The Fruit of Jealousy

 Genesis 37:12-36

This morning I’ll be talking about the fruit of jealousy.  We’ll be reading through Genesis 37:12-36.  The favoritism Jacob showed toward Joseph was a match that ignited the fire of jealousy for Joseph’s brothers.  But, it’s possible that something else was stirring the waters of jealousy as well.  I’ll share my theory with you and let you think about it.  As we read through this story I’ll point out various fruits that come from jealousy and share Scripture that shows just how bad it is. 

Now his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem, and Israel said to Joseph, “As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them.”

“Very well,” he replied.

So he said to him, “Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.” Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron.

When Joseph arrived at Shechem, a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?”

He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?”

“They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’ ”

So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.

“Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”

When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said.  “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the desert, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.

So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the richly ornamented robe he was wearing— and they took him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.

Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.

So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy isn’t there! Where can I turn now?”

Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. They took the ornamented robe back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.”

He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.”

Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said, “in mourning will I go down to the grave to my son.” So his father wept for him.

Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard. – Genesis 37:12-36

Joseph was Jacob’s favorite son.  The Scripture says that he loved Joseph more than his brothers.  This favoritism didn’t sit well with Joseph’s brothers.  Joseph’s brothers wanted their father’s love.  They wanted his attention.  They wanted his affection.  They wanted his blessing.  They began to harbor jealousy which led to more and more bitterness.  In Genesis 37:4, it says, “they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.”  Joseph faced a constant onslaught of negativity.  I imagine that he wanted to be a part of his brothers’ lives.  I can only imagine that he wanted to hunt with them, fish with them and play with them.  I can’t imagine how heartbreaking it must have been to have his own flesh and blood reject him at every turn. 

Abraham’s favoritism was extremely obvious.  He didn’t try to hide it.  Chuck Swindoll, in his book Joseph: A Man of Integrity and Forgiveness wrote the following about the story we’re reading today:

As I mentioned earlier, Jacob did nothing to hide this favoritism.  In fact, he put it on display by giving Joseph ‘a varicolored tunic,’ or, as the familiar King James Version translates it, ‘a coat of many colors.’  (The NIV calls it ‘a richly ornamented robe.’)

One reliable Old Testament commentator, H.C. Leupold, says this regarding the style of Joseph’s garment: ‘This tunic was sleeved and extended to the ankles.’  He draws this conclusion from the Hebrew word passeem, which means ‘wrists’ or ‘ankle.’

You can’t work very well in a garment that has sleeves and extends all the way down to your ankles, especially if it’s a costly, richly ornamented robe.  It would be like sending a welder to a construction site wearing a full-length mink coat.  In Joseph’s day, the working garb was a short, sleeveless tunic.  This left the arms and legs free so that workers could easily maneuver and move about.  As you can imagine, by giving Joseph this elaborate full-length coat, which was also a sign of nobility in that day, his father was boldly implying, ‘You can wear this beautiful garment because you don’t have to work like those brothers of yours.’”  (Joseph: A Man of Integrity and Forgiveness. 1998.  Charles Swindoll.  Pages 10-11.)

But there could have been a bit more to the story.  There could have been another layer to the story that’s not quite easy to see.  Could it be that Joseph’s brothers wanted to be the greatest patriarch?  God told Abraham that he would be made into a great nation.  This promise would be first fulfilled in Isaac, then Jacob, then Jacob’s progeny.  As we read in the story last week, Joseph had a dream.  In that dream, his brothers would bow down to him one day.  He communicated that dream to his brothers.  Maybe each brother wanted the rest to bow down to himself.  And, who knows?  Maybe that’s why Jacob was so eager to steal Esau’s blessing.  As history, and YouTube has shown, men can be overly competitive about any dumb thing!  When I was a kid we had competitions about who could spit the farthest or could make the rock skip the most on the water.  We had competitions to see who could withstand being punched in the shoulder.  My friends were a highly intellectual group of guys.  Obviously, these type of issues are very important to the functioning of society, and they’re worth the great battles that they instigate.  But, I’m just speculating.

