Genesis 37:4, “And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.

8, “And they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words.

11, “And his brethren envied him, but his father observed the saying.

18, “And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.”

(In the April issue of Beacon Lights, we were introduced to Joseph as the beloved son of Jacob. We saw that Jacob preferred Joseph above his brothers because of his stalwart spirit­ual character which allowed for spirit­ual fellowship, that Joseph was a type of our Lord Jesus Christ Who is the well-loved Son of God, and that the relationship between Jacob and Jo­seph, as a picture of the relationship between the Triune, covenant God and Jesus, ought to characterize us in our relationship with our parents in our homes. We continue now our study of the life of Joseph in the conviction that he was a beautiful type of Jesus Christ, and as such is a splendid example for us to follow, especially as young people.)

If you will read carefully the Scripture quoted above, and then read those verses in the context of Genesis 37, you will have before you an example of the terrible sin of hatred. Hatred is the root of murder itself, for the apostle John writes, “He that hateth his brother is a murderer.” (I John 3:15) Ever since sin entered the world at the beginning of time, man’s heart has been filled with hatred for God and for his fellow man. The businessman does all in his power to ruin the competition; the employer and employee, through their various organ­izations, seek in the most ruthless manner to cut each other’s throats; parents kill their children sometimes before they are born, sometimes after; many bring themselves to ruin and death with the weapons of immoral pleasures: sexual uncleanness, alcohol, and drugs. Every sphere of society is filled with evidence of this bitter hatred for God, others, and self.

But the bitter hatred of Joseph’s brothers toward him is an example of the sharp antagonism which the wicked of this world always have towards the righteous in the church. They hated Joseph because he was a righteous, God-fearing, Christian young man. The same virtues which caused his father Jacob to love him and give him a coat of many colors brought forth their animosity. The deepest cause of their cruelty towards him was their utter hatred for all that is noble, honorable and pure, and their love for corruption, their enjoyment of which Joseph interrupted and exposed. The underly­ing cause of their beastly treatment of Joseph is their hatred of righteousness. The spirit which had such a hold on them, and which they manifested so consistently for so many years, is the same spirit that would one day nail the Son of God, the personification of all righteousness, on the terrible cross! So also is the lot of all those who are in Him and reveal Him. Today, also, those who are unprincipled, without righteousness, are intolerant of the upright, holy and truthful. If the people of God will forsake their principles and go along with the general current of things, they will be spared. But if they refuse to compro­mise, refuse to partake of their evil deeds, refuse to chase wildly after the mammon of pleasure, wealth, and fame, they will be ridiculed and despised. Men will not be able to look at you without loathing, nor will they be able to speak peaceably with you. That’s the way it is for the child of God in the world at large.

But we must not overlook the fact that it is Joseph’s brethren who hate and persecute him. Our chapter does not present us with some cruelty administered at the hand of the Canaanites who were in the land, but members of the same household mistreat this righteous young man! Those who were brought up in the same family, had the same blood in their veins, sat at the same table, and received the very same instruction at the knees of father Jacob. . .they hated him! The first practical lesson we must learn from this is that the acute spiritual suffering of the child of God does not begin at the hands of the world, but it begins with members of the church, with those who are nominally members of the same house­hold of faith! That’s the universal experience of the children of God. Israel tormented Moses with her complaints until the poor man was beside himself. Israel persecuted the prophets and stoned them which were sent unto her. Israel was guilty of the blood that flowed from righteous Abel to a certain Zacharius who was slain between the altar and the temple. The same is true throughout the New Dispensation. In the fulness of time, the Lord Jesus Christ is sent unto His own, and His own received Him not. The martyr Stephen is stoned by those whom he had addressed as men, brethren, and fathers. When the apostle Paul testified to the righteous­ness of Christ, these same church leaders cried out vehemently, “Away with such a fellow from the earth, for it is not fit that he should live.’’ And when the people of God raised objections to the terrible perversions the Romish church was committing in the middle ages, when they tried to bring about some reform, then the earthly-minded, deformed institute of the church persecuted the saints with exile, imprisonments, inquisition, and death. When such things happen to us, we are not to think that some new thing befalls us. It has ever been thus!

