Gen 50:19+20, But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in God's place? "And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. 
	We are now at the end of our reading of the Book of Genesis. We began with the account of the Creation and have proceeded forth, through the record of the individual histories of the patriarchs of the Children of Israel. Throughout this reading, we have been witness to how God has ruled and overruled in the lives of those who have received His blessing. This is the great theme of God’s over abiding love.  It is not just limited to scripture, but will be proclaimed throughout all eternity in the lives and the witness of every one of His People declaring the worthiness and the majesty of the Lord God Almighty’s praise and honor and adoration. 
	What we will find, in the rest of our reading of the Bible, is not only the intervention and the overruling of God in the individual lives as recorded, but also in the nation that will come forth from captivity in Egypt. This will be extended unto the nations of those who are released from the slavery of sin and death through the precious and perfect sacrificial blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. As so stated by Joseph to his brothers, And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.
	The Apostle Paul reiterates this marvelous reality in that so familiar and comforting passage of Rom 8:28, And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. This is the bedrock of the reality of our lives on this earth in Jesus Christ! We learn to know the truth that, no matter what the plans of mankind, whether intentional or accidental, God rules and overrules in accordance with His plan and His purpose. Nothing else is so reassuring as to rest on this truth with all our hearts and minds and spirits as we face each day’s troubles and toils and tribulations and hardships. No matter what comes our way, we learn to appreciate and to rely on the unfathomable faithfulness of God in the fact that …God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
	We will be tracing this back through our reading of the Old Testament as we follow the travels of the nation of Israel out of Egypt and through the wilderness. God manifested Himself for His purposes as we read in Deut 8:2+3, And you shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. And He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. 
	Notice that despite the hardship of the wandering in those wilderness regions for 40 years, God was at work to establish the truth of Himself and His provision into the hearts and minds of His people. So often, when we face hard times and everything seems to be crumbling around us and onto us, we call out to the Lord and ask Him why is this happening to us. We blame Him and look for some reason that He is punishing us and making our lives so miserable. 
The fact of the matter is that He is working for our good in the midst of it all. He is making Himself known to us, if we will open our eyes to see and to trust Him, as He always has done and continues to do with His Chosen People. And He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.
God is in the midst of establishing a living relationship with us in which we will come to the place that everything we need on this earth, we find in His gracious and glorious provision to show forth His love and His infinite supply of grace unto us. As we read just a few verses later in Deut 8:16+17, In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end. Otherwise, you may say in your heart, 'My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.' 
One of the principles in place is that God works so effectively in keeping us from becoming entrapped in the snare and the lie of self-exaltation which falsely sees that everything that is good in our lives is because of all the efforts of our selves. This is often the case when we become proud and puffed up with the deception that we are as gods unto ourselves. 
This is the lie from the very mouth of the serpent in the Garden of Eden. So often, we think that we can handle anything and everything in our own power and strength, thereby infused with the thought that we don’t need God in our lives. We think that we have everything well in hand and can deal with all the daily issues through our own methods and ideological frameworks. Then, when things don’t go as we planned, we throw the mess back at God and blame Him and accuse Him of being wrathful and vengeful in His treatment of us. We are quick to take credit and just as quick to heap Him with all the blame when we do not get what we think we deserve.
God, however, as we read in this passage, is not punishing us. He is doing good to us in bringing into reality in our lives the fact that He will supply our every need. We are so encouraged by the Apostle Paul in Phil 4:19+20. As we read it, please note how he concludes with the fact that all the credit and the glory is to be offered accordingly unto God. Phil 4:19+20, And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever. Amen. 
The Psalmist had a very clear vision of how God works through both the good and what we consider the bad elements of our daily lives. This is in order to bring forth an ever increasingly personal and living reliance and relationship of trust and sustenance between us and Our Lord God Almighty. Ps 46:1-4, God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, The holy dwelling places of the Most High. 
Even though everything may seem to be disintegrating around us and all that we counted on and trusted in of ourselves and this world fails and disappears, we have God as our refuge and our strength. He will see us through every single dilemma and crisis, no matter what form or fashion of disaster. He will cause all things to work together for good, as we recount over and over again in the midst of every fiery trial and persecution. God is our refuge and our strength as we turn to Him with all our heart and with all our mind and with all our being for the sake of His testimony to be proclaimed in the might of His deliverance and salvation. 
