“Your life as a Christian should make non-believers question their disbelief in God.” Bonhoeffer

God redeemed the horrendous decision made by Joseph’s brothers to sell him into slavery and by Potiphar to falsely imprison him by putting Joseph into a position in the Egyptian government where He could save his entire family from at least a regional famine.

After the famine was over, though, Joseph and his brothers brought their father Jacob back to Canaan to bury him with Isaac and Abraham. Could the entire clan have stayed? Scripture never said they couldn’t. They stayed because they had a good life in Egypt.

This bad decision led to a future Egyptian government enslaving them for hundreds of years. But didn’t God tell Abraham his future family would be enslaved (Gen. 15)? Yes, He did. But, did He say this because He knew the choices Jacob’s family would make to stay in their comfort zone in Goshen?

The Lord gave the Canaanites over 400 years to turn to Him, which could have happened even if Jacob’s family was living in the Land. And then another 40 years to hear about what God had done to Egypt, the world super power of its day, in order to turn from their gods to Him like Rahab did.

The reality of our world is that people have free will to make good or bad choices. God doesn’t cause either one! People do. Yet, God has the power to take those horrendous choices made by others, like Joseph’s brothers and Pharaoh’s officials, and turn them into something good for His glory (Rom. 8:28), especially where others can see Jesus in us and turn from their disbelief to belief in Him.

Take the long view – redemption. Not everything that happens to us is good, in fact far from it. Yet, we love and serve a God who can turn those horrible situations out for His glory and your becoming more like Jesus for everyone to see.