Big Buts of the Bible

But God Intended It for Good

Genesis 50:20

Some of life’s deepest wounds aren’t accidents.

They’re inflicted.

A trusted friend walks away. A marriage falls apart. A parent’s words leave scars that linger for decades. A business partner betrays you. Someone abuses your trust. Someone lies. Someone abandons you. Sometimes the greatest pain we carry isn’t what happened to us—it’s that someone chose for it to happen.

Joseph knew that kind of pain.

Sold into slavery by his own brothers. Falsely accused. Forgotten in prison. Years passed before any of it made sense. If anyone had reason to become bitter, cynical, or consumed by revenge, it was Joseph.

Yet when he finally stood face to face with the very brothers who had betrayed him, he uttered one of the most hope-filled buts in all of Scripture:

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Genesis 50:20)

Notice what Joseph doesn’t say.

He doesn’t pretend the evil wasn’t evil.

He doesn’t excuse their actions.

He doesn’t minimize the hurt.

He simply recognizes that someone else’s intentions were never powerful enough to overrule God’s.

That is a remarkable truth.

There are moments in our own stories that we’d gladly erase if we could. Words spoken. Choices made. Losses endured. Chapters we’d rather skip altogether. Yet again and again, God demonstrates His ability to weave redemption through threads that seem hopelessly tangled.

That doesn’t mean everything happens for a reason in the simplistic way people sometimes suggest. Scripture never asks us to celebrate evil. It does, however, invite us to trust a God whose love is greater than evil and whose purposes are never defeated by it.

Perhaps that’s where you find yourself today.

Maybe you’re still somewhere in the middle of the story, where God’s good intentions are harder to recognize than someone else’s hurtful ones. If so, don’t rush to the last page. Joseph couldn’t see what God was doing while he sat in a prison cell. He could only see it looking back.

Your story may not have reached its Genesis 50:20 moment yet.

But the same God who quietly worked through betrayal, injustice, disappointment, and years of waiting in Joseph’s life is still at work today.

The chapter you’re living now is important. It just isn’t the final chapter.Because no matter what painful circumstances have come your way, your story isn’t over until love and redemption have the final, beautiful word.