What You Intended for Evil, God Intended for Good ~ Bible Study blog for Thursday, May 22

Tonight, we moved quickly through chapter 3 in our book, which is the account of Joseph.  Joseph is a man who experiences life on the extremes: when things go wrong, they go terribly wrong; and when things go well, they go extraordinarily well.

Though not the oldest of his father Jacob’s sons, Joseph became his father’s favorite.  He also possessed the gift of interpreting dreams.  He incurs his brothers’ jealousy when he tells them of his dream that his brothers would someday bow to him.  So they hatch a diabolical scheme: as he grazes their father’s flocks, they throw him into a cistern.  Their plan is to leave him for dead, but his brother Reuben urges them not to kill him.  Judah urges them to sell him to a band of Ishmaelite merchants, which they do—though they tell their father that Joseph was killed by a wild beast. 

Joseph is subsequently sold as a slave to an Egyptian named Potiphar, who was one of Pharaoh’s officials.  God prospered Joseph in his servitude, so that Potiphar put him in charge over his household.  Joseph’s prosperity ends when he refuses the advances of Potiphar’s wife, who avenges Joseph’s rejection by accusing Joseph of attempting to rape her.  Joseph is then thrown into prison.  But God prospers him there, and Joseph is eventually put in charge of the prison.

Soon, Joseph becomes a deputy of Pharaoh, after Joseph successfully interprets Pharaoh’s dream as a warning of seven years of famine.  His interpretations allow for all of Egypt to prosper during the famine.  Pharaoh then puts Joseph in charge over all of Egypt.

The famine eventually makes its way back to Canaan, where Joseph’s family lived.  Facing immanent starvation, Jacob’s sons come to Egypt in hopes of buying food.  Joseph encounters his brothers, but they do not recognize him.  Unsure of whether or not his brothers can be trusted, Joseph devises a test in which the brothers are proved worthy of his trust.  He ultimately reconciles with his brothers, and the family lives a life of privilege in Egypt from that day forward.

We ended our study reflecting on Joseph’s words to his brothers: “what you intended for evil, God intended for good.”  It turns out that God was working through his brothers’ wickedness to preserve Jacob’s family in the time of famine.  We shared many powerful stories of ways that God has worked powerfully in our lives for good, even in spite of the most dreadful of circumstances.  In even the worst of days, God can be trusted to do good unto us.