Joseph in Genesis, and John Taylor Gatto

In my Bible reading recently, I came to the story of Joseph and his brothers. All sons of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, in the book of Genesis we find a pattern which is interesting to observe for the sinful human heart, particularly when jealousy takes root, then boils over to hatred.

Notice these five statements and observations regarding the deterioration of Joseph’s relationship with his brothers:

“But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.”
“Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more.”
“So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.”
“And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.”
“They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him.”

This calls to my mind what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount.

In Matthew 5:21-22, we read:

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”

That is to say, jealousy over time, unless interrupted, leads to anger. Anger then boils over into hatred, as the object of our wrath is seen by us to keep us from having the happiness and peace we seek.

Uninterrupted Escalators

Yet we find ourselves at an impasse when we are angry with our brother without just cause, since our anger can only grow. If our brother does good things, and we are angry with him because we are jealous of the good outcomes of his good choices, or true words, then we will only be all the more angry and jealous the better he does.

But if we are angry with our brother without cause, and then he does bad things, we will cite those also as justification for our anger, and proof that he was not doing good before, nor is he even capable of doing what is good.

If our brother retaliates for our hostile actions, then we will retaliate, unless we love mercy, and realize the error of our ways. But if we both keep on retaliating, eventually the outcome will be to destroy one another, and ourselves.

This, then, is why the hatred Joseph’s brothers feel toward him equates to them already having murdered him in their hearts, even when all they end up doing in the end is selling him into slavery.

And as a matter of fact, it turns out that in the case of the initial seed of their discontentment toward Joseph, Jacob’s other sons are really at root finding fault with their father, and angry with him. Thus the coldness of their report when they bring the tattered, bloody coat of many colors which was symbolic of Jacob’s favor, and the lie that his beloved son has been torn to pieces by a wild animal.

Our Angry Brothers

So, too, the animus the ungodly feel toward God’s people always turns in the end to murder, unless interrupted by God’s grace and a restraining of evil.

Thus we should put away anger, jealousy, envy, covetousness, strife, and hatred for one another, and be wise to not be either easily provoked or gratuitously provocative.

Yet sometimes as much as depends on us is to do that much, and others will be offended whether we mean it or not, regardless our most innocent attempts to enjoy the life God has blessed us with. When that is the case, we should be wary of those who are angry with us without cause, since unabated their resentment will eventually boil over into hostile actions, up to and including attempts to destroy us entirely.

And this is what we see increasing here in the U.S., that the resentment against Christians grows among the godless. But this is to a great extent the fault of our public schools, because of the foundational premise on which they were launched, and the principles by which they are governed and directed.

Don’t take my word for it. Let John Taylor Gatto persuade you. The seeds of this present discontent were planted long ago, and at least a century past, in the case of American public schools, not least where they were contrived and put into their current effect by eugenicists and socialists and godless utopians.

And this is why we homeschool.

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