Gtcotr/ws030823
Acts 7:9 “And the patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him.”
In
the next few minutes we are going to discover three principles from God’s word
concerning enemies, what makes them, and how to deal with them. We are going to
see each of these principles at work in the account of the life of Joseph, the
favored son of Jacob. The first principle we will discover is that:
1.
An enemy wants what you have.
2.
Your victory is not in your enemy’s defeat.
3. When a man’s ways please the Lord, He will make even his enemies be at peace with him.
Allow me to define the enemy for this evening’s purposes:
An enemy is someone who is trying to hurt you, rob from you, or make you afraid.
An enemy is not someone you hate and want to hurt but rather someone who hates and wants to hurt you. If you hate and want to hurt someone else, you are the enemy.
Protecting yourself when attacked by an enemy does not make you the enemy.
With these things in mind let’s read our key scripture once again.
Acts 7:9 "And the patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him."
A reading of the full account of this story beginning in Genesis 37, gives us to understand that the 10 older brothers of Joseph hated him because he was daddy’s favorite and they felt he thought he was better than them.
Genesis 37
4 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.
5 ¶ Now Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him even more.
On top of all of this, Joseph was a dreamer. Enemies do not like dreamers. Nonetheless, Joseph imagined things were only going to get better for him.
Your enemy is hoping things will only get worse for you. They feel threatened by your happiness, your optimism, and the thought of your success.
Acts 7:9 says the patriarchs became envious. The Greek word used in the original text translated into “envious” in this verse is the word: “Zeloo”. A simple study of this word reveals that it is has its roots in those feelings that make our blood boil. Today’s analogy might be to raise your blood pressure to dangerous levels because of an intense anger or hatred. An almost out of your mind zeal. In fact this word comes from the same root where we get the word “zealous”. To be driven with a mad passion or rage.
It sounds like an awful thing to be hated this much by your family, so much that the thought of you doing well makes them uncontrollably and irrationally angry. So angry they are willing to hurt you with a hurt that will hurt forever.
What makes such an enemy? Fallen human nature … what the Bible calls the flesh. This is the work that grows in the mind of a person who is disconnected from the Father and the family. We clearly see this happening in the account of Genesis 37 and throughout the rest of the book of Genesis.
The Apostle Paul writes to the Church in the regions of Galatia concerning this very thing as he enumerates the works of the flesh operating in the life of someone disconnected from the Father. If you read verses 19, 20, & 21 of Galatians 5, you will find “jealousies” listed as a work of the fallen nature of man. Jealously attempts to motivate people to act against other people.
This word, jealousies is derived from the same root word as envious in Acts 7:9. Your enemy wants what you have and hates you for having it.
The patriarchs “became envious” … “became zealous” … it didn’t just happen … it was a process of turning up the heat little by little until they were all worked up into a fervent heat and then acted and felt justified.
There is a difference between planning an attack and defending yourself from a sudden attack. These patriarchs were sworn enemies of Joseph … they hated him and had evidently hated him for a long time.
Feeding the fires of hatred will eventually turn you into the enemy. And not just the enemy of men, but into the enemy of God.
The constant unbridled conversation among the brothers caused the hatred to take fruitful root and selling their brother was the result.
However, this is not the end of the story. God loves even our enemies, and we are told by Jesus to love them as well, as Joseph did.
1.
An
enemy is jealous, envious, zealous, and simply wants what you have.
2. Your victory is not in your enemy’s defeat.
Years later when Joseph had the chance to hurt his brothers back, to put them in jail, or even to kill them, he didn’t. Joseph forgave them and after some time he brought them to safety and took great care of them for the rest of his life. Joseph did not become an enemy to his enemies.
3. Proverbs 16:7 When a man’s ways please the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
Acts 7:10 (God was with Joseph) and delivered him out of all his troubles, and gave him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
Conclusions:
·
Don’t disconnect from the Father or the
family.
·
Don’t stir the fires of the flesh.
o
Recognize and resist.
·
Don’t even become an enemy to your enemies.
