

Brothers Keeping: Joseph and Job

By Tristam Joseph

Text copyright © 2014

Smashwords Edition

All Rights Reserved

Table of Contents

Encounter of Minds

Joseph's Ordeal Begins

Reunion of Brothers in Disgrace

Establishing Joseph's Servanthood

Ministering to the Victimized

Suffering Endures Amid Comforter's Failures

Executing Joseph's Destiny

Job's Salvation

Blessed to be a Blessing

A Rainbow on the Horizon

Preparing for Inevitable Confessions

God Provides as He Chooses

Blessings—Exposing the Blameless

Epitaphs For Remembrance

Encounter of Minds

Bystander: Is suffering a mirage, a vision portending dysfunctional afflictions, descending unannounced on victims chosen to be but reluctant servants, never understanding why? Who decides when a human will be visited by a vision, or who the person might be? Few are the ones who say show me, send me, unless it is from their own choosing, willing dreams to direct their lives. Can any person know why visions come to some and reveal nothing to others? Ones blameless and upright need no visions, living on their own truths and wisdom, completing directions to live by. Ones struggling on their way to righteousness need visions, revelations from God to prevent being lost on His path to sanctification. Consider them all.

Joseph: My father recounted a vision, coming with his head resting on a stone, picked from creation's altar, never for comfort which no stone could offer, but to cradle promises for his life, a reservoir of strength to reveal his ways, an everlasting rock, securely anchoring his dreams, anointed as his citadel of hope, placed to be its foundation, a cornerstone anchoring a stairway to heaven, opening a window to God's revelations, chosen for him to see. Living by traditions and laws until then, my father's life began to change, realizing this unexpected vision came for some reason, from some unknown source, clouding his capacity to understand, leaving him no comprehension, denying him trust of its reality, wondering if it might have some purpose to change his ways, to make him vulnerable, ridiculing him into becoming a victim. I also wonder if the ways of my father would become mine through succeeding generations although I don't know if any can be called sins of the father.

Job: My father passed down no visions, relating none for my understanding, telling me nothing to determine my ways. He came doing what all men do and departed unnoticed, interfering little with my free will, allowing me freedom for all my actions, painting none with any blame, leaving me as upright as him. Encountering no visions, he left us to believe dreams were magic of the night, coming in darkness when the light of truth never shines. My mother was no different.

Bystander: No one could ever mistake you for prophets, abounding as foretellers, calling others to hear their words, claiming dreams from God, developing visions of their own choosing, deceiving others, shrewdly framing their guile, proclaiming their inventions to be genuine, doing all to maximize perceptions of their righteousness, assuring placement beside the Lord's right hand, but replacing needs for God with a sage human's prophetic wisdom, convincing others to heed his words. But are the prophets any different from the idols people worship, dubious sources of wisdom, generating convictions from uncertain mysterious thoughts, shadows whispering obscurities out of some dark corner, convincing many to consult themselves, needing no others for advocating their convictions, gathering their wits for what to say? But they should say, Listen to this, you pleasure-loving vain self-admirers, living in ease, secure in your accomplishments, confident no others are like you, all could end quickly, losing everything without any notice, striking you with calamity despite all the witchcraft and magic promised by your idols. As craftsmen making idols, you are waiting to be humiliated, but idols have no power to humiliate anyone, its power remaining with their maker.

Joseph: My father followed his people's customs, directed by his parents, deciding what was best for him, trying to supervise his life, but the hand of God changed tradition's intentions, assuring my father a blessing seemed to be undeserving, moving his mother's intuition to discern God's will, engaging her to deceive his father's obligation, duty to the first-born older brother, assuring my father would receive this blessing, honoring him with riches for embellishing the first-born's stature, and never disrupting our order's tradition. Deceived into believing my grandfather was blessing his older son, he said, Ah, the smell of my son is like the fragrance of a field, blessed by the Lord. May God give you of heaven's dew and of earth's richness--an abundance of grain and new wine. May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed.

Bystander: But as blessings can sometimes be dubious treasures, Jacob's came to curse him with fear and suffering, testifying to recognition of persons giving blessings being sometimes blessed greater than ones receiving blessings.

Job: Was your father not blameless, deceiving his father and brother, bringing on burdens for all to bear, and what of his mother?

Joseph: Sometimes a person must forego trust in human traditions and obey only God's plans. Certain human beliefs make no sense. My father suffered curses common to being human and counted many blessings as well. He was cursed in being naive, but blessed in serving the Lord's ways with patience, blessed with the discovery of love for my mother, but tried in being cursed by patience's demand, convicting him to wait, passing seven years to marry her.

Bystander: Fathers must often consider patience to persuade their Lord, using soft speech to gain His attention.

Job: Didn't impatience tempt him with other woman during his wait, satisfying a man's innate lust, frustrating his inherent desires?

Joseph: Patience is never tested when many fruits are available and willing to be tasted. My father already had a wife, deceived by her father to marry off his oldest daughter, but little loved by him except in bed, generating ones less favored than me, forcing my unwed mother to tarry, waiting in bed with my father, unable to be settled, praying for the Lord's blessing to favor her with fertility, trusting her wait would no longer suffer her shame in being barren, so she presented a concubine to my father's bed, planned to provide a child to call her own, somehow fantasizing with such a possibility, a surrogate's fruit becoming her own.

Job: Did her knowing tolerate his acceptance of this dubious offering, sharing her gift, surprising her sometime-to-be husband with a second choice bed partner, while never convincing herself to remain chaste, preserving herself to enter her marriage bed pure?

