Brawling Brothers

One thing that has constantly struck me about the Bible is the recurring idea of brothers fighting. We have Cain and Abel. We have Esau and Jacob. We have Joseph and…well, all the rest of his brothers! It is interesting that people who are supposed to love one another, who have significant commonalities, who have shared experiences, can be constantly and connivingly at each other’s throats.

I often think about my relationship with my older brother. As children, we fought constantly. In fact, my mother used to tell us to go out into the back yard to fight so we wouldn’t break anything in the house. If I knew then what I know now, I would have tricked him out of his First Born birthright like Jacob! Looking back now, I really couldn’t tell you with any certainty exactly why we fought. Much of it was most likely territorial. We shared a room, but wanted our own space. We watched cartoons on Saturday morning, but wanted to watch our own choices (even though we would be just as content watching the other’s cartoon choice – but that’s never the point). We had a stereo but wanted to listen to our own music.

I suppose there is a selfishness that causes rifts between brothers. Cain wanted his offering to God to be the best. Jacob wanted birthright and blessing from Isaac. Joseph’s brothers wanted Jacob’s attention. Interestingly enough, if we look at some New Testament brothers, Simon (Peter) and Andrew, Zebedee and John, there doesn’t seem to be such problems.

Maybe one takeaway here is that by following Jesus (in this case – literally), we can more easily get along with our brother. And who is our brother? We already know the answer to that! Right?