Envy is a nastier sin than mere covetousness. What an envier wants is not, first of all, what another has; what an envier wants is for another not to have it. . . . To envy is to resent somebody else's good so much that one is tempted to destroy it.
Envy was what drove Joseph's brothers to their murderous deed. They cared nothing about owning Joseph's beautiful coat. They tore it in pieces. What the brothers resented was Joseph's having the coat. And they resented his person even more than his possession of it. That was why they stripped him naked and beat him and tossed him in a pit to die.
Joseph needed to see if his brothers were the same envious bunch that they were years earlier? If the conditions were "right," would they again descend to the same murderous depths? How did they regard Benjamin, who now occupied the place of favor? Would they sacrifice him if it were to their benefit? All this Joseph determined to find out when his brothers returned with Benjamin, as he was confident they would.
Join me in reading Genesis 43 and be encouraged!
