Daily Meditation: Friday, November 7, 1997

You know the story of Joseph and his brothers in the Old …

11/07/1997

You know the story of Joseph and his brothers in the Old Testament. Because his brothers were jealous of Joseph they decided to get rid of him by selling him to merchants on their way to Egypt. Once in Egypt the merchants sold him to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, who took him in as a servant. After a whole series of events Joseph became governor and it is then that his brothers met up with him again after many years. How surprised his brothers were and what remorse they felt! And how did Joseph behave? He told them: ‘I am your brother, Joseph,… do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither ploughing nor harvest. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth … So it was not you who sent me here, but God…' Joseph says very clearly that God used the forces of evil, in other words the brothers' jealousy of Joseph, to do good. Because one evil is not Evil and one good is not Good. Have you not yourself seen how events that seem disastrous at first end up proving to be beneficial?