God’s Mysterious Ways

This is the moving climax of a long and drawn out story.  Joseph's brothers, who had sold him into slavery several chapters ago, have just finished a rousing speech.  As the chapter opens, Joseph is unable to keep the secret any longer.  He reveals to his brothers that he is the one they beat and abused.  Their actions set off a long set of plot twists that eventually led to Joseph being Pharaoh's deputy.  As it turns out, God is more powerful than our sins, able to overcome them and redeem them so that God's plan is able to come to pass.  But, they are decidedly not a part of God's plan.God gets what God wants, despite our interference along the way.  We should never be so bold as to claim that our actions were part of the plan, or that our sins were necessary evils along the way.  Rather, they were just something that God redeemed while healing the world.