All of God’s blessings are there for all of us – we do not need to covet other people’s blessing. We need to seek earnestly for our own and bless others in theirs even if they are younger than us either in years or Christian walk or appear to be more successful. Success in the Kingdom is measured though by obedience to what God has called us to do. We must resist the temptation to measure success either by comparing ourselves to others or by worldly standards – wealth, prominence or numbers. We can be a source of such encouragement to others if we only bless their endeavours and rest secure in what God has called us to do.
Monday, 16 July 2012
Older brothers
Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. Genesis 37: 5
Joseph as we know had a lot of trouble with his older brothers who were so irritated by his dreams and jealous of his coat that they tried to get rid of him. In fact they would have killed him if Reuben had not stopped them and so they sold him to slavery instead. David too had trouble with his jealous brothers when he was the one chosen and anointed to be king by Samuel (I Samuel 17: 28). Moses was the younger brother and he had trouble from Miriam and Aaron’s jealousy (Numbers 12). Of course the older brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son was also upset by the father’s forgiving attitude when his profligate brother arrived home having spent his share of the family fortune.
Older brothers are sometimes jealous of their ‘baby’ brother and it may go back to childhood. Certainly in ancient Middle East culture much emphasis was placed on the oldest son who would carry on the family name and inherited half of his father’s wealth. So for a younger brother to be singled out for greater things often at an early age such as Joseph or David would have been very galling.
The church is unfortunately full of ‘older brothers’, jealous of the success of their younger brothers who may seem to be more talented and anointed. Older brothers have real trouble blessing the success of others. I have said this before but others do not need to fail in order for us to succeed. We can all succeed in Jesus. Jealousy leads to awful acts of revenge and bitterness. Younger brothers will succeed despite the attitude of the older brother and the older brother is then just seen to be bitter and resentful.
All of God’s blessings are there for all of us – we do not need to covet other people’s blessing. We need to seek earnestly for our own and bless others in theirs even if they are younger than us either in years or Christian walk or appear to be more successful. Success in the Kingdom is measured though by obedience to what God has called us to do. We must resist the temptation to measure success either by comparing ourselves to others or by worldly standards – wealth, prominence or numbers. We can be a source of such encouragement to others if we only bless their endeavours and rest secure in what God has called us to do.
All of God’s blessings are there for all of us – we do not need to covet other people’s blessing. We need to seek earnestly for our own and bless others in theirs even if they are younger than us either in years or Christian walk or appear to be more successful. Success in the Kingdom is measured though by obedience to what God has called us to do. We must resist the temptation to measure success either by comparing ourselves to others or by worldly standards – wealth, prominence or numbers. We can be a source of such encouragement to others if we only bless their endeavours and rest secure in what God has called us to do.
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