Joseph’s
father said, “Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks,
and bring word back to me… [when his brothers] saw him in the distance, and
before he reached them, they plotted to kill him” (Genesis 37:14 and 18).
That seems strange,
doesn’t it? They see their youngest
brother coming and say, “Let’s kill him!”
This, however, was not a spur of the moment thing. In fact, his brothers were mad at and jealous
of Joseph for a long time, because he was their father’s favorite. Genesis 37:4 states that, “They [his
brothers] hated him and could not speak a kind word to him”.
On top of
that, Joseph had some dreams that suggested that he was going to rule over his
brothers one day. As you can imagine,
telling his brothers about those dreams did not help his popularity. Joseph’s brothers thought about getting rid
of him long before they took any action.
So why am I
telling you this story? Simply because
sin always works that way!
Sin is always
the outcome of what we have allowed ourselves to think about. That is why we have passages like this: “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to
your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed,
which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to
walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all
such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from
your lips. Do not lie to each other,
since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the
new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator”
(Colossians 3:5-10).
If we harbour
bad thoughts and feelings, they will grow until they come out in some regrettable
action. In fact, those emotions will
take up so much room in our lives that they will start to crowd out everything
else. Things like peace, joy, love and
hope have no place in us if we do not continually weed out the bad stuff first.
So maybe it
is time to give up your grudges. Get rid
of your list of hurts. Let go of
jealously, worry, envy, anger, disappointment and guilt. Toss those things before they get a foothold
in your life and ruin everything else.
Sin always
comes from paths that we have walked a thousand times in our minds. Maybe it is time to walk a new path.
“Above all
else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23).
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