beyond the evil in us

And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.

Genesis 37:11

Jealousy led Joseph’s brothers to a conspiracy that would last a generation. They wanted to murder their brother whom they hated due to their jealousy, but instead they betrayed their own family at multiple levels. Jealousy led them to mock their own brother and father when they stripped Joseph of the robe their own father had given to him. Jealousy led them to calloused hearts. They casually sat down to eat right after consigning their brother to died in the wilderness of neglect and starvation. Jealousy led them to lie to their own father after they had pocketed money for selling Joseph as a slave. Jealousy led them to accept that their own father would believe Joseph dead as they watched their father mourn, having no pity on his pain. And jealousy hid all this for decades as a dark family secret.

But God worked despite all this sinful family dysfunction. God used the results of Jacob’s favoritism born out of polygamy to eventually place Joseph in the position to redeem the family from death. God showed Joseph as much in his youthful dreams. God used the jealous actions of Israel’s sons for the good of Joseph, to place him in the right place at the right time to save not only Jacob’s family, but to feed the entire Middle East during a very severe famine.

God is sovereign over human action. The scale of the Joseph story is breathtaking. His holy purposes succeed even as our sinful hearts work against what is right. He will use attempted murder to save countless lives. He will use our lives to reveal His providences. He will turn slaves into bosses and prisoners into prime ministers so that His will is done. God is greater than our evil, and that is true hope for a broken world.