Genesis 50: 21 So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children. And he reassured them, and spoke kindly to them.

I have often given a lot of thought to the life of Joseph and see the practicality of what I call “the Joseph principle”.  It is simply this: What others mean for your ruin, God can use for his glory and your good. I recommend you grab hold of that reality. (See Genesis 50: 19 – 21).

The drama in Joseph’s life begins in Genesis 37, skips chapter 38 and goes through to Genesis 50 where his father Jacob dies. Starting in his youth, the hand of God was upon Joseph and he knew it. The earliest revelations came to him in dreams. He was hated by his brothers who sold him to strangers and he ended up being bought as a slave by Potiphar, captain of the guard to King Pharaoh in Egypt.  But he was a trusted slave and was made overseer by Potiphar whose household was blessed because God’s hand was upon Joseph. In time Joseph became victim to the lust and lying of his master’s wife. That landed him in jail where he was forgotten for a while. But then we see that he is eventually extricated, vindicated and given a place of high honor and authority by Pharaoh in the land of his captivity. In this position, so many years later, his brothers came begging him for food and mercy.

It is very hard at times for us to imagine that God is seeing the hardships we go through. Yet, as believers, we are compelled to understand that he does see and even orchestrates some of these situations that we may know him and prove his faithfulness. When he says “I will never leave you nor forsake you” he does really mean it. Beyond that, he requires us to demonstrate his kind of love and we do that best by extending grace.  Joseph eventually was in a position where he could take revenge on his brothers but instead he not only forgave them, he helped them.

“There is no grace like the grace God provides. It flows freely and frees the condemned, releasing them to thrive and fulfill their ordained purpose. It is that kind of grace that God requires his children to extend to those who have wronged them. Your duty is to encourage the fallen, lift up the weak and discouraged, enabling them to experience forgiveness and freedom as God desires.”