Where's Jesus? Joseph and Potiphar's wife (Genesis 39)

In Genesis 39 we continue with the Joseph narrative.  He has been sold into slavery by his brothers and reported as dead to his father and now we find that Joseph is bought by the captain of the Egyptian guard.  he is put in charge of the household and brings it quickly into top-notch control.  The one problem is his master's wife tries to tempt him to sin, to shift his focus from his work to the pleasantries of life, and although Joseph withstands the temptation, this ultimately brings about further imprisonment due to false allegations.

Does this sound familiar?  It sounds an awful lot like the opening and closing of Jesus' ministry.  In Matthew 4:1,

Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Like Joseph, Jesus is tempted by one who promises the pleasures of life.  Joseph's temptation was that of sexual intercourse, Jesus' was much more sinister, the vices of self-reliance, self-protection and self-rule permeated the devil's attempts.  But like Joseph who withstood the temptation and fled the scene, Jesus stood the temptation by relying on the Word of God (Matthew 4:4,7,10)

Then if, we jump to the end of Jesus' earthly life, we see that it is similar to Joseph's.  Joseph was condemned again on the testimony of his accusing temptress, so too was Christ condemned by the Jewish courts under false allegations and lies, for

the chief priests and the whole council sought false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward (Matthew 26:59-60)

Truly the Scriptures do testify to Jesus as he promised,

You search the Scriptures for you think that in them you have eternal life; yet it is they that bear witness to me (John 5:39).

Let us go to him for our salvation, for we will see that just as Joseph saved his people, so Jesus saves us as well.