In the first reading of this 26th Sunday in ordinary times, we read about God bestowing His spirit on 70 elders who were appointed to help Moses in the governance of His people. Two of these elders did not come out to the tent area, where the rest were gathered, but remained in the camp. The spirit of the Lord still came upon them, and they prophesied. Someone went and reported to Moses that these two guys were prophesying in the camp, and Joshua, furious with the news, said to Moses, “My lord, stop them" to which Moses responded, "Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets! Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all!” Moses’ reaction to Joshua was sharp and direct. It was as Joshua saying to Moses, “stop these guys from usurping your job. If they keep prophesying, people won’t realize how special you are. Protect your privilege! Stop them! You don’t really want to share your special grace with them, do you? But Moses made it clear to him that God is big enough for all of us to partake in Him; that there is enough God to go around. Scripture says, “God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work” (2 Cor 9:8).
Isn’t it amazing how we can be the moon and still be envious of the stars. What Joshua displayed here was not just jealousy; in a true sense it was envy. Envy has to do with discontent or resentment toward others based on their achievements, possessions, attributes, qualities, and more. Joshua was envious of the gift that had been bestowed on the two elders who were not in the tent area as directed. Envy is not just a negative emotion; it is a belittling passion because it resents God’s goodness in other people’s lives and ignores God’s goodness in ours. It fails to recognize that God knows what He’s doing in the apportionment of His blessings. Envy cannot stand it when others are graciously blessed and is sad at the happiness of others. Could it be true that the worst part of success is trying to find someone who is truly happy for you.
We should never underestimate the power of envy and Jealousy to destroy. Just as iron is eaten away by rust so does envy and jealousy consume with negative passions, like anger, resentment, bitterness, and inadequacy. It breeds a destructive critical spirit, deprecates others, destroys relationships, sow seeds of doubt and distrust while fostering bitterness and ugliness. It makes us hostile towards people and sometimes seeks to bring about the ruin of others who have done nothing to hurt us. As Scripture says, “Jealousy rots the bones” (Proverb 14:30). Look at the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis chapter four.
No wonder Moses cautioned Joshua. He understood that God’s grace is enough to go around. What you rightly have does not diminish what God can give to someone else and what someone else rightly has does not diminish what God can give to you, if He has willed it into your life. Yours is yours, mine is mine, we can all progress together as God has chosen to bless us.
Because envy is a secret sin, a secret that brews on the inside, one way to deal with it is to acknowledge its presence, denounce it, be grateful for blessings received and yet to be received, focus energy on doing what can be done to speak and bring more blessings into our lives, pray to God to bless our efforts while shedding off those dead places in our lives that are doing a dirty job on our progress. We need to be happy for other people’s blessings because we cannot attract what we attack.
Father Almighty, grant me the grace of gratitude and the blessing of appreciating your goodness to others. Thanks for all that you have given to me and all that you will bestow into my life. May Your name be glorified in my blessings and sufficiency. Amen!
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