Joseph's Long Game (Genesis 50:20)

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” 

— Genesis 50:20 (NIV) 

Joseph spent thirteen years between the dream and the throne. Thirteen years of being sold by his own brothers, lied about by his boss's wife, forgotten in a prison, ignored by people he had personally helped. 

Thirteen years is a long time to wait on a promise. 

By the end of the story, he is standing in front of the very brothers who started it all, and he says one sentence that should pin every reader to their chair: you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good. 

Not "it worked out." Not "I made the best of it." Intended. As in, God was authoring this thing on purpose, the whole time — including the years when nothing seemed to be happening. 

The pit wasn't a detour. The pit was the path. 

That's an easy sentence to accept once you know how the story ends. It would have been a much harder one to believe in year nine, sitting in an Egyptian prison with no explanation and no timeline. 

Some of you are in year nine of a thirteen-year story right now. You cannot see the throne from where you're standing. You can only see the pit, or the prison, or the accusation that never got corrected. 

Hold on. The author has not finished. He never lets a chapter go to waste — not even the ones that don't make sense yet.