It is so hard to be like Yoseph.  Following his example is difficult while living in a society of self-gratification and sensual entertainment.  It is very challenging to stay pure…to be undefiled…to turn away…to control the mind…to close the eyes.  Yoseph was presented with a solicitation to sin sexually with Potiphar’s wife yet he refused.  “Lie with me,” she said to him.  Does this sound familiar to you?

This is the same message, the exactly identical enticement that solicitates today.  Yet now it is not Potiphar’s wife that brings the invitation, rather it is web sites, magazines, emails, television channels, and music.  Day after day the onslaught of the sexual bombards man.  To be like Yoseph and stop the roaming eyes and thoughts of the mind; to say “no” is every man’s battle.  There are lingerie commercials that expose too much and even advertisements for shampoo contain the risqué.  What would be considered profane in the 1950’s is proudly appealing and stylish today.  The attack is everywhere – billboards, commercials, and all around the supermarket and mall.  A person cannot even stand in line at the gas station without seeing magazine covers and magazines that just should not be printed.

Potiphar’s wife wanted to be intimate with the handsome Yoseph.  She tempted him and pursued him.  “She sits at the door of her house or on a seat at the heights of the city, calling to those who pass by,” says Mishlei (Proverbs) 19:14.  This call of seduction sounds loudly even to this modern age…

“This isn’t hurting anyone”

“Just one look won’t bother anything”

“No one will ever know”

Yoseph heard the same words, yet Yoseph remained pure.  Yoseph refused to surrender to his lusts.  Surely he had the desires but he conquered those desires.  “And as much as she coaxed Yoseph day after day, he did not yield to her request to lie with her or even be with her,” Beresheet (Genesis) 39:10.

While working as a slave, Yoseph determined that he would not be a slave to his lusts.  He would not give himself over to his flesh, to his yetzer hara.  To help himself with the battle he would not even give himself the opportunity to yield to her temptation.  Remember that it says, “he did not yield to her request… or even be with her.”  Yoseph was smart.  He knew that if he wanted to stay out of trouble then he needed to stay away from trouble.  He could not give his evil inclination a foothold.

Yet, one day Yoseph messed up.  Yoseph came into the house to do his work and there was Potiphar’s wife awaiting him.  There she was.  And they were alone.  None of the household was inside except the two that didn’t need to be.  It was Yoseph and the tempter.  The Zohar says that he came “to engage in the Torah and obey its commands.”  Yoseph had good intentions yet he was at the wrong place at the wrong time.  Or was he?  Was Yoseph put in a place of compromise or victory?

Again, the Zohar says that Yoseph came to the house “to engage in the Torah and obey its commands.”  And he did just that.  Yoseph acted upon the teachings of the Torah…“You shall not commit adultery,” Shemot (Exodus) 20:14.  His obedience is a powerful example on how to go through your day-to-day life without giving in lust.  Just run away.  Avoid it.  Close your eyes to it.

A recent study shows that the average male has one sexual though every seven seconds.  Either these thoughts are allowed to flourish or they are stamped out.  What is done with the idea, with the sexual thought is the heart of the issue at hand.  “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his hear” said the Messiah Yahshua.  The Redeemer was not saying that it is wrong to have a thought about intimacy.  To do so is only natural, as mankind was created with a desire to reproduce.  It is not the desire that is sinful.  It is what is done with this desire that leads to the sins.  When the Messiah said, “anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery” He was drawing people to the original intention of the Torah command found in Shemot 20:14.  If you don’t look with lust then you won’t commit lusts like adultery.  Sin starts in the mind; in the hearts; in the eyes; in the yetzer hara.  “Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire (or yetzer hara), he is dragged away and enticed.  Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death,” Ya’akov (James) 1:14-16.  (For more on the yetzer hara go to http://www.emetministries.com/yetzer_hara.htm)   

So, man was created with these strong natural desires, yet is only allowed to fulfill them within the context of a Biblical marriage relationship.  According to scriptural principle anything else, be it over the phone, in the mind, on the Internet, or with another person is sin.  It is a sin that entices at the beginning and then controls at end.  Just like Potiphar’s wife who gently called Yoseph at first and eventually grabbed a hold of him, this area of sin can start small and then yield to great addiction.  “The evil impulse is at first sweet; in the end it is bitter,” said one Rabbi.

Here are a few things we can learn from Yoseph’s experiences.  It is hard to be like Yoseph.  Honestly, it is extremely difficult to remain pure in a world of the profane but it can be done.  Yoseph did it and so can you.

“Now Yoseph was well-built and handsome, and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Yoseph and said, “Come to bed with me,” Beresheet 39:6-7.

You are hurting more than just yourself.

“How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against Elohim?” Beresheet 39:9

Refuse the daily assault of the sexual.

“And though she spoke to Yoseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her,” Beresheet 39:10

Run away from temptation.

“One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside.  She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house,” Beresheet 39:11-12

When you are by yourself be very careful.