Finding God FaithfulShembull

Day 4: When We Don’t Understand 

As you read today’s passage, be on the lookout for God’s providential hand throughout the narrative. It’s easy for us to think of God as being “way up there” in the heavens on His end of the universe while we plod along in our daily lives with little intervention from Him. But here in Genesis, long before the incarnation of Jesus, we see God at work on earth. We see Him moving in specific locations on the map, guiding people, orchestrating events, and working out His covenant promises. 

Read Genesis 37:12-28. 

Little did Jacob know when he sent his beloved son Joseph on a journey to find his brothers, Jacob wouldn’t see Joseph again for more than twenty years. And he would never again see Joseph in the land of Canaan. 

Joseph was sold for twenty pieces of silver and trafficked to the land of Egypt. What could seem more contrary to God’s sovereign plan than Joseph being sold to a godless nation far away from Canaan, the land of Promise?

After reading today’s portion of Joseph’s story it seems as though God has lost control. It appeared Joseph was being kicked around the landscape like a rubber ball on an elementary playground. His father sent him to Shechem, a mysterious man redirected him to Dothan, and then his brothers, after deciding not to kill him, secured him a one-way ticket to Egypt by way of Ishmaelite traders. 

The story appears senseless. Reckless. Out of control. Could God’s providential hand still be at work in Joseph’s life? Is it possible that what appears to be nothing but a tangle of other people’s agendas will somehow be the very ball of yarn God will use to weave one of the most redemptive masterpieces in human history? Could it be that God has not abandoned Joseph but has actually gone with him? We won’t solve the problem of why a good God allows suffering, nor will we fully understand God’s sovereignty. But my prayer is that we’ll better understand both suffering and sovereignty from the perspective of God’s Word, so that we’ll see His hand more clearly and trust His heart more deeply. Our God is good.