Joseph (the story of)

God uses the forces of evil to bring about good

November 6th 2025

Have you read the story of Joseph and his brothers in the Old Testament? Out of jealousy, Joseph’s brothers decided to get rid of him by selling him to merchants who were on their way to Egypt. Once in Egypt, the merchants in turn sold Joseph to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officers, who took him in as a servant. After a whole series of events, Joseph became Pharaoh’s governor and it was in this position that his brothers found him again years later. How shocked 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 states very clearly that God used the forces of evil, in other words the brothers’ jealousy of Joseph, to bring about good. For one evil is not Evil and one good is not Good. Have you not yourself noticed how events that seem disastrous at first end up proving to be beneficial?*
* Related reading:

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

We are continually subject to the duality of good and evil, for more often than not nothing is quite right or quite wrong, and even the best things can come with downsides. To this question, this book does not only provide clear and precise explanations but above all practical methods to...