In this study from the International Gospel Hour, Jeff Archie examines one of the most destructive forces in human relationships: envy—and how it can quickly grow into hatred.
Turning to Genesis 37:12–36, the account of Joseph and his brothers, Jeff walks through how resentment over favoritism, dreams, and perceived advantage fueled bitterness that escalated into conspiracy, betrayal, and ultimately the selling of Joseph into slavery. What began as jealousy became hatred. What began as envy became cruelty.
The lesson doesn’t stop in the Old Testament. Scripture connects envy to the rejection of Christ (Matthew 27:18), to a life lived apart from
A sound heart is life to the body, but envy is rottenness to the bones. Inspired of God and worthy of our thoughts today as we address envy and hatred, that’s coming up from the International Gospel Hour.
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It’s time for our broadcast from the International Gospel Hour. I’m Jay Webb, and welcome to our study today as we embrace God’s Word to help us meet the challenges of today. Let’s open our Bibles and open our heart for this time of Bible study with our speaker Jeff Archie of International Gospel Hour, a broadcast of the Churches of Christ. Here’s Jeff.
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Thank you to our Jay Webb, and greetings and hello everyone. It’s great having you with us today for our study from the Word of God. Let’s think for a moment about a couple of subjects that we simply don’t like talking about. Envy and hatred. You know, good simply does not come from such behaviors as envy and hatred. But friends, let us think about this today in the life of one Joseph. We’re going to go back to the Old Testament, to Genesis 37, 12-36. And yes, that reading is a bit lengthy, but hey friends, this is a Bible broadcast, so let’s go. Genesis 37, beginning with verse 12. Speaking of Joseph’s brothers, Then his brothers went to feed their father’s flock in Shechem. And Israel said to Joseph, Are not your brothers feeding the flock in Shechem? Come, I will send you to them. So he said to him, Here I am. Then he said to him, Please go and see if it is well with your brothers and well with the flocks, and bring back word to me. So he sent him out of the valley of Hebron, and he went to Shechem. Now a certain man found him, and there he was wandering in the field, and the man asked him, saying, What are you seeking? So he said, I am seeking my brothers. Please tell me where they are feeding their flocks. And the man said, They have departed from here, for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. So Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan. Now when they saw him afar off, even before he came near them, they conspired against him to kill him. Then they said to one another, Look, this dreamer is coming. Come, therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit, and we shall say some wild beast has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams. But Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands and said, Let us not kill him. And Reuben said to them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit which is in the wilderness, and do not lay a hand on him, that he might deliver him out of their hands and bring him back to his father. So it came to pass, when Joseph had come to his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic or coat of many colors that was on him. Then they took him and cast him into a pit, and the pit was empty, there was no water in it. And they sat down to eat a meal. Then they lifted their eyes and looked, and there was a company of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead with their camels, bearing spices, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry them down to Egypt. So Judah said to his brothers, What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brothers listened. Then Midianite traders passed by. So the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver, and they took Joseph to Egypt. Then Reuben returned to the pit, and indeed Joseph was not in the pit, and he tore his clothes, and he said to his brothers, The lad is no more, and I, where shall I go? So they took Joseph’s tunic, killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the tunic in the blood, and they sent the tunic of many colors, and they brought it to their father and said, We have found this. Do you know whether it is your son’s tunic or not? And he recognized it and said, It is my son’s tunic. A wild beast has devoured him. Without doubt Joseph is torn to pieces. Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. And he said, For I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning. Thus his father wept for him. Now the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard. May the Lord always bless us with the reading, the hearing, and soon the application of his word, and our study will begin in just a moment.
