Bible Reading: Daniel 6:1-17, 24
Key Verse: Verse 24 - “And the king commanded, and they brought those men which had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions, them, their children, and their wives; and the lions had the mastery of them, and brake all their bones in pieces or ever they came at the bottom of the den.”
Key Words: and they cast them into the den of lions
Jealousy is when I don’t want you to have what I’ve got. For example, King Saul was jealous of David. He didn’t want David to have his position of king.
Envy is when I want what you’ve got. These presidents and princes were envious of Daniel because he was preferred over them by Darius. They wanted what Daniel had and in the end, it destroyed them (verse 24). In the end while in the lion’s den being torn apart by these hungry beasts, how many of them asked, “Why did I do that?”
There is a story about a potter who was envious at the prosperity of a washerman. Determined to put the washerman out of business, the potter convinced the king to issue an order requiring the washerman to wash one of the emperor’s black elephants and make it white.
The washerman replied that according to the rules of his vocation he would need a vessel large enough to hold the elephant. So the king commanded the potter to provide one, which he did. The problem was every time the elephant stepped into the vessel, it crumbled into pieces beneath the weight of the enormous beast. Many more vessels were made but each one was crushed in the same way. Eventually it was the potter who was put out of business by the very scheme he had devised to ruin the washerman he envied.
Don’t you know in the end that the potter had to be asking or at least should have been asking himself, “Why did I do that?”
If you are envious of others, in the end you too will be asking, “Why did I do that?”
What to do:
✞ Remember the old Swedish proverb, “Envy shoots at others and wounds itself.”
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