LET’S MAKE A FEW BUCKS

“Y’hudah said to his brothers, ‘What advantage is it to us if we kill out brother and cover up his blood? Come, let’s sell him to the Yishma’elim, instead of putting him to death with our own hands. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh.’ His brothers paid attention to him.”
Genesis 37:26-27

Bitterness never seemed to be left behind in this family, at least not by Yosef’s brothers. As they were out near Dothan grazing their flocks, they saw Yosef coming toward them. It didn’t matter to them why he was coming, they only knew they were tired of him and his dreams. Before too long a plan was conceived to throw him into the cisterns and convince their father that a wild animal had attacked Yosef on his journey to meet them. Ambushed by his own brothers, Yosef was stripped of his robe and shoved into the cistern. However, when a better offer came along to profit from Yosef, the brothers’ plan took a slight change. They still kept the part in the story to their father where an animal had attacked, but failed to relay to their father that their bitterness was that attacking animal. In the end, Yosef was sold by his brothers to a caravan of Yishma’elim (Ishmaelites) who in turn sold him to the Egyptian official, Potifar.
But like I said, it was their bitterness that was the animal. It was their bitterness toward his dreams, towards his tattling, and towards his robe that pushed them to this point. The way to get rid of their bitterness was coming down the path, though. In fact, they could not only get rid of Yosef, but they could make a few bucks too. Two good things for only one big lie. And yet, we do the same thing at times. Instead of getting to the root, we look for the easy way out. We cover our bitterness with addictions, with busyness, and with things of no value. If bitterness is not handled correctly, in the ways of Adonai and with His help, it will only fester until we too find ourselves selling something. It may not be our brother, but it may be something dear to us.
Let us be warned by the actions of the brothers. Let us not come to a point where bitterness is the animal that attacks. And let us not find ourselves in a place where later we regret the actions we have done.

Genesis 37:23-36