No Substitute for Integrity at Work
It’s good to be back with you again, and I’m especially pleased to have my wife Jan with me this weekend. I appreciate her so much and the contribution she made to our ministry here. This church allowed her to be my wife and mother to our two boys rather than the first lady of the church, and that was good for both of us. You treated her like a first lady but didn’t put first-lady expectations on her!
We began a series from the life of Joseph two weeks ago by looking at Joseph’s early life and focusing on the damage that occurs when parents play favorites. We saw how this man of character overcame the results of the favoritism and broke the cycle of dysfunction. Then last week we considered what can happen when temptation comes in like a flood. Joseph was blindsided by a powerful, persistent and sudden sexual temptation, but he survived through a proper view of God, a proper view of sin, a proper view of others, and a proper view of himself.
Today we will turn our attention to something a little less intense—Joseph’s amazing work history. God has graciously established four institutions for the human race—family, church, government, and work. Of these four it is probably the case that work has traditionally received the least amount of focus from the Christian community. Many of us pastors have probably inadvertently communicated that certain kinds of work, namely “ministry” and “missions,” are more important than others, contributing to an unhealthy sacred/secular divide. And we have at times failed to assist and equip our congregations to connect their Sunday faith with their Monday work.
Yet, work is of paramount importance. It was a crucial part of life in the Garden of Eden, even before the Fall. It is something most of us do every day of our lives. Even retired people work. In fact, a geezer friend of mine complained that the problem with retirement is that you never get a day off! (Think about that for a moment!) Work has a tremendous impact on our mental and emotional health, to say nothing of our financial health. And it is through the productivity of our work that the other three institutions God has established—family, the church, and government—are all sustained.
In recent years the Church has thankfully begun to correct the neglect of vocation as an important focus of theology. Tom Nelson is a good friend who planted the thriving Christ Community Church in K.C. over 25 years ago. He did his pastoral internship at our church in Wichita. Tom has written a great book which is really a biblical theology of vocation, entitled Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship to Monday Work. More recently Tim Keller of New York’s Redeemer Church has written Every Good Endeavor, Connecting Your Work to God’s Work. I heartily recommend both of these books.
I want to tackle the same theme today but I want to do it through a life story. And there is no one I know who better exemplifies a biblical attitude toward work than Joseph. His life reflects the truth that there is no substitute for integrity at work. If you look up the word “integrity” in a thesaurus you will find words like honesty, honor, faithfulness, and reliability. Joseph exemplified all of these.
There are three major parts to Joseph’s work history found in three different chapters, so we won’t be having one primary Scripture reading today; we will read the relevant portions as they come up. Each of these parts of Joseph’s life gives insight into how he exercised integrity and enjoyed success as a worker and a leader in the market place to which God called him.
Joseph as slave in the house of Potiphar (Genesis 39)
We studied chapter 39 last week, so we will re-read just the first paragraph and make a few observations.
The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the LORD was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. So he left in Joseph’s care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.
What is obvious from this paragraph is that Joseph was extremely successful in his first job as an adult. In a relatively short time he rose from being a purchased slave to trustee and then, in effect, business manager over everything Potiphar owned. We are clearly told the source of this amazing success. Five times in this paragraph the Lord is identified as the Mover behind all that happened. However, I believe there is another reason for his success, probably too obvious for the author to mention: Joseph was a man of absolute integrity. He was a hard worker, honest, faithful, congenial, and competent.
Two principles stand out from this chapter of Joseph’s life.
God can increase your influence as you serve with integrity in whatever job He places you. Joseph had been the prince of a family that had been promised by God they would have enormous success and influence (remember God’s promises to Joseph’s great-grandfather Abraham, his grandfather Isaac, and his father Jacob?). But here he is in a foreign country, betrayed by his brothers, totally isolated from his father, and serving as a slave! No one would be surprised if Joseph had been bitter at his status and refused to do any more than the bare minimum. But instead Joseph accepted the fact that circumstances were not in charge of his life–God was. He was where he was ultimately because God placed him there, or at least allowed it. So his assignment was to be submissive to God and thrive to the best of his ability.
Some of you undoubtedly are in what appears to be a dead-end job. You can’t stand the hours, your bosses are unfair, the work is demeaning, and you have lost all motivation to excel. Think again. All those things may be true, but are you really in as difficult a situation as Joseph? God calls you to do your work as unto Him! Remember Ephesians 6:7: “Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men.” If you do that, God can give you influence beyond your wildest imagination.
