When you were growing up, was there somebody you knew who was pampered, got everything they wanted, and was the talk of your school or in your neighborhood? I knew a girl whose father was a wealthy attorney. When she got her learner's permit, he bought her a brand-new red Porsche. With that kind of treatment, he unintentionally set her up for a miserable existence—because people around her didn't like her.

It reminds me of Joseph in Genesis 37.

You'd think that after Jacob experienced the pain of favoritism from his father, Isaac, who loved his brother Esau more, there was no way he'd make the same mistake. News flash: He did. "Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age. Also he made him a tunic of many colors" (v. 3).

The robe showcased Joseph’s favored status. Obviously, this was Jacob saying, "Joseph, you don't have to do hard work like your brothers. You can just sort of supervise them." His brothers could see it, and that caused division in the family. "When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all of his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him" (v. 4).

It got worse when Joseph told them about a couple of his dreams in which all his brothers bowed down to him. Of course, his dreams turned out to be prophetic, and everything he dreamed happened eventually. They did bow down to him when he stood before them as prime minister of Egypt.

But Joseph was naïve. I really can't speak for him, but if I'd had a dream like this, I'd probably just keep quiet about it and wait to see if it was really from the Lord. I would want to make sure before I announced it. Because this got him into trouble—his brothers didn't receive it.

"So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words" (v. 8). At first, they conspired to kill him, but then they decided, "Let's make some money out of this," and sold him into slavery (see vv. 18-36).

There are a couple of lessons here. First, be very careful not to envy other people: who they are, what they have, what their status and position is, how they are treated by parents or the boss. Because envy, which becomes jealousy, is a time bomb. It sticks around, waiting to detonate. As James wrote, "For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there" (3:16). Joseph's brothers were envious, and it exploded into a rushed decision to do away with their brother.

The second lesson is reflected in Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." It’s easy for us to look at Joseph's life from an analytical viewpoint and say, "It's so marvelous how Romans 8:28 works."

But think of it from Joseph's vantage point. Everything he had known was gone. He's now on the way to a place he'd never been. He had no idea of what would happen to him. He didn't know Romans 8:28, which makes it even more amazing when we see how he clung to the Lord.

We should always follow his faithful example in trusting the Lord, believing that God will providentially work in our lives.