The question was asked in my devotional reading today, "Is there some difficulty in your life now that you can accept, not as a good thing itself but as part of God's wise plan for your life?"
I was reading some posts on Twitter yesterday and certain ones were saying, "How can you say that God planned for me to be raped (or fill in the blank) so that I could expose evil in the church? This makes God out to be some sort of monster, purposely inflicting pain on His children to accomplish some grand scheme in His plan."
So, the question in my devotional reading today reminded me of these questions on Twitter. These are tough questions. How do we reconcile God's sovereign plan with sometimes life altering evil that touches our lives? I don't know that I will be able to adequately answer this, as I am working through this issue myself. But since I think better in writing than I do out loud, bear with me while I attempt to think through this. Feel free to jump in with comments. I'd like to hear them.
I guess the passage of Scripture that comes to mind is Genesis 50:20 "But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive."
Joseph was abused and sold by his brothers into Egypt. The Bible doesn't tell us his feelings during all of this, but one has to assume he was afraid and traumatized as a result of the abuse and betrayal by his brothers. In Egypt he ended up in prison as the result of a false accusation, so he was again abused in Egypt. Because of his integrity and the dreams God gave him that came true and boosted his reputation, he ultimately became second in command in the land of Egypt.
When his brothers came to Egypt for food and realized who he was they were afraid and that is when Joseph said, "You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive."
This is a great story. But the application to present day evil sometimes falls on it's face for those who never see good come from their situation. It may be true that some day they can look back and see where they gained wisdom or in the future find that their trouble can be used for good to help others, but in the immediate present when there is no good to see that is coming from the difficulty, trauma or abuse how do we comfort someone without making God out to be a monster inflicting evil on His people?
I think one thing to think about is the fact that Joseph says, "YOU meant it for evil against me". We need to help the person to realize that it is not God who inflicted the evil on them, but the person who abused them who did it. Or in the case where no one is at fault, such as a life altering illness, we could say that as a result of Adam's sin, all of humanity falls to decay and sickness at one point or another. So the YOU could be Adam, since he started this ball of decay rolling.
Joseph remembers the goodness of God when he says, "BUT GOD meant it for good..." We must never forget the goodness of God in our troubles. Joseph didn't see the good God was working in his life until he was taken out of the prison and made second in command in the whole land of Egypt. There were years where he was in less than desirable circumstances, the goodness of God was covered in a cloud of darkness, yet he continued to act with integrity before God and men.
In my own life, there are things that have happened that don't make any sense. It would be easy to point at God and ask, "Why have you allowed this into my life? Why?!" Truth be told, I have asked that question of God at times. Yes, God knew it was going to happen. He could have stopped it. But He didn't. But based on the facts of Scripture, that God is good, I have to believe that what is happening in my life and the life of my loved ones is not God being a monster and inflicting pain and suffering, but rather the pain and suffering are the result of what the Evil One is doing in this world and God will work it for good somehow, some way as I trust Him with it.
So I point my finger at the ones who have inflicted the evil, be it people or natural decay as a result of Adam's original sin and say, "YOU meant it for evil, BUT GOD can and will use it for good at some point." I don't know that this answer would be satisfactory to those on Twitter, but this is what I come to as I think on this issue.
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