retrospective retrojection of purpose into the story does not require that we think of it as God’s will or that it had to happen this way. Rather, the story affirms that even the evil deed of selling a brother into slavery was used by God for a providential purpose. Applying this story of Joseph, how might we see the story of Good Friday? Was the death of Jesus the will of God? No. It is never the will of God that a righteous man be crucified. Did it have to happen? It might have turned out differently. Judas might not have betrayed Jesus. The temple authorities might have decided on a course
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