The second practical point we may see here is that the events recorded in Genesis 37 present us with a clear picture of the way in which sin grows and makes progress in the heart and life of a man, when he does not confess nor forsake that sin, but allows it to have dominion over him and lead him without restraint. First we read that the brothers hated Joseph. It was not long before they could not speak to him in a peaceable way. A bit later they hated him the more! And still later, they make plans to slay him! Sin does not stand still in a person’s heart and mind and life, but it drives forcefully ahead under the impetus of hatred. And the only way a child of God can bring that juggernaut of sin to a halt in his life is to cast himself upon the mercy of God in repentance! Repentance with sor­row, repentance with a forsaking of sin. . .that breaks the vicious circle of sin. Sadly the brothers did not repent until years later, but that’s the only answer.

We have to marvel at the behavior of Joseph in the face of this intense, unrelenting hatred. Did he remon­strate? Did he return railing for railing, call names back at his brothers? We read nothing of that. For the most part he opened not his mouth. He did speak, according to Genesis 42:21; there we read that the brothers ^l‘saw the anguish of his soul, and he besought them, and they would not hear.” He pleaded with them, he asked for justice, he spoke the truth. As he sat in that desert pit, with tears in his eyes and great pain in his soul, perhaps he had such thoughts as David later penned in Psalm 69, ‘T am weary of my crying; my throat is dried; mine eyes fail while I wait for my God. They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; they that would destroy me, being my enemies wrong­fully, are mighty. O God of Israel, for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face; I am become a stranger unto my brethren and an alien unto my mother’s children.” Both David and Joseph are Old Testament pictures of the coming Messiah. Christ was mocked, derided, and tormented not first of all by the pagan world, but by His own brethren according to the flesh and by the church of which He was a member! The church spit upon the righteous Son of God and demand­ed His crucifixion. The church hated Him because His works were good, but theirs were evil. How great was His alienation from His mother’s children, and how strange He was to His brethren.

These things had to be for Joseph and for Jesus. The way to the crown, glory, and pre-eminence, is the way of the cross. No cross, no crown! Of course his brethren did not intend it this way. They were merely giving vent to their cruel hatred for him and everything he stood for. “Let us see,” say they, “what will become of his dreams.” They will kill him so that he never has the lordship over them. Such deviltry! Yet it had to be this way, for it was God’s purpose to bring Joseph to exaltation and honor through the way of humiliation, imprisonment, loneli­ness, and suffering.

Perhaps we cannot see the wisdom of God in leading His servant Joseph in that difficult way, just as often times we do not perceive divine wisdom in the direction our lives sometimes take. But the truth rings out, down through the centuries, “Men may mean it for evil, but God means it for good!” May we always believe that, also in respect to our own personal circumstances. But in order to believe that, we will first of all have to be convinced of that truth in respect to Jesus, the Lord Whose we are and Whom we serve. We see Jesus born in a drafty cattle stall in lowly Bethlehem. We read of His constant contradiction by sinners of every kind. We observe Him suffering at the hands of the chief priests and the elders, those who were famous for their humility, religious exactitude and piety. Finally, we watch as the Savior makes His painful way outside the walls of Jerusalem to the hill of Golgotha. And we are perplexed! We wonder at the wisdom of all this. Is that the way the eternal Son of David, the great Savior and Shepherd of His sheep, should go? It’s so different from what we would expect, what we want, what we would do! But through that way alone does God raise His beloved Son to the pinnacle of glory. “How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out.”

And so it is with everyone that loves the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Are you surprised that from time to time there are those, perhaps quite close to you, who turn their backs on you, tell lies about you, maybe even twist your words? Are you amazed that your lot in life contains so much suffering and grief, that sometimes you are almost at the point of despair? Do not be surprised or amazed, but listen to these words of Jesus:

First,

“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of this world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”

And then,

“The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake. Because they do not know Him that sent me.”

With those words in mind, enter the sanctuary of God in prayer for a moment. Expose your soul and your inmost being to Him. And then if your cause is a righteous cause, the Lord will assure you that He is your God Who works all things for your good. If your cause is a righteous one, God will direct your faith to the example of Joseph, and Elijah, and David, and Jeremiah, and to many others who have had to endure stormy afflictions. But He will especially direct your faith to Jesus! Then you will not become like unto the world nor will you adopt their methods, but with patient endurance you will hold on and hold out to the end!

The inviolable rule of God’s kingdom is: No cross, no crown! Not for the young man Joseph, not for Jesus, and not for you and me. Where there are crosses grievous to be borne, there is also a glory that corresponds. Your reward is great in heaven, so great that all the present afflictions are not worthy to be compared to the glory that awaits you.

Young people in the Church of Jesus Christ must know this.