Sibling Rivalries and Divine Plans: Lessons from the Story of Joseph

From the outset of this post, I plead with Pastors and women/men of God reading it to kindly permit my human frailty. I am airing a non-spiritual opinion on the travails of Joseph, the son of Jacob and Rachel. to open up discussions on sibling rivalries and their deadly outcomes.

Sibling rivalries exist because parents cannot manage what people call “papa and mama’ favorite child idiosyncrasies. Like in many homes, once a child is tagged daddy or mommy’s pet child, other siblings feel jealous, envious, and sad. They would, at a point, gang up to alienate and make life miserable for that child. They only befriend the child when they need something from their parents. This is not a biblical contest, and readers should feel free to observe and add value to the post because I am still learning. After doing that, please pray for me.

Many biblical adherents usually ascribe the dreams of Joseph, the son of Jacob and Rachel, as the venial sins committed against his brothers, which made them plot to kill him but later sold into slavery. In my mind, this preference was the foundation of Joseph’s problems. I have pondered about the conspiracy theory and concluded that the travails Joseph passed through could be summated into four areas.

First, I believe Joseph’s was stoked by envy and jealousy. Jacob, the father of Joseph, sowed the seed of envy and jealousy in the hearts of his other children because he loved Joseph and his mother, Rachael, above others in many unique ways. Genesis 37:3 made it clear that the father of Joseph loved him more than his other children. This could be because Joseph was the child of his old age. Besides, it could be that he never loved Leah, the mother of his other children but Racheal. He cannot forget how much hard labor he committed to getting his heartthrob Rachel, the real woman he loved.

Secondly, the presentation of the coats of many colors above his elder brothers helping with the family business was like buying a motor car for the youngest child, who was idling away watching television when others were on the field toiling and attending to family business trekking. This, in my view, accentuated the dislike for Joseph by his brothers.

Thirdly, the last straw seems to be the two dreams of the bundle of grains bowing for him before the brothers and the bowing of the sun, the moon, and the stars for him. The brothers, who took the dream in a literary manner, began their evil plot to extinguish the flame of greatness in Joseph before he became a king too powerful to be worshipped by them.

Fourthly, most often than not, people read more physical conjectures to dreams and actions instead of spiritual meanings. Like Judas, Iscariot was positioned to betray Jesus and make come to pass the fulfillment of his mission as a man; I believe the circus of fatherly love, the coat of many colors, and the dreams were from the foundation of life, precursors to make manifest the plans of God for Joseph.

.

From the biblical brief, Jacob warned Joseph against revealing his dream to his brothers, but he did not listen. He did not listen because he thought his brothers loved him so much and would not harm him.

Secondly, as a child, Joseph could not read profound and deeper meanings to his dreams that they could incite his brothers against him.

Thirdly Joseph perhaps thought that his brothers were as open-minded, honest, and trustworthy like himself.

Fourthly, he was unable to apply emotional intelligence and the stoop-to-conquer theory.

The lessons for me are legion, and I could only point out a few here. Parents with growing children, especially in their teens, must be cautious in outwardly loving one child over the other.

We, as individuals, must learn to keep some of our plans in the embryo stages close to ourselves and God until they mature for revelations. Nay-sayers and dream killers have killed many dreams. Except for our goals in the form of dreams that God plots and delivers, not everybody could face what Joseph faced and still survive.

Many political children of Buhari were caught in this web, and their plans of succeeding him never materialized.

We should be careful how we trust people with our personal dreams and information because if Judas, the trusted exchequer of Jesus’ ministry, could betray him, nobody could be insulated from betrayal from loved ones.

Let us learn to work with God in severe trials, temptations, travails, and challenges.

Let us show resilience and calmness in our moments of turbulence. Joseph never gave up. He kept dreaming and interpreting dreams, which he knew how to do best until fortunes smiled on him.

What are you persistent in doing that could determine your breakthrough? Please don’t give it up.

Let us see conspiracies and backstabbing as part of everyday existence because some of what we are currently passing through as individuals, families, and as a nation are not meant to destroy us but to open our inner minds in meditation to see the opportunities in our present state of hopelessness. We are all aware of the results being announced now on social media. Could you wait until after the swearing-in of whoever is declared by the INEC, the Supreme Court pronouncement, and the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling before shouting Hosanna?

Lastly, forgiveness must top our agenda in all spheres of our human relations because it is not by our power that we are who we are. It is by the grace and mercy of God that we shall overcome as individuals, families, and Nigeria as a country. The die is cast. May none of us be lost in this transition.

Grace and peace!!!