A man in our church in Wichita had a job almost no one here would want–he was a jailhouse worker in the Sedgwick County Jail. The pay was lousy, and it was a thankless job in many ways. But God used Jim in some unique ways to touch the lives of prisoners and fellow-employees alike. Another man in our church was a house painter for five decades. Reese witnessed to hundreds of homeowners through the quality of his work, but he was also known as a man of integrity at the paint store. One day the manager took the Lord’s name in vain, but then he saw Reese standing there and apologized. It wasn’t because Reese had been preaching to him but because he showed through his life that such behavior was uncalled for.
Believe me, God can increase your influence as you serve diligently, faithfully, and with excellence in whatever job He places you. But second, …
2. There are unique temptations in any job, and God calls us to resist those temptations to His glory and honor. As we saw so clearly last week, if anyone ever had a rational excuse for yielding to temptation, it was Joseph. But instead he responded to the seduction of Potiphar’s wife by declaring, “How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” Tom Nelson writes,
Our work world brings with it the formidable challenge of many personal temptations. We can be tempted to abuse our power, to manipulate others for our own gain, to plagiarize someone else’s creative work, to steal from our employer . . . . Whether we are single or married, the workplace is often where we are most tempted to cross the boundaries God has for us in regard to our sexual purity.[i]
What are the unique temptations of your job? In what ways are you tempted to cut corners? Are you right now flirting with danger? Now is the time to hit the brakes! Or maybe now is the time to flee, as Joseph did! We move quickly to Joseph’s second job.
Joseph as a prisoner in Pharaoh’s dungeon (39:20-40:23)
You will recall that when Joseph refused the seductive advances of Potiphar’s wife he was framed and falsely accused and thrown into the place where the king’s prisoners were confined, probably a dungeon. Let’s review starting at the end of verse 20 of chapter 39:
But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him; He showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 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. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.
Consider three principles from Joseph’s life in Pharaoh’s dungeon.
1. When bad goes to worse, the Lord is still there. I ask you to put yourself in Joseph’s place. You have been betrayed by your own brothers and sold into slavery in a foreign country, but through hard work, honesty, and competence you have worked your way up to a respectable place of responsibility in Potiphar’s house. Not only that, but you have done everything God asked of you and have remained true to His commands. So what are you doing here in prison, convicted of a crime you consciously avoided? Where is God in all this?
Well, the author doesn’t leave us to wonder, for twice again we are told, “the Lord was with him.” God never abandons His children, never gets caught taking a nap, never delegates oversight of our lives to someone else. The promise of His presence is an amazing comfort, especially when our lives take a turn for the worse. Again I remind you of the key verse in the entire 13 chapters devoted to Joseph’s life: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.”
2. Character is who we are, not what we do. It’s bad enough to be a slave in a rich man’s house; it is far worse to be a prisoner in Pharaoh’s dungeon. But neither situation affects Joseph’s character in the slightest. He is going to be a godly man, a hard worker, a faithful steward, and a man of integrity no matter what or where or how long! (And don’t overlook the fact that Joseph served in this prison for an extended period of time. Chapter 40:1 and 41:1 offer two time reference points, indicating that he spent considerably more than two years confined.)
Bill Hybels wrote a book entitled, Who You Are When No One Is Looking. He states an important fact: character is not the same as reputation–what other people think of us. It is not the same as success or achievement. It is not what we have done, but who we are–deep down inside. Joseph, friends, lives by the same principles in prison as he did in Potiphar’s house–because that’s who he is. (Note: unfortunately Hybels himself apparently did not live up to these truths, as was revealed in 2018).
3. Success is possible in the worst of jobs. I like that statement in verse 23: “The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care.” (A similar statement was made back in verse 6 of Potiphar: “he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.”) But the statement about the warden is even more amazing. Can you even imagine it? Joseph is a convict, friends, but he has demonstrated such integrity that the warden could take a vacation and leave Joseph in charge of the prison! It brings to mind the jailer in Philippi (Acts 16) who was ready to commit suicide because an earthquake had destroyed his prison. He knew that even an act of God would not excuse an escape from a Roman prison, and he would rather take his own life than be hung. Then he heard Paul’s voice calling to him, “Don’t harm yourself. We’re all here!” And what are the first words out of the jailer’s mouth? “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”! When believers demonstrate integrity, a lost world can’t help but sit up and take notice!
