A Story of Redemption and Rescue

If you are like us, you started the new year with some new plans. Maybe you didn’t make resolutions (maybe you did!), but you have a vision for your year, whether you put it on paper or whether it exists in the form of unspoken expectations in your mind. Planning is good. Interdependence on others is good. But, what happens when life throws you a curveball? When your plans fall through? When someone fails you? When you face a health crisis? Or an economic crisis? Or some other catastrophe? 

How flexible is your faith? 

“The Lord was with Joseph. He was successful and lived in the household of his Egyptian master. His master observed that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he was doing successful. So Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal attendant. Potiphar appointed Joseph overseer of his household and put him in charge of everything he owned. . . .

Joseph’s master took him and threw him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. So he was there in the prison. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him kindness. He granted him favor in the sight of the prison warden. The warden put all the prisoners under Joseph’s care. He was in charge of whatever they were doing. The warden did not concern himself with anything that was in Joseph’s care because the Lord was with him and whatever he was doing the Lord was making successful.”

Genesis 39:2-4, 20-23 NET

People failed Joseph. His father failed him by favoring him over his brothers. His brothers failed him in their jealous actions. Potiphar failed him by distrusting him. The cup bearer failed him by forgetting him. But God never failed him. Not once. God took all of the human failures and wove them together into a beautiful story of redemption and rescue. 

What if, instead of responding with anger or despair or discouragement, our response when someone or something fails us is: how will God redeem this for my good and His glory? 

This question shifts our perspective and reminds us we are here to serve, not serve our own agendas. It doesn’t discount heartbreak, but it does reclassify it. How did this look in the story of Joseph?

“Now, do not be upset and do not be angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me ahead of you to preserve life! For these past two years there has been famine in the land and for five more years there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. God sent me ahead of you to preserve you on the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now, it is not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me an adviser to Pharaoh, Lord over all his household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.”

Genesis 45:5-8 NET

Joseph said that God sent him ahead of his brothers with intention. He didn’t say, God allowed everything and used it. He said God sent him in advance with purpose through all of the trials, not in spite of them. Not God allowed it; God planned it. Why? To preserve life. 

“To save your lives by a great deliverance.”

First, God saved their family from the famine, preserving their lives from starvation and death. Then later, God delivered them from Egypt and from slavery in a mighty show of His incomparable power. And finally, God delivers us all from sin and death through the power of the cross! 

This story ends with: 

“As for you, you meant to harm me, but God intended it for a good purpose, so he could preserve the lives of many people, as you can see this day.”

Genesis 50:20 NET

Not only does God plan in advance for our good and His glory, God can take the evil motives of humans and flip them on their head—“but God intended it for a good purpose.” The brothers acted out of jealousy. God used their actions to preserve the lives of many people. This is really how the whole story of the Bible goes: God creating good, humans messing it up, God redeeming and rescuing. And this is our story as well, because God is in the business of redemption and rescue.