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.

Joseph and His Brothers

 Gen. 37:1-11 and earlier selections

 

Welcome! Last week, we began our new series on Joseph from the book of Genesis. We talked about how the behavior of parents can profoundly affect the lives of their children, and so we began this series by focusing on Jacob, Joseph’s father. We focused on the lives of Jacob’s twin and slightly older brother Esau and their parents Isaac and Rebekah (who were Joseph’s grandfather and grandmother).

 

As we saw last week, Jacob first took advantage of Esau, getting him to trade his birthright for a bowl of lentil stew, and then, years later, he tricked his father Isaac into giving the blessing he meant for Esau instead to him. Once Esau realized this, he was furious, and he plotted to kill his brother. As we saw last week, there was inappropriate, immoral, and even juvenile behavior among all four of these people, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Esau.

 

Today we are going to focus on the next generation, the children of Jacob, but to get there I want to briefly cover key events in the life of Jacob that bring us to this point. Starting from Genesis 27:

 

When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Your brother Esau is planning to avenge himself by killing you. Now then, my son, do what I say: Flee at once to my brother Laban in Harran. Stay with him for a while until your brother’s fury subsides. When your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what you did to him, I’ll send word for you to come back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?” – Gen. 27:42-45

 

Her question is an interesting one – she acknowledges that her actions have caused her to “lose” Esau. Has Esau figured out that the deception was in fact Rebekah’s idea? We don’t know for sure, but I am pretty sure that the children knew that each parent favored one son over the other – Isaac favoring Esau, and Rebekah favoring Jacob. As we discussed last week, this behavior in itself is highly problematic and inappropriate.

 

Now the exact nature of the blessing is not fully understood to us today, but it appears to be like a prophetic utterance – that what was spoken seemed to be sure to come true. In any case, the blessing was considered a huge deal, one of the most important things that a father could bestow on his children. The blessing was also seen as irrevocable, so that even after Isaac had realized he had been tricked, there was very little he could do for Esau.

 

Rebekah urged Jacob to flee hundreds of miles away to stay with her brother Laban in Harran, and this is what Jacob did. Along the way, Jacob dreamed about a stairway to heaven, with angels ascending and descending the stairway. In the dream, God spoke to Jacob and said,

 

“I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” – Gen. 28:13b-15

 

This dream affected Jacob strongly. Previously, he had referred to God, when talking to his father, as “your God.” But this encounter caused Jacob to change.

 

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will give You a tenth.” – Gen. 28:20-22

 

Now, this is a big step forward for Jacob, but I want to point out that God’s promise to Jacob was unconditional. Yet Jacob’s response is conditional. In effect, Jacob is saying, “I know what you have promised me. But if You actually do what You promised, if You prove yourself in these particular steps, then I will follow You.” Genesis neither condemns nor affirms Jacob’s response, but today, given the promises of Christ, I believe such a response is inappropriate. God does not call on us to make conditional or even unconditional vows; He calls on us to believe in His promises, to believe in Him. But as I said, this is certainly progress for Jacob. And he is working from a singular vision or dream from the Lord. He knows little about God apart from what his father Isaac and grandfather Abraham have told about Him. We have the benefits of the entire Bible, of history, of science, of seeing lives changed by Christ. We do not need to make God prove Himself – He has already proven Himself – His goodness, His love, His faithfulness – and we should trust Him unconditionally as He unconditionally accepts us.

 

And so Jacob continued his journey and made it to Laban, and there he fell in love with one of Laban’s two daughters, Rachel. Jacob proposed that he work for Laban for seven years, and in return, be allowed to marry Rachel. Laban agreed, but at the end of the seven years, Laban deceived Jacob and instead gave him his other daughter, Leah. How did Laban explain his deception? He explained that it was not their custom to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one. He agreed to give Jacob Rachel as well, provided he work for him for seven more years. Jacob agreed.

