Evil to Good?

No, I'm not talking about Darth Vader's change of heart in Return of the Jedi or any other story about someone who turns from their evil to become good. Instead, I'm talking about a verse from Paul's letter to the Romans:

And we know that God causes everything to work togethert for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
Romans 8.28 (NLT)

This is often a Christian comfort verse, thrown out without thinking in times of deep sorrow, loss, and pain. At those times, it ain't much comfort and is really just a cop out. However, today I want to look at a story (from our E100 challenge, Day 11; if you don't know it look for the "Essentials" post and hop in) about God doing that very thing.

In Genesis 37 we see the story of Joseph. He was his daddy's favorite, as evidenced by verses 3 and 4. He also had dreams that he shared willy-nilly with his brothers (out of pride, arrogance, or innocence I don't know) that depicted them serving him (not a good way to get them to like Daddy's favorite!). The story continues with Joseph's brothers plotting to kill him and instead selling him to slavers. After selling him off, he becomes a powerful servant running his master's house but then is thrown in jail and eventually rises to power in Egypt by interpreting Pharaoh's dream and saving the people in the land. But, I want to think about a couple things in between.

First, favoritism is one of the things I try to avoid profusely with my 5 kids. If I treat one in a different way I cause a LOT of friction. Is it always easy? No. I mean, our 1 yr old gets a lot more attention than his older siblings right now, in large part because he is still a baby. However, that can still sow the seeds of jealousy and create some serious problems.

I've often wondered if Jacob even had an inkling the kind of issues he might cause Joseph with his favoritism. I mean, giving one son an expensive special item of clothing while the rest wear hand me downs, would always tend to cause problems. Sure, Joseph's thinking might have cause him more problems than he knew with telling his brothers the dreams (I mean, did he not think that they'd get ticked off a bit? Seriously...). But, favoritism and thinking it's going to someone's head isn't cause for a murder plot, is it?

It seems odd, but the reality is that God used everything in the situation for good. From Joseph's pride (or arrogance?) to his father's favoritism to his brothers hatred and jealousy to the slave traders who bought him, every single aspect of Joseph's story was used by God for good to save many. So, even as I look at things that seem to be so negative, destructive, and evil I am assured of one thing: God does use everything for good...

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