Sometimes, in the Old Testament Scriptures, there are great big gaping holes.  This was not uncommon in other Hebrew literature during that time.  Today, we almost require an author to share all the details.  There’s almost nothing left to the imagination.  As a family we watched The Chronicles of Narnia.  Max stated something to the effect, “The books are much better.  I can read the character’s minds…literally.”  A fiction book will give details about what the characters say and do.  But they also write about what the character is thinking.  We want the book finished nice and tidy with a bow on top.  We don’t want anything left undone, left to the imagination.  Hebrew authors of this day tended to write in a different way.  They would leave holes in the story on purpose.  This would cause the reader to engage in what they read.  They needed to think about it and think about how the passage related to them.  The Scriptures are inspired by God, not by man.  And, at the same time, God wrote the Scripture through people.  These people were in a certain culture during a certain time.  God knew how to make the Scriptures relatable.

So, sometimes we have to speculate, and admit that it’s a speculation.  If it is true that each of Joseph’s brothers wanted to be “the” patriarch of the nations, then it should make us evaluate our own lives.  What is it that drives our own jealousy?  What is it that we wish God had given us, but instead he gave it to someone else?  This is a root of jealousy.  This is one way in which jealousy starts.  God should have given me that spiritual gift.  God should have given me that money.  God should have given me that good health.  God should have given me that body.  God should have given me that family.  God should have given me…God should have given me…God should have given me…  Hopefully, by this time in our relationship, none of you have been jealous of me because God gave me such a beautiful grey truck, which some people have called “brown” because of how dirty it is.  And hopefully you haven’t been jealous that God hasn’t given you the ability to make astonishing redneck contraptions like I have made.

Apparently, being a patriarch was a pretty big deal in Abraham’s lineage.  It was such an issue that Stephen talked about it when he was preaching in Acts 7:8-10.  Who was Stephen’s audience?  It was the Sanhedrin.  As he looked them straight in the eyes he did not back down.  They were jealous of a Man who claimed that He was one with the Father.  They were fellow brothers in the faith with Jesus, fellow Jews. Stephen proclaimed that they had betrayed Jesus and murdered Him.  In some ways, Joseph is a picture of Jesus.  His own brothers were jealous of him.  They betrayed him and even pushed him to the point of murder: 

Then He gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs. Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles. – Acts 7:8-10

Stephen doesn’t refer to Joseph and his brothers as “Jacob’s sons” or as “Jacob’s children”.  He only refers to them as “the patriarchs”.  If any brother would elevate himself above the others, well, that would instigate a great big ‘ol fight in the back seat of the van. 

Later on, in Genesis 49:8-10, Israel blessed Judah, one of Joseph’s brothers, telling him that his brothers will bow before him.  This passage is a messianic prophecy showing that the Messiah would come through the lineage of Judah:

Judah, your brothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons will bow down to you.  You are a lion’s cub, O Judah;  you return from the prey, my son.  Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness—who dares to rouse him? The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his. – Genesis 49:8-12

Someone was going to come through the lineage of Judah that would rule the nations forever.  Some of this story sounds like a story we just read.  The other brothers would bow down to one particular brother.  This bowing down to Judah is not because of Judah’s greatness but because of the greatness that would come through Judah.  The same sort of thing happened to Mary as Elizabeth blessed her:

In a loud voice she exclaimed: ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!’ – Luke 1:42

The jealousy of Joseph’s brothers bore some pretty ugly fruit.  Let me explain.

Genesis 37:18 – Jealousy makes someone eager to hurt others:

But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. – Genesis 37:18

You might think that you’ve done away with the jealousy you held against someone…until an opportune time arises.  You may have been restrained by social norms.  But when no one is looking, you make your move.  That’s usually when many sins grab a hold of us…when no one is looking.  Joseph had traveled far from home.  Jacob, his protector, was far away.  Jealousy is like a copperhead snake.  You see, rattlesnakes, while dangerous, will sometimes give away their position.  If they feel threatened, they will rattle their tail.  A copperhead, on the other hand, will strike while silent.  If you accidentally kneel on him in the ivy, he’ll be ready to strike.

Genesis 37:19 – Jealousy bears the fruit of relational distancing.  Their present feelings toward Joseph were connected to hurtful events in the past.  They called him “this dreamer”.  They should have called him “brother”.  We will keep people at arms-length when we’re jealous of them.  Any closeness that once existed is now fading away. 

Genesis 37:20 – Jealousy produces overreaction.  While Joseph’s dream probably felt disrespectful, it shouldn’t have provoked such a violent response.  Oftentimes, when someone has a strong reaction to something that seems small, there’s usually something else that happened beforehand that they’re still holding onto.  In the case of Joseph’s brothers, their jealousy didn’t start with the dream.  It started with their response to how Jacob loved Joseph more than themselves.

