Seeing that he would not yield to temptation, his mistress falsely accused him to her husband, and his lord, believing the voice of his wife, cast Joseph into prison.
It was a marvelous providence that he did not put him to death; for Potiphar, his master, was the chief of the slaughtermen; he had only to call in a soldier, who would have cut him in pieces on the spot.
But he cast him into prison. There was poor Joseph. His character ruined in the eyes of man, and very likely looked upon with scorn even in the prison-house; base criminals went away from him as if they thought him viler than themselves, as if they were angels in comparison with him.
Oh! it is no easy thing to feel your character gone, to think that you are slandered, that things are said of you that are untrue.
Many a man's heart has been broken by this, when nothing else could make him yield.
The archers sorely grieved him when he was so maligned—so slandered.
O child of God, dost thou expect to escape these archers?
Wilt thou never be slandered? Shalt thou never be falsely accused?
It is the lot of God's servants, in proportion to their zeal, to be evil spoken of.
Remember the noble Whitefield, how he stood and was the butt of all the jeers and scoffs of half an age; while his only answer was a blameless life.
And he who forged, and he who threw the dart, Had each a brother's interest in his heart.
They reviled him and imputed to him crimes that Sodom never knew.
So shall it be always with those who preach God's truth, and all the followers of Christ—they must all expect it; but, blessed be God, they have not said worse things of us than they said of our Master.
Ah! friends, some now present know this verse by heart, "The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him." Expect it; do not think it a strange thing; all God's people must have it.
There are no royal roads to heaven—they are paths of trial and trouble.
The archers will shoot at you as long as you are on this side the flood.
~Charles Spurgeon~
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