Let me begin by asking, have you ever experienced jealousy? You haven’t? Then tell me, have you ever been known to tell the truth? There is not one of us who has not been afflicted with the green monster called jealously! This chapter of Genesis gives us a very human illustration of what the monster jealously can do even as we read in biblical history.

Chapter 37 tells us a story of the family of Jacob. We are told that Joseph was the favorite one of Jacob and from what we can read it seems as if it all got started with his birth. This chapter tells us one of the most remembered stories found in Genesis because we read “now Jacob loved Joseph more than any other of his children.” V. 3. So, though he probably didn’t think about, all that he did for Joseph caused his other children to resent Jacob and they were just plain jealous. What caused their greatest pain of jealously probably was the eternal famous “a coat of many colors” Jacob made for Joseph. This was seen as a royal garment, anticipating Joseph’s future status as the future ruler of Jeroboam.

Though driven to react with jealously and anger, that does not give his brothers license to do what they did to Joseph. We read that they conspired to kill him. But clearer minds spoke up with what they thought was a better plan. The brothers sold Joseph to traders who would take Joseph to Egypt. So they stripped him of his coat of many colors, and threw him into an empty pit until he was sold. To make his father Jacob think that a wild animal killed Joseph; his brothers killed a goat and put blood on the beautiful robe.

Can you recall a time when the jealously we all feel from time to time, got out of hand and you did something in anger you will most likely always be sorry for? It seems as if we have all been born with this jealous gene inside us. Jealously is an emotion, and as with all emotions, it comes out of us with variant degrees of intensity. Still, as with all emotions, we do have some control over it, yet we can’t do away with it entirely, but we can and ought to control it somewhat. Most of us have lived long enough to know that things do happen beyond our control. If things get the best of us, the best we can do is to take it to God. As God did with Joseph, we will be helped and God will take care of us.

Prayer

O God, our Father, we are told that You will always take care of us, for we are one of Your children. It is through Your Son our Lord that we can see such wonderful love. In His Name we pray. Amen.