by Emily Wooten
In Acts 7, Stephen shares the story of Joseph’s betrayal and redemption, noting that Joseph’s brothers were jealous of him. Scripture shows that Joseph was chosen and anointed by God as a leader of His people. However, he did not begin his journey from a place of honor. On the contrary, he was mistreated and regarded as anything but a leader.
If we pick up the story in Genesis 37, we see a 17-year-old boy reporting his older brothers’ bad behavior to their father. Scripture also tells us that Joseph bragged to them about his dreams, repeatedly sharing his vision of them bowing down to him. When we hear the story of Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers, we should not overlook these details. Their resentment was fueled not only by jealousy, but also by Joseph’s lack of wisdom and his father’s obvious favoritism. While his brothers were wrong, there was plenty of wrongdoing to go around.
Genesis 37:3–5 states:
Now Israel (Jacob, Joseph’s father) loved Joseph more than all his children. When his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.
The truth is that all of us are human. We share similar emotions and can suffer from diminished self-worth or exaggerated worth. Hebrews 4:15 reminds us that even Jesus was challenged by temptation: “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”
In Matthew 26:41, Jesus tells His disciples, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” This moment illustrates that even those closest to Jesus struggled with human frailty.
Paul reminds us in Hebrews 12:1 …let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. And in Romans 12:3 …To every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think.
It is up to us to regulate our behavior and not allow our thoughts to cause us to sin.