Through You, to Many
Day 42 · Genesis 50:20
📖 TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
Genesis 50:20 (NLT)
“You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.”
Today’s John 15 thread: Abiding in the Vine means trusting that even the worst circumstances were in the Gardener’s hands. What looked like a dead branch, Joseph in the pit, in prison, forgotten, was actually being shaped for abundance. The Gardener never wastes a hard season. He intended it for good, and He intended it to reach through you to many others.
✍️ REFLECTION
Jacob is dead, and suddenly Joseph’s brothers are scared. They have been living in Egypt under Joseph’s protection for seventeen years, but now that their father is gone they are afraid Joseph is going to take his revenge. They send a message and then fall down before him and say: “We are your slaves.”
Joseph weeps. Not because he is angry and not because he is satisfied that they are finally grovelling. He weeps because they still don’t understand. They still think he is the kind of person they would have been if someone had done that to them.
Q1: When people who have hurt you expect the worst from you, do they know a different version of you than the one God has been making? What has God done in you that the people from your past might not know about yet?
Joseph’s response to his brothers is one of the most extraordinary things in the whole Bible: “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you? You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good.” He is not pretending it didn’t happen. He is not saying it was fine. He’s saying something more truthful: you meant it for evil, and God meant it for something else entirely. He saw both things clearly. The harm was real, and God’s intention was also real, and God’s intention won.
Q2: Is there something in your past that was intended to harm you? Can you look at it now and honestly say, or at least begin to say, that God intended it for good? What makes that hard?
Notice how Joseph ends his statement: “He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.” He doesn’t end with his own healing. He ends with the purpose. The suffering wasn’t just about making Joseph stronger. It was about positioning him to save people. That’s the full picture. God’s intentions are never just for you. They are always through you, to someone else.
Q3: How has what you went through, the hard things, the unfair things, made you more useful to other people? Who are the people God has positioned you to help because of what you went through?
🌿 REMAIN IN HIM
Take a moment before you move on. This isn’t a to-do. It’s an invitation to stay.
Reflect honestly: Is there someone who intended to harm you that you are still holding something against? Not to minimise what they did, but to ask honestly: are you ready to see what God intended in it?
Bring it to Jesus: Tell Him: “I want to see my story the way Joseph saw his, not what they intended, but what You intended. Help me to get there.”
Trust the Gardener: The Gardener’s intentions are always good. Always. Even when it doesn’t feel like it. Trust Him with the whole story, not just the good parts.
🙏 PRAYER
Father, I want to say what Joseph said, that You intended it for good. Sometimes that’s hard to believe about the things that happened to me. Give me the eyes to see what You were doing. And give me the heart to forgive the ones who meant it for harm. Not because they deserve it, but because You have forgiven me, and because holding on costs too much. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
💡 MEMORY VERSE
Genesis 50:20 (NLT): “You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.”
This post is part of the Abide in Him Daily devotional series, reading Scripture through the lens of John 15:1–17. The branch doesn’t manufacture the fruit. It bears it because it stays connected to the Vine.
