According to the carnal man, Joseph's brothers had a reason to hate him. His father, even though he was one of the younger brothers, had him picked out as a favorite ( Joseph was the son of his favorite wife).
Joseph was a dreamer, and was having dreams that the brothers interpreted as making him ruler over them; and that made them mad. Incidentally, they were right in their assumptions. Joseph also did not use much sense when dealing with his brothers, he kept "rubbing it in".
This whole scenario had several points that were regrettable:
- His father had a favorite son
- Joseph allowed it to go to his head
- His brothers hated him
Resentment is the forerunner of anger, and anger is the forerunner of murder.
Joseph's brothers were wicked men and Joseph always tried to do what his father wanted, for which his brother's hated him even more. The brothers resented Joseph, and when his father sent him to check on them, they were about to become murderers as well. Reuben as the oldest had done very wickedly before, and now had lost his leadership and influence of his brothers. He was now in the process of trying to resurrect his image.
Get the picture, the favored son approaches the group that has murderous thoughts and they throw him into a pit to die. Reuben, meanwhile intends to release him and send him back home. While Reuben is busy, the brothers sell him to some slave traders bound for Egypt.
How many times do we sell our brother/sister?
- Unforgiveness Colossians 3:13
- Insincerity Romans 12:9
- No love for the brotherhood Romans 12:10
- Destroying their joyful hope Romans 12:12
- No compassion Romans 12:13
Romans 14:1-23
Christ's church has many followers and of these many followers are many differences. Each has their own way to serve Christ through various applications. We all need to encourage everybody in Christ, but not stuff them into a mold to make them like us.
Selling your brother would be the equivalent of giving him such a hard time about his differences that he loses out. Sin is sin, but when there are petty differences we need to focus on Christ and not the differences. God's kingdom is not about whether you are carbon copies of each other.
The story of Joseph shows his brothers as evil, trying to get rid of what they though was an upstart. They had become driven of the devil to exterminate the cause of their guilt. Joseph, on the other hand, had been prepared by God for a specific work; and they just didn't understand. Instead of stepping back and allowing God's will to have free course in their lives, they stepped forward and sin lay at the door and then overtook them.
God never intended we try to shove everyone into a mold. We have differences for a reason and it is up to us to allow God to use the differences he gave us.
Satan never cares about anything, but to squelch the gift that God has given us. Many times we find ourselves falling were Joseph's brothers fell, and we cause great destruction. We should always leave the differences of our brothers and sister in the hand of God so we can not be accused of causing a potential disaster.
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