God Meant It For Good

Gen 50:20--But as for you, ye thought evil against me; [but] God meant it unto good,

     After the death of their father, Jacob,  Joseph's 11 brothers began to plead for their lives.  They finally apologized and admitted their guilt.  Instead of showing hostility toward them, Joseph came up with the above statement.  It not only shows his gracious forgiveness but it also gives immeasurable insight into the heart of God.

     Let's look at a couple of words.  "ye THOUGHT evil, but God MEANT it unto good."  The Hebrew word for THOUGHT and MEANT is the same word--chashab.  This word means to think, to plan, to calculate, to esteem and to make a judgement.  When you begin to substitute any of the definitions of the Hebrew word into the sentence, it brings clarity to what Joseph was saying.

     He told his brothers---You planned evil against me. Or, you calculated evil against me.  Isn't that exactly what they had done?  They thought about doing evil to Joseph, they planned on doing evil to him and they calculated a way to get it done.  They had the choice to love and they had the choice to hate.  They could have accepted the fact that their father loved the child born to his favorite wife or reject him.  Understand this, the decision was not God's.  The decision was theirs.  They chose the evil.  Since God allows everyone on the face of the earth a free choice, he could not stop Joseph's brothers from thinking, planning and calculating evil against him.  Re-read the verse and you will see that Joseph admits it.

     God cannot stop the evil man from his evil plans against any of us.  He would not be a righteous God if he gave some a free will and denied others a free will.  So, let's use the other definitions of the word to define God's actions now that evil has come to Joseph.  God esteemed it to be good, or God made a judgement call and said it would be good.  The heart of this statement is simple.  God couldn't stop his brothers from their hateful actions. But as long as Joseph stayed firm in his commitment to God, God was obligated to work that situation for Joseph's good.   Ultimately is was for the good of the entire Hebrew nation, but that's a different story.

     Let's say it a different way to some different faith heroes.  In our last blog, we mentioned that the birth of Jesus did not happen the way that Mary or Joseph thought that it would.  They were probably planning on a nice city-wide celebration with all of their family and friends rejoicing with them.  However, an ungodly ruler interrupted their their good plans with his plans for taxation.  Did God work that idea together for His good and for Mary and Joseph? (Rom 8:28) Absolutely.  I am sure they were disappointed and probably got pretty upset about it.  Everybody knows that an eight to nine month pregnant lady has a right to get upset about traveling and then having her baby in a strange town.  Can we say "Amen."

     But, just what did God work?  He sent an angel with a birth announcement.  He told his worship choir to back up the angel and teach the shepherds a new worship song.  As the shepherds went from backyard to backyard, they asked questions about a baby and told everyone they saw about the fantastic events.  Now, would she have gotten THAT kind of party in Nazareth?  Probably not.  She was the hit of the community.  There is no way that Mary, Joseph and their respective families could have ever orchestrated an event like that.  But, God MEANT THAT BAD THING  WAS GOING TO WORK OUT FOR GOOD.

     After the shepherd boy, David, was anointed to be king, his brothers didn't laud him with praise.  King Saul certainly didn't just jump down from his throne and let David take over.  The short story is that King Saul PLANNED to kill David.  When David ran away, King Saul spent a good bit of his time chasing David instead of protecting the kingdom until it was absolutely necessary.  But, God MEANT THAT BAD THING WAS GOING TO WORK OUT FOR GOOD.  David took families that we would say were "from the wrong side of the tracks" and made them into a God-loving army that stood by him in the worst of times.

     Even though bad stuff happened to all of these, God saw the plans they made and carried out.  As they were busy planning harmful stuff, God was planning multitudinous blessings that would far, far, far exceed the evil that was going to be done to them.  This is the fact that we have to hold on to.  God is not a respecter of persons and never has been.  What He has done for others, He will be faithful to do to all who believe Him.  The problem comes when we refuse to believe that He is a faithful rewarder of those who will remain faithful to him.

     Think of what these folks went through.  Put yourselves in their places for a few moments.  Think of how they must have felt.  Some of us have gone through some of the same things.  HOWEVER, as you "ponder" these people in the middle of their hardships, go one extra step.  In every one of these situations, there came a day when everything began to turn around for them.  There came a day when they actually saw things getting better.  There came days upon days where the blessings of God just never stopped from flowing.  And, the blessing that each of them received far, far, far exceeded the tragedy that they went through.

     Saints, let's don't give up hope.  Let's continue to worship and praise our God even in the middle of rough times.  What the bad guys have planned on being bad for us, God is planning on turning it for our good.  Turn your TV off and get hooked on His Word, His promises and His faithfulness.  Keep looking for the day of blessings from our God.  No matter what bad is happening to you right now, God is planning on making it good.