As for you, what you intended against me for evil, God intended for good, in order to accomplish a day like this—to preserve the lives of many people.As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to save many people alive, as is happening today.But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.And as for you, ye meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
5 sermons cite this verse
… He wants you to become not a god, but godly. Now, Genesis 50, verse 20 explains then why God allows people to hurt you. Knowing what God's goal is, in 50, verse 20, he says, you intended it to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. This is a quote from a guy named Joseph. Joseph had every reason to have unaddressed grudges. because his own family sold him into slavery. He was one of the youngest kids in the family and his older brothers didn't like him. They thought he was pompous. They didn't like him at all. So they took him and threw him in a pit and told the father that a bear had eaten him. And then he's living in this pit by himself and some slave traders come by on their way to Egypt and the brothers pull him out, sell him into slavery. He's taken down to Egypt. and he's hired out as a slave to a guy named Potiphar, and Potiphar's wife is a seductive woman, and she gets the hots for Joseph, and she tries to seduce him, and he says, I'm not gonna do that. …
… and then Joseph gets to the end of the book in Genesis chapter 50 verse 20 and he says this and if you don't shout I'm gonna have to check how saved you are he says this Genesis 50 verse 20 you meant it for evil but the Lord has used it to work out for my good can I prophesy for a minute every evil intention that has ever been released over your life it shall be overshadowed by the eternal interceptions of God I don't care what the enemy tries to throw God can intercept it yeah yeah yeah yeah I never forget when I really became intimate with that scripture I was in Birmingham Alabama and I stopped by the 16th street Baptist church if I'm saying the name wrong forgive me but I believe it was the 16th street Baptist church where the bomb detonated in September of 1963 and they killed those four black girls while they were sitting in Sunday school. Researchers say they were actually studying a lesson that day about loving your enemies. …
… amazing, happy ending. He can say to his brothers, you know, in chapter 50, verse 19, do not fear for am I in the place of God? 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. He looks at the end of the story, the end of his life, and says, yeah, I know. You guys were jerks. You're going to kill me, and then you throw me in a pit, and you know, then you just send me off as a slave. Like, what? You could care less what these people are going to do to me for the rest of my life, and then, you know, go down with Potiphar. So all of this stuff, you know what? You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Somehow, at the end of the story, here I am saving a bunch of people's lives. It's the sovereignty of God. And then we go on and we start reading in Exodus and you read about Moses. Man, Moses' life was not easy. Think about God's calling to Moses. Here's what I'm going to have you do. I mean, his life didn't start off easy. And then now, you know, when he's you know, out sitting by this well and just, he's terrified. He's a, what do you call it? A fugitive. …
Here's two verses about that. In Genesis 50, verse 20, Joseph, who had been sold into slavery by his brothers, his brothers were trying to get rid of him. His brothers were trying to destroy him. His brothers were trying to kill him, and they sold him into slavery in Egypt. Yet he ascended to be the prime minister. Near the end of his life, he gets all of his brothers together, and he says, you intended it for evil, but God meant it for good. Their evil was overruled. Well, by Genesis 50 verse 20, you can say, okay, now that I know why God allowed that awful, horrible, disastrous thing to happen, now I can say, okay, God, that's fine. But the real problem is the terrible, awful, disastrous things that are happening to me. Since I cannot know the end, And since I cannot see it, therefore, I have a right to be bitter and angry and to refuse to believe that there's any sense to it at all. …
… but only God can see things from the true perspective. And later on, in Genesis chapter 50, verse 20, he says to his brothers who had sold him into slavery, and now he saw the purpose of it because as time went on, he began to see things from God's point of view, and he says, you meant it for evil, God meant it for good. now right now you can look at your life and you can decide whether you're going to stand up on genesis 50 verse 20 get on genesis 50 verse 20 and look it says you other people mean it for evil this person has hurt you this person has hurt you god means it for good look at revelation Romans 8.28, all things work together for good to those who love God. You look at this passage. God has chosen you to be holy and blameless in his sight. He has destined you. He has secured it. He has guaranteed it. He is taking everything and working it together according to the counsel of his will, it says in verse 10 and 11, so that you can eventually be a great and glorious person. …