 

When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, He enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless. Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, “It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.” She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, He gave me this one too.” So she named him Simeon. Again she conceived, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” So he was named Levi. She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” So she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children. – Gen. 29:31-35

 

We live in a culture where marriage is almost always based on love, and in which one husband has one wife, so it is hard for us to fully understand what this was like for Leah. In Ephesians 5:25, husbands are told to love their wives as Christ loved the church. This is a command, and it is unqualified. Don’t marry a woman unless you are willing to love her sacrificially, in effect, lay down your life for her. This includes making her feel loved, treating her compassionately, caringly. How sad it was for Leah, that she did not receive this kind of care from her husband. The names of her first three children are sad, painful to read. Reuben means “look, a son” (“ben” means son), but it sounds a lot like the Hebrew for “He has seen my misery.” Even after having the blessing of Reuben in the household, Jacob’s treatment of Leah did not seem to change appreciably, so she named her second son Simeon, which we think means “one who hears,” based on her statement that the Lord heard that she was still not loved. Her third son was named Levi, which sounds like the Hebrew word for “attached,” based on her wishful statement that maybe at least her husband would become attached to her. Now the name of her fourth son was quite interesting: Judah, which is close to the Hebrew word for praise. Did Jacob at last start truly treating her with love? We don’t know. It is possible. But it also possible that Leah at last found her joy in the Lord, rather than continuing to be disappointed by her husband.

 

Meanwhile, during all this time, Rachel became quite upset that she was not having children of her own and blames Jacob. Jacob reminds her that this is the Lord’s doing, not his. She then tells Jacob to have children through her servant Bilhah.

 

So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her, and she became pregnant and bore him a son. Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; He has listened to my plea and given me a son.” Because of this she named him Dan. Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. Then Rachel said, “I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.” So she named him Naphtali. – Gen. 30:4-8

 

There are multiple issues here – first, Rachel’s jealousy is inappropriate, if not childish. Having multiple wives is never portrayed in Scripture as conducive to family harmony, and we see this here. Leah is the mother of the first four children, and although Rachel could certainly be an important part of their lives, she would not be her mother, and so it is certainly a challenging family dynamic, to say the least. And so although Rachel’s jealousy is inappropriate, it is also understandable.

 

But Rachel’s solution to this problem – taking matter into her own hands, rather than leaving them with God, creates additional problems. How does Bilhah feel about bearing her own children with Jacob but then effectively being told that she cannot be the mother? How hard this must be! And how confusing and challenging this must be for the children! These two children of Bilhah are named by Rachel as Dan, which means “he has vindicated”, and Naphtali, which means “my struggle.” Rachel’s statement associated with Naphtali is especially problematic. She sees children as a competition – but what about raising her children to love others and serve the Lord? It is hard to believe that this is happening with the childish attitude she displays here.

 

When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. Then Leah said, “What good fortune!” So she named him Gad. Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. Then Leah said, “How happy I am! The women will call me happy.” So she named him Asher. – Gen. 30:9-13

 

Gad means good fortune, and Asher means happy. So now we see that Rachel’s inappropriate behavior has spread to Leah, who also uses a servant to increase her count of children. This means that there are now four wives, in reality, three mothers of children (although Rachel and Leah want to think of it as only two). To call this a mess is a gross understatement. With mothers so self-centered like this, it is not hard to imagine that the children are going to have problems, that they will not be raised to be unselfish, that they will be governed by their emotions.

 

Then, Rachel wants some plants given by Reuben to his mother Leah. Rachel complains that Leah took away her husband and asks her if she intends to take away her child’s plants too. Rachel allows Leah to spend the night with Jacob in exchange for the plants. The result? A fifth son.

 

Then Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar. Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. Then Leah said, “God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honor, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun. Some time later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah. – Gen. 30:18-21

 

Issachar sounds like the Hebrew word for reward, and Zebulun means honor. Again, the rivalry continues. There is seemingly no thought of being a good parent, or a role model – everything is about this endless contest. Leah even attributes God as somehow being on her side based on the fact that her servant had children.  

 

Where in fact is God in all this? God has a plan to create a people from whom the Messiah, Jesus would come. And in process to this plan, He plans to make a nation of the descendants of Jacob. So I think we can say that God allows Jacob to have many children. This does not mean that He condones the behavior of any of the adults in this family. In fact, I think we can say that God is faithful to fulfill His plan, and His promises to Abraham and Isaac, despite the behavior that we see here. God indeed even uses “broken vessels” to carry out His will.

 

Then God remembered Rachel; He listened to her and enabled her to conceive. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.” She named him Joseph, and said, “May the Lord add to me another son.” – Gen. 30:22-24

 

This is son number eleven. The name Joseph means “may he add.” Notice that rather than being content with at long last having a child of her own, she cannot even enjoy him a minute without wanting yet another son!

