12/22/2007 10:44 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Hatred, Envy, Malice, and Jealously
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Genesis 37:5-11
Message of the verses: 5 ¶ Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.
6 He said to them, "Please listen to this dream which I have had;
7 for behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf rose up and also stood erect; and behold, your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to my sheaf."
8 Then his brothers said to him, "Are you actually going to reign over us? Or are you really going to rule over us?" So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.
9 Now he had still another dream, and related it to his brothers, and said, "Lo, I have had still another dream; and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me."
10 He related it to his father and to his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, "What is this dream that you have had? Shall I and your mother and your brothers actually come to bow ourselves down before you to the ground?"
11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.
It probably was because this family situation was so bad that it caused Joseph’s brothers to hate him even more after he told him the two dreams that he had. When you look at the problems in this family and then look at the sovereign will of God, and also the grace and mercy of God then it can be better understood how things worked out the way that God was planning them to work out, for it surely was not because these people were so wonderfully committed to God’s plan.
It can be seen in the Scriptures, mostly OT Scripture, that God used dreams to communicate His will and plans to those He chose to give them to, and if this family would have been in tuned with the Lord they would not have done the things that they did, but would have listened to Joseph in a better way when he told them about his dreams.
Some of the sins that took place in this chapter are listed in the focus part of the SD. Envy causes inward pain when we see others succeeded, while malice causes inward happiness when we see others fail. Titus 3:3 says that these two sins usually work together, “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.” I would have to say at this point that contentment that is contentment that God teaches His children is the remedy to these sins of envy and malice, for only when a believer has contentment can he actually rejoice with a person who has success and grieve with a person who is going through hard times.
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