Joseph the Slave

Last week we looked at Joseph and some of the family dynamics that came as result of being the spoiled brat. It had the effect of producing great jealousy, which grew into envy.

First of all, jealousy is simply wanting what others had. It is putting oneself into their shoes, and imagining how amazing life would be, if you were them, if you had what they had. Envy, isn’t content with merely wishing you had what they had. Envy wants what they have at the expense of what is theirs. Envy, if left unchecked, will do anything to take what someone else has, in order to gain it for yourself.

Jealousy must be dealt with, directly, radically and consistently. It is not possible to have a jealous thought, and then think, “I’ll just put that thought away.” Jealousy, if not dealt with directly, radically and consistently, will simply keep coming back, eating gnawing at our brains and our hearts, trying to pull us into a downward spiral, until it becomes envy. It can lead into depression, into a very unhappy state of mind and life. And indeed, if jealousy is left alone it impedes spiritual growth and wrecks relationships and it causes all kinds of harm.

Now, the crazy thing about jealousy is that ordinary and initially at least, it affects only the jealous person. So you might be jealous of someone else, but they have no clue that you're jealous of them, absolutely no clue. Most people are unaware of the jealous thoughts of those around them, at least initially.

But left unchecked, jealousy will turn into envy and it will destroy relationships, as we see in this passage in scripture. Joseph’s brothers were jealous, and then, envious of him. They feared that their fathers exuberant love for Joseph, would somehow rob them of his love for them. In reality, Joseph was an unexpected gift that brought Jacob great joy very late in his life. If his brothers had stopped to think about it they would have seen it for what it was: nothing more than happiness toward another son. Instead, they perceived it as Joseph robbing them of the love and attention and care, that Jacob needed to give to them.

Were they actually loved less by Jacob? Of course not. But they perceived it as such and they convinced themselves in their own mind as being robbed of Jacob's love. Envy caused them to see Joseph as their enemy not as their brother. And as a result, they envied Joseph which produced the desire for his destruction-- thinking that once he was gone and out of the way, they would be restored in the sight of their father and would receive all the love that they felt they were missing.

Envy cannot bear another person's success. Envy seeks to gain what another person has through their destruction, which is exactly what we find in our passage this morning but before we get into that we need to pause and ask ourselves, “What am I jealous of? What to do I desire even to the destruction or harm of another person?

Here's how to find out. If someone you know or someone who's close to you does well, are you able to truly celebrate with them or are you faking it? You have to ask yourself, are you happy and able to celebrate with someone when they succeed?

When you work hard in school and someone else does better than you, even though you know you worked far harder than they did, can you rejoice in their good fortune, their good grades, their good marks? Or do you resent the fact that you didn't get top marks? When you are working hard in your business, and after facing setback after setback, can you rejoice when a colleague or a competitor does well? When your friend tells you about something good that happened to them, do you try to upstage them by telling them about something good that happened to you instead of congratulating them on their fortune?

That's jealousy. If left unchecked it will grow into envy, which will seek the destruction the person or thing that you are jealous of. Jealousy is something that matters to God. We need to repent of it. We need to confess it. We need to let God shine his light on it. Because look at what happens when we don't turn our feelings of jealousy over to God.

Joseph is looking for his brothers, they see him coming before he sees them, which makes me think that this was all planned. They went out, and they knew that their dad was going to send Joseph after them. So they said, “We're going to go to this one area, we're going to go near Shechem!” But Shechem was too wide open a place, no good hiding spots, no good for what they had planned. So they moved on to Dothan.

Then, when Joseph went to Shechem, he couldn’t find them. If it was the fact that there wasn't enough pasture land in Shechem anymore, he would right away moved on. But he’s wandering around until some guy sees him and asks, “What are you doing?” And Joseph, replies, "I'm looking for my brothers, tending our father’s flocks.” “Oh yeah, them I seen. I overheard them saying that they were going to go to Dothan.”

We can picture it, how it went down, can’t we? The jealous, envious brothers plot it out. Before Joseph gets there, they see the guy wandering nearby, so they, talk loudly to each other, loud enough to be overheard, “Hey Ruben, hey why don't we go down to Dothan? If Joseph comes looking for us, we’ll be in Dothan.” Then, they move on get set up in Dothan, and keep the flock in such a way that Joseph can't see it. They see Joseph coming in person and they're all hiding.

And they begin to plot, as he comes. All of them are in the plot to kill him. Ruben, Ruben doesn't want to go all the way through the outright murder, so he suggests, “Just leave him in the cistern for now, thinking how he’ll come and get him later and bring him to Dad. But their plan is to murder him. And that's how deep their hatred their envy had become.