Joseph: Never one to be left out, she chose to be one of his favorite delicacies, never entering her marriage vows with purity, persisting years in this role, but her lack of ingenuity often ignited her lover's boredom, dousing my father's flame for her, while kindling his desire to cast eyes on others, lasting her life until the birth of my brother Benjamin, ending her desire for any man.

Job: Then her patience was never tested.

Bystander: And so the many became one, united as humans decree.

Joseph: Although her actions swore no patience, doing whatever necessary, taunting its need to bless her time, God determined she would suffer impatience. Despite her sexual embraces with my father she was barren, infertile until I was conceived, provoking her to lament her womb's nakedness, and trust a scheme for confirming her identity, relying on a surrogate to bless her with children.

Job: Was it really God who decided on her pregnancy or was it healing of some infectious disease saddling her womb from promiscuous forays?

Joseph: I am told she never strayed, remaining loyal to my father, hiding her idol from all others, precious in protecting her fountain for blessings to come. On becoming pregnant she declared God had taken away her reproach, suggesting a removal of disgrace often attributed to sin. On the nature of her sin, only God seemed to know. She never asked God why He didn't let her know.

Job: I can imagine how she felt, begging God to have an audience, pleading with Him to understand our circumstances.

Joseph: My father taught me God's followers frequently have audiences with Him, opening conversations, seeking instructions, listening to his hidden secrets, counseling us on codes sustaining nature, sometimes communicating visions for us to unpack, daily activating resources He has concealed in us from birth. One vision led my father to assemble multicolored poles for directing his flock to build him wealth. Thereby, he counseled me to heed my dreams because some come from audiences with God.

Job: I have no need to converse with God. My Creator's self-appointed spokesman tells me I am blameless and upright, proclaiming my goodness and virtue, born instilled with His goodness, carrying His image, formed untainted and blameless, sympathetic to the understandings we all see in estimations of ourselves, stubbornly needing no atonement, no need to intercede for comrades in uprightness, intervening only to glorify whatever we determine to be justified, judged by our reason to vindicate as sinless, having evil of no consequence, so I remain to this day, being one untarnished since the watchmaker began my time.

Joseph: Does your Maker require more of you? Does being blameless and upright include being right with God or is it being faultless before human beings, following them with noble works to win their admiration? Has God really put His very nature in you?

Job: If being blameless and upright is sufficient, why must I seek to be righteous, chasing after winds, impossible to capture, forever changing its dogmatic directions while convinced by others my I am is plenty, sufficient, trusting I can never be imputed with His nature, the righteousness you attribute for Him?

Joseph: We must be righteous, demanding us to be more than blameless and upright, acknowledging we would never trust God to be less, to be imprisoned in our box. Righteousness, being right with God, obeying His commands, demands we must love Him, trusting in our becoming like Him, realizing the blameless and upright always fall short of becoming God-like.

Bystander: Is God experimenting with creation, testing different models for a messiah, wondering if one now blameless and upright could be molded into a righteous being, one truly in His image, as He watches blemished humans, created by His word, inflicted with disobedience, tempted to do evil, flourishing but never prospering, His joy remaining a stranger.

Job: I am honored with words of respect because I have always been a good-doer, praying daily for my family, covering them with God's protection, hoping they never sin and avoid displeasing Him.

Joseph: Do you praise God for your abundance, thanking Him for all you have?

Job: My good works reward me, counting on my achievements to shower me with blessings.

Joseph: You testify to good works having a purpose, enriching your life here, trusting you are also storing up treasures in heaven, protecting you from injustices, assuring you will never suffer the fate of evil ones.

Job: Having succeeded in all my efforts, rewarding me with comfort now, how could I believe in anything but the fruits of my achievements.

Joseph: You have earned distinctions of being blameless and upright, but have come short of achieving righteousness.

Job: That matters none. My life can be no better than it is now. My sons and daughters are mine, their children are mine, my flocks are mine, and all that you see is mine. Being blameless and upright blesses me with all I possess. My reward is God's recognition of my virtue and good works, assuring me of their foundation for my happiness.

Bystander: What have you done for your children?

Job: I have done everything possible to prepare my children for this world, educating them to deal with all our current problems.

Bystander: Have you taught them God's truths, strengthening them to follow His ways, to obey His commands, ensuring they will be loyally faith-integrated throughout their lives?

Job: They all know God's Word and what He expects of them to be blameless, to live upright lives. What more could anyone ask of them?

Bystander: If you cannot tell me, you don't know what He wants of you.

Job: You must think He wants us to be something impossible for any human being, unbelievable for the lot of us born sinful, expecting us to be righteous, accusing us of being disobedient, driving Him to be vengeful, seeking retribution, after making us out of a handful of dust to which we must return--wondering what can be expected from dust swept into a pile, commanding it to spring into life--never giving us any explanations for putting us on His stage, except maybe to amuse Himself.

Bystander: You could have tried to please Him, to be more than blameless, admitting you are not unique, recognizing all claim to be blameless, innocent in their doings.

Job: I differ little from others, believing my success cannot be called sin, with all the world realizing we would still be living as Neanderthals if no one endeavored to be affluent. With certainty He could bring my downfall, judging me to fall short of His expectations, as I'm not sure I could ever please Him.

Joseph: My father was challenged by envy and greed, prospering his ambition, entitling him to rewards for all his labors, but God restrained his unworthy deeds, rejecting them, calling him to witness His truth, silencing challenging words, protecting those He claimed, proclaiming them for him to adopt His nature, assuring evil's intents would become empty, finding no stolen idols hidden to sustain greed's wealth, none anyone could return, none able to cry out, In distress are we concealed. Happy are all having nothing, possessing no treasures to tempt desire, proclaiming the Prince's coming will find them with no worldly gods.

