“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 21 So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them. (Gen. 50:20-21, NIV)
It’s all well and good to talk about the sovereign hand of God when things are going great for us but what do we do when it seems as if life couldn’t get any worse?
William Cowper lived from 1731 to 1800 and during his life he wrote poems and hymns. One of William’s most memorable hymns was “God Moves in a Mysterious Way,” which he wrote in 1779. In that hymn he wrote the line: “Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face.” If you’ll allow me to speak anachronistically for a moment, if “God Moves in a Mysterious Way” had been written when Joseph was alive, I think it would have been one of his favorites.
After Joseph was thrown into a cistern and sold into slavery by his brothers, he found himself running Potiphar’s household. That is until Potiphar’s wife accused him of attempted rape and got him thrown into prison. From prison Joseph miraculously found himself in charge and then, maybe more miraculously, Joseph ended up being in charge of all of Egypt as Pharaoh’s second in command. After that, he found himself face to face with his brothers who sold him off as they pleaded for their lives not knowing the one with whom they were speaking was their brother, Joseph. Through it all Joseph kept believing that God was in control. From cistern, to slavery, to prison, God was in control.
How could this be, though? Why in the world would Joseph hold onto the belief that God was sovereign over the horrible things that had happened to him? What good God would allow, permit, or even cause such evil to be done to one of his creatures that loved him?
Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face.
As Joseph came face to face with his brothers he tells them: “Youintended to harm me, but God intended it for goodto accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” In order to make sure we feel at least a good amount of the importance of what can been seen here in Genesis 50:20, it’s important to keep the wording as is. Joseph says that you (his brothers) intendedto harm me (through their evil scheming and acting out). But, God intendedthe same evil scheming and acting out by Joseph’s brothers for good. Genesis 50:20 does not say that God worked good out of the brother’s evil actions. This is so important to get because it certainly is true that God can and does work good out of evil—that is a biblical truth to which Romans 8:28 testifies—it’s just not what’s being taught here. Genesis 50:20 teaches that the same actions of Joseph’s brothers throwing him into a cistern to fake his death and then selling him into slavery was (at the same time!) evil from his brothers and good from God. This truth is so important to see and to come under.
Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face.
Some are fond of softening the text here by saying that God didn’t intend for Joseph to be sold into slavery but God brought good out of it and they do that as a way to keep God protected from anyone being able to bring a charge of evil against God. Brothers and sisters in Christ, God does not need our protection from what has been written in the Scriptures. Let yourself off the hook of trying to protect God. The Scriptures and so God says that Godhad him sold into slavery in order“to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” What was the good God did through the evil of the brothers: one clear obvious thing He did was that He saved many lives.
Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face.
Through the evil of the brothers (that was the same good being done by God) Joseph was elevated to second in command in Egypt. And, through his leadership, he provided food during the famine, which saved many lives that would not have been saved, had God not done what He did.
Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face.
Cistern, to slavery, to prison, was not fun for Joseph. In fact, it was evil that brought him there. And, at the same time, it was the goodness God through his plan that brought him there. This is not a trap to call evil good and good evil. May God help us never to do such a thing! Evil is evil and good is good and the two are irreconcilable enemies. The only way for Genesis 50:20 to make sense is to recognize both evil and good for what they are. We have to have both because both are given to us as the truth in the text. The brothers acted in evil and God acted in good out of the same exact actions. The reason one can be called evil and the other be called good is based on the motive behind those actions. The brotherswanted to get rid of their infuriating brother who was causing them grief. They hated him for that. Godwanted to save many people from death because He cared for them.
Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face.
For now, there’s one last thing to notice in Genesis 50:20-21. After Joseph made clear for his brothers what had been happening all along he tells them, “So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And then Moses, the writer of Genesis, wrote, “And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.” Joseph loved them at the end not because he was such a great man and could look past their treachery. He loved them at the end because, even though he felt God’s frowning providence through slavery and prison, he saw God’s smiling face through being reunited to his family and saving countless people from death.