I have mentioned before that our day starts the same with some coffee and time in God's Word. As relaxing and comforting as that is, there is also the truth that it causes us to often have questions about what God has done and what God will do. So that means further study and research which are very good for any of us. It also brings in questions that need to be processed and considered. For me, that often occurs hours or even days later as I am thinking about or seeing something happen.
I have been in Genesis and now I am in Exodus and there are very important historical facts that are there for our understanding. These early books of the Scripture describe for us much of how God worked and will work even today.
In reading the story of Joseph you read in Genesis 50:20 EVS that he told his brothers-
20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
Now as you read this and consider it about our lives, some things have and will happen to which we may not know the reason until some time later. It is important to note here that Joseph didn't realize that was the reason he was in Egypt when he was sold to Potiphar. He didn't know it when he was in prison falsely accused by Potipher's wife of rape. Not at all during the time he served the prison warden when he told the baker and the cupbearer the meaning of their dreams. Even when he eventually is in the presence of Pharoah and proclaims the meaning of the dreams he had. Probably not even when his brothers first came looking for food.
Yet, in that moment after his father Jacob has died. They have taken his body to be buried and in Genesis 50:13 we learn that-
13 for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place.
Joseph recognizes even as his brothers fear for their lives because of what they have done to Joseph. Their father is now dead and their minds lead them to conclude Joseph will want revenge, but at that moment Joseph knows why and in Genesis 50:20 we read-
20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
Is then the question does it all work out in the end? Truth be known of course it does. We will on occasion not be able to see the forest for the trees. Our vision and understanding are cluttered by all that is going on around us. Yet, in the midst of it all God is working and the Brooklyn Tabernacle song goes "He's still working even now".
In observing all that is going on around us today, I have come to realize that something is happening and that in the end God's plan is accomplished. It by no means concludes that God is not aware of what is happening because He knows. In Isaiah 46:8-10 ESV God's Word reminds us-
8 “Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors,
9 remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me,
10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
This is where faith and hope come together. We place faith in something we cannot see. Then we live in hope of what the future holds. We don't know what the future holds but in faith we know who holds the future.
In God's Grace,
Elbert Nasworthy
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