Bitter Brothers; Workplace Weasels; And Hope Hurters Series

Now let me teach you a spiritual truth, behind every bitter spirit is a wound that has not healed.

Read verse 37:4a again. They were hurting Joseph, because they were hurt of their father.

I have had a phrase going over and over in my mind as I have prepared this message, I am not sure I fully understand it yet, but it is simply this: "The orphan spirit."

There are many kinds of orphans in this world. Some from war, or accidents, some from poverty or an attempt to make a better life for the child, and some are orphans of rejection. That is the kind I want to zero in on for a second.

The bitterness of Joseph's brothers that cause them to shoot arrows of harsh words, and envy was a fruit of the root of a feeling of rejection by their father. There are a lot of people in this world who have been shot by rejection and they in turn shoot others because of the wound they have that hasn't healed. In this case the brothers saw dad loved Joseph more than them. That kind of hurt is almost universal in today's "blended families." There are people who marry, but never accept step-children, and that fact is never missed by the kids. They know when they are being treated as excess baggage. The step-parent chose a spouse and grudgingly accepted the kids. That was exactly what happend in Jacobs family. The only woman he loved was Rachel, everyone else was grudgingly accepted, and they all knew it. It was flagrant, it was horrible. If you are a stepparent please try to be the best stepparent you can be. Be equal in Christmas gifts and birthday parties, if not you may be creating the dynamics that will one day explode in your face.

The second type of archer that shot at Joseph is the Workplace Weasel.

Joseph's employers wife did wrong and blamed it on Joseph. She tried to seduce him, and then told her husband, Joseph's boss, that Joseph tried to seduce her. Workplace weasels will do wrong and them blame others for what they did. They will be the reason the project is behind and then tell their manger it is your fault.

A workplace weasel talks about others behind their back, and shoots flaming arrows of insults and accusations to others whenever they are not around. Beware of such people. Those who talk about others when they are not around will talk about you when you are not around.

Another phrase I have for workplace weasels is reputation ruinors. The bible says a good name is rather to be chosen than riches. It takes years to build a reputation and one weasel can ruin it in two minutes around the water cooler. Guess what, we have all done it. There is something about fallen nature that we think that by putting others down, it improves our standing. Who here hasn't been convicted by the Holy Spirit of the wrongness of speaking evil of others?

I remember once hearing a football illustration where the church was compared to a football team and it was said, we are sometimes the only team that the offensive line turns on and tackles the quarterback. We need to protect our quarterback, our running backs, our goal is to score against the enemy not help him by verbally attacking our teammates.