When You Cannot Trace God’s Hand: Trusting God’s Providence

The Story of Joseph

The Genesis account of Joseph is a remarkable story of prolonged unjust suffering, divine providence, and ultimate redemption (Gen. 37–50). Joseph was the eleventh of Jacob’s twelve sons, but the firstborn of Rachel, Jacob’s beloved wife. This gave Joseph a special status with his father. As a result, his brothers “hated him and could not speak a kind word to him” (Gen. 37:4).

One day Joseph is sent by his father to check on his brothers in the field. There, he is betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery. Initially, because of his godliness and God’s providential hand, Joseph finds favor with his master Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials (Gen. 39:2–6). However, this was short-lived due to false accusation. Joseph was then imprisoned, with no hope of being released, and eventually forgotten about (Gen. 40:23).

As readers, we know the end of the story, but Joseph did not. There were years of suffering in the midst of injustice. There were years of silence before visible redemption was brought to fruition. This should serve as a reminder to us that God’s work is often hidden when suffering feels immediate. Delays are not evidence of abandonment.

Genesis 50:20 — The Defining Statement

The story takes a remarkable turn. Through God’s providential hand behind the scenes, Joseph is elevated to second in command in all of Egypt after interpreting Pharaoh’s dream. During the severe famine, Joseph’s brothers travel from Canaan to Egypt to buy grain, not realizing that the Egyptian authority they meet is the brother they sold into slavery years earlier. Joseph recognizes them but conceals his identity to observe whether they have changed their ways. They had. Joseph then reveals himself to his brothers, declaring that God had sent him ahead to preserve life during the famine (Gen. 45:5–7). Jacob and his family relocate to Egypt, where Joseph provides for them.

After Jacob dies, Joseph reassures his brothers with a statement that defines the entire story:

“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).

This statement affirms the reality of evil, the sinful intention of the brothers, and the sovereign intention of God. Though evil stands opposed to God’s character, it still unfolds under His sovereign rule. The good news is that they do not coexist equally. God’s Will always wins, even if we do not immediately see the inner workings. He can use evil for good.

Cause vs. Redemption

Joseph recognizes that their evil actions did not fall outside of God’s sovereign purposes. While his brothers intended harm, God was simultaneously working through the very same events for a different end — “to bring it about that many people should be kept alive” (Gen. 50:20). God did not need to commit evil in order to accomplish His purposes. Instead, He redeemed the evil that others caused.

That is a careful theological distinction that must be understood. God’s using evil for good in Joseph’s story does not mean that He is the cause of evil. His providential working in the midst of evil does not imply authorship. Nor does it mean that God purposely causes evil for the purpose of redeeming it. Scripture traces sin back to the heart of Satan at his heavenly fall (Ezek. 28:17). Evil then entered the world through Adam (Rom. 5:12), imputing that evil to us, both individually and to the natural world around us.

Though sovereign over all things, God in His infinite wisdom saw fit to allow evil as a part of His plan for His world and for humanity. It is a mistake to view God permitting evil as God endorsing evil. This does not make God reactionary to evil. He does not simply salvage events after the fact, as we often try to do in our lives. There is something more profound and uniquely divine at play. 

Though we as sinners may intend to cause harm, God is able to use sinful actions for good ends. The betrayal that sent Joseph into slavery actually placed him in the perfect place to be used of God to provide for His people during a terrible famine. 

God may permit what He does not approve, to bring about a good that He intends. Genesis 50:20 therefore becomes a window into how God works throughout Scripture: evil may be real, but it is never ultimate. God does not cause evil, but He is able to redeem it for purposes far greater than those who commit it could ever imagine.

Hidden Providence

Just as we often cannot see the end when we are in the pit of despair, Joseph could not see the end while sitting in a literal pit. There were no visible signs that God was orchestrating a grand plan for Joseph’s good and for Israel’s preservation. All he could see was oppression, suffering, and injustice. This went on not just for days or weeks, but years.

Though Joseph could not have known, God’s providence was hidden in the backdrop, working all things according to His perfect purposes. The pit led to slavery, slavery led to prison, prison led to Pharaoh’s court, and Pharaoh’s court led to the preservation of life for Egypt and the Jewish people. What looked like a chain of tragedies was, in hindsight, a chain of providence. That is how God’s providence often works, not in the visible and grand, but quietly in the midst of what seems like utter chaos.

Amy and I know the uneasiness of being in the pit with little vision of what God is doing. I suspect you do too. It is difficult to live in the middle of the story when God’s purposes are not yet revealed and all we can see is despair and apparent meaninglessness. Yet, Joseph’s story reminds us that God’s purposes are often clearer in hindsight than in the moment. 

God Works Slower Than We Might Like

When we think through the timeline of Joseph’s story, it can be troubling to our hearts. Joseph was seventeen when he was sold into slavery (Gen. 37:2) and thirty when he entered Pharaoh’s service (Gen. 41:46). That means roughly thirteen years passed between the pit and becoming Pharaoh’s right-hand man.

From Joseph’s perspective, those must have felt like an eternity. They must have been frustrating, lonely, and confusing. Why was he being punished and forgotten while walking with God faithfully? 

Yet those years were not wasted. The nineteenth-century theologian Matthew Henry wrote, “God’s providences sometimes seem to linger, but they never come too late.” [3] God often works slowly in human time. We want immediate resolution, but God frequently shapes people through long seasons of waiting. Spiritual maturity rarely forms in moments; it forms through years of faithfulness in difficult circumstances.

Personal Application

Joseph’s story should cause us to reconsider how we interpret our own painful chapters in life. When betrayal happens, when a diagnosis upends our life plans, or when life takes us down another path that we would have never chosen, we may be tempted to think that something went terribly wrong. That, the good life of meaning, purpose, and joy that the Lord planned for us has been interrupted or even destroyed.

I know I felt that way when my son was diagnosed, and I suspect that Joseph had some of those feelings at some point in the pit, in slavery, or in prison. Each event of his life seemed to be further evidence that he had lost and God’s plan for him had been jettisoned.

Yet when Joseph finally stood before his brothers in Egypt, he could see what had been invisible during the suffering. God providentially worked the difficult detours of his life to position him for tremendous impact.

Our limited perspective often prevents us from seeing what God is quietly accomplishing. Knowing this does not make the pits and prisons of life easy. They are real, difficult, and can be lengthy. However, it gives us hope that God’s plans are better than ours, and they have not been thwarted. He is a God of redemption. 

Footnotes

[1] Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 1 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1991), 191.