Evil. God. Good.

 

Evil. God. Good.

Evil. God. Good. - Audio/Visual

Then Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had accompanied him to the funeral of his father. But now that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers were frightened. “Now Joseph will pay us back for all the evil we did to him,” they said. So they sent him this message: “Before he died, your father instructed us to tell you to forgive us for the great evil we did to you. We servants of the God of your father beg you to forgive us.” When Joseph read the message, he broke down and cried. Then his brothers came and fell down before him and said, “We are your slaves.” But Joseph told them, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, to judge and punish you? As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil, for he brought me to this high position I have today so that I could save the lives of many people. No, don’t be afraid. Indeed, I myself will take care of you and your families.” And he spoke very kindly to them, reassuring them. So Joseph and his brothers and their families continued to live in Egypt. Joseph was 110 years old when he died. (Genesis 50:14-22)

Life can turn anyone upside down. No one escapes unscathed. Not the woman who discovers her husband is having an affair. Not the businessman whose investments are embezzled by a crooked colleague. Not the teenager who discovers that a night of romance has resulted in a surprise pregnancy. We'd be foolish to think we’re invulnerable. But we'd be just as foolish to think that evil wins the day.

The Bible reverberates with the steady drumbeat of faith: God recycles evil into righteousness. When God gets in the middle of life, evil becomes good. Haven't we discovered that in the story of Joseph? He was saddled with setbacks like family rejection, deportation, slavery and imprisonment. Yet he emerged triumphant – a hero of his generation. Among his final recorded words are the comments he said to his brothers: "As far as I’m concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil." (Gen. 50:20). And this is the repeated pattern in Scripture: Evil. God. Good.

Evil came to Job. Tempted him, tested him. Job struggled. But God countered. He spoke truth. Declared sovereignty. Job in the end chose God, and Satan's prime target became God's star witness. Good resulted.

Evil came to Moses. Convinced him to murder an Egyptian guard, and liberate a people with anger. God countered – he placed Moses in a 40 year time-out. Moses in the end chose God. This time, he liberated like a shepherd, not a soldier. Good resulted.

Evil came to David: he committed adultery. To Daniel: he was dragged off to a foreign land; to Nehemiah: the walls of Jerusalem were destroyed. But God countered. And because he did, David wrote songs of grace, Daniel ruled in a foreign land, and Nehemiah rebuilt Jerusalem's walls with lumber and hardware he purchased at the local Babylonian Ace Hardware. Good happened. And evil came to Jesus, too.

How many times in his earthly life did bad become good? The Bethlehem innkeeper told Jesus' parents to try their luck in the barn. That was bad. God entered the world in the humblest place on earth. That was good. The wedding had no wine. Bad. The wedding guests witnessed the first miracle of Jesus. Good. The storm scared the faith out of the apostles. Bad. The sight of Jesus walking on the water turned them into worshippers. Good. Five thousand men needed food for their families. Bad day to be a disciple. Jesus turned a basket into a bakery. Good day to be a disciple. With Jesus, bad became good just like night becomes day – regularly, reliably, refreshingly. And redemptively.

Can you picture that cross on the hill? Can you hear the soldiers pound the nails? Jesus' enemies were smirking. Satan's demons were lurking. All that was evil rubbed their hands in glee. "This time," Satan whispers. "Yes, this time I will win." And for a sad Friday and a silent Saturday it appeared that he had. The final breath. The battered body. Mary wept. Blood seeped down the timber into the dirt. Followers lowered God's Son before the sun set. Soldiers sealed the tomb. Night fell over the earth. Yet what Satan intended as the ultimate evil, God used for the ultimate good. God rolled the rock away and Jesus walked out on that Sunday morning with a smile on his face and a bounce in his step. And if you look closely, you can see Satan scampering from the cemetery with his forked tail between his legs. "Will I ever win?" he grumbles. No. He won't.

The stories of Jesus, Joseph and a thousand others assure us that what Satan intends for evil, God uses for good. Christine Caine is walking proof of that promise. She’s an Australian spark plug – 5’3” of energy, passion, determination and love. To hear Christine’s story is like sharing a meal with a modern-day Joseph. She’s at war with one of the greatest calamities of our generation: sex slavery, or human trafficking. She travels three hundred days a year. She meets with cabinets, presidents and parliaments. She stares down pimps and defies organized crime. With God as her helper, she will see sex slavery and human trafficking brought to its knees. Pretty impressive for a girl whose world had once been turned upside down.

At the age of thirty she stumbled upon the stunning news of her adoption. The couple who raised her never intended for her to know. So when Christine happened upon the truth, she tracked down her biological parents. The official records of her birth told her this much: she was born to a Greek mother named Panagiota, and the box designated "Father's Name" bore the word "Unknown." Christine recounts how she lingered over this word, trying to understand how someone so important to her could be reduced to seven letters in one word. And that single word seemed so inadequate. But there’s more.

Next to the box marked "Child's Name" was another seven-letter word. It sucked the air out of Christine. "Unnamed." So that was Christine’s entry into the world – Father "unknown" and Child "unnamed." According to that document, Christine Caine was simply "birth number 2508 of the year 1966." Abandoned by those who conceived and bore her. Wow. Could anything be worse? Actually, yes.

Christine was sexually abused by members of her own family. Time and time again they took advantage of her. They turned her childhood into a horror story of one encounter after another. Twelve years of unbridled and ugly evil. Yet what they intended for evil, God used for good. Christine chose to disregard the hurts of her past and follow the promise of her heavenly Father.

Christine made a Joseph-like decision to believe in the God who believed in her. She laid hold of Isaiah 49:1 – “Before I was born the Lord called me; from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.” And years later, when she heard of the plight of girls caught in the sex trade, she knew that she had to respond. When she saw their faces on missing-person posters, and heard of the abuse at the hands of captors, this unnamed, abused girl set out to rescue the nameless and abused girls of her day. Satan's plan to destroy her had actually emboldened her resolve to help others.

Today, her A21 Campaign has 12 offices in 11 countries throughout the world. They combat human trafficking, establish prevention programs in schools and orphanages, represent victims as legal advocates, and give them refuge – first in safe houses and then restoration in transition homes. Hundreds of young women have been assisted and released. Once again, what Satan intended for evil, God . . . Well, you know the rest. Or do you?

Do you believe that no evil is beyond God's reach? That he can redeem every pit, including the one you may be in now? What if Joseph had given up on God? Lord knows, he could have turned his back on heaven. At any point along his broken road, he could have turned sour and walked away. "I’m done. I’m through. I'm out." And you can give up on God if you wish. The cemetery of hope is over-populated with sour souls who have settled for a small god. Don't be among them.

God sees a Joseph in you. You in the pit. You with your family full of flops and failures. You incarcerated in your own version of an Egyptian jail. And God’s speaking to you. Your family needs a Joseph – a courier of grace in a day of anger and division. Your descendants need a Joseph – a sturdy link in the chain of faith. Your generation needs a Joseph – there’s a pandemic out there.

Will you harvest hope and distribute it to the people? Will you be a Joseph? Trust God. No, really trust him. He will get you through this. Will it be easy or quick? I hope so, but it seldom is. Yet God will make good out of your mess. He did for Joseph, and he will for you.

That's what He does: Evil. God. Good.

Grace,

Randy