Envy
Exodus 20:7; Gen. 37
Introduction
I want you to imagine two small town grocery store owners; two men who are bitter rivals. Their stores are right across the street from each other, and they spend each day with an eye on each other, keeping track of each other’s business. One gets a customer and he smiles in triumph at his rival. But when the other makes a sale he snarls with bitterness. Two grocery store owners: green with envy. But now imagine the story takes a twist, a turn of events that shows just how deep the envy runs. Say one of these men gets an opportunity like we see in the cartoons, to make a wish and it’ll be granted. But here’s the real twist, because here’s how the offer’s put to him: “I’ll give you anything you ask, but whatever you get, your competitor will get twice as much. Maybe you’d like to be massively rich? You’ll get it, but he’ll be twice as wealthy. Do you wish to live a long and healthy life? You can, but his life will be longer and healthier? What is your desire?” The man frowned, thought for a moment and then said, “Here’s my request … strike me blind in one eye”.
Proverbs 14:30 tells us that “A heart of peace gives life to the body but envy rots the bones,”. Resentment of others, jealousy of their success, envy – says God’s Word – rots the bones. In the last talk we saw that, just as surely as Eve gave birth to Cain, pride gave birth to anger as the proud heart becomes a destructive heart. But see how envy takes its place in the sin mixture, in Proverbs 27:4, “Wrath is fierce and anger is a flood, but who can stand before jealousy?” The Bible couldn’t sound a stronger warning—the sin of envy is deadly.
Let’s be honest – it’s in all of us. From the cradle to the grave envy’s in our hearts and you see it come to the surface in the things we think and say. ‘Its not fair, Tommy gets to stay up till 8 o’clock and I have to go to bed at 7:30, I wish I had his parents.’ ‘I wish I could look like she does, she’s so popular.’ ‘I wish I was a popular musician, I’d be appreciated more, like he is.’ ‘I see Bob’s got a new car, latest model! It must’ve cost him a bit – I wish I had the cash for that.’ ‘Now that’s a job I could handle: short hours, long holidays – he gets money for nothing while I work myself to death.’ ‘Why can’t you be more like Rita’s husband? He’s so caring and a good handyman – he’s well… useful!’ ‘Everything seems to be so easy for them, God seems to bless them so much, it doesn’t seem fair.’
Envy you see, perhaps more than we realize, is deep in our hearts and we need to come to God’s Word today to cut it out. God’s word warns us that “where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice” (James 3:16). God’s word challenges us not to “become conceited, provoking and envying each other” (Gal 5:26). But how can we do that? How can we die to our envy and really change?
An article from the newspaper I read awhile back was all about envy. The article was called “taming the green-eyed monster” and it said that ‘jealousy can burn you up: these tips will help you cope’. The article is all about feeling better about yourself. Is that it? Thinking positive thoughts about ourselves? Or is there a better way to deal with envy? Well, only God’s word takes us to the heart of the problem, to where our envy comes from. And only God’s Word takes us to the real solution, and how we can really deal with envy.
I. The Problem
• Where does our envy come from?
o Last week, we say pride born in Genesis 3 with Adam and Eve.
o This quickly spread to anger in Genesis 4 with Cain and Abel.
o And this spreads to envy by Genesis 37 with Joseph and his brothers.
• Last week on an overseas channel via the satellite they had a news report about a runaway train?
o This train got going with no driver and without a driver; it was out of control, destructive.
• That’s what we’re seeing here in Genesis with the effects of sin.
o Sin has made the entire world like a runaway train.
o God was meant to be the driver of our lives but we’ve ejected him and thought we’d take the driver’s seat.
o Here we’re seeing that we’re hopeless drivers of this world.
o Sin’s running rampant and we just can’t find the brakes.
• The Bible, doesn’t hide the ugliness of sin from us.
o Sin spreads: from pride and anger to incest and murder and rape.
o Don’t let anyone tell you the Bible’s old and out of touch.
o All the issues faced in our world today are right here in the first book of the Bible.
• As the Bible story rolls on from sin to sin to sin, the classic story of envy is Joseph and his brothers in Genesis 37 where we see envy in all its ugliness.
o Joseph is a shepherd boy, just seventeen years old, the second youngest of twelve brothers.
o And Jacob, his father, loved him more than any of the others because he was born when Jacob was old and he was the first son born to Jacob’s beloved wife, Rachel.
o Jacob had a special place in his heart for Joseph and he showed it by making him a richly ornamented robe.
o Because Joseph was his father’s favorite his brothers hated him deeply and they showed it firstly with their words.
o After Joseph’s dream, his brothers begin to show their hate with their actions as well.
o Envy is deadly.
• But we don’t like shepherd boys that get around in ornamented coats!
o And I don’t know about you, but let me take a risk here: I bet we relate to the brothers here pretty well.
o Sure, we might draw the line at murder, but we think they’ve got a right to feel a bit upset.
o Because in one way or another we’ve been there.
o We’ve had this profound envious feeling.
o It’s not fair!
o Why is he getting treated that way?
o Why not me?
• But who made us the judge?
o Who appointed us to decide what’s fair and what isn’t?
o Well, we did of course!
o Because we’ve decided to play God.
• This is the heart of sin: we make the rules, we hop into the drivers seat, we put ourselves at the center of the universe.
o We decide who gets what, we decide what’s fair, we even decide: someone should be dropped down a peg or two.
o We’ve got the right the right to the blood of the one in the special coat.
o So what if Jacob favors Joseph?
o So what if God plans to use Joseph in some special way?
o And so what if your neighbor has it better than you?
• We might not understand it but why do we need to?
o We might not like it but why is what we like the issue?
