As we live and move and have our being around the “Christian Arenas” of today, we may hear someone quote a verse, which says, “What the Devil meant for bad, God meant for good”!
This verse is usually quoted when something seemly bad has come into a believers life but then it turned out not to be so bad after all because something seemly good or even better came out of the whole situation.
A case for example might be when someone un-expectantly loses a job. They may feel devastated and become fearful of what to do. Things are looking bad! Then in a couple of weeks they find a new job, which they like better with a better boss and the new job even came with a better salary and better benefits. When the testimony is given to a believing friend or audience, one may even quote that verse, which is the title of this writing. Well now you know “what the Devil meant for bad God meant for good”! Of course everyone involved feels good about that verse and the end result of that particular situation and smiles with a hearty reply of “amen”.
Let’s use the same believers as in the above scenario and create another scenario. Using the same believer who lost their job but gained a better job but then later on they had an accident and lost both legs in the accident. Do you suppose the same believing friends would quote that verse and say, well now you know “What the Devil meant for bad God meant for good”! Of course not!
Well that would seem to be evidence that this verse only works sometimes and for certain situations, which seems to turn out good. However this verse is not actually Truth that will work in every situation all the time. Truth is not intermittent! We know from the scripture itself that the Word is Truth and cannot be broken and cannot be altered.
It certainly seems that this verse only fits certain situations and is not Truth for every situation. Or could it be that maybe there is something else wrong with that verse? Or possibly could it be that those who developed that verse made a big mistake? Or worse than that! That verse in not even in the Bible!
When we study to show our self approved unto God and rightly divide the Word, we find that this is not a verse that can be found in the Bible. This verse turns out to be a doctrine of men! This verse is not in the scripture! Search for it with the Strongs Concordance and Strongs will yield “no references found”.
This “man-made” verse may have stemmed from the most abused verse in the Bible, which is Romans 8:28 and then wrongly connected to the account of Joseph when his brothers realized who he was in down in Egypt. Let’s compare the two and then come to our own conclusion.
Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Should we take the “denominational religious filter” off of out intellect and use a bit of logic, we should come to the sensible conclusion that everything does not work together for our good no matter how much we love God!
In John 10:10 Jesus said that the thief has a plan for our life and it is kill, steal and destroy. What the Devil meant for bad does not work together for our good!
Those who teach Romans 8:28 by itself violates 6th grade English! You do not begin a sentence with “and”. “And” is a continuing conjunction and is tied totally to what came before. All the things that work together for our good are the things, which the Holy Spirit Himself intercedes for us when we don’t know how to pray, as we ought to pray.
Now look at Joseph and we can see how our Elders may have blended the error of Romans 8:28, with the account of Joseph and his brothers. When Joseph was young, the Lord gave Joseph a dream and this is account is many years later at the time when the dream came to pass.
Gen 50:19 And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?
20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
Please read the whole account of Joseph. The Lord had given Joseph a dream that his brothers would bow down to him. The Lord did not give the dream to Joseph to go and blab to his brothers but he did. This made his brothers so mad that some wanted to kill him. One brother got the others not to kill him but they did sell him to a caravan of merchants and told their father that Joseph was dead. This is what Joseph is talking about in Gen 50:20, ye thought evil against me.
When we tend to get a bit sloppy with English and with our understanding of the goodness of God, we can get confused and think that the “it” in the part of the verse 20 (“but God meant it unto good”) would refer to his brothers selling him to the caravan. That is totally error!
Diagram the sentence and “it” refers back to the dream, which the Lord had given him as a young boy that his brothers would bow down to him and that he, Joseph would be the one who would supply the necessities of life to his family. That dream was fulfilled in Egypt as the brothers bowed down to him and Joseph gave them provisions for the family. "It" refers to the dream Joseph had a boy and Joseph is standing there in the place of God as told him in the dream. After so many years, Joseph is living the fulfillment of that dream.
It was not God’s plan for the brothers to sell Joseph into slavery! If the brothers of Joseph had not sold him to the caravan, the Lord would have fulfilled this dream in a very different manner somewhere else on the earth and not in Egypt.
The plan of the Lord to fulfill the dream to Joseph was never that Joseph be sold and end up in Egypt. The Lord had to execute a different plan because the brothers sold Joseph and he ended up in Egypt. The Holy One of Israel was limited to working out the fulfillment of the dream down in Egypt. The Lord had a better plan “A”. Plan “A” of God was fouled and aborted through the brothers selling Joseph to the caravan!
This is plan “B,” through which the Lord was forced to work, because of the action of the brothers of Joseph. This plan had a bitter ending in Egypt. The children of Israel ended up as slaves in Egypt for many, many years. That was not the plan “A” which the Lord had planned!
Many times the Lord is so limited in His ability to work in our life when we do not recognize the evil plans of the enemy and we just become willing to accept and justify everything bad that comes into our life to be the will of God, according to His plan, and then we end up saying, Romans 8:28, “Well we know that all things will work together for good”. That is not Truth!
Should anyone hear a sweet member of the body of Christ quote that verse, which is not in the Bible, “What the Devil meant for bad, God meant for good” please consider sending them this information. Some will love you for sending it! Some might not love you for sending it! Some might even get mad at you for sending it!
May the Lord give us a spirit of wisdom, revelation and understanding in our mind and reasoning to fully understand the Truth of His Word!
Prov 4:7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
Blessings to the eyes of our understanding,
Grace and Peace multiplied in the name of Jesus.
Compiled by Jerry Thomas 11/08/2018
All scripture references are (KJV) unless otherwise denoted.
Feel free to share any of jtministries post with anyone who might benefit from them.
Comments