Betrayal

The Lord got me to thinking about the many pitfalls that we go through in life. So I thought for the next few weeks we'll see what instructions the Bible can give us on how to overcome these pitfalls. Today I want to specifically talk about the pitfall of betrayal.

You know trust is a valuable commodity, and it really hurts when that trust disappears. Have you ever had a close friend turn his back on you? I know I have and it really hurts. Have you ever had a sibling file a lawsuit against you? Or a parent that disowned you? The pain of betrayal can crush our soul. When a trusted ally becomes an enemy of sorts, a long season of depression can set in.

Kind of like the guy by the name of Kevin. Kevin was a church planter in the Midwest. At the age of 25, he felt called to start a new church. He gathered a launch team, built a website, and hosted meetings to determine what the interest might be. He knew that he wasn't strong in organizational skills so he wisely surrounded himself with a solid team of strategists. The church took off like a rocket.

But then the unthinkable happened. Behind the scenes, the leaders that Kevin had put in place held a series of secret gatherings. They chose to search for a fresh leader with greater administrative skills, and they fired Kevin from the church that he was led to start. Betrayal. Betrayal hurts.

Maybe you have a story like Kevin's. Betrayal can be devastating. But hopefully the Bible can teach us today that we don't have to face betrayal alone. God still works, as we will see in the life of Joseph. Today I'm going back to the Book of Genesis chapter 37. Prayer.

We are all born into a family, and every family suffers from generational sins, those sinful habits that are passed from one generation to the next. In our story today, Joseph's father, Jacob, was no exception. Jacob was blind to his fault of favoritism. Most of us know the story how he made some huge mistakes that would flow down to his children and deeply affect the whole family. The final chapters of Genesis focus on Joseph, one of Jacob's 12 sons, and his experience of betrayal.

Genesis 37: 1-5 – “Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. 2 These are the family records of Jacob. At seventeen years of age, Joseph tended sheep with his brothers. The young man was working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought a bad report about them to their father.

***3 Now Israel (whose name was changed to Jacob) loved Joseph more than his other sons because Joseph was a son born to him in his old age, and he made a long-sleeved robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not bring themselves to speak peaceably to him. 5 Then Joseph had a dream. When he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.

Even from these first five verses we see that jealousy was a huge factor in this family. Jealousy had been simmering in Jacob's family for quite some time. Because of jealousy, sibling rivalries had the perfect opportunity to raise their ugly heads. By the time Joseph reached the age of 17, jealousy within the family had given birth to hatred that was nourished by resentment.

While Joseph's predicament was mostly his father's fault, it's also important to notice the sovereign will of God that played out in this story. Now God cannot be blamed for evil. But God does allow his children to walk through dark valleys for a reason.

How do we know this? Joseph had a dream in which he got his first glimpse of what God was going to do. God sent the dream and Joseph shared what he saw. Now that may seem to us to be a pretty foolish move, but Joseph essentially told his brothers that they eventually would bow before him. But when he revealed this dream, Joseph set in motion the course of his life and he intensified his brother's hatred toward him.

God had a plan in all of this. This plan eventually would lead to God's glory. Jacob's story begins earlier in the book of Genesis, but here in chapter 37 we see the full extent of his family's conflict. Jacob was the family patriarch, but he wasn't perfect. He showed clear favoritism for Joseph, who was the son of Jacob's favorite wife, Rachel. In addition to that, Joseph was born to Jacob in Jacob’s later years, which led to him being especially treasured by his father. Joseph was basically in the proverbial pressure cooker from the start.