"God Meant It for Good"

Soren Kierkegaard, a Danish Christian thinker said, “Life has to be lived forward and understood backward.” Only as we look back over the events of our lives can we begin to see what God has been doing. Often we see how God seems to have orchestrated events to do us good. A classic case of looking back and seeing God’s providential care is in the story of Joseph in the Book of Genesis.

Spoiled by his father, Joseph got a “coat of many colors” which made him look like a dandy in the eyes of his brothers. He bragged to them about his dream in which all the brothers were gathering sheaves of grain and all the sheaves bowed down in front of Joseph’s. Then he told them of a second dream in which he was the center of the universe and the sun, moon, and stars all bowed down to him.

Joseph’s brothers conspired together: “Let’s kill the Dreamer.” As it turned out they sold him into slavery in Egypt. There God was with him and led him through a series of setbacks including imprisonment all the way to the top of Egyptian society. Because of his gift for dreams and their interpretation, he rose to be second in command in the government and led a campaign to store up seven years worth of grain, saving the county from starvation when a drought hit the whole region.

When Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt to buy grain, he recognized them, and they had no idea who he was. When he finally revealed to them that he was their bother, he was overcome with emotion. Near the conclusion of the story came Joseph’s famous line: “What you did to me, you meant for evil, but God meant it for good.”

We love and serve Joseph’s God today. The God who revealed himself to us in Jesus is God at work in all things for good for those who love him and respond to God’s purposes at work in our world.

Just the other day, I heard some widows in a Grief Support Group talking about how they have seen God at work in their lives even in the midst of their pain over the deaths of their husbands. That is the God we know. God is always asking us to trust that whatever happens to us, He intends to do us good. In the Kingdom of God, we can count on God to take the worst that can happen and turn it into something good.