• Why is envy the way we respond?
o I mean, before Joseph got his coat, do you think one of his brothers ever even thought, ‘Gee, I wish dad would give me a decent techno-color poncho to get around in’.
o No. It’s like Paul says: ‘I wouldn’t even know what it means to covet, if I hadn’t heard the words “do not covet”’.
o Or put it this way: if my neighbor didn’t have it, I probably wouldn’t even want it because I wouldn’t know what I’m missing.
o But for some reason, that’s how envy works.
o Happiness in others produces sadness in me.
o Favor on others, produces resentment in me (remember Cain?).
o Just like favor on Joseph produces hatred in his brothers.
• Have you ever heard the Hymn – ‘Brother, let me be your servant’.
o It says: ‘I will weep while you are weeping, when you laugh I’ll laugh with you’.
o Seems to me we find it much easier to weep with the weeping, than to laugh with the laughing.
• It’s easier for us to sympathize with your suffering than to celebrate your success.
o Why is that?
o Well, here’s the really sick thing about envy.
o Here’s why envy is even more deadly in some ways than greed.
o If greed say “I want more”, envy says “I want you to have less”.
o All sin is selfishness, but envy is so insidious, so gross.
o I’m not just obsessed with my own happiness, I resent yours.
o Somehow your blessing is my curse.
o Why? Because I’ve put myself at the center of the universe; so, everything’s about me.
o Which means I can’t just say, ‘Good for you’. I find myself saying, ‘I wish that was me’.
II. Solution
• For the solution to envy we need to turn to Jesus.
• But it’s not enough for us just to say, “Jesus died to forgive my envy”.
• We need to say this as well: “Jesus died because of my envy”.
• My envy lifted Jesus up on that cross.
• Just as his brothers’ envy murdered Joseph, our envy murdered the son of God.
• If we face in the cross of Jesus the reality of our sin, if we see in the death of Jesus the judgment we deserve, if we realize that our envy drove in those nails, the conviction of God’s Spirit will start to drive our envy out.
• Because here is Jesus, more innocent than Joseph, the holy, perfect, sinless, Son of God, the one with total favor of his heavenly Father but also the one who is despised by his own, rejected, misunderstood and falsely accused.
• A re-run of Joseph’s life: Jesus’ death was plotted, envy was the motive for the murder, and, just as God used Joseph’s suffering to save Israel, so God used Jesus’ death to save sinners from all nations.
• But as striking as the similarities are between Joseph and Jesus, there’s one massive difference: although Joseph offers forgiveness to his brothers, just like Jesus prays for forgiveness for his murderers, and although his brothers do indeed bow down to Joseph, just as Jesus’ disciples bow down to him the difference is that Genesis ends with the announcement of Joseph’s death but the gospels end with the announcement of Jesus’ resurrection.
• Here in Jesus, is the one who doesn’t cheat death but beats it.
• Here is the one who doesn’t bring temporary salvation but salvation that is permanent.
• One who doesn’t relieve famine and feed our stomachs but who brings forgiveness and feeds our souls.
• In Acts 7 Stephen gives an amazing history lesson in how God’s people always killed off God’s messengers.
• Joseph even gets a mention in verse 9, because he copped it out of jealousy, and God rescued him.
• The history lesson ends with “you even betrayed and murdered Jesus – the Righteous One” in verse 52.
• But where’s Jesus now?
• Jesus is seated at the right hand of God.
• Not just rescued from envy but victorious over it!
• Here is the one who was killed by our envy, for our envy, to deal completely with our envy.
• He died to forgive our envy.
• He died to kill off our envy.
• And he rose to bring us to lives free from envy.
• He rose to give us new lives to live: lives not of envy, but of contentment, kindness and love.
• The problem with envy, like all sin, is that it puts me at the center.
• So you’re forever looking at people and saying: ‘I wish that was me’.
• The truth is: there’s only one place we can look and say that.
• Only one place where we can say, ‘that should be me’ and that’s the cross of Jesus.
• Forget your neighbor, your brother your coworkers, your friend.
• Look at Jesus – hanging there on the cross and say, ‘that should be me’.
• Christians are people who have surrendered what we deserve, not people who claim what we deserve.
• We are people who are glad we don’t get what’s fair.
• Rather than calling out “it’s not fair” over what we haven’t got, we should be stunned at what we do get from God, that we don’t deserve: forgiveness.
• You know the title of that newspaper article was a good one – “envy: taming the green-eyed monster”.
• That is the problem.
• But they got the solution all wrong.
• The solution’s not about me, and feeling better about me, the solution’s about Jesus, and feeling better about him, being convicted that our envy put Jesus on the cross and being overwhelmed that right there he forgives it.
Closing
As we trade in our “green with envy lens” for looking at the world for a Jesus lens to look at everything through; everything changes. For starters, looking at life through Jesus, I will never envy the person who doesn’t know Jesus. We can rule that one out straight away. Because what could be more precious than forgiveness? What could be more precious than eternal life? What could I count better than that?
What about us who do know Jesus? How should the Jesus lens change the way we view each other? The answer’s in 1 John 3:16-17. John says that because Jesus died for us we should die for each other. We’re not rivals or competitors; we’re fellow beggars at the foot of the cross. If we hang on to our envy we’ll never be a team, we’ll destroy each other because “from envy comes every evil practice” (James 3:16).
Envy is not just a deadly sin it gives birth to all sorts of other sins. Envy divides us, and sets us apart and against one another. Rather than focusing on serving God and rejoicing in how the talents of another help us do that, we are jealous of them. Envy leads to competitions, put downs, gossip, hatred. It stops us from working as a team, rips apart the family as we walk around in our sin. By accepting Jesus’ death we said we didn’t want to stay there. And when we do that, when we look at everything through Jesus’ death, we’re driven out to serve others not ourselves, we turn from selfishness to “servant hood”. We die to envy and rise to kindness.
