Stroll through Scripture for Sunday September 27, 2026

Based on Genesis 39:1-23

The Narrative Lectionary gives us a small, but important piece of Joseph’s story.  On the surface, this is the story of Joseph being brought into Potipher’s house and put in charge of the household, and Joseph rejecting Potipher’s wife’s advances and suffering as a result.  And we can certainly read the story that way. 

But let us dive in deeper to this story, because there’s far more than the surface reading.  This is a story about human trafficking.  Joseph is bought and sold as property.  He is trafficked, but definition.  His body is not his own.  He does not have agency to do as he chooses.  He gets rewarded when he does what is owner wants him to do, and he gets punished when he doesn’t.  Or in this case, when he doesn’t do what Potipher’s wife wants him to do.  There is no trial.  There is no hearing.  Slaves and trafficked people have no agency and have no legal standing.  The law always sided with the owner.  Property doesn’t get a vote. Property doesn’t get a say.  It didn’t matter if we were talking about ancient Egypt, or pre-Civil War USA.  

Human trafficking isn’t just something of the past. It continues to this day.  Earlier this year, my wife and I went to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, OH.  I highly recommend this museum.  It told the story of the Underground Railroad.  But it also told the story of slavery that persists still today in its various forms throughout the world, including in the US.  

It is estimated that upwards of 17,000 people are trafficked into the US annually and that around a 1 million people experience modern slavery or human trafficking in the US at any given time.  

This story of Joseph isn’t just an ancient story of deception and abuse.  It’s a story that is still being told today, right here in the US.  It’s a story that is still relevant.  The question is whether we will listen to the story.  One of the biggest challenges around trafficking is that it is often a hidden evil in plain sight.  Victims of trafficking aren’t obvious.  And they are often not heard.  

The question for us in reading this story is this – where is God in the midst of this?  And how do we respond?  In the story we hear over and over again, that God blessed the household where Joseph was for Joseph’s sake.  We could easily ask why God didn’t just set Joseph free.  The answer for Joseph’s story is that this is a small, but important part of his overall story.  I think the message for us today, and for those that are trafficked, is this.  You are not alone.  God sees you even if the crime against you is hidden.  There is no hiding from God.