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there’s certainly never a shortage of other people to blame!
    In difficult times it is much easier to blame others than it is to take a good, hard look at ourselves.
    It has become very popular in our society today to adopt a victim mentality—in other words, to blame all of our problems on other people. If we are going through a difficult time, it’s easy to blame our trouble or failure on our parents, our spouse or even the government.
    I don’t wish to sound harsh or insensitive, but if your parents dropped you on your head when you were a baby, I’m sorry, but it’s time to get over it! If you’re 48 years old now, it’s time to move past this incident and do something with your life. That is an extreme example, but I’m trying to make an important point: Even if the sins of others have put you into a pit, you are the only one who can take responsibility to get out of it. And you will never get out until you stop blaming other people for the difficulties you encounter in life.
    Joseph had the perfect opportunity to develop a victim mentality. After all, he was just trying to obey his father when his brothers threw him into the pit. And we know his brothers did it out of jealousy,because the Scriptures state clearly that his brothers not only envied him but hated him as well (see Gen. 37:4,11). So it would have been easy to put all the blame for the pit incident onto Joseph’s brothers. It would have been easy for Joseph to focus only on their sins and never take a good look at his own pride.
    It’s true that Joseph’s brothers had an evil attitude—and that attitude prompted them to throw Joseph in the pit. But Joseph also had a sinful attitude, which contributed to the problem. Joseph had an attitude of pride.
    In Genesis 37:18 it says: “Now when they saw him afar off, even before he came near them, they conspired against him to kill him.” Think about that for a moment. How do you suppose they were able to see that it was Joseph from such a great distance? I believe they were able to see him because he was wearing that coat of many colors. It may have been orange, green, yellow or purple for all we know. But whatever it looked like, it was probably visible from far away.
    I’m sure Joseph loved that coat and wore it everywhere he went. His father had given it to him as a sign of his favor, so it’s understandable that the coat would be special to him. But we know Joseph had a problem with pride. And it is possible, even likely, that Joseph wore that coat with an
attitude
of pride, causing his brothers to feel even more envious.
    His brothers were out in the wilderness taking care of the sheep, working hard for their father—and from a mile away they could see that coat coming. That may have made them angry, especially if they felt that Joseph was always showing off. Perhaps Joseph was always projecting the attitude, “I’m my father’s favorite. I’m the best one. I’m better than all of you.”
    If you think about it, why were Joseph’s brothers together, working in the field, while Joseph stayed at home? Many theologians believe that his father had to separate them, because Joseph’s brothers hated him so much—his bragging created too much conflict. Jacob may have sent Joseph out to find them in the hopes that some reconciliation could take place, since it’s not likely that Jacob really wanted Joseph to check on his brothers’ well-being. After all, they were 10 grown men, all professionals and all older than Joseph. Jacob probably knew the brotherswere all right—he was just trying to help a relationship develop between Joseph and them. But Joseph was such a braggart that the relationship between his brothers and him had become terribly strained.
    Further, Joseph shared some responsibility for creating that strained relationship and making it worse. Joseph may have looked like an innocent victim in that pit, but he had contributed to the events that put him there.
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