Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering Genesis 50:18-21 wherein we see again Joseph’s great perspective and are reminded of God’s purpose in all things.
His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
It’s not uncommon to have that one stabilizing force in a family, that person that seems to keep everyone in check with a voice that stands above the others and helps hold the group together. I think that both of my late grandfathers played that role and it has been especially needed on my mom’s side of the family. We’ve recovered I think from a rocky period after his death, when he was no longer there as that moderating voice we needed to keep us from being hurtful to one another over areas we disagreed in. Well, after Jacob was gone and buried, and after the time of mourning was complete, his sons feared what his absence might mean for their relationship with their powerful brother, Joseph. They were so afraid that they were willing to regress a bit to those earlier days and concoct another story to protect themselves: “Dad said you couldn’t be mean to us after he passed on!” was their tale and, in all fairness, additional humility was their game. We can certainly understand their concerns and even appreciate their posture, but Joseph would have nothing of it. Putting ourselves in his shoes, their words to him must have been troubling since they were in essence saying that they wanted to live as his servants instead of his family…his family that he had been without for so many years in the middle of his life. But like the father of the prodigal, Joseph showed the depth and sincerity of his love for them.
It is however his perspective on all that has transpired that once again blows us away and helps us to think rightly about God’s activity in the world. You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. You’ll hear this verse on occasion quoted wrongly, perhaps something like, “You meant evil against me, but God used it for good.” It might feel convenient to remove God from the situation where Joseph was thrown into a well and sold as a slave, but He basically did that thing of inspiring the Scriptures and doesn’t give us the freedom to say here that we’re simply observing a misunderstanding on Joseph’s part. It’s clear from texts like this one that God was there, that God’s hand was at work in that very act that the brothers, in sin, performed. Complicated? Yes. Clear? Also yes. Is that not simply amazing when we really think about it? God can orchestrate things in this crazy world as He wills, and he does so through Joseph’s troubles to bring immense grace to a multitude of people. I’ve been known to say that we’re all instruments in God’s hands, like it or not, and that we can spend our days fighting against Him only to perish in the end or we can stand in faithful agreement with Him and know His glorious presence in perfection for eternity. It’s not that we can reduce a loving relationship with God to mere logic, heavens no, but a little reasoning doesn’t hurt us either.
What Joseph said to his brothers, he clearly said in love, and what he voiced about God flowed out of a lifelong faith in Him to work out His magnificent, global-impacting plan. My friend, know that God is working in and through the trials and triumphs you experience. Remember that the Lord Jesus chose to walk through life with a mission apart from even one insignificant moment, all the while with the knowledge that it was leading him to an agonizing, earth-shattering, victorious death and resurrection. Take a deep breath, know His strength, and trust in His plan today.
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2 Responses to “Genesis 50:18-21–Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation”
Wow, as I read this I realized that I have been one of those people who misquote this verse sometimes – not really thinking about the fact that those two words "used" and "meant" have very different meanings. Food for thought, that's for sure.
Easy to do because of how widely it is misquoted and how the slight change seems to solve problems we might have with the actual language! In all fairness, I think some change it in an attempt to be careful not to call God an agent of evil in any way, which is of course true…there is no darkness in Him!