Job: God indeed guards the blameless and upright, repressing evil's great rage and restraining it's anger. Believing this, I clad myself with justice and clothe myself with innocence, striving to never lose my veil of blamelessness, trusting God will never test my faith in Him.

Joseph: Trusting he had sealed all of value in his heart, my father never coveted any worldly treasures, none ever being ornaments of God's grace. He reserved fear only for his kinsmen, never knowing thoughts harnessing their ways.

Job: No one dares testing me, especially close ones I have gifted abundantly, so all in my life fear to try my integrity. I live in peace with all, all knowing futile injustice leads to nowhere.

Joseph: My fathers gathered stones for altars to honor and pay God homage with praise and prayers, a dedication we still trust in. Do you follow this practice?

Job: God knows my heart and he requires no monuments of rocks to know my heart and recognize I am upright. He knows me by my deeds of good works promising to protect the fruits I have accumulated.

Joseph: Piles of stones may signify nothing but they remind me to honor my creator God who protects me with angels, fortifying His army, revealed by His messengers, never taken for granted by any innocence I claim.

Job: God has never spoken to me and I have never asked for His counsel or any interaction to intervene in my life. I am content with what I have, trusting what His spokesman has said of me, verifying I am blameless.

Joseph: God speaks in visions and circumstances, revealing His actions through words you are likely to never hear. Has He touched you, catching your attention, certain of the Holy Spirit's voice, showing His will for you, leading you in these ways, or is the spokesperson praising your virtues speaking from imaginations you will, reasoning them to be true?

Job: Only by blessings from my achievements could I recognize Him. He has laid no circumstances on me to make me fearful of anything, nothing to surround me with anxiety or needs for any protection. My abundant deeds, noteworthy as they are, protect me from unwanted circumstances. Being no second son has favored my circumstance, assuring me blessings for a first-born, endowing me with favored fruits from my father, treasures from my patriarchs, assigning me to bear the torch, continuing our legacy to be upright and blameless, committed to never appease evil, seeing it flee from my shadow, never jeopardizing peace I claim for my reward, the certain expectation for my noble virtues.

Joseph: What peace can you claim? Is it the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, beyond which you can never know, or is it serenity rewarded by your blamelessness and claimed as your due?

Job: No vision has ever come to my awareness, none showing God blesses me with peace, confessing I have never met Him face-to-face, encountering Him in a forbidden way, spelling certain death for fearful believers.

Bystander: Not by blamelessness can you come face-to-face with God, nor will religiosity prepare you for His meeting, needing more than works of righteousness to enter His fellowship, trusting all comes according to His mercy, confession's washing to regenerate our goodness, to renew our hearing the Holy Spirit.

Job: I trust people of understanding walk uprightly, asking who can criticize their wisdom, formed from their breadth of knowledge, trusting it to last until their purpose vanishes, disappearing with the multitude of erudite ones supporting their decisions, wise ones never needing to see God.

Joseph: My father had his name changed to "seeing God" after struggling with God, disguised as a mortal wrestler, engaging Him to a stalemate when he demanded God's blessing, insisting on becoming one blessed to be blessing, but God handicapped him for all to recognize, marking him as chosen, assigning him to represent remnants for announcing the promises of God's covenants, unfolding before him as truths revealed in a new day's light, fading all darkness away.

Job: My common sense conflicts with anyone claiming visions of God, colliding with any pretenses of hearing God, of encountering Him in any form. Life can go on well without His intrusion, without seeing His face or hearing His voice. No doubt He created and blessed us, providing all our needs without interfering in our ways, without coming to intercede at any moment's notice, trusting only in the clock He wound, assuring it keeps ticking.

Joseph: Naming a human being "seeing God" guarantees his seed will carry potential for any righteous progeny to meet God in visions and dreams, knowing scorn will be heaped on ones falsely broadcasting His revelations, limping along without righteousness to ease their suffering.

Job: No one has ever wrestled God to a draw, known by everyone to be omnipotent. Accept Him as we all do and do nothing to bring down His wrath. I wouldn't even attempt to battle Him with words. What battle has there ever been where Scripture doesn't tells us the battle is His?

Joseph: I will be obedient and comply with the visions and dreams he reveals. My father like all men has had fears, anxieties having potential to paralyze him, but he trusted in God, praying for His intercession, acknowledging the battle is His.

Job: In addition to claiming battles are His, He claims vengeance is mine, His, dissuading us from avenging wrongs, forcing us to wait patiently for His justice to prevail, sometimes embittering us, seeing unjust outcomes, beyond our reason's understanding.

Joseph: My brothers defied Him recently in retributions against a man who raped our sister, deceiving the man's father, convincing him to vow commitments for his people, godly obligations transformed to be ungodly, altering God's decrees so they could maim and slaughter an entire clan, plundering it's wealth, using tenets of God's covenant to lure its victims into submission, suggesting circumcision be done for intentions it was never meant to serve.

Job: We have never had such a problem disgracing our family, tarnishing our blamelessness and uprightness. How could your kin be afflicted with such evil?

Joseph: What tribe can claim unstained purity? Fate may yet visit you with evil's inevitable coming, choosing a time to be determined, selecting some designated priestly ones for doing its deeds.

Job: My fathers were clean, never destined to have sins for passing down to the fourth generation, committing their lives to be blameless, announcing to others they are upright, preparing the way for their progeny to expand their abundance and celebrate unimagined happiness.

Bystander: Sorrow awaits ones lounging in luxurious abundance, secure in their comfort, satisfied in their fame and popularity, attracting many coming for advice, seeking them out, oracles for developing blamelessness, waiting until their time runs out, destroying all they once had, giving each whatever they deserve.