The Prophet Jeremiah saw the handiwork of God in evidence as Judah was crumbling in its sin and shame before the army of Babylon. While all the people saw it as the great defeat of the Chosen Nation who once honored and obeyed God, Jeremiah was shown the vision that what was happening would result in the greater manifestation of the testimony of God. This defeated nation would, by the abundant grace and the mercy the Lord, become a renewed and humbled people who would once again seek and honor Him with gladness and joy. The suffering of the decades of exile would result in a renewed heart after the Lord.
Jer 24:3-7, Then the Lord said to me, "What do you see, Jeremiah?" And I said, "Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad figs, very bad, which cannot be eaten due to rottenness." Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, "Thus says the Lord God of Israel, 'Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans. 'For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them again to this land; and I will build them up and not overthrow them, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. 'And I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the Lord; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart. 
	Please notice that the entire nation of God’s people was subjected to the capture and the destruction of all that they held of value in this physical realm. The temple was destroyed. The city of Jerusalem was laid waste. The leaders were put to death and the entire land was devastated and ruined. Nothing was left for them upon which they had placed their trust and their fortunes for survival. Everything was utterly torn down to the ground. 
There were left only a few who continued to call upon the name of the Lord for salvation. From this exile, we have the accounts of Daniel and his friends who remained faithful to the Lord. Ezra and Nehemiah were chosen to bring back the exiles almost a century later to rebuild and to rekindle their love for God. We see their absolute dependence upon Him for their day to day walk in the rebuilding of that which once held such prominence in the pride of that nation. 
	As Jeremiah foretold the words of the Lord, 'For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them again to this land; and I will build them up and not overthrow them, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. 'And I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the Lord; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart. 
This is what needs to be in place in each one of our hearts and within the whole of Christ’s Church on this earth. It is fully what is entailed in the fact that we are His body and He is the head. Everything that is part of our walk on this earth is completely ordered and ordained in the terms of how it will serve to bring us forward into all the fullness that is vested in Jesus Christ as He guides and directs us individually and corporately. 
	That is why the Apostle Paul could so encourage the Church in Rome as they were being targeted and persecuted for believing on the Risen Lord Jesus Christ in Rom 5:1-5. Please turn to this letter and read along with me. Rom 5:1-5, Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 
	This is why the Apostle could so proclaim what we have been seeing in terms of God causing all things to work together for good to those who love Him. As we undergo all the rough and trying and difficult things that are hurled at us through the onslaught of the hatred of Our Lord and Savior, so will we come into the full recognition and the safety of knowing that God is in control. He will not allow His name and His testimony in us to be overcome by anything of this realm! Despite every appearance of our failure and our unfaithfulness and our lack, He is all-sufficient and triumphant in all His glory. 
	With that truth, the Apostle declares the gloriousness of our placement into the very family and heart of God in Rom 8:35-39. Please mark this passage in your Bibles if you have not yet done so. It is the bedrock of our living relationship with God in Jesus Christ. Rom 8:35-39, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, "For Thy sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered." But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen!
	No matter what is arrayed against us; no matter how low we may be brought; no matter how desperate our situation; no matter what the road of our humiliation, nothing can separate us from the Love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord! We may lose every earthly prop in this physical realm, as did the people of God under the exile, but we will always have everything in Jesus Christ! He can never be taken from us and we can never be taken from Him! All of eternity is our glorious inheritance in Him. That is why we truly do not have anything to fear in this realm or in this life, no matter how it may look in terms of our status and our difficulties. Not matter what, we are kept and loved and secure in Jesus Christ! 
	We will conclude this consideration and this contemplation of our Genesis text next time, Lord willing. In the mean while, ask the Holy Spirit to make known, as only He can in life, what it means to know that God causes all things to work together for good as He rules and overrules in everything including even our own plans and schemes. So be it!
	But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in God's place? "And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. Amen.

	This morning’s benediction is Ps 28:7. The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart exults, And with my song I shall thank Him. Amen.