What was God doing in Joseph's slavery?
Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery, and yet the narrator keeps repeating one quiet refrain: Yahweh was with him, in Potiphar's house and in the prison alike. Years later Joseph can say that his brothers' evil and God's sending were both true at once: 'you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good', to save many people alive. His story shows providence working through real human wickedness, not around it, and a forgiveness that refuses revenge.
This question arose from studying How did Jacob become Israel?.
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What the Scripture says
The betrayal was real, and Scripture does not soften it
Judah's logic is chillingly practical: 'Come, and let's sell him to the Ishmaelites.' They pulled seventeen-year-old Joseph out of the pit and sold him for twenty pieces of silver, then dipped his robe in blood and told their father a lie. The Bible never pretends the brothers were secretly doing God's will; what they did was evil, and Genesis records it as evil.
Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, and let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not let our hand be on him; for he is our brother, our flesh.” His brothers listened to him. Midianites who were merchants passed by, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. They brought Joseph into Egypt.
The Midianites sold him into Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, the captain of the guard.
The refrain: Yahweh was with Joseph
In prosperity we read that 'Yahweh was with Joseph'; in the dungeon we read it again, that 'Yahweh was with Joseph, and showed kindness to him'. The narrator marks God's presence not by Joseph's comfort but by His nearness in both places. Slavery and prison never canceled it, which is exactly why Stephen could sum up the whole story by saying God was with him.
Yahweh was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man. He was in the house of his master the Egyptian. His master saw that Yahweh was with him, and that Yahweh made all that he did prosper in his hand.
But Yahweh was with Joseph, and showed kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
Providence worked through the evil, not around it
When Joseph reveals himself, he does not erase his brothers' guilt; he places it inside a larger intention. 'It wasn't you who sent me here, but God': both actors are real, human malice and divine purpose, and the second is not an excuse for the first but sovereign over it. God did not need the brothers' sin, yet He wove even their sin into the rescue plan.
Now don’t be grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.
So now it wasn’t you who sent me here, but God, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
A man’s heart plans his course, but Yahweh directs his steps.
The goal: saving many people alive
God's sending had a stated aim: 'to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance.' The family through whom all nations would be blessed was one famine away from extinction in a famine, and God positioned a despised brother on the throne of Egypt to feed them. The promise to Abraham survived because Joseph suffered.
God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance.
I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. All of the families of the earth will be blessed in you.”
Forgiveness that refuses revenge
With power fully in his hands, Joseph weeps instead of settling accounts. 'Am I in the place of God?', he asks; judgment belongs to God, so he takes up nourishment instead: 'I will nourish you and your little ones.' He comforted them and spoke kindly to them. That is what it looks like when someone trusts God's justice enough to stop demanding his own.
Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save many people alive. Now therefore don’t be afraid. I will nourish you and your little ones.” He comforted them, and spoke kindly to them.
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Why does God allow suffering and evil?→Suffering & God's Will trail“We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.”Is God really in control?→Suffering & God's Will trail“in whom also we were assigned an inheritance, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel of his will;”Hold onto these
Verses to meditate on
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save many people alive.
God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance. So now it wasn’t you who sent me here, but God, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
But Yahweh was with Joseph, and showed kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
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