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Friends, let’s look at Joseph and his brothers as we consider hate and envy. Now, Joseph was obedient to Jacob. Earlier in chapter 37 in verse 2, he brought an evil report back to his father. And then we note in verses 3 and 4 of Genesis 37 how Israel loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a tunic of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him. When you think about Joseph’s dreams and what he had brought forth, his brothers hated him yet the more, verse 5. Hated him the more, verse 8. And his brothers envied him, verse 11. So we picked up moments ago with Joseph, who went to see if things were well with his brothers. And with the way they hated him, you had to wonder what he thought. And verse 18, they conspired against him to kill him. And his brothers figured at first, well, if we kill him, we kill his dreams. And you know, friends, that’s exactly what would have happened. as well as the interpretations of the dreams. And as we will see in this brief study, Joseph had the power to interpret and understand dreams, and it was God given unto him, Genesis 40 and verse 8, Genesis 41 verses 11 through 14, how his interpretation of dreams saved nations, Genesis 41, 15 and following, and preserved the promise that God would make or did make unto Abraham, Genesis 12 and affirmed in Galatians 3. Now friends, I want you to notice with me how this built up. They hated him. They didn’t speak peaceably to him. They hated him the more, hated him the more, envied him, going to kill him, but they didn’t. things were simply not going to get better with Joseph and his brothers at this point. Now, in light of this, let’s define the word envy. First, we’ll consider Webster’s definition of envy. A feeling of antagonism towards someone because of some good which he is enjoying, but which one does not have oneself. It’s a coveting for oneself of the good which someone else is enjoying. That matches Joseph’s brothers pretty well, does it not? Let’s dig deeper in the biblical definition, courtesy of the Vines Old Testament Dictionary. Envy is the feeling of displeasure produced by witnessing or hearing of the advantage or prosperity of others. This evil sense always attaches to this word, envy, desires to deprive another of what he has. Well, again, does that not match Joseph’s brothers pretty well? You see, friends, envy is a horrid, horrid way to live. Now, let’s move to some scriptures relating to envy. We began our broadcast earlier with Proverbs 14 and verse 30. A sound heart is life to the body, but envy is rottenness to the bones. We can see how hatred and envy controlled Joseph’s brothers. In Matthew 27 and verse 18, the Bible speaks of Jesus that he knew that they had handed him over because of envy. How there were those that even wanted to kill Jesus, Mark 12 and verse 12, and did as Stephen declared in Acts 7 verses 52 and following. Think about how the rulers hated Jesus, the envy, the good that he was doing, how the people would praise him, but they weren’t getting that praise. In Titus 3 and verse 3, Titus says, For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. That’s a miserable way to live. but how thankful we are that we can change how we feel of someone. Let’s draw a little application here, friends. Let’s not allow the root source to begin envy into hatred. And you know, these are some things we need to be putting away. Ephesians 4, 31 and 32, Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Notice things that should be put away and then to be put on, if you will, or to be kind. And people say, well, that’s just how I feel. But listen, the Bible says, let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. We just have to decide this is not the way we’re going to live. This is not what we are going to do. And friends, we need to think on these matters carefully. Pretty good lessons we learned from Joseph and how we should not live. Well, friends, let’s talk about how we should live. I’m going to pause for our J-Web as he has a free online video study. We have a number of studies that we love to encourage people to have a part. And here is our J-Web with the study, Does It Matter?
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Does It Matter? is a free online video study. The most important question in all the world is, where will you go when you die? This question and others are addressed from God’s Word. May we send you the link and you give it a try? Just call toll-free at 855-444-6988 and leave your name, email and just say, does it matter? Again, call toll-free at 855-444-6988 and please leave your name, email and just say, does it matter? You may also go to our website at internationalgospelhour.com, click on the Contact tab, and leave us the same information, name, email, and type Does It Matter in the message blank. We will send the link to you.
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And friends, with that said, we’ll continue our studies here at another time. Thanks for joining me today on the International Gospel Hour. I’m Jeff Archie, and friends, keep listening.
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Thank you for listening today. To God be the glory. And we hope that our study today will draw you closer to His Word to walk in His way. Feel free to listen to our other programs at our website at internationalgospelhour.com. And join us next time.
