The last couple of times we’ve talked about temptation as a mousetrap and how to escape the lure of the cheese. Sometimes though we have to follow the example of Joseph and turn tail and run. Let’s take a minute and look at how he survived the lure of the cheese in the trap.
The story of one who survived
In the book of Genesis is the story of Joseph. He was one of Jacob’s sons and seems to have gotten nothing but trouble in his life. He was sold by his brothers into slavery and taken to Egypt. A leader in Egypt buys him and puts Joseph to work and realizes he got lucky in his purchase and puts Joseph in charge of his entire household. Potiphar’s wife soon begins to want to have sex with Joseph.
After some time the wife of Joseph’s master began to desire Joseph, and one day she said to him, “Have sexual relations with me.“ But Joseph refused and said to her, “My master trusts me with everything in his house. He has put me in charge of everything he owns. There is no one in his house greater than I. He has not kept anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How can I do such an evil thing? It is a sin against God.” The woman talked to Joseph every day, but he refused to have sexual relations with her or even spend time with her. One day Joseph went into the house to do his work as usual and was the only man in the house at that time. His master’s wife grabbed his coat and said to him, “Come and have sexual relations with me.” But Joseph left his coat in her hand and ran out of the house. Genesis 39:7-12 (NCV)
Joseph is just trying to serve his master when all of the sudden someone puts some cheese in a trap for him. The trap is set and Joseph has a choice to make. Will he bite or will he resist? Joseph chooses to walk not to bite. In fact he runs. Oh that cheese was something special, but Joseph knew that it was not his to eat. He had the integrity to not fall victim to the trap.
Sometimes that is how we beat temptation. It is not very macho. It may even seem weak. But, in reality at times it is the strongest, smartest and Godly choice we can make. Always remember: A good run beats a bad fight every day. Joseph shows us that resisting at a distance is a lot better than having our neck snapped in a trap. After all, the idea is to stay alive and not let temptation get the best of us.
Temptation is coming for all of us. Sometimes we even go looking for it. So let’s finish this talk of mousetraps with a few questions.
When are you going to quit building your own mousetraps?
What’s your cheese?
Isn’t a good life enough? Why do we feel the need to go for the forbidden?
How we choose to answer those questions can save us some trouble in our lives. After all, we have all the cheese we need right in our own fridge. Why go looking for someone else’s cheese or cheese that is just out of reach. Be happy with the cheese we have or that we can get out without the trap. If we do that in our lives, we live to be older and wiser than the other mice we run around with.