37 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.
2 This is the account of Jacob’s family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”
8 His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.
9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”
10 When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” 11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
Pastor Philip used the above passage to illustrate what he presented as three kinds of prisons that can disrupt relationships and subjugate people: abandonment, favoritism, and hatred. Jacob, who strongly favored Joseph over his many older brothers and had essentially abandoned his own family through his passive withdrawal from his responsibilities as father and husband, himself received favoritism over his brother Esau from his father Isaac...and Isaac himself was preferred by his own father Abraham over his brother Ishmael...so these "prisons" can thus be passed down from one generation to the next. And when favoritism exists, the favored can form a sense of entitlement while those disfavored can foster resentment...and ultimately, hatred...
How does one break out of dysfunctional prisons from his or her own past...or from ongoing relationships as well? A clue is given in an earlier passage in Genesis (29:17, 31-35) as it pertains to Leah, Jacob's first wife, whom he treated with contempt...in sharp contrast to his preferred wife Rachel:
17 Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel had a lovely figure and was beautiful.
31 When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless. 32 Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, “It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.”
33 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too.” So she named him Simeon.
34 Again she conceived, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” So he was named Levi.
35 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” So she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.
The lesson is clear: Leah eventually stopped depending on approval from others, in this case her husband Jacob, and instead placed her faith and hopes in God...and then she found peace. It is indeed a rough road to go down in life if you find yourself unfairly treated with disdain in favor of others...I've certainly felt this in a number of contexts over the course of my life...maybe I'll write about this some time in the future in a different article. The road is even rougher, though, if you invest your own sense of worth in whether or not others approve of you...seeking "justice" in this way is bound to be frustrating and can well lead to resentment and hatred as Pastor Griffin pointed out with his Biblical examples. Instead, place your confidence in the Lord and discover peace in his approval...
Here is a link to this sermon on the church's YouTube video website: [link]...