Joseph: My father was driven to confess the sins of his family, returning to where he once met God, repenting for his actions, admitting he could never be blameless for his deeds, building an altar to renew his worship of God, hearing Him reaffirm His covenant, sealed by my father's vision of God.

Job: We never had an altar to worship God, trusting our prayers were enough, seeing them bless us in every possible way, bestowing abundant health and wealth. Words spoken to God cannot be matched by sprinkling water on a nest of stones.

Joseph: We became worthy by discarding our garments, washing away our dishonor, trusting God to restore our virtue and renew His claim on us, Bethel becoming the site to revisit with God, knowing He will be there for us. Water cleanses our souls of stone, but needing more for our relationship with God, faith pours out oil to heal our soul.

Job: I hope your life becomes more meaningful and rewards your family with more visions from God. It must be difficult to live in your kin's dysfunctional ways, meandering from one surprise to another, disrupting a blameless one trying to follow virtuous principles. I will return to see you my friend, coming on your calling, ready to assist you with words of wisdom, collected for safekeeping by years of devotion to reason and common sense.

Joseph: Are we different from others in our ways? Father tells us we are merely a remnant, blessed to be a blessing, called to build God's kingdom, each one having a purpose, and I must seek to be like the Lord, following Him on His path to be righteous, no matter what may confront me beyond the next hill, even if I encounter unexpected suffering. I am destined to follow Him, no matter what. From a remnant's threads can be woven many garments to wear for praising the Lord. I hear your suggestions and will consider your help, but I don't know if they conflict with His.

Job: I am your neighbor, ready to show young people how to thrive, to enlarge their territory, by growing their flocks, amassing wealth as promised for those worthy, teaching others to reason their ways for becoming blameless, using common sense to dignify themselves, verifying they are upright, in short how to be honored by all, designated to be proclaimed spokesmen, convincing listeners of their wisdom, showing others how to develop their virtues. How could I ever trust any voice or invisible vision to tell me anything different?

Joseph: I have a hard time finding anyone to associate me with virtues, seeing I have no credentials to hang out for others to see, nothing to prove I am blameless and upright, hearing no one willing to proclaim me so.

Job: Create your own credentials for being blameless, molding your uprightness from people's ideal models, fabricated by their reason and common sense, collecting riches as their reward. If necessary find someone to define your integrity, carefully choosing one to agree with, allowing you to set your own standards, to maintain rules you can live by and be worshipped as blameless, better than trying to determine rules for righteousness, knowing so many will paint you with hues of intolerance.

Bystander: Blameless rich ones among you, collecting treasures to become wealthy, growing some through extortion and violence, eventually reap their due, abounding contemptuous treatment, mocking ridicule, disdain by all they encounter, scorn by other upright ones, influencing fate to seize their wants, scheming to twist justice, never realizing their judgment day swiftly approaches, time for judgment nearly here. Wealth, like idols, must be subject to rules of the world, as its guardians warn all, Don't handle, don't taste, don't touch, human teachings about idols destined to deteriorate, requiring wealth to be piously treated, thwarting human's evil desires.

Joseph's Ordeal Begins

Bystander: Joseph struggles with advice from a patriarch of the world's ways, imbedded in Job by years of tradition, accepted as people's signature of success, promoted as their wisdom, leading them in their drive to improve civilization, trusting human ways can make people better and better, as he encounters sadness, sufferings, and afflictions to mold him, but never knowing yet what they will do to or for him.

Joseph: My returning journey from Bethel met with bittersweet grief, saddening me with my mother's death, ending her life during the birth of my brother, one anticipated to become my closest friend, promising greater love than any of my other siblings. Mother's dying left me with only my father's caring indulgence, doting on me, alternating with profound grief expressed for his most favored wife, the love of his life who had cost him dearly. Always one to labor beyond anyone's contemplation, springing surprises, he fashioned me a coat to be envied by my brothers, proclaiming to all a perception I was his favored son, most trusted to love, knowing his first-born, his might, the first sign of his strength, excelling in honor and power, deserving to inherit his greatest love, bedded down with his concubine, deserving condemnation, turbulent as the waters, trusted to no longer excel.

Bystander: Little does Joseph know, about to be overwhelmed with joy in the Lord his God, dressing him with a cloak of salvation, draping him in a robe of righteousness, to be his garment of wisdom, preparing him for circumstances yet to be seen, orchestrated by God, needing movers to begin His plot, selecting brothers needing no temptation to victimize their despised sibling Joseph, God's circumstances directed Joseph to have no one as a keeper, allowing him to be isolated in a pit of darkness, leaves unclear why God directed Jacob to fashion Joseph's coat ornamented so richly, maybe to prepare a template for later use, identifying ones He blesses to be a blessing, establishing a precedent to credential ones as special, signifying them to be of His choosing, as a rainbow of promises revitalizing His covenant.

Dan: As a brother unworthy of notice, contaminated with indifference, the seed of a maidservant, never having legitimacy to be honored with pride, I am neglected, treated as a lackey, sent out to be a shepherd, unwillingly demeaned as a lowly herder, so what does it matter if I hide myself in secret vices, boasting of them if I choose? Can I find any joy in my discontent, enjoined by other's judgements?

Joseph: I know of my brother's wrong doings, acts defying obedience to God, arrogantly disrespecting our father's wishes, harming trust in our family's relationships. Should I hide them from everyone's knowing? They can't be hidden from God. Would He continue to believe in any virtue for me if I should remain silent to insure harmony, assuring peace as the world gives? Would my brothers begin to respect me if I defer to their wishes, thereby making me an accomplice, assenting to all their deeds, hiding all their secrets? Believing they all hate me now, contrived by envy, plotting to unfairly shame me, picturing me as a goody-goody, for all to believe I am pampered, vain, and prideful, parading in my splendid attire before the world, I wear this coat because it is a gift, indeed splendid because it was woven using yarn of my father's love. Should I not wear it because it might create someone's envy? If I fear not to wear it, others wishing to never like me will find different reasons to hate me. So I please my father with his gift, no matter how much it's splendor may displease my brothers.

