“YOU MEANT EVIL!”

Genesis 50:15-21                          (ESV)

“15 When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "It may be that Joseph will hate us and PAY US BACK FOR ALL THE EVIL THAT WE DID TO HIM."

16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, "Your father gave this command before he died:

17 'Say to Joseph, "Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you."' And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the GOD of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, "Behold, we are your servants."

19 But Joseph said to them, "Do not fear, for am I in the place of GOD?

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.

21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones." Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.”

There have been many times that I have been done wrong by people who I felt really loved me.  Why did they treat me so badly when the opportunity presented itself to them?  Could they not have been more thoughtful and considerate?  Why didn’t they see what they were doing to me?  

Nobody ever had a better case for revenge than Joseph!  His brothers were jealous of him and sold him into slavery because of GOD’s Plan.  They were going to kill him, (Genesis 37:20) but decided to sell him to foreigners as a slave.  So Joseph went from being a favorite child to a slave all because his brothers were jealous!  And their reasoning was purely self-motivation!!

Probably, if I had been in Joseph’s position, I would have devised a scheme to get even with my brothers, or at least remind them of how much paid and suffering they had caused me.  But Joseph knew that GOD had a Plan and he was simply a tool to glorify GOD!  His “pride” would have to be put aside and GOD would have to be Glorified!!

When his brothers “saw” they had been “found out”, they figured they would have to explain themselves.   But Joseph said “As for you, “YOU MEANT EVIL” against me, but GOD meant it for good”!  Joseph could now SEE that the evil his brothers had performed only led to GOD ALMIGHTY being Glorified in the end!  Sometimes we have to experience “bad times” so GOD can be Glorified!  HEAVENLY FATHER, cause me to SEE that my pride isn’t as important as YOU being Glorified, even when “YOU MEANT EVIL” happens to me!!!