Focus: What Are You Selling?

Text: Gen.37:28

"Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt."

We live in a world where people are daily busy buying or selling something. Unfortunately, this buying and selling includes the merchandise of human lives. In different parts of the world many evil people are engaged in selling and buying human body parts for demonic rituals. That is the sad reality of our world.

Jacob's sons sold their own brother Joseph for monetary gain. Those who bought him resold him to another interested and willing buyer. Stephen gave us the reason why they sold him. He says, "And the patriarchs, moved with ENVY, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him" (Act.7:9). It was envy. Envy made them forget about blood, the fact that 'blood is thicker than water,' as they say. They all shared the same blood from their father. The psalmist says, "He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant" (Ps.105:17). His blood brothers sold him for the price of a slave.

Remember that Judas Iscariot sold his own master, Jesus Christ, to the Jewish leaders, who plotted for and sanctioned His death. He said to the Jewish leaders, "And said unto them, What will ye GIVE me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver" (Mt.26:15). People who indulge in this kind of atrocity are simply devoid of a soul. They have no conscience.

Delilah sold away Samson to the five lords of the Philistines for material gain. Esau sold his birthright to his brother, and he lived ever after, regretting it. The Scripture says, "Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright" (Heb.12:16). 

Those who sell the precious for the vile show by their choices and actions that they lack a sense of value and character.

People also sell themselves as well as others. The Scripture says, "And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee: because thou hast SOLD THYSELF to work evil in the sight of the LORD" (1Kgs.21:20). Isaiah declares, "Behold, for your iniquities have YE SOLD YOURSELVES, and for your transgressions is your mother put away" (Isa.50:1). He says again, "For thus saith the LORD, Ye have SOLD YOURSELVES for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money" (Isa.52:3). This is the saddest part - selling one's self for nothing. 

Man is his own enemy. Not only is he selling others; he's also selling himself for vanity. Man is selling himself cheap to the enemy by believing in his lies.

Nehemiah tells us another sad part. "And I said unto them, We after our ability have redeemed our brethren the Jews, which were SOLD unto the heathen; and will ye even SELL your brethren? or shall they be SOLD unto us? Then held they their peace, and found nothing to answer" (Neh.5:8). The Jews of Nehemiah's day were selling their own people to the heathen. So sad, isn't it?

Amos tells about another sale. He says, "Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because THEY SOLD THE RIGHTEOUS for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes" (Ams.2:6). The righteous were being sold by the people for their selfish reasons.

Jeremiah laments, "We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us" (Lam.5:4). Judah was deprived of what belonged to them. Their land was laid bare and they were stripped of properties and possessions. Now they had to pay for what was theirs originally. So sad, isn't? Esther says to her husband the king, "For we are SOLD, I and my people, to be DESTROYED, to be SLAIN, and to PERISH. But if we had been SOLD for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage" (Esth.7:4). Haman messed up with the wrong set of people - the people of God, and he paid dearly for it with his own life. 

God watches over His own at all times. As a matter of fact, Moses declares, "How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?" (Dt.32:30). 

If the need be, God will sell the wicked into the hands of the righteous to finish them off. The righteous may suffer, but he survives, wins and succeeds at last.

I close with this Scripture: "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mk.8:36). Of what use, benefit or advantage is it to gain the whole world and lose one's soul in the process? Does it make sense? It's a huge tragedy trading with or selling off one's soul for mundane things or for fleeting pleasures.

I ask again, What are you selling? Stop selling your fellow human beings for the love of money or for any reason whatsoever. Stop selling yourself cheap to the devil. Christ has purchased you at the price of His own life. Let nobody buy you with silver and gold. You're not salable. You're precious and priceless.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter