The ugliest moments of my life have been marked by jealousy. It masquerades as fear, insecurity, and relationship-crushing meanness. Envy dehumanizes everyone around me; it removes their own agency as creative, talented, smart image-bearers of God. I no longer see them as their own persons but rather as measuring sticks for my own worth. Too often, I think, \u201cI\u2019m better than so-and-so at that, but nowhere near as good as that other person.\u201d If jealousy is my economy, cynicism and narcissism are the currency I trade. If that sounds harsh or out of proportion, it\u2019s not. I think that jealousy and envy are the root of most conflicts between people, and unadmitted jealousy festers and slowly destroys relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Envy is threaded through the Bible, a throughline of sin from Cain and Abel, Rachel and Leah, Saul and David, the Pharisees who watched Jesus draw crowds to Himself, and more. In history, art, and literature, examples are rampant. In Shakespeare\u2019s Othello<\/em>, Iago cautions Othello about such envy: \u201cOh, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joseph was the victim of his brothers\u2019 jealousy, which robbed him of his family, his home, his dignity, and almost his life. His brothers stripped him of his robe and would have killed him, but instead, they sold him to a band of traders. It was perhaps the equivalent of death in their eyes; they expected to never see him again and delivered the news of his death to their father, Jacob.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As modern readers, we know how the story goes: Joseph trusted the Lord, and the Lord protected him. He rose to power in Egypt and eventually saved his family from famine and forgave his brothers. But the moment we read about today in Genesis 37 doesn\u2019t have any of that goodness\u2014only pain. And by not reading ahead, we must face the devastation that jealousy wreaked on Joseph\u2019s brothers. Jacob mourned the loss of his son and could not be comforted. Joseph was sold again, this time to an Egyptian official. No longer in control, Joseph had lost all agency at the hands of his jealous brothers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is that same \u201cgreen-eyed monster,\u201d and throughout Scripture, we are warned against its fallout. Proverbs 14:30 cautions that \u201ca tranquil heart is life to the body, but jealousy is rottenness to the bones.\u201d Ecclesiastes 4:4 tells us that \u201call labor and all skillful work is due to one person\u2019s jealousy of another. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.\u201d And James 3:16 advises that \u201cwhere there is envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil practice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scripture certainly doesn\u2019t hold back about the consequences of jealousy, and neither should we. As I read about Joseph\u2019s story, I\u2019m aware that I should \u201clet the story read me\u201d too: Where is my jealousy hurting people that I love? Where is it corroding my heart and sowing disorder? Where is it disordering my priorities away from Christ and toward my own selfish gain? These are important questions to ask because jealousy isn\u2019t something to be taken lightly. My prayer is that I never will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The ugliest moments of my life have been marked by jealousy. It masquerades as fear, insecurity, and relationship-crushing meanness. Envy dehumanizes everyone around me; it removes their own agency as creative, talented, smart image-bearers of God. I no longer see them as their own persons but rather as measuring sticks for my own worth. Too […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":71768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[294],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genesis25"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[71878],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"She Reads Truth","devotional_text":"JOSEPH IS SOLD INTO SLAVERY<\/b> The ugliest moments of my life have been marked by jealousy. It masquerades as fear, insecurity, and relationship-crushing meanness. Envy dehumanizes everyone around me; it removes their own agency as creative, talented, smart image-bearers of God. I no longer see them as their own persons but rather as measuring sticks for my own worth. Too often, I think, \u201cI\u2019m better than so-and-so at that, but nowhere near as good as that other person.\u201d If jealousy is my economy, cynicism and narcissism are the currency I trade. If that sounds harsh or out of proportion, it\u2019s not. I think that jealousy and envy are the root of most conflicts between people, and unadmitted jealousy festers and slowly destroys relationships.<\/p> Envy is threaded through the Bible, a throughline of sin from Cain and Abel, Rachel and Leah, Saul and David, the Pharisees who watched Jesus draw crowds to Himself, and more. In history, art, and literature, examples are rampant. In Shakespeare\u2019s Othello<\/i>, Iago cautions Othello about such envy: \u201cOh, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.\u201d<\/p> Joseph was the victim of his brothers\u2019 jealousy, which robbed him of his family, his home, his dignity, and almost his life. His brothers stripped him of his robe and would have killed him, but instead, they sold him to a band of traders. It was perhaps the equivalent of death in their eyes; they expected to never see him again and delivered the news of his death to their father, Jacob.<\/p> As modern readers, we know how the story goes: Joseph trusted the Lord, and the Lord protected him. He rose to power in Egypt and eventually saved his family from famine and forgave his brothers. But the moment we read about today in Genesis 37 doesn\u2019t have any of that goodness\u2014only pain. And by not reading ahead, we must face the devastation that jealousy wreaked on Joseph\u2019s brothers. Jacob mourned the loss of his son and could not be comforted. Joseph was sold again, this time to an Egyptian official. No longer in control, Joseph had lost all agency at the hands of his jealous brothers.<\/p> This is that same \u201cgreen-eyed monster,\u201d and throughout Scripture, we are warned against its fallout. Proverbs 14:30 cautions that \u201ca tranquil heart is life to the body, but jealousy is rottenness to the bones.\u201d Ecclesiastes 4:4 tells us that \u201call labor and all skillful work is due to one person\u2019s jealousy of another. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.\u201d And James 3:16 advises that \u201cwhere there is envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil practice.\u201d<\/p> Scripture certainly doesn\u2019t hold back about the consequences of jealousy, and neither should we. As I read about Joseph\u2019s story, I\u2019m aware that I should \u201clet the story read me\u201d too: Where is my jealousy hurting people that I love? Where is it corroding my heart and sowing disorder? Where is it disordering my priorities away from Christ and toward my own selfish gain? These are important questions to ask because jealousy isn\u2019t something to be taken lightly. My prayer is that I never will.<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"25","scripture":"Genesis 37:1-36, Psalm 5:4-12","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\r\nby Melanie Rainer<\/i>
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