One of the most difficult things to endure is an adversary, worse yet if they close to you. Joseph experienced jealously, hatred and envy from his brothers simply by being himself. The people who hurt us the most are people who are closest to us. What is remarkable in the life of Joseph is how he responded to these hostile attacks. What lessons can we learn from his lifestyle and attitude to the injustices he faced?
Injustice and unfair treatment is everywhere; at home, in the workplace, at the bank, on the street, everywhere. You just need to exist to be treated unfairly, and it hurts. The natural tendency is to wait for an opportunity to get even, to repay in kind what is done to you. Payback! Otherwise you'd wish that something similar or worse happens to the object of our misery. Serves you right! This is the natural tendency, but I see in the life of Joseph another way of responding to unfair treatment. One that did not wait for something terrible to happen to his brothers, he did not plan evil for them. There was no eye for an eye thinking in his heart. What did he do?
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. - Genesis 50:20
When Joseph was made a ruler over the land of Egypt, there was a famine in the land and only Egypt had food. This was the perfect circumstance to get even with his brothers who had him suffer greatly for so many years. They were bound to come to him to buy food. There was no better opportunity to strike back and pay them back, make them suffer, give them a taste of their own medicine. Yet he did not get even. He did not also get even with Potiphar, his old boss, who didn't believe him when his wife accused him of raping her. He did not get even with the old lady herself. He kept a positive attitude, and never retaliated. Why?
He said, you meant evil against me, but God mean it for good.... He saw God's overarching purpose through all he suffered. So it was not really about him or his brothers or Potiphar or the old lady, it was God using circumstances to bring him to the fulfilment of the dream he had as a boy.
A lot of the injustices we suffer is not about us, but God using the sin in the world to work out a wonderful work in our lives and through us, in the lives of others. When we look to God and trust that he is in control, in the midst of everything, working it out for his good pleasure, and for his ultimate glory, we will remove our eyes from others and peace will flood our hearts, and love will overcome hatred, envy and retaliation. Jesus preached against retaliation in his sermon on the mount and this should be our attitude as well.
It is not easy to overlook, forebear and refuse to retaliate when evil is done against you, sometimes daily. We all need help to make it like Joseph. God knows our weaknesses and if we express them to him in prayer, and seek his help to live this way, he will make us able, and we will find that we can do it just like Joseph did. It will take a change in our attitude and a continual looking to Jesus who is our perfect example for strength and ability. If we will make the effort, God will give us the grace to do it.