Bystander: Goodness will always be faulted, deprecating it especially for God's creation.

Dan: I judge you as unworthy, knowing the world regards you as the victim of our father's indulgence, marking you with blemishes you will never overcome.

Joseph: Befalling you until your last days, you will continue to judge, being the serpent straddling the way, the viper with venomous words, begetting sadistic pronouncements, striking out to all unseen, hoping your slithering voice convinces others of your truths. You paint on my blemishes, decorating evil on them with the venom of your hatred, knowingly to worsen their manifestations for others to see.

Dan: You should know to be your brother's keeper, protecting your siblings from intrusion by other's personally adjudicated justice, from judgment by archaic wisdom, disturbing other's truths to live by. Reliable keepers can trust what security to warrant, what to conceal from other's knowing.

Joseph: You may hide your thoughts and deeds from father's knowing, but wake up to acknowledge God sees all, He being the one to fear most, forgetting about me, one insignificant and despised, but never ignore His commandments, His justice being eternal, His laws lasting forever, believing Him as joy's only source.

Dan: I fear father with little fear of God, one I never hear or see. My fear is greater for our household god who I see each day, but knowing he cannot speak, never shaming me, unable to ever making me humble, I fear him little, dreading only his gaze when captive in his presence.

Joseph: Would I gain your love if I were my brother's keeper, guarding your secrets as well as your welfare, doubting I could measure up to your wishes, being already tarnished by envy for my father's indulgence in me?

Dan: You are right. Being a wuss, so you will remain.

Joseph: Why must envy foster dislike, sometimes activating it to hatred?

Dan: You should adopt the ways of youth, forgetting the truths you could covet later, and enjoy youthful temptations while you can, knowing how fleeting they are, settling on you for only moments.

Joseph: I could try your suggestions, but innate voices block my way, telling me to heed the indwelling spirit, counseling me to prepare for some directed purpose, deemed to be important but as yet unknown.

Dan: You need some inner voices telling you to go for it, for all you can get, hearing voices all people hear, responding to urgings for delighting us all.

Joseph: Maybe I should wait until older to heed temptation's entreaties, dismissing their pleadings for now, avoiding my conscience's badgering to confess and repent.

Dan: Youthful ones always have time to confess, repent and change their ways, waiting until wisdom matures to teach them _the_ lasting truths. You can become one of us now, but you may suffer father's sorrow. Join the new generation, trusting the passing one has seen its day.

Joseph: I have been instructed in the way I should go, honoring my father, loving him almost like my Heavenly Father, learning little about relationships with my siblings except to be my brother's keeper, waiting patiently until the day I could become a father. Have you learned to be your brother's keeper?

Dan: We brothers look out for each other. It goes without saying even though it has never been tested.

Joseph: Beware. God creates circumstances for people's testing, giving them opportunities to seize for good or evil, to further His plans despite our choices, to continue His kingdom building with the decisions we make. I renew God in my life through every circumstance He delivers to my feet, heeding all His instructions to the Holy Spirit, convicting me to witness and testify to the beauty and goodness of His creation, to obey His perfect will. I know what I must do.

Bystander: You can't attribute favoritism for Joseph to the love Jacob had for his best-loved wife or for being someone special as a last-born son, created by chance to be one amiable and obedient, never usual virtues for one born last to aging parents, fatigued from disciplining others coming before. God's prerogative, owing to His grace, selects and prepares some, ordaining them with virtues to participate with Him, acting out circumstances in roles He plans for them. No one but God knows His plan for choosing Joseph, making his brother's enmity necessary for its successful completion, for Him to mark Joseph as one of His beloved sons.

Joseph: The Lord called me from the womb, making mention of my name, preparing my reward to be with Him, instructing me in the way I should go, choosing me to insure the covenant for His people, but for reasons hidden, perhaps waiting for someday to know. In the meantime He sends me visions, never telling me why, perhaps to foretell something I should know. Are these visions for my private viewing or should I reveal them to others, risking their displeasure, branding me some idiot deluded by apparitions of unreality, picturing me a fool reveling in pride, seeing things no one else witnesses? I must ask my father who has dreamed unusual encounters, defying human explanation, outside of common sense, beyond anything reason can explain. When you had visions or dreams did you give them any importance?

Jacob: You must be careful. People can die for visions, inspirations committed to their soul, while others may only be ridiculed. I have suffered neither with none being thought to boast my pride, reporting none to embellish my standing. Visions justifying a person's demise seldom accomplish any good. Those viewed as delusions become fodder for derision. Have you one perplexing you, waiting to be described, looking for an explanation, sending you to me for advice?

Joseph: I don't know why this one came, appearing for reasons unknown, mysteriously choosing me to be its recipient. I awakened to God's calling, beckoning me to see the beginning of a glorious day, revealing a vision, pictured showing me flooded with living water, water cascading from fountains drenching me with life-enriching water, from geysers sending it skyward, returning to soak my soul, sustaining me with life's essence, streaming to nourish all life below, to sustain its goodness, as all life bowed down in my vision, bubbling with sacrifices in homage to its streams of life, giving back tokens of the life-sustaining water.

Jacob: Water for enrichment of life, for its essential being, comes only from God, yet you seem to be saying you will assist Him in its provision. Do you mean to say this?