You can picture them sitting around right? “Oh great here comes Joseph again checking up on us, giving us a bad report to dad. And look! He’s wearing that coat again! I get having to wear it around dad, but does he have to wear it around us? Look, he’s rubbing in our faces how much he's the favoured one!”

Filled with jealousy, they cultivated their jealousy, which produced envy in their hearts, where they desired to have what he had, at the expense of his life. They plotted his death. I mean at one point what causes a grown man to be so moved by jealousy, to hatred, to envy to plotting the murder of a 17 year old sibling?

Why didn’t they stop and say to each other, “This is a terrible idea. This is so clearly wrong. We should know better than this. We have to figure out a way to get along with Joseph. But that is jealousy, if it's left to turn into envy, it will seize more and more of our focus, cloud our thinking, and feed our sinful desires.

And so, they capture Joseph they strip him of his robe and they throw him into a pit, thinking to leave him to starve to death. And they sit down for lunch, which he probably brought to them!

At this point, Joseph’s brothers, should have thought about what would actually happen if they followed through with their plan. They should have realised they would be guilty of murder. They should have recognised how ridiculous their jealousy was. They should have turned to God in repentance.

Joseph brothers did not turn to God, rather God intervened, in this case by sending the Ishmaelites and Midianite traders along their way. You see even if Joseph's brothers went to Dothan in order to trap Joseph as I've assumed, God used their location in order to bring Joseph to Egypt because he had a plan already for their very salvation. God used their jealousy, their envy, their plans and plottings, that very area, in order to bring Joseph to Egypt. Even though being sold into slavery was hardly better than being left for dead, it all worked according to God's plan.

Maybe you're sitting here this morning, and maybe, by the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart and your mind this morning, you are aware that you are guilty jealousy. So guilty in fact that it caused you to behave, think, speak and act in such a way that you caused harm to another person. If that's the case, as far as you are able, to make peace with them. Keep in mind, though, they may have no clue you've harboured this jealousy against them. Remember what I said at the beginning, that jealousy is something that affects us, and it may not affect others.

But when it grows into envy, it causes us to act and say things in such a way that it does affect others. If you are sitting there and the Holy Spirit is convicted you of this. As far as it depends you go and make peace with that person.

Maybe you're sitting here this morning and you're not guilty of jealousy, you are a victim. Someone else Has been jealous of you. A friend or a family member has conspired against you. Their actions have robbed you of your plan, such that your life is not on the path you expected it to be on.

Maybe you're the victim of an unknown person's jealousy or corporate evil or some other evil, and you can't see God's plan for you right now. You simply have to trust that God will bring you through it. If someone is working against you, you can go to them and alert them to it. You can seek justice. If it's not possible to seek justice, you can pray that God will take care of the justice because he is a just and righteous God. Trust Him, He will.

Isn’t it interesting that all the things that are happening in this chapter, all are happening to Joseph, and we hear nothing from Joseph. Apart from his earlier conversation with his dad, there’s no dialogue spoken by Joseph. There's nothing. He’s silent throughout this whole thing.

And that makes me think of another situation of another guy whose name starts with j. Jesus, Jesus was silent throughout the trial. He trusted in God's plan. Joseph also trusted. He had those two dreams. He knew he would be placed in a position of power and authority over the members of his family. He knew all of this. But in that moment, in that pit, as he’s being hauled out of the pit and being sold into slavery to Egypt, he had no idea how it could possibly ever work out.

Maybe that's where you are at right now. There's no story, no Joseph story about your life that tells you how it's all going to work out in the end, except that you have this promise from Jesus Christ: He works everything for his plan. He can change our circumstances or bring us through the circumstances for his glory. The character that Joseph displays is truly Christ’s character. And Christ has put his put his character into your heart.

Don't compare yourself to Joseph. Don't sit here this morning, thinking, “Well, I’m not like Joseph. When I have things going against me, I just get angry. I just get frustrated. I can't even handle it! I say and do things, I'm not like Joseph, I can't stay silent. I'm sorry. I gotta talk, loud.”

Don't compare yourself to Joseph, compare yourself to Christ. For it is Christ himself, who is in you, as the hope of glory which which is the hope of living as he has created you to live right now in this situation you're in. Trust Christ live in and through you. Put on Christ. Give your jealousy, your envy, your experiences at the hands of jealous and envious people, to Christ. Trust God to sort it all out. Be faithful, be like Jesus by allowing Jesus to live in and through you. Amen.