When It Doesn’t Make Sense

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. ⁴ When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. ⁵ Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. ⁶ He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: ⁷ We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”…
¹² Now his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem, ¹³ and Israel said to Joseph, “As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them.” “Very well,” he replied.…
¹⁸ But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. ¹⁹ “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. ²⁰ “Come now, let‘s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we‘ll see what comes of his dreams.”…
²³So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing—²⁴ and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it. ²⁵ As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt. _{Genesis 37:3-7, 12-13, 18-20, 23-25 (NIV)}

Joseph’s brothers threw him into a pit because they were jealous of him. They were going to kill him! All of a sudden, a band of desert nomads came by, so they decided to sell him as a slave.

These nomads who came by and bought Joseph were Ishmaelites, and Ishmael was a descendant of Abraham. They probably didn’t even realize that they were related to Joseph, or that they were carrying out God‘s plan.

Joseph ends up being second in command in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself. And not only that, God used him to save that nation from certain death and starvation because of the famine. Joseph went through a lot of things that didn’t make sense.

Things that don‘t make sense us are not an obstacle for God. Christ’s love is so great that He can redeem what doesn‘t make sense to us. How will God do it? We simply just don’t know. We are called to trust Christ. If we remember His promises, if we rely on His love, if we recognize and hope for His provision in the midst of a crisis, we are walking in victory. “For we walk by faith, not by sight” 2 Corinthians 5:7 (NKJV).