Joseph: I report nothing but what my vision was. Being one simple in thought, how could I have reasoned this to happen? If this was contrived for nothing good to happen, it was not assisted by me. Never knowing if this was meant for good, fearing it will abuse some other's pride, I confide in no one but you, seeking your opinion if anyone might profit from it's knowing.

Jacob: I see how no one could believe there is any harm in your vision other than this being an opportunity for new circumstances to determine your life. Visions without words, speechless in giving directions, could be commands from God, ordering you to heed their entirety, unlike hearing His words to direct your life.

Dan: (overhearing the conversation, aside) What good could come from our brother, conceived from seeds withered from age, having exhausted their vigor and virtue long before, leaving little to bless any new creations, suffering from lack of direction and wallowing in a father's indulgence. Judah must hear of this vision and tell us if we should be concerned. We can also ask Reuben who knows how to test father best. I tire of brother's imaginations and how they endeavor to try us.

Bystander: The brothers must hear Joseph's dream, believing they come for a purpose, fixing his vision in their memory, embedding it for a yet to be revealed reason, trusting Dan's hearing is by someone's intention, allowing the narrator some discretion to say who told whom. Before anything could be written Joseph told of another vision, one coming in a dream.

Joseph: I woke to remember another dream, more mysterious than the first, but I tell others it's content to help me with its meaning. With the world shrouded in darkness I saw light coming from the sun, moon and eleven stars, bowing down with revelations for me to hear, bearing promises of truths never seen, telling me to be patient, for I will become one despised and rejected--a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief as others turn their backs on me and look the other way, uncaringly crushing me for their sins. Oppressed and treated harshly, fear directs me to say no more, quelling my voice, speaking nothing more to fuel incentives for other's hatred?

Dan: A time comes when the serpent must strike, inflicting an enemy with its venom, arousing brethren to danger, threats of someone usurping their freedom, dooming us to servitude, bridling our freedom, stifling our free will.

Jacob: Joseph's first vision could have been enough, showing our never-ending need for truths to replenish our languishing souls, to restore life-sustaining living water and who cares how this is done. He may think he has been anointed for this to save his family, acknowledging there is usually one in each family. What he dreams should concern us little. Let him be as he is made. What does he possess, driving us to be angry and perhaps to hatred? What more does he have but dreams and the coat I made for him? Did I not do as much for any of you? I treat him no differently from any of my sons, assigning him tedious hours safeguarding the sheep. Maybe this gives him too much time to think, dreaming visions to pass the time. If he is more attuned to God's wishes than any of you, so be it.

Dan: When we develop envy and hatred, they are difficult to wash away with words, tokens of regret, unable to find ones scattered in their thoughts, never wanting to seek the lost, leaving them unfound, as we mind our own business.

Jacob: It is time for someone to find sheep which are lost. Where are my sons? Are they also lost?

Joseph: Here I am. Send me. God prepares me to seek lost sheep.

Jacob: Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with those in the flock.

Joseph: Where should I look to find them?

Jacob: Begin looking in the abundant pastures before you enter the desert. You will meet someone whose mission is to seek the lost. Your venture will not be lengthy so you will need no provisions other than your cloak to protect you from the cold of darkness.

Joseph: Indeed I shelter my creaturely warmth, protecting it by truths of light, by love woven into my coat of many colors, sustaining me sufficiently, needing no other nourishment, trusting God to provide manna if necessary. My visions tell me to look to Him for everything, to never rely on any human truths.

Bystander: Leaving on his mission to find the lost, unaware of what will be found, striking out without any fear, trusting the Lord to guide his way, Joseph began to unwrap his circumstances, fulfilling jealousy's inherent promise to silently enrage all, sparing nothing for vengeance to attack.

Dan: I sense someone coming, seeking us with his unwelcome presence, renewing a hatred too easily fashioned, disrupting our leisurely imaginations, enraging us to struggle with vile thoughts, engaging us to gather our enmities and consider an action, nothing good but for settling our lasting hostility. Coming closer I recognize my partially witted half-brother, born to one who should have remained barren, who should have died before she could have pleased father with more than sharing his bed.

Reuben: Your vision is perceptive to see all that.

Dan: I dream, no, more than dream, conceiving a plan for killing him, realizing such would be easy, leaving a more difficult decision unresolved, concocting a believable lie to console father, but what lie can we trust, wondering if any lie can be trusted?

Simeon: I know ways to justify murder, having experienced killing others, escaping what is done, never having to face judgment, avoiding justice demanded by deserving retribution.

Levi: I join my brother Simeon, knowing someday we may be judged, prompting us to hide instruments of cruelty, securing them in darkness, preventing them from being revealed, silencing our conscience's voices, out of contemplation's reach, leaving nothing to encounter the light, nothing to dwell in our souls. Killing Joseph can surely destroy our hatred for him, but will remorse replace it, perhaps more dreaded, daunting our remaining days, provoking unending anxiety, waylaying any promise for peace?

Simeon: We can plan his death and trust good will come of it, remembering how we justified killing all the men of Shechem's domain, rewarding us with plunder, confiscating treasures of their efforts, convincing us to trust our wisdom, relying on our experience to escape a devious plan's knowing.

Dan: I will bite your heels to move this plan forward.

Reuben: Listen to me, father's firstborn, his might the beginning of my strength, bearing the excellency of his dignity and power, chastened by indiscretions so I would not excel, but I still cherish some wisdom, enough to judge your plan evil, as I counsel you now with words begging for something different. Let us not take his life.

Dan: If Joseph continues living, even though hidden somewhere remote, he will return to haunt us with visions, devising plans for nature to punish our lives. Death cannot allow him such actions.