Genesis 37:23 – Destructive outbursts are the fruit of a jealous heart.  They attacked the robe, which was symbolic of Jacob’s love for Joseph.  As I thought about this point I laughed a little because I remembered a country song by Carrie Underwood.  It’s called “Before He Cheats.”  She fears that her boyfriend is cheating on her with another woman.  Just the thought of it elicits some pretty strong emotions:

I dug my key into the side of his pretty little souped-up four-

wheel drive

Carved my name into his leather seats

I took a Louisville slugger to both headlights

I slashed a hole in all four tires

Maybe next time he'll think before he cheats

I’ve wished some bad things on people that have hurt me.  The flesh rises to the occasion.  You can tell how deeply you’ve been hurt by the vividness and frequency of your imagined retribution. 

Genesis 37:25 – Jealousy can lead to a seared conscience.  After they threw them into the pit the passage says, ”Then they sat down to eat…”  They just had a super intense moment.  They talked seriously about killing their own flesh and blood.  Then they threw him into a pit.  You would think that their stomachs would have been too tight to eat.  It seems like they had no remorse, a seared conscience. 

Genesis 37:26-27 – If unchecked, jealousy can produce more and more sin.  The hole they dug for Joseph became symbolic of the hole that they were digging for themselves.  They thought they were enslaving their brother, but they were enslaving themselves into sin.  The deeper you go, the harder it is for you to go back.  As we’ll see later, they deceived their father.  They had to in order to cover up their previous sin.  The Scripture says,

Judah said to his brothers, ‘What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.’ His brothers agreed. Genesis 37:26-27

Judah realized they had gone too far already.  Maybe he didn’t want to heap any more guilt upon his head.  After all, selling him into slavery was better on his conscience than murder. We’ll see more of this fruit in verse 35.

Genesis 37:28 – Jealousy can lead to the devaluing of life.  They sold their brother for “twenty shekels of silver.”  They devalued his life by contemplating murder.  They devalued him by selling him into slavery.  They devalued him by selling him for a price that was usually custom for a slave who was disabled. Who knows?  Maybe they thought, “We’ll sell him for the price of someone who is disabled.  He doesn’t work anyway.”

Genesis 37:32 – As I mentioned in verse 19, jealousy bears the fruit of relational distancing.  They were one of the first people to practice true social distancing.  They didn’t address Joseph as “our brother”.  They addressed him as “your son” as they talked with Jacob:

They took the ornamented robe back to their father and said, ‘We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.’ – Genesis 37:32

Genesis 37:34-35 – A fruit of jealousy is chaos and grief.  For Israel and his daughters, it brought great grief:

Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. ‘No,’ he said, “in mourning will I go down to the grave to my son.’ So his father wept for him. – Genesis 37:34-35

Not only did they experience the chaos in their soul, they probably experienced chaos in their schedule.  When we go through a time of heavy grieving, no one feels like working or taking care of the everyday tasks of life.  Everything gets put on hold, then it piles up.  It’s a ripple effect.  

Genesis 37:35 – Like I mentioned earlier, jealousy can produce more and more sin.  Instead of using the opportunity to tell the truth, they lied instead.  It’s easy to see jealousy as not that big of a deal.

How bad is jealousy?  What Joseph’s brothers did to him involved demonic activity.  Did you know that?  James bluntly states,

But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such ‘wisdom’ does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. – James 3:14-16

In the NASB, and other versions, instead of using the word “envy” they use the word “jealousy”.  Jealousy might not feel like that big of a deal, but God says that it is “earthly, unspiritual, of the devil.”  The NASB states that it is “earthly, natural, demonic.”  Disorder and every kind of evil is a fruit of jealousy.  That’s what we see in the story of Joseph.  His brothers brought chaos into their family.  Their jealousy brought betrayal and deception, and almost murder.

It’s good to know that there’s redemption even in the midst of jealousy.  God would choose Judah, one of Joseph’s brothers, to be the tribe that Jesus would come through.  It’s also good to know that God can take something evil like jealousy and turn it into something good.  Joseph would one day be a ruler in Egypt.  God used him to save all of Israel, and his brothers.  The reason we produce the fruit of jealousy is because we have a heart that is sinful.  The only way to produce new fruit is to have a heart transplant.  It’s good to know that God is the master surgeon.