Sinful Humanity and God’s Good Purposes
The post is from a sermon on Genesis 27
Can God Use Sinful Humanity to Accomplish His Good Purposes?
Some of the most difficult moments in life raise this very question. Can God really work through human sin, failure, and brokenness to accomplish His will?
Genesis 27 gives us a front-row seat to a family marked by deceit, favoritism, and manipulation, and yet, through it all, God’s sovereign plan prevails.
The Messy Story of Genesis 27
In Genesis 25:23, God had already declared His plan—that Jacob, the younger son, would receive the blessing instead of Esau, the firstborn. But rather than trusting God’s word, every major character in Genesis 27 tries to control the outcome.
• Isaac seeks to bless Esau in secret, ignoring God’s revealed will.
• Rebekah schemes to make sure Jacob receives the blessing by deception.
• Jacob lies repeatedly to his father to steal what was already promised to him.
• Esau responds with rage, seeking revenge rather than repentance.
It’s a story of human failure at every turn. Yet, despite all of it, God’s will stands.
God’s Sovereignty in the Midst of Sin
This passage forces us to wrestle with an important truth: God is sovereign not just despite human sin, but even through it.
This doesn’t mean that God approves of sin—Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Esau are all accountable for their choices. But it does mean that not even human sin can thwart God’s good purposes.
Joseph understood this when he said in Genesis 50:20:
“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.”
And we see it most clearly in Acts 4:27-28, where the greatest act of human sin—the crucifixion of Jesus—was at the same time the very means by which God accomplished the greatest good—our salvation.
“For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.” (Acts 4:27-28)
The cross was not an accident. It was God’s plan. And if God can use even the greatest evil to bring about the greatest good, we can trust Him in our own lives.
What About When We Suffer?
But what about those who have suffered deeply at the hands of others? What about the betrayed, the abandoned, the abused?
If you’ve ever been hurt by someone else’s sin, you may wonder: Where was God? Does He care?
Job, in the midst of unimaginable suffering, held onto this truth.
“Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10)
This does not mean that God delights in suffering, but it does mean that He is present in it. He sees. He knows. He has not abandoned you. Even when evil seems to have the upper hand, God is actively weaving His good purposes through the pain (Psalm 34:18).
If you are in Christ and struggling under the weight of sin done against you, know this—your suffering is not meaningless. God is working, even when you cannot see it.
Hope in the One Who Redeems
Genesis 27 is not just a story about a broken family—it is a story of God’s sovereign grace at work.
And ultimately, it points us forward to Jesus—the One who took on our sin, our failures, our suffering, and our shame, and turned it into redemption.
• Jacob deceived his father to steal a blessing—but Jesus willingly bore the curse so we could receive true blessing(Galatians 3:13).
• Jacob received what he did not deserve through deception—but we receive what we do not deserve through grace (2 Corinthians 5:21).
• Jacob fled in fear of Esau’s vengeance—but in Christ, we never have to flee, because our debt has been paid in full.
If God can use the cross—the worst sin in history—to accomplish salvation, then He can be trusted with our lives, our failures, and our suffering.
Will You Trust Him?
So where does this leave us?
God does not waste our suffering. He does not abandon His promises. He does not let sin have the final word.
You have a choice.
Will you fight Him, holding on to your fears and doubts?
Or will you surrender, trusting the One who turns suffering into redemption?