Levi: Dan is right. Death eliminates all, preventing any retribution to punish us, assured as have been to suffer no reprisals for our destruction of Shechem's men. Destiny speaking to us now, revealing Joseph has little purpose, nothing beyond maintaining father's pleasure, ending when nature allows him no more, justifies his death to settle our enduring hatred for him.

Reuben: Knowing no one can be judged to die without having testimony from some witness, which of us has evidence to justify Joseph's death?

Bystander: When anyone chooses to be the first witness, freezing their testimony, they are trapped into being the first one to cast a stone, indicting them as a murderer, painted with lasting evil, so one must decide wisely whom to judge, becoming a brother's keeper to begin the assignment of his death. Or one could hide a brother's secrets, telling them to no one, never being the snitch, maintaining the honor most highly trusted among evil ones, aligning it with the world's ways, but Joseph directed by God, obediently reports his brother's breaking the Lord's laws, preserving His promise, assuring his inheritance in the Lord.

Reuben: I plead to never take his life. There can be another way. Shed no blood, cast him into this pit found here in the wilderness, trusting it is here for our purpose, never for any other, but lay no hand to take his life. If mandated for your satisfaction, strip him of all garments, removing the robe of his virtues to bring you peace and remove your animosity, seeing him shamed in nakedness, humbled as at birth, uncovered for all to see.

Bystander: Reuben knows. With Joseph's death, retribution will seal you, miring you in an inescapable morass, impounded in persisting remorse, committing your memory to lasting regret, hounding you more than any anxiety for Joseph's return, any resurrection of him from a desert of no return, tormenting you with visions of what he might do, but confession and repentance could clear your conscience, hardly likely after murder allowing no escape. As for me, include me out, counting me to be no accomplice in shedding his blood.

Levi: A good idea. This pit, darkened to hide his visions, silencing His appearance, removing him from our enmity, gives fate time to make its decision.

Joseph: For what reason does God reward me this way, directing my father to care for his flock, asking for someone to find the lost sheep, hearing me volunteer, saying here I am, only to have my only worldly identity stolen, sending me naked into a darkened womb, never knowing if it is for me to be reborn, to enter some different existence. Is my errand, sending me on a worthy deed, now nothing but a filthy rag, leaving me defrocked, naked, removing my sin's emblem of wearing this coat of splendor, trusting its iniquity was fashioned by my brother's hatred? Worshipping idols of pride, hidden in their secret gardens, they tell me to come no closer, defiling them, believing they are holier than others. But have I ever been a stench, bearing an acrid smell clinging to my soul? In silence their idols face them with convictions to curse my visions. The Lord comforts me now, consoling me to put away my anger and forget the evil of this day, assuring me His thoughts are greater than ours, for He takes the symbols of our identity to work His plans. I will keep my heart pure, knowing it cannot be for nothing, maintaining my innocence for some reason, unworthy for the world, waiting patiently, trusting in God's plan for me.

Bystander: (aside) Did Reuben have some plan for Joseph's rescue, returning him to his father? Such an action would never resolve the problem of the brothers' hatred. Good luck in reminding them to be their brother's keeper.

Joseph: Coming to look for ones lost, rejoicing on finding wanderers lost in life's wilderness, knowing my father's joy in this accomplishment, fulfilling my gift to restore the broken, I resent nothing of my eagerness to please, but my brothers never wish to see me, hating all I represent, wishing me to vanish, destroying me if necessary, removing me, the source of their hatred, causing light to depart from my eyes, leaving me in darkness, relying on only imagination for thoughts, battling all evil sneaking into my mind.

Dan: Use this pit fortune provides, a tomb for his keeping while waiting our decision, having no light to lead his thoughts, no living water to continue his being, satisfying Reuben to preserve his life, testing chance to end his life in thirst, trusting his time would last no more than three days.

Reuben: I may have lost favor as the firstborn from my misdeed, so listen to Judah whom you are destined to praise, hear his wisdom, you who are the father's children, remembering through the ages as ones destined to bow down to him. Hear Judah, destined to carry seed for kings and be bowed down to, likened in ways for Joseph's dreams. I leave you for a moment, finding some isolation, freeing me from the tempest of your words.

Judah: Wisdom conferred with blessings, designating me as firstborn, asks what profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood. Will God come asking where is Joseph, knowing his blood soaks His holy soil? My charge is to insure we are our brother's keeper. If not, we should treat him as anyone condemned and offer him a last supper, asking him to dine with us, perhaps wondering if hearing his pleas might change our minds.

Dan: We listen and consider your words, but who can hunger for food with distress churning our stomachs?

Levi: Here comes a band of our wayward cousins who perhaps would be more than willing to adopt him, to remove him from inflaming our enmity, erasing guilt we will certainly bear. Destine him to be a slave, rewarding us more than fating him to be a corpse, realizing he would be more valuable alive than dead, but uncertainty would prevail, wondering if he might suddenly reappear, to taunt our virtue, springing on us fearfully, inciting on us anxiety for certain retribution.

Simeon: Remove him from the pit; pull him up undamaged; protect his value; we might profitably haggle for him, offering him for sale.

Bystander: (aside) So much value does Joseph now prove to bear, knowing brothers would never trash the life of a potential scapegoat, presented by providence, surprising them, offering a life-saving option, a way to send their sinful hatreds into the distant isolation of life's wilderness, cleansing them of any wrong-doing, trusting their deed would be soon forgotten, confident its memory would never return, agreeing what is deemed acceptable, reasoned to satisfy their dilemma, ongoing hatred working to tear their fragile peace asunder, but they must beware of the banished beast returning, coming home to roost in the home it grew to know, inherently established by its steward.

