NASHVILLE (BP) — This weekly Bible study appears in Baptist Press in a partnership with Lifeway Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. Through its Leadership and Adult Publishing team, Lifeway publishes Sunday School curricula and additional resources for all age groups.
This week’s Bible study is adapted from the Bible Studies For Life curriculum.
Bible Passages: Genesis 37:1-4, 18-24, 31-34
Discussion Questions:
- Growing up, what did rivalry look like in your family?
Food for Thought by Bruce McCoy:
Jealousy thrives in the world of artists and musicians. One of the more renowned tales of jealousy comes from the classic movie “Amadeus,” which dramatizes the fictionalized account of Salieri’s jealousy of Mozart.
A couple of centuries after the musical reign of Mozart, composer Johannes Brahms remarked, “Those who enjoy their own emotionally bad health and who habitually fill their own minds with suspicion, jealousy, and hatred, as a rule take umbrage at those who refuse to do likewise, and they find a perverted relief in trying to denigrate them.” But it’s not just in the art world. Families often stew in that sort of emotionally bad health. The story of Joseph offers a clear example.
Favoritism was a constant factor throughout Jacob’s life. In his boyhood, Jacob saw the pain that came from parental favoritism, as Isaac’s favorite son was Esau, and Jacob was the favorite of his mother, Rebekah. Now in his old age, Jacob had a favorite son. In the story of Joseph and his brothers, the real problem began because their father was a neglectful parent who showed favoritism and fostered a hostile rivalry.
Jacob had a favorite wife too. He loved Rachel. But before he could marry Rachel, her father Laban tricked Jacob into marrying Rachel’s older sister, Leah.
With Leah, Jacob had six sons and one daughter. He had another four sons through Zilpah, Leah’s slave. To add to the family’s distaste for Jacob’s favoritism, the sons of Leah most likely heard how their father did not love their mother.
From Jacob’s favorite wife Rachel came his favorite son, Joseph. Verse 3 refers to Jacob as Israel. Genesis 32:24-28 tells the story of Jacob wrestling with God and God changing Jacob’s name to Israel.
Joseph, who tended sheep with four of his older brothers, brought a bad report about them to their father. Now his brothers viewed Joseph as both the favorite — and a snitch.
Compounding the favoritism, Jacob gave Joseph the famed robe of many colors. But his brothers saw only red for hatred and green for jealousy. The gift of the robe wasn’t only a sign of favor; it likely revealed that Jacob planned to bless Joseph as a firstborn with the inheritance of Jacob’s estate. After all, Joseph was the firstborn of his true love, Rachel.
When the sons realized their father loved Joseph more than all of them, they hated Joseph in response. Jacob proved to be a neglectful parent. His lack of leadership left their family’s dysfunction to worsen. We must correct our children early in their lives and not tolerate bad attitudes. And parents mustn’t “stir up anger in [their] children” (Ephesians 6:4).
Jacob’s favoritism created harmful side effects in their family relationships. First, it led to an emotional distance. That distance led to hurt. Hurt turned into bitterness. Bitterness intensified to hatred. The brothers’ unchecked hatred escalated to murderous intentions.
Jacob concluded his son was dead from being torn apart by a wild animal, and his sons let him live with that lie as though it were a reality. Jacob’s remaining sons let him sink into grief because of their hateful, deceitful ploy. He was inconsolable. Jacob said he would take his grief for Joseph to the grave. Only those who have lost a child could begin to understand the depths of Jacob’s grief.
Jacob’s whole life was affected by favoritism. The pain of partiality would come full circle with the devastating loss of his favorite son, and the family would live under the cloud of a dirty secret for the next 20 years.
*Bruce McCoy is associate vice president of institutional advancement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Bible Studies for Life
Bible Studies for Life connects the Bible to life for adults, students, and kids. Bible Studies for Life helps individuals and groups know God’s Word through trustworthy content, creates biblical community through engaging and conversational group studies, and helps people engage the culture missionally by unpacking what the Bible says about real-life issues. More information can be found at Lifeway.com/biblestudiesforlife.
