Sibling Rivalry

Joseph stood out from his brothers and whenever they did something wrong he reported it to his father. In fact while his brothers were herding sheep he seemed to stay home with his father therefore it seemed like he didn't spend much time with them. Ever been in such a situation before or know someone in it?



He dressed better than his brothers in what was actually a royal robe worn by royalty those days. We are told the robe he wore was similar to the one Tamar ( 2 Sam 13:18-19) wore. I can imagine him walking around looking like royalty while his brothers worked hard and were not treasured as much by their father.To make matters worse, when he got a dream about his brothers sheaves bowing down to his..he went ahead and told his brothers.

Gen 37:8 says because of the dreams they hated him the more. Not long after, Joseph came again to share another dream about how he would reign over them in the future. I can imagine at this point his brothers could not even look at him. In our lives we aggravate others and sometimes cause them to hate or dislike us. We do this by dressing better than others and seeming to show off. We don't spend much time with others, look standoffish and act like we are better than others and this aggravates peoples hatred towards us.Now there is nothing wrong with looking good or having good things in life but rather what matters is our attitude towards others. Joseph was 17 years old and as a child he might not have been trying to annoy his brothers.Sometime we are innocent like Joseph

and don't really know or intend to cause jealous and hatred but we do through our actions. Our actions aggravate our brothers (brethren) to hate us. Other times we are not joseph but we play his brothers part. Someone looks perfect dresses well (coat of many colors), does things better than us and we become jealous. That person doesn't talk to us or seems to think he/she is better than us and we hate or develop negative feeligs towards that person. Sometimes that person might say bad things about us and we hate them the more. That person may seem to be previledged by God and get many blessings. We see them prosper in life, maybe get a big job and a big car, the perfect husband/wife, you name it..it seems God is giving them all they need and is favoring them. We get jealous and hate that person. Whatever part we play whether josephs or his brothers we are told in (1 john 3:15) Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life. Matt 5:21, You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, do not murder and anyone who murders will be subject to Judgment. 1 john 2:9, Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in darkness.Lastly, 1 John 2:11, but whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going because darkness has blinded him.

We are told when you hate someone you are commiting murder, let us not shed any blood. It

takes so much energy to hate someone or hold a grudge. In fact when you hold any negative feelings towards someone, this affects your relationship with God. Surrender all the pain in your heart to

God, if there is anyone who hurt you let the Lord revenge in your stead. Let us put away all jealousy, anger and hatred away. Though some may provoke us to hate, we are children of light. Let us learn to love each other, remember our love is tested when it comes to dealing with enemies, those we dislike. We should look up to Christ as our example, (Rom 5:8) while we were still enemies or sinners Christ died for us. It's my prayer that our father in heaven will teach us to love and as we encouter trying situation everyday.