“And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.” – Genesis 45:7
Throughout history, God has acted repeatedly to preserve the faithful remnant of His people. No matter the challenge, no matter the complexity of the situation, God has preserved the faithful remnant because His promise to bring blessing to all nations through Jesus Christ will not fail.
In Genesis, God preserved the family of Jacob (Israel) from a 7-year famine by sending one member (Joseph) ahead of the family to Egypt. There he received great power and influence and saved the entire nation from famine so he could also save his family.
That, in itself, is a great story of God’s faithfulness! However, there’s so much more to the story because of how God sent Joseph ahead of his family. God worked blessing and preservation through the evil actions of Joseph’s brothers who sold him into slavery. God took what Joseph’s own family meant for evil and used it for ultimate good!
For many years, even as God was truly with him, Joseph had to be hurt, angry, scared, depressed, and so much more. His family sold him into slavery. Every time he started to get ahead in Egypt, something bad happened to make things worse. Slavery. False accusations. Unjust imprisonment. Being forgotten by those he helped. Joseph’s story was one of misery and injustice upon misery and injustice until he finally broke through, in God’s timing, to ultimate triumph.
Nonetheless, God was with Joseph in every moment of his hard and painful struggle. God was at work in every moment, not only sustaining Joseph but preparing him to be the means by which God would preserve the remnant and sustain His promises. Let this be a valuable reminder every time you go through long and painful seasons in life. If you’re in Christ, then God can still use that for good. He’s still present with you in that. He will sustain and preserve you eternally. He remains faithful and ultimate triumph is certain, not on earth, but in heaven.