Genesis 37: 18-24 – Why we should curb envy and jealousy

All dressed up in his multi-coloured coat, the unsuspecting Joseph located his brothers in Dothan. Meanwhile his brothers’ hatred for him had reached a fever pitch. Except for Reuben, all of them wanted to get rid of Joseph. They caught a glimpse of Joseph from afar and knew that familiar gait of one they so hated. The multi-coloured tunic he was wearing made him immediately identifiable. The very sight of Joseph ignited the determination to murder. So verses 18-20 read, “When they saw him from a distance and before he came close to them, they plotted against him to put him to death. They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer! Now then, come and let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; and we will say, ‘A wild beast devoured him.’ Then let us see what will become of his dreams!” The brothers were bent on annihilating his dream and the plot thickened. Their plan was to kill him and throw him into one of the pits. They even thought of how they would tell their father. They were going to say that a wild beast had devoured him.

Meanwhile, when Reuben heard of their murderous intent he intervened. As we know, this eldest son was the one who had an affair with Bilhah, Jacob’s concubine. He was already carrying a guilt for that mistake and he couldn’t afford to carry another guilt for participating in Joseph’s murder. So as the eldest of the lot he felt responsible and stepped up to the plate to prevent the murder from happening. He told his conspiring brothers not to take Joseph’s life and it was not just a suggestion. He meant it with all his heart. What he said was assertively spoken. He firmly told them to shed no blood but instead to put him into a dry pit. His plan was clear. His intention was to return later to rescue him.

In verses 23-24, we are told that the brothers virtually brutalized Joseph. They assaulted him, and stripped him of his multi-colored tunic. They literally tore off both the colorful tunic and the inner cloth that he was wearing. What they did was not gentle. The way they went about it was like tearing the skin off an animal. Then they cast him, like dumping a dead body, into a pit, a discarded cistern without any water. The pit was of sufficient depth so that there was no way for Joseph to climb up and escape. The whole idea was to shed no blood so that it could not be like Abel’s blood that cried out for vengeance from the ground. They wanted to starve him to death. 

The heartlessness of Joseph’s brothers arose out of envy and jealousy. Jacob was largely to be blamed for his partiality in showing unequal affection towards his sons. This is what favoritism can cause. Joseph on his end was not faultless. He was young, insensitive and self-centred and arrogant. This was probably cultivated because he was the sole object of his father’s love. From them, we learn that relationship are often made convoluted and complicated by the lack of ability to be impartial. This is costly for Jacob but we don’t have to make the mistake he and his sons made. Remember what James 3:16 says. “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.” So we take heed of what he said earlier in James 2:1. He said, “… do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.”