“Now the Patriarchs grew jealous of Yosef and sold him into slavery in Egypt. But Adonai was with him;” –Acts 7:9 CJB Complete Jewish Bible
“And the patriarchs, having
become-jealous-of Joseph, sold him into Egypt. And God was with him”-Acts 7:9 DLNT, Disciple’s
Literal New Testament
“Then the wrong in his heart makes
him do the wrong thing. And the wrong thing he has done leads to death”- James
1:15 WE Worldwide English
These evil thoughts lead to evil
actions and afterwards to the death penalty from God”.-James 1:15-TLV Today’s Living Version
“Don’t let anyone under pressure to
give in to evil say, “God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil,
and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us
and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our
own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood,
and becomes a real killer”- James 1:15 MSG
The Message .
As long as we remain on this side of heaven, there will always be
opportunities to become jealous of someone else as there will always be someone
better, wiser, richer, prettier and an endless list if we choose to foolishly
compare( 2 Corinthians 10:12).And since this is a temptation common to all, it
is therefore wise for us to find out what really makes us jealous of another?
I will still like to draw mainly from the writings of Selwyn Hughes
especially as he did a very good work on this topic. According to him, one of
the reasons for jealousy is expectations.
There is a certain level of expectation that the society at large could put
upon us that may ultimately influence our views of ourselves and our
accomplishments.
Joseph’s brothers probably expected some amount of affection from their
father and seeing it all lopsided to
Joseph did not go down too well with them(Genesis 37:3-4).
A second reason for jealousy could be a feeling of inferiority. This could be subtle and one that the man on the way to the Palace needs to guard against.
Whenever Joseph wore his coat of many colours around the house, it probably made his brothers feel inferior to him in a
way and this eventually provoked jealous(Genesis 37:3-4). The coat of many colours
which Joseph wore was usually worn only by royalty and heir apparent.
The third and possibly the main reason for jealousy according to Selwyn
Hughes is an insecure self. When we
are unable to appreciate the uniqueness of our own being and personality, then it is easy for us to
become jealous of others. It takes a level of security to acknowledge and
applaud the achievements and giftedness
of others. The seeds of jealousy thrive easily in the grounds of the
heart of a person who does not have or has little self worth.
But becoming jealous of another does not usually happen overnight. With
determined consistency, evil thoughts can invade our hearts and would require a
counter action not to allow them breed and develop. While it is not a sin for
these evil thoughts to invade our hearts, the issue comes when we allow them to
dwell there as eventually they will then
determine our actions(James 1:15).
There may be other reasons for jealousy
but if we are to deal with this destructive emotion , we must first be able to admit that we have been bitten successfully by its poisonous sting. If we are
in denial of this fact, then there is very little chance that we can correct
it.
Denial of this emotion will also render
the making of excuses possible. We could put on a facade while this cancerous
monsters eats us within. The man on the
way to the Palace must guard against jealousy but when
he realizes he has been bitten by her stings, must be able to admit this and
take the necessary steps out of jealousy.
In our next post, we will consider steps
out of jealousy.
Yours in His Service,
Grace Tom-Lawyer.
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