delight in defining ourselves
as modern, and our tendency to think we possess a sophistication that no people
in the past ever had—in spite of these things, we are, on the whole, an
idolatrous people—a condition most repugnant to the Lord” (Ensign,
June 1976, 4, 6). Have
we put away our “strange gods”???
Jacob and Esau were reunited
Returning to Canaan, Jacob expected to meet again with
Esau. But according to Genesis 32:11,
he was afraid that Esau would smite him.
Genesis 32:13-20 details Jacob’s preparations to appease his elder
brother with a multitude of presents.
When they did meet, Esau was happy to see Jacob and was reluctant to
accept the gifts. This serves as an
example for us in resolving family conflicts.
Concubines in Old Testament times
Genesis 35:22 refers to Bilhah, one of Rachel’s handmaids,
as Jacob’s concubine. Elder
Bruce R. McConkie provided the following explanation: “ All down through the
history of God’s dealings with his people, including those with the house of
Israel, concubines were legal wives married to their husbands in the new and
everlasting covenant of marriage…Anciently they were considered to be secondary
wives, that is, wives who did not have the same standing in the caste system
then prevailing as did those wives who were not called concubines” (Mormon
Doctrine, 2nd ed. [1966], 154).
With the Lord’s help, all of our experiences and circumstances can work together for our good.
These
lessons are posted on the Internet at http://www.neumanninstitute.org