Joseph explains to his brothers: don't be distressed about selling me into slavery, because God sent me before you. God used their evil action for good - preservation of the family during famine.
This is a generous reading of providence - Joseph is saying that even the betrayal was woven into God's plan. But the text doesn't erase the betrayal. He's not saying it was okay. He's saying God worked with it.
I've had to reach this kind of perspective about my childhood abuse. The abuse wasn't God's plan, wasn't good. But God worked with it to make me compassionate, to give me work I wouldn't have done otherwise, to connect me with other survivors. Joseph's frame helps me hold both truths without either denying the harm or denying God's presence in redemption.
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