 

At this point, Jacob wants to separate himself from Laban. In preparation for this, Jacob asks Laban for nothing but the speckled, spotted, or dark-colored animals. Laban says he agrees, but then he takes away all these animals and hides them with his sons. And so Jacob the deceiver is again deceived. But it appears that God helped Jacob – in what seems to be a miraculous series of events, it turned out that whenever Jacob put peeled branches in the watering troughs, the next generation of animals had the characteristics that would make them belong to Jacob. Jacob did this selectively so that the strongest and healthiest animals had these characteristics. In this way Jacob’s flocks prospered but Laban’s did not. Laban began to treat Jacob differently, unpleasantly, and Jacob realized that it was time to leave.

 

After God revealed to Jacob that He would be with him as he went back to his family, Jacob left, suddenly, taking his flocks and other possessions, with his large family. Rachel, before they all left, stole her father’s idols to false gods. This reveals that Rachel did not share in the faith of Jacob.

 

Laban pursued Jacob, and confronted him about the theft, but Rachel successfully hid the idols. The disagreement went beyond this – as Laban still considered all the possessions and success of Jacob as if it were really his. But God had warned Laban earlier, and so Laban and Jacob made an agreement together. Laban’s only condition, interestingly, was that Jacob take on no more wives, and that he not mistreat his daughters. They separated in peace, and Jacob continued towards home.

 

Now, recall that Rebekah seemed to think this would be a relatively short visit, just until Esau cooled off, but in fact, Jacob lived many years with Laban. Now we do not have time to cover every aspect of what happened next, but Jacob was quite fearful of Esau, even after all these years, and was afraid that he might even attack his family. Jacob prayed about his concerns to the Lord, to his great credit. Here is his prayer:

 

“O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, You who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness You have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. But You have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’” – Gen. 31:9-12

 

This prayer, in my opinion, is a big step forward from where Jacob was when he made his vow. He acknowledges his unworthiness, he proclaims God’s kindness and faithfulness, he asks honestly for help with the potential problem of Esau, and he recalls God’s previous promises.

 

Having prayed, he then makes a plan to shower Esau with a series of lavish gifts, one after the other. The gifts were sent on ahead of Jacob. He also sent his families across the river, and he stayed behind alone. There he wrestled with man all night – but it seemed to be more than a man, very possibly a pre-incarnate experience with Christ. This more-than-a-man told Jacob he would have a new name, Israel, which means he struggled with God, because he had struggled with God and overcome.  To do this passage justice would require a separate message – but one thing I see is that Jacob wanted this person to bless him, and he persisted in his struggles with him, even after being injured. It is interesting to me that we sometimes use the term wrestling when we discuss prayer – and we also see that God wants us to persist in prayer. I believe that Jacob was commended because, in effect, this is what he was doing, asking for God’s blessing as he faced such terrible uncertainty with his encounter with Esau the next day.

 

I do not have time to go through Jacob’s encounter with Esau in depth – but suffice it to say that Jacob was extremely humble and respectful, and Esau was likewise very kind – in fact, in a kind of foreshadowing of the parable of the prodigal son, Esau ran up to Jacob and embraced and kissed him. And in this way, the two of them were reconciled.

 

I will skip some events of Jacob’s life, but he did return to Bethel, where God had appeared to him previously, and God appeared to him again, reiterating that he would henceforth be known as Israel. Also:

 

And God said to him, “I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will be among your descendants. The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.” Then God went up from him at the place where He had talked with him. – Gen. 35:11-13

 

Despite Jacob’s growth, his children had grown up in a difficult environment, to say the least. And there is no evidence in Scripture that the spiritual growth that took place in Jacob occurred with his wives or his eleven children. But as you know, there are not eleven children of Jacob, but twelve. Let’s look at the sad account of the birth of Joseph’s little brother.

 

Then they moved on from Bethel. While they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and had great difficulty. And as she was having great difficulty in childbirth, the midwife said to her, “Don’t despair, for you have another son.” As she breathed her last—for she was dying—she named her son Ben-Oni. But his father named him Benjamin. – Gen. 35:16-18

 

Rachel, the one wife Jacob truly loved, the mother of Joseph, and now Benjamin, which means son of my right hand but whom she named Ben-Oni, son of my trouble, did not survive this birthing experience. And so Jacob, on what should have been a happy day, experienced what was probably the saddest day of his life. How this traumatic day affected Jacob’s other wives or his children we are not told. But you can be sure it affected them all, possibly in ways even they didn’t understand.