Ishmaelite spokesman: I see you have a man with a for sale sign. He must be worth little as you treat him as one sentenced to death rather than one for sale, thinking you would array him in his best attire, seeing you must think this naked one need not be dressed, valuing him no more clothed than as he came. Has he no wraps to cover his body, to decorate his coming out, as I see only grave-coverings of his nakedness?

Levi: I am chosen to describe his value, to convince you of his worth, asking you to make a reasonable offer.

Ishmaelite spokesman: What do you beg for your worthless one, having little more than youth, his stark nudity reflecting no virtues to extend his life, little even to spark a maiden's interest?

Dan: He is strong, promising to make him a good worker. Faulted only by claims for wisdom, self-asserting himself to be a prophet, such discerning prophets often being self-destructive, he troubled his family, broadcasting grandiose dreams, predicting his ascension to a lordship, infuriating his brothers, visioning them bowing down, compelled to honor him in glory, but his lofty perceptions matter none now, as we prepare to send his faults away, enslaving them to some wandering nomad, securing his visions, blinding others from their sight, never permitting them to determine anyone's worthiness.

Ishmaelite spokesman: Dream makers can be trouble, never knowing what they will do, believing they should flee when given the chance, and trusting we are solving your problems, his value cannot be great, no more than these pieces of silver I will fling into the dust, knowing you will eagerly pick them up, consummating a bargain to seal his fate.

Dan: He should cause you no problems but you must bind any visionary, as all prophets, in shackles, never knowing how a new dream will direct him. Worse than selling him to you would be for him to escape and find his way home, reporting these actions to our father, turning his lamentation to anger, destroying any remaining love he keeps for us. Measure one coin for each of the ten of us, one not with us at the moment.

Ishmaelite spokesman: We have shackles to bind him securely, insuring he cannot free himself; see him now as we tether him in chains, suffering in silence and submission, never being the rascal you describe him to be, never rebelling with any pleading words. I have already agreed on his worth but something tells me his value could be greater, imagining him worth much more alive than dead.

Joseph: Does anyone hear my words, proclaiming I suffer in silence, listening and believing my thoughts are not empty, acknowledging my soul has something worthwhile to say, begging someone to understand visions truly from my heart, compelled to be revealed, prompting their telling, instructed to determine my fate. My God, whom I praise, do not remain silent, for people who are wicked and deceitful have opened their mouths against me, speaking against me, exercising their deceitful tongues, surrounding me with venomous words, spewing hatred, attacking me without cause, returning my friendship with accusations, repaying me evil for good and hatred for my loving kinship, but acknowledge I remain a man of prayer.

Judah: We can now claim to be upright, deciding not to murder our brother, merely sending him on a journey where he could serve some useful purpose, removing him from contempt nagging our conscience, cleansing us of blame so we might all become blameless. Reuben returns. We must tell him of Joseph's departure.

Reuben: I see no one in the pit. Did Joseph suffer some fate worse than we decided? Did you console yourselves with a mayhem without redemption, slaying our father's joy as a lasting retribution, condemning your conscience to eternal damnation?

Levi: As the spokesman for justice, I tell you we did not destroy our brother. We sold him to traders of valuable merchandise, knowing he will become someone's important commodity, maybe beginning as a slave, working up to become a servant, and if his dreams can vault him into a leadership position, he might shame ones like us, forever tending flocks of sheep. Look at the positive side his visions could bring, hopefully more than hatred as it brought us to bear for him.

Reuben: So he is now on a new journey, forever out of our sight. What are we to tell father, convincing him he will never see his favored one again?

Bystander: Fear should grip you, decided by an action trusted to free you, but constraining you in greater bondage than Joseph, one never in fear, testifying to his never being enslaved, remembering truth sets one free, asking now who is committed to slavery.

Reuben: Together we can devise a plan to hide the truth, trusting it to set us free from fear, concocting a deceit to console father.

Levi: We can use a goat from the sheepfold to dismiss our sin, without sending it into the wilderness, where it could find its way home to accuse us, but to remove our sins permanently by killing the beast and spreading its blood over Joseph's coat, torn asunder and bloodied to extinguish its light, bringing it back to father for testifying to Joseph's demise by the jaws of a beast, satisfying his blood did not stain our conscience.

Bystander: (aside) Could shredding his garment ever remove the shroud hiding truth? Levi must never be the one to tear apart the coat, making way for his progeny to thus proceed.

Reuben: Having angered father once, I still am troubled facing him. One of you must show guts to distress him with our lie, a fraud declaring Joseph dead when he still lives.

Simeon: Father considers Levi and I instruments of cruelty and knowing our hatred for little brother he will distrust anything we tell him. He never wants his soul to enter our council or his honor be united to our assembly. Choose Dan to tell him. Words come easily from one with a forked tongue.

Dan: Asher is richest with words and most blessed for believing, so let him tell father.

Asher: I have no need to tell him. He will recognize what happened with his reason, for on recognizing Joseph's coat, torn and bloodied, it could only be the work of some savage beast.

Bystander: Listen. Asher's words are true to his father's response.

Jacob: Patience hounds my entire existence. Waiting to be born second, to win the favor of my father, deceiving him to steal his blessings--withheld for no good reason--making a trek to claim a wife of my choosing, toiling for years to be granted her hand, suffering through her barren womb for years, siring unfavored siblings through uncomely others, until God finally blessed my blessed wife with a special son, only for her to die in giving birth to another. I had little time to enjoy the fruits of her beauty, rewarding my patience with despair. Must my patience now begin anew, waiting to see him again, reborn and redeemed? I will prepare now, renting my garments, robing myself in grave's sack clothes, dusting my loins, ending their function, preparing patience for me to reunite with my favored son. Can memory's passing relieve my grief, knowing I must wait for God's timing?

Judah