We learn early in Joseph’s story that his brothers hated him. This was not typical sibling rivalry or squabbling. It was true hatred. Genesis 37 records that a time came when the brothers acted on their hatred. Joseph had been sent to check on them far away from their father’s camp. When they saw him coming, they plotted against him. They were dissuaded from killing Joseph, but instead, they ambushed him, took away his robe, and threw him into a pit.
Verse 25 says, “Then they sat down to eat…” What a strange next step! They had considered murder, roughed up their brother, thrown him in a pit, and would soon sell him into slavery, but they stop to eat as if nothing is wrong. Hatred and sin can do that. Are there things in our lives that should appall us but don’t? Do we sin against our fellow man or God and then, like Joseph’s brothers, simply “sit down to eat?” Lord, forbid that we grow so callous to sin.