Now quickly we fast forward to the third chapter of Joseph’s work life, where we find a major reversal and where we will spend the bulk of our time this morning. God elevates him to the position of Prime Minister of Egypt. The story of how this happens is absolutely fascinating. Believe me, you couldn’t make this stuff up! I don’t have time to tell the whole story, but I will try to give you the Cliff Notes version from chapter 40 and 41. (Note: I am including several sermons on these chapters from an earlier series, sermons 4 & 5).
While in prison Joseph is given the ability to interpret the dreams of two of Pharaoh’s personal servants who have fallen out of favor and are thrown into the dungeon with him. In one case he predicts the prisoner’s release and restoration; in the other case he predicts the prisoner’s execution. Both happen exactly as predicted. Joseph begs the one who was restored to remember him when he gets out, but the man sadly forgets all about him.
Fast forward two full years. Pharaoh himself has two dreams and is desperate to have them interpreted. The former prisoner suddenly remembers Joseph’s accurate interpretation of his dream and finally commends him to Pharaoh. Joseph, giving all the credit to God, interprets the dreams as predicting seven years of plenty throughout the known world, then seven years of unprecedented famine, and he claims that it will all unfold soon because God had firmly decided it. Joseph also offers a plan to deal with the trauma that the great famine will produce. He suggests that Pharaoh purchase 20% of all the food produced over the first seven years so that Egypt will have enough food during the last seven years. Pharaoh is so grateful for the interpretation that he appoints Joseph to be in charge. We pick up the story in 41:41.
Joseph as Prime Minister of Egypt (Genesis 41)
So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.” Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph’s finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. He had him ride in a chariot as his second-in- command, and men shouted before him, “Make way!” Thus he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt.
Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, but without your word no one will lift hand or foot in all Egypt.” Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah and gave him Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, to be his wife. And Joseph went throughout the land of Egypt.
Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from Pharaoh’s presence and traveled throughout Egypt.
During the seven years of abundance the land produced plentifully. Joseph collected all the food produced in those seven years of abundance in Egypt and stored it in the cities. In each city he put the food grown in the fields surrounding it. Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain, like the sand of the sea; it was so much that he stopped keeping records because it was beyond measure.
Joseph is no longer simply a worker under authority; he is now a leader, so I want us to look at this part of his work life in terms of what a wise leader does or doesn’t do.
A wise leader doesn’t let success go to his head. Note well that Joseph the faithful trustee doesn’t suddenly become Joseph the greedy, hard-nosed tyrant when he goes from being a slave and a prisoner to #2 in the nation. Believe me, that could have happened. In fact, it would have been the expectation of the day, or for that matter, of our day. You’ve seen it, and so have I–people who experienced an extreme makeover in their personality when success went to their heads. No, he continues instead to use the influence God has given him to do his job with absolute integrity, undoubtedly pointing people to God as the source of every good gift.
A wise leader practices delayed gratification. (41:46-49, 53-57) One of the greatest problems our political leaders exhibit today, in my estimation, is a virtual total ignorance of the principle of delayed gratification. With the exception of former Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, I’m not sure I could point to a single legislator in Congress—on either side of the aisle, friends—who regularly practices any significant degree of self-control regarding the spending of taxpayer money. At the same time Congress completely ignores the looming crisis in Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid. All the while the national debt continues to climb into the stratosphere.
That’s one of the reasons I see the story of Joseph as so amazingly refreshing. He exhibits the leadership and the courage to institute a plan of forced savings for an entire country! It all starts with Prime Minister Joseph insisting the nation set aside huge amounts of grain during the seven years of plenty. Now most people when they have an excess just spend more. That’s certainly par for the course with our political leaders. I don’t know if you remember, but less than 20 years ago our nation had two straight years of budget surpluses and the CBO was predicting the national debt could be reduced by $5 trillion in a relatively short time! So how did our nation’s leaders respond? The same way I suspect the politicians of Joseph’s day responded. I have little doubt that Joseph faced opponents who said: “Let’s sell this extra food and use the proceeds to cut taxes or expand the military or subsidize universal health coverage.” Almost never do we hear anyone seriously suggesting that government should save anything for a rainy day or even pay down debt.
Rainy days do come, you know. You can count on it. They sure came on Egypt. Rather dry days came, but the principle is the same. Famine arrived. We read about that in verses 53-57 of chapter 41:
The seven years of abundance in Egypt came to an end, and the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all the other lands, but in the whole land of Egypt there was food. When all Egypt began to feel the famine, the people cried to Pharaoh for food. Then Pharaoh told all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph and do what he tells you.”
