But God Was with Him

Joseph's brothers did not wake up one morning and decide to sell their brother. Their sin grew, step by step, like a weed.

Step one: noticing. “When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers…” (Genesis 37:4). It started with what they saw. Every day they saw the special tunic.

Step two: hating. “…they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.” The feeling turned into hatred, and the hatred came out in how they spoke.

Step three: more hate. After the dreams, “they hated him even more” (37:5, 8), and “his brothers envied him” (37:11). Envy means being upset that someone else has something good.

Step four: a plan. When they saw Joseph far away, “they conspired against him to kill him” (37:18). Envy had grown into a plan to murder.

We have seen this before. The first brothers in the Bible, Cain and Abel, went the same way. Cain “was very angry,” and then “Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him” (Genesis 4:5, 8). John later wrote, “Whoever hates his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3:15).

What envy does to us. “A sound heart is life to the body, but envy is rottenness to the bones” (Proverbs 14:30). Envy rots us from the inside. It steals our joy and makes us unkind.

Pull the weed early. The best time to deal with envy is when it is small, when we first notice it. Tell God about it. Ask Him to help you be glad for others. “Rejoice with those who rejoice” (Romans 12:15).

Envy hides behind good reasons. The brothers probably felt they had good reasons to be angry. Their father really was unfair. Joseph's dreams really did sound like bragging. But being treated unfairly never makes it right to hate. Jacob's favoritism was wrong, and so was their hatred.

Envy and comparing. Envy usually starts with comparing. We look at what someone else has, or how someone else is treated, and we feel that it should have been ours. “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another” (Galatians 5:26).

What it means for you. Love “does not envy” (1 Corinthians 13:4). We cannot make that kind of love by ourselves, but Jesus can grow it in us when we trust Him. Next time you notice envy, try three things: tell God honestly, thank Him for something He has given you, and do something kind for the person you envy.

Stephen, one of the first Christians, told Joseph's story in a short sentence: “The patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him” (Acts 7:9).

God was with Joseph. Joseph was thrown in a pit, sold as a slave and taken far from home. It looked as if God had forgotten him. But God had not. The psalm says God “sent a man before them—Joseph—who was sold as a slave” (Psalm 105:17). God was working even through the brothers' sin.

What Joseph would later say. Many years later, Joseph told his brothers, “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good… to save many people alive” (Genesis 50:20). We will see how that happened in the next lessons.

Another Son handed over. Hundreds of years later, Jesus was also handed over out of envy. When Jesus stood before Pilate, the Bible says, “he knew that they had handed Him over because of envy” (Matthew 27:18). Judas sold Jesus for “thirty pieces of silver” (Matthew 26:15).

Like Joseph, and greater. Many Christians see Joseph as a picture of Jesus. Both were loved by their father, sent to their brothers, rejected and sold for silver. But Jesus went further. Joseph suffered because of other people's sin. Jesus suffered for other people's sin: He “bore our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24).

He did not fight back. “When He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten” (1 Peter 2:23). Isaiah wrote, “He was led as a lamb to the slaughter” (Isaiah 53:7).

God meant it for good. The people who handed Jesus over meant it for evil. But God used Jesus' death to save many people. Then He raised Jesus from the dead. Peter said that Jesus was handed over “by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God,” even though the people who killed Him did wrong (Acts 2:23). God's plan was bigger than their sin.

Rejected, then exalted. Joseph's brothers rejected him, but one day they would bow before him, and he would save their lives. Jesus was rejected too, but God raised Him and gave Him “the name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9). The rejected one became the rescuer.

What it means for you. When something bad happens, God has not forgotten you. “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God” (Romans 8:28). And when you have been envious yourself, you can come to the One who was handed over because of envy, and be forgiven.