WORD STUDY – PROSPERITY

Genesis 39:3 “And his master saw that the Lord was with him and the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand.”

Prosperity: Hebrew – Tsalach: prosper, moving forward, and making accomplishments.

“Now I lay me down to rest, for tomorrow comes yet another test. If I die before I wake, that is at least one more test I need not take.”  My bedtime prayer.

Joseph and I have many things in common but one thing we don’t have in common is that the Lord does not make all that I do to prosper in my hand.  However, I decided to look at this verse anyways.

There are a few things in this verse that causes one to stop and ponder. First, Potiphar saw that the Lord was with Joseph.  In the Hebrew the word used for Lord is the word Jehovah or YHVH.  What did an Egyptian official know about the Hebrew God?  How did he know it was God making everything to prosper?  And what is this prosperity business anyways?  To get beaten by one’s brothers, sold into slavery, later accused of a rape he did not commit and get thrown into prison does not sound prosperous to me.

The word  “prosper” in the Hebrew is “tsalach.”  This word does mean to prosper as we would interpret “prosper” in our culture, i.e., material possessions.  Here the word “prosper” has the idea of moving forward, making progress. This is in a hiphal form not a piel form so it would not have the idea of gain, but more of the idea of just getting things accomplish.   The word is spelled “Sade, Lamed, Chet” so it would have the idea of accomplishing things humbly, prayerfully, and in unity with God.  This may be what caught Potiphar’s attention.   Joseph was not motivated like the other slaves.  Joseph went about his work accomplishing his tasks for something or someone much higher than Potiphar and Potiphar saw this.  Prosperity here has to do with performing a task, even an earthly task for an earthly boss as if we are serving God and not man.  Prosperity or “salach” is to do any job as unto God humbly, prayerfully and in unity
with Him.

That really does not answer the question as to how Potiphar knew it was God Jehovah?   I checked through Jewish literature and found something interesting.  The words “with him” are translated from the Hebrew  “ethu.”   The ancient rabbis saw the “eth” as a sign of the direct object and the “hu’ as a pronoun.  In other words it would be literally rendered: “Potiphar saw that the Lord is Joseph.”    That doesn’t make much sense until you consider that the word “saw”  is “ra’ah” which could mean seeing in a spiritual sense as well as a natural sense.    I am not sure of a proper rendering but I do know what this verse is saying.  When Potiphar saw Joseph, he saw God Jehovah.  There is an old saying: “You are the only Jesus people will ever see.”

A seventeenth century rabbi, Rabbi Yisroel Ben Eliezer rendered the passage this way “And his master saw that the name of God was always upon his lips.”   This is what caught Potiphar’s attention,  he saw a man who always performed his tasks humbly, prayerfully and in unity with God always with the name of God upon his lips.  When he saw Joesph, he saw God.

The greatest prosperity would be for someone to say: “I see Jesus in your face and hear Him upon your lips.” To myself as with any believer that would mean more than winning the mega lottery.