Genesis 28-50
The second half of Genesis reads a bit like a script from Dallas or one of those other "big, rich, morally bankrupt family" shows from the 1970s. There are patriarchs, wives, affairs, corrupt business dealings, and underhanded schemes at every turn. Laban would probably win the prize for the most double-crossing of all the double-crossing family members here, but I don't know: Jacob seems to give as good as he gets. Joseph's brothers are in the running too, not only lying to their father about Joseph's death for years, but also selling him into slavery in the first place. And then there's Joseph himself, with his deceptions and set-ups after he recognizes his brothers and before they know they are dealing with him.
The striking thing about these chapters from a theological perspective is that God is at work in the midst of all this violent, creepy, and (we must say) fairly "normal" family life. Tamar plays a prostitute in order to trick the patriarch, Judah, into providing her an heir (cf. Gen. 38). From that heir, the Messiah is a descendent (cf. Matthew 1). Joseph's brothers nearly kill him, then decide to sell him into slavery not out of mercy but merely for more personal gain, and though Joseph's own fortunes are up and down for years, in the end many people are saved from famine because he was eventually in the right place (prison) at the right time (after Pharoah had dreams no one else could interpret).
To the question, "Through what kinds of people does God work for good?" the answer is, "People like you." Your life, with its twists and wrong turns, with its lucky breaks and unlucky mistakes, with its displays of generosity and displays of sin: your life is exactly the kind of life God works in to redeem what has been lost, or stolen, or sold away, and to bless all the nations of the earth.
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