When the famine had spread over the whole country, Joseph opened the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe throughout Egypt. And all the countries came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe in all the world.
Delayed gratification. It’s the best way to have what you need when you need it. It’s the best way to enjoy some extras without mortgaging your future. It’s actually the best way to enjoy almost anything, because the longer you wait for it, the more enjoyable it will be (or in some cases you’ll discover you didn’t need it in the first place). Delayed gratification, of course, is not just an economic principle but a spiritual and moral one as well. It’s God’s way, and always has been. For example, He calls upon us to delay gratifying our sexual urges until marriage so that the real fullness and satisfaction God intended can be realized. Proverbs 24:27 gives another example: “Finish your outdoor work and get your fields ready; after that, build your house.” That’s delayed gratification for an agrarian society, but the principle applies to us as well.
Our last three principles come from chapter 47 and the account of Joseph’s leadership during the famine itself. This is going to be a little more challenging because we’re going to read some things about Joseph that may cause us to question whether he’s a man of integrity after all. Let’s begin our reading in 47:13-31.
There was no food, however, in the whole region because the famine was severe; both Egypt and Canaan wasted away because of the famine. Joseph collected all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan in payment for the grain they were buying, and he brought it to Pharaoh’s palace. When the money of the people of Egypt and Canaan was gone, all Egypt came to Joseph and said, “Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? Our money is used up.”
“Then bring your livestock,” said Joseph. “I will sell you food in exchange for your livestock, since your money is gone.” So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses, their sheep and goats, their cattle and donkeys. And he brought them through that year with food in exchange for all their livestock.
When that year was over, they came to him the following year and said, “We cannot hide from our lord the fact that since our money is gone and our livestock belongs to you, there is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land. Why should we perish before your eyes—we and our land as well? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we with our land will be in bondage to Pharaoh. Give us seed so that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate.”
So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh.
Skip down to verse 23:
Joseph said to the people, “Now that I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed for you so you can plant the ground. But when the crop comes in, give a fifth of it to Pharaoh. The other four-fifths you may keep as seed for the fields and as food for yourselves and your households and your children.”
“You have saved our lives,” they said. “May we find favor in the eyes of our lord; we will be in bondage to Pharaoh.”
So Joseph established it as a law concerning land in Egypt—still in force today (i.e. when the book of Genesis was written)—that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh. It was only the land of the priests that did not become Pharaoh’s.
Now on first reading of this passage one might doubt Joseph’s qualifications as a man of God and think of him as just one more Middle Eastern tyrant. I think that would be a serious misunderstanding of the text. We, of course, must not evaluate Joseph against the backdrop of western democratic ideals or capitalistic economic principles. We must understand as well that Joseph was not Pharaoh; he was under Pharaoh. And Pharaoh was an absolute monarch. His word was law.
Bible heroes, you see, lived in two worlds–the political, economic and social milieu they grew up in, and the world of biblical faith. Frequently there were clashes between those worlds, as there are in ours. Never did God tell them to abandon their culture or to institute a revolution against it. They were to be in their world while not being of it. That’s still our responsibility, and I believe Joseph is a good example of how to do that. So here’s our next principle:
A wise leader submits to authority and practices accountability. (47:13-14) As we have noted, Joseph was #2 man in Egypt. As #2 it was his job to further #1’s interests. Not the people’s interests, mind you, nor the interests of immigrants from Canaan, nor the interests of other countries in the Middle East, but Pharaoh’s. As long as Pharaoh’s interests were not in conflict with the laws of God, Joseph was perfectly within his responsibility, even obligation, to pursue them.
Joseph did not give grain away, he sold it, and all the money went into Pharaoh’s coffers (verse 14). We could focus on the fact that this was making Pharaoh very rich and complain about that, but I choose to focus instead on the fact that Joseph clearly wasn’t skimming off the top. All the moneycame to the palace. There’s a lot of corruption in American business and politics and sports. Believe me, a lot! And the greater the amount of money that is being transferred, the greater the corruption. But Joseph was faithfully accountable in regard to the huge amounts of money he was handling.
By the way, if you are troubled by the fact that Joseph sells this grain to the people, keep in mind that he bought it from them in the first place. Furthermore, they knew why he was buying it—because a famine was predicted. Private citizens could have stored up grain for themselves so they would have what they needed and wouldn’t have to use all their money to buy grain from the government. They just didn’t do it. Let’s place responsibility where it lies. Fourth principle:
A wise leader faces extreme circumstances with creativity and competence. (47:15-21) Probably not since Noah had the civilized world faced a greater crisis than this extensive famine. It’s at times like this that people look for great leaders, creative leaders, competent leaders to solve huge problems. Franklin Roosevelt, whatever you think of his politics, was just such a leader. He found ways to provide hope for a nation in economic despair. Churchill did the same thing for England in the dark days of WWII. And Joseph did it for his nation.
