Confronting Indifference: A Lesson from Joseph's Brothers
Gen. 37:27b …And his brethren were content.
What? You mean to tell me that ALL of Joseph’s brothers were CONTENT to sell him into slavery? I admit that this beats the alternative option they had in mind, which was to kill him, but come on! As I read this text, I found myself wiping tears from my eyes. Here’s why; too many times we are content to see our brothers and our sisters thrown out of the warmth of the family circle into the harsher elements of loneliness and abandonment. Have we as a church grown so self-centered that we are numb to the atrocities which we inflict on our own when we with selfish motive do any damage necessary to secure our own wrung at the top of the ladder? Can we truly be so jealous of the success or even the potential success of our brothers and sisters that we’d rather bring them down than do some climbing ourselves? Are we so calloused and cold that when we see God do a new thing through a family member of the faith, we attack them first before ever hearing them out? Can we not celebrate someone with vision and purpose and destiny, rather than criticizing, ostracizing, and ex-communicating them from our “fellowship”? I do not know whose eyes this may find itself in front of, but my guess is, the Holy Spirit has arrested your soul. I ask one more question; HOW? How can we justify our deeds? How can so many of us turn a blinded eye towards those moments we’ve all witnessed or been a part of, where one of our own have been wounded by “friendly fire” and then thrown off on someone who don’t even care? We get them out of site and hopefully out of mind, but now the Holy Spirit of God forces us to come face to face with those painful eyes staring back at us and asking, “How could you?” I might understand if maybe one or two of the brethren were content with such treatment, but all of them? Men and brethren, these things ought not so to be! Yet, we have entire circles, denominations, and movements throughout the church world today who thrive on this kind of “king of the hill” philosophy. If we’re not careful, we’ll become drunken by the poison of this devilish doctrine, and find even ourselves pushing others down so that we might bring ourselves up! May God help us to become servants to our fellow brothers and sisters, esteeming others better than ourselves! Philippians 2:3
~ Pastor Gary Caudill
What? You mean to tell me that ALL of Joseph’s brothers were CONTENT to sell him into slavery? I admit that this beats the alternative option they had in mind, which was to kill him, but come on! As I read this text, I found myself wiping tears from my eyes. Here’s why; too many times we are content to see our brothers and our sisters thrown out of the warmth of the family circle into the harsher elements of loneliness and abandonment. Have we as a church grown so self-centered that we are numb to the atrocities which we inflict on our own when we with selfish motive do any damage necessary to secure our own wrung at the top of the ladder? Can we truly be so jealous of the success or even the potential success of our brothers and sisters that we’d rather bring them down than do some climbing ourselves? Are we so calloused and cold that when we see God do a new thing through a family member of the faith, we attack them first before ever hearing them out? Can we not celebrate someone with vision and purpose and destiny, rather than criticizing, ostracizing, and ex-communicating them from our “fellowship”? I do not know whose eyes this may find itself in front of, but my guess is, the Holy Spirit has arrested your soul. I ask one more question; HOW? How can we justify our deeds? How can so many of us turn a blinded eye towards those moments we’ve all witnessed or been a part of, where one of our own have been wounded by “friendly fire” and then thrown off on someone who don’t even care? We get them out of site and hopefully out of mind, but now the Holy Spirit of God forces us to come face to face with those painful eyes staring back at us and asking, “How could you?” I might understand if maybe one or two of the brethren were content with such treatment, but all of them? Men and brethren, these things ought not so to be! Yet, we have entire circles, denominations, and movements throughout the church world today who thrive on this kind of “king of the hill” philosophy. If we’re not careful, we’ll become drunken by the poison of this devilish doctrine, and find even ourselves pushing others down so that we might bring ourselves up! May God help us to become servants to our fellow brothers and sisters, esteeming others better than ourselves! Philippians 2:3
~ Pastor Gary Caudill