Envy: The Fear Of A General Lack Series

Title: The fear of General Insufficiency

Text: Numbers 11:26-30

FCF: We all fear that there isn’t enough of God’s love to go around, but we’re wrong.

Outline:

1) George McCllelan

a) John Tyler recommendation (age 15) Graduated 2nd in his class

b) Mexican War Engineer, Gen. Scott / outshone by Robert E. Lee

c) Frustrated by lack of laurels … When War started rushed back

d) Scott resigns, now #1 – only complains / snubs Lincoln

e) Such was the reason he was called ‘Little Mac’

You see, at its heart, jealousies and envies – these passions that kill us – are ultimately little – even belittling passions. They tempt us to think that the only way in which one can achieve greatness is to make others small. It’s a hurtful thing – especially to the one who cannot overcome his own jealousy. It’s a trap that makes even the greatest into little men.

2) Jealousy

a) In Marriage: “Who’s winning?” Nonsensical

b) At work: Comptetitveness

c) Even in the Church: Oh, I wish we were like Church X or Pastor Y

3) The Story

4) Jealousy is fundamentally not a failure of self-will but self-esteem

a) We are children of the King! Real princes don’t worry about provision

b) Psalm 8; Psalm 139

c) Daiyenu: It would have been enough;

d) 2 Peter 1:8: If we believe God has given us all things, why worry about what he’s given others?

There’s no reason to be jealous when we really know that God has given us all we really need. Gen. McClellan was a jealous man, because deep down inside, that little Napoleon had a little view of himself. Deep down, he was a pitiful, fearful little man. He was a coward in General’s clothing.

5) McClellan’s fear

a) Inability to move

b) Peninsula Campaign – fake troops

c) Battle of Seven Pines, He was busy protecting his reputation w/a boat captain

6) Lee’s promotion; McCllellan’s relieved from command

Pretty much any historian will tell you the same thing: The Civil War lasted way too long. The North had 3x the population, all of the major industrial centers, and a sense of unity of purpose that the Confederacy could only dream of. What they lacked was good generals to guide them. From only a few months into the War, the South had Robert E. Lee. But petty rivalries, jealousies, and sometimes outright incompetence turned that same post in the North into a never-ending succession of could-have-beens.

It didn’t have to be that way, of course. Take Gen. George McClellan, for instance. At the age of 15, his talent was so clear that President John Tyler’s own letter of recommendation got him into West Point a year before he was legally eligible. Four years later, he graduated second in his class, and went on to serve in the Mexican American War.

He served under the most respected General of his day – Winfield Scott. He was an engineer who performed great deeds and heroic service – but the glory ended up primarily on another of Gen. Scott’s engineers, namely one Robert E. Lee – oddly enough also salutatorian of his West Point class.

Frustrated at his lack of laurels and adulation, McClellan quit his promising military career, but he never really found what he wanted in civilian life either. So, when fighting broke out in 1861, he raced to get a commission as quickly as he could. Within weeks, at the tender young age of 34, Little Mac found himself to be the second highest ranking officer in the Union Army – reporting only to none other than his old commander Gen. Winfield Scott.

Determined not to lose his share of the glory, McClellan refused to share his battle plans with his superior. Within months, Scott eventually even made way for his young protégé, resigning by October, 1861. One might think that having vaulted into the highest rank at the beginning of America’s greatest war, McClellan might have thought he had made it

But no, all McClellan could do then was complain about “the baboon” in the White House. McClellan was so jealous of Lincoln, that he made Lincoln wait, in McClellan’s own parlor, for over 30 minutes, before having the President informed that he was going to bed early. Such was the petty behavior of the man they called Little Mac.

You see, at its heart, jealousies and envies – these passions that kill us – are ultimately little – even belittling passions. They tempt us to think that the only way in which one can achieve greatness is to make others small. It’s a hurtful thing – especially to the one who cannot overcome his own jealousy. It’s a trap that makes even the greatest into little men.

This morning, as we continue in our series on the Seven Deadly Sins, I want to take a look at the passion which is alternately called Jealousy or Envy. I suppose if you had to, you could distinguish between those two words, but for our purposes, the difference doesn’t really mean anything. In both cases, the person who suffers from either jealousy or envy is only happy when he succeeds at somebody else’s expense.