He built granaries all over Egypt. Rows and rows of them have recently been uncovered from the endless sands! Then he devised a way to dispense the grain. It must have taken quite a bureaucracy to administer this program for the whole nation, plus foreign countries. And he devised a system of payment, first involving currency, then livestock, and then the land. Just imagine how this was done, apparently without riots or chaos! It is evidence of Joseph’s competence and creativity. Do you think we would have the problems with HealthCare.gov if Joseph had been secretary of HHS instead of a former governor of Kansas?
But you say, something can be creative and competent but still not be moral. All the currency is now in Pharaoh’s coffers, all the livestock belong to him, and all the land has been deeded to him. Instead of private ownership, now everything belongs to the state, which means it belongs to one man. Yes, but is this immoral or simply distasteful to us? Did Pharaoh steal it? No.
But then we learn something potentially even more disturbing. It says in verse 21, “and Joseph reduced the people to servitude from one end of Egypt to the other.” That sounds totally unacceptable to our ears, but I don’t think we should read the American slave trade into this verse. Quite the contrary, I think this paragraph illustrates still another principle:
A wise leader acts responsibly in behalf of the people under him. (47:23-26) Joseph is providing the single greatest need people have–the need for food. And it is clear from verses 23-24 that he didn’t take away their income-producing capacity, for Pharaoh took only 20% of the produce and the people retained ownership of the other 80%. Last time I checked, that’s more than our government lets us keep today!
Not only that, the people’s attitude in verse 25 is one of extreme gratitude: “‘You have saved our lives,’ they said. ‘May we find favor in the eyes of our lord. We will be in bondage to Pharaoh.’” So whatever kind of servitude they were placed into, they agreed willingly and considered their present state far superior to the alternative. We may look with disfavor on the political and economic results of Joseph’s plan, but I think the people who experienced it are better evaluators of its effectiveness and its morality than we are some 4000 years later. They are grateful.
Now I believe these principles are all valid today; we just have to translate them into the culture in which we live and work.
Conclusion: Success is not earned, even by exercising integrity; success is a gift from the Lord. Have you noticed how many times in this whole story the text tells us that the Lord was the source of Joseph’s success? Friends, no matter how brilliant and competent you may be, your success in life is not your own doing. When President Obama said, “You didn’t build that,” he was actually right. But for the wrong reason. He meant you couldn’t do what you do without the government’s help. The truth is you couldn’t do what you do without God’s help. His gifts and His grace are far more important than anything you or the government have contributed. Stop and think about it. What did you have to do with where you were born, the time in history, the particular family, the IQ you were blessed with, the physical health? And the answer is, NOTHING!
Blessings often follow integrity, but they aren’t earned by integrity. We choose to be men and women of integrity, not principally for what it will get us but because of who we are. The very lastthing I would want to convey to anyone today is that if you demonstrate integrity in your career, God is somehow obligated to reward you with promotions and success. More often than not I believe that will be the result; but there are times when it may actually cost you your job, possibly even your life.
One of my favorite movies of all time is A Man for All Seasons, Best Picture of the Year in 1966, my first year in seminary. It is the story of Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England during the reign of King Henry the VIII in the 16th century. Henry wanted a divorce so he could remarry but God’s law wouldn’t allow it, so Thomas opposed it and resigned his office so as not to be forced to act against his conscience. Cardinal Wolsey said to Thomas, “You’re a constant regret to me, Thomas. If you could just see facts flat-on, without that horrible moral squint . . . With a little common sense you could have made a statesman.” In other words, “If you weren’t such a man of integrity, you could have been famous and successful!” Shortly thereafter Henry VIII had Thomas beheaded.
Whether your life follows the path of Joseph–from prisoner to Prime Minister–or the path of Sir Thomas More–from Lord Chancellor to martyr, God expects us to act with integrity, as though we were His ambassadors to a secular world, because we are. We are ambassadors of the Good News that God has dealt with our sin problem through the Cross of Jesus Christ and accepts everyone who puts his or her faith in Christ into His forever family.
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Temptation
Character
Delayed gratification
Accountability
[i] Tom Nelson, Work Matters, 171.