Genesis 50:20

20 You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result-the survival of many people.^[a]

Genesis 50:20 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 50:20

But as for you, ye thought evil against me
That must be said and owned, that their intentions were bad; they thought to have contradicted his dreams, and made them of none effect, to have token away his life, or however to have made him a slave all his days:

[but] God meant it unto good;
he designed good should come by it, and he brought good out of it: this shows that this action, which was sinful in itself, fell under the decree of God, or was the object of it, and that there was a concourse of providence in it; not that God was the author of sin, which neither his decree about it, nor the concourse of providence with the action as such supposes; he leaving the sinner wholly to his own will in it, and having no concern in the ataxy or disorder of it, but in the issue, through his infinite wisdom, causes it to work for good, as follows:

to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive;
the nation of the Egyptians and the neighbouring nations, as the Canaanites and others, and particularly his father's family: thus the sin of the Jews in crucifying Christ, which, notwithstanding the determinate counsel of God, they most freely performed, was what wrought about the greatest good, the salvation of men.

Genesis 50:20 In-Context

18 Then his brothers also came to him, bowed down before him, and said, "We are your slaves!"

19 But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God?

20 You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result-the survival of many people.

21 Therefore don't be afraid. I will take care of you and your little ones." And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

22 Joseph and his father's household remained in Egypt. Joseph lived 110 years.

Footnotes

• [a]. Gn 45:7; Rm 8:28