God meant it for good!

(Genesis 50:20)  “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.”

Just as Joseph’s brothers meant to destroy him by selling him into slavery and how Satan meant to destroy mankind by getting them to eat from the forbidden tree, God always has a perfect plan.  

Have you ever considered why God chose to allow mankind to fall? Well obviously His intellect is brilliantly above ours, for Him to be able to take the simple and to confine the wise is no mean feat and yet He does it to perfection. Everything God does is perfect; it may have to run its course but ultimately all that God has instituted will prove perfect when it is place under scrutiny at the Great Judgment of God. Sin with all its evil desire will be proved as a perfect facilitator proving righteousness; it will highlight the Goodness of God and His perfect persona. Utopia is a pleasant word and I like the sound of it; it is a goal we as individuals are afforded an opportunity to shoot for. Sinful man who is far from any form of perfection in comparison to that which is perfect, Jehovah God! Now through our lives, because of a conscious awareness of sin and it destructive potential to get us to do what we know we shouldn’t do in any given situation and yet we do it anyway now becomes our teacher causing us to cry out for help. It is only when we understand our state as sinners, will we ever call on the name of the Lord to be saved.

However without the “knowledge of good and evil” how would we learn to differentiate between the two? Why did God let Eve eat the fruit in the Garden of Eden and not step in and stop her? It was just a page in a chapter of God’s perfect plan. It is when we think we are smarted than this perfect God, the only true God that we flirt with eternal damnation. How can a God of love allow child abuse is the reasoning of some? The fullness of time will reveal all and manifest God’s perfection. Without the conception of that which is evil how would we value that which is good? Hence the perfect work of Calvary, the greatest event of all time, without any equal.

Without the knowledge of that which is evil, sin with its incriminatory hold on our lives, why would we ever look for a Saviour? There would have been no need. Does a man drink water if he is not thirsty? The law of God (concepts of that which is good and evil) then a teacher to help us understand, that we in ourselves are far from the perfection of God and in despairing trouble. So then the realization of sin in our own lives then brings us to a comprehension that we need a Saviour or hell will be our final destination. Without understanding that which is evil, why would we ever look for a Saviour? We wouldn’t!

Without Eve yielding to the devils temptation which led to her biting into the fruit of the “knowledge of good and evil”, there would have been no need for the law and then no need for Christ to die on our behalf. But this would have also left us without any choice in our actions. As soon as they knew they were naked in the Garden what did they do? They sewed fig leaves together and clothed their nakedness. They were consciously aware of it, but not before they had eaten from the forbidden tree.

Could God have chosen to unroll his perfect plan in a different way? He didn’t! The audacity of some and yet I was once amongst that number! It is the goodness of God that leads a man to repentance, let us never forget it! Those so foolish to challenge God and His plan! The definition of foolishness; (Lacking or exhibiting a lack of good sense or judgment; silly: foolish remarks. Resulting from stupidity or misinformation): - When has the clay ever had power over the potter? It is a beautiful thing to get these glimpses from God into His plan and character. Did you know? “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.” (Romans 8:7): - However would this verse have had the sane meaning if our consciousness had not been awaked to the “knowledge of good and evil”? I think not!

Our eyes have been opened to the righteousness of God, if we have His Spirit, we now belong to Him; “But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” (Romans 8:10)

Without understanding the wickedness of sin there would be no need for seeking out that which is good. God is good! How do we know this on a personal level? This is a question that is easy to answer; "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (John 3:16-18)   

    

The laws of God then a reflection of His own character and a reflection of how short we fall from it. It is the “knowledge of good and evil” which helps us understand that we are in desperate need of help. Hence, this is why God intervened on our behalf by sending His Son to die in our place so that we could go free; “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

“What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—“ (Romans 9:22-23)

I trust we understand the need for our awakening to that which is both good and evil before we can really understand that which is good. God is good!

“But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” (1Corinthians 1:23-25) 

Signing off

Tyrone