 

Let us now move on to the account of Joseph, which begins in Genesis 37.

 

Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. This is the account of Jacob’s family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them. – Gen. 37:1-2

 

Joseph saw something going on, something his older brothers were doing. We do not know what this “bad report” was. Whatever it was, Joseph was not willing to go along with it, and so he reported it to their father, Jacob.

 

Every family with more than one child has experiences where one child reports on one or more other children. A godly response would be to repent, to apologize to one’s parents, and to hold no ill will against the child who gave the report. The clear implication of this passage, especially given what is to follow, is that this is not how Joseph’s brothers responded. Instead, they were obviously very upset.

 

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. – Gen. 37:3-4

 

And so now we see a repeat of the errors of Jacob’s parents, showing clear favoritism to one child over another. Yet, rather than expressing their displeasure with their father who is the one guilty of showing favoritism, they take it out on Joseph, the object of the favoritism. Why do they do this? Because they are jealous of him, and because it is always easier to bully someone younger or smaller than you.

 

Note that the battle of the wives over who could have the most children was also fueled by jealousy, so Jacob’s children have been raised in an environment where jealousy was the norm, and it was not condemned. In contrast, although the Bible refers to God as a jealous god, this is a very different situation. God hates it when we worship idols instead of Him not because He is jealous of the idols like in a human sense, but because the idolatry is sin and like all sin, leads to separation from God. We were made to be able to love God and enjoy Him forever, and God loves us and wants this for us. You could say that God is jealous for us rather than jealous of the idols. This godly kind of jealousy is really wanting the best for someone, and in some ways it is almost the direct opposite of the human kind of jealousy we see in the children and in Jacob’s wives, which is really all about the self.

 

In James 3 we see a contrast between jealousy and wisdom.

 

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 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, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. – James 3:13-16

 

Jealousy is also described as one of the works of the flesh in Galatians 5, works that are not of those who will inherit the kingdom of God.

 

Proverbs repeatedly warns against jealousy, here in terms of what it does to the jealous person:

 

A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones. – Prov. 14:30

 

And here in terms of what it can do the object of jealousy:

 

For jealousy makes a man furious, and he will not spare when he takes revenge. – Prov. 6:34

 

And this brings me back to Jacob. His actions are what are causing this jealousy. I am reminded of Ephesians 6:4:

 

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. – Eph. 6:4

 

Now returning to our passage in Genesis:

 

Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.” His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. – Gen. 37:5-8

 

Now, in our modern culture, we tend to view the fact that Joseph would share such a dream with his brothers as either a sign that he is proud, or at least, having a low “social intelligence score.” Surely Joseph would know that telling such a dream would not be well received? But if the dream was from God (and since it came true, we know that it was), it was not wrong to share it. Although nobody then appreciated it, the dream came to give glory to God, as only God knows the future.

 

Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind. – Gen. 37:9-11

 

Again, we might tend to fault Joseph, pointing out that surely he should have known this would not go well, given how the telling of the previous dream was received. Now Jacob immediately identified the implied meaning of the dream – eleven stars were Joseph’s eleven brothers, so the sun and moon represented the parents. Although maybe it should have been a sun and four moons!

 

Freud would have a field day with these dreams, as he believed that dreams were how a part of a person which he called the id was able to express its secret desires. In a healthy family, these dreams could have been told, and the worst that might happen is that the siblings laugh at the teller, because the dreams do seem at this point to reveal more about the dreamer’s secret desires for dominance than they do about God. But in Jacob’s dysfunctional family, the telling of these dreams would lead to unimaginable consequences, which we will see next week.

 

As we close today, we will spend a minute in silent prayer. If you are a parent or someone who has people under you in a work or other environment, I encourage you to reflect on whether you are showing favoritism or participating in other unhealthy behaviors that are damaging the spiritual and emotional health of those under your care. If so, I encourage you to confess this to the Lord and ask Him to give you the wisdom and the power to make healthy changes. And for everyone, I encourage you to reflect on whether jealousy has any kind of foothold in your life, and if so, to renounce it and ask the Lord to help you change your patterns of thinking. Change in either area is difficult if not impossible apart from the Lord. Recall the progression we saw in Jacob, from making vows to do things in his own strength, to humbly admitting his faults. Like Jacob, we are all works in progress, but if we have given our lives to the Lord, God is faithful to help us to grow in Him, if we ask Him. In Christ all things are possible. Let’s pray.