My Favorite Verse

Okay, sure, perhaps the title isn't 100% accurate. I'd have a really hard time nailing down an actual favorite verse. Still, at this moment this one verse has been sweet to me.

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. (Gen 50:20)

"Well, that's odd," you say. And I get it. Joseph is speaking to his brothers. He was talking about a specific event -- his brothers sought to kill him and then sold him into slavery. He spent years as a slave and then a prisoner. Then he rose to the #2 position in Egypt to save not only Egypt, but his own family. "Yeah, so? What's that got to do with you?"

Let me illustrate. Recently I developed a fever. Not COVID or anything; just an infection. It lasted part of one day -- nothing too big. But because of the fever, I wasn't allowed to go to work for 72 hours. I worked from home. The day I went back to work, the guy that occupied the cubicle next to mine wasn't there. It turned out that he had developed COVID. So, I had an infection which made me the only person in our office that was not potentially exposed to an active case of COVID. "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good."

These days I live there. Satan, his minions, and his children (John 8:44) are opposed to followers of Christ. Let's just say that they aren't thinking about our best interests. "You mean evil against me." So it's not just that God might protect me from that. In fact, He might not. But He absolutely means good. Not just "get by." Good. All the time (Rom 8:28). In a world of uncertainty at best and growing threats at worst, it's good to know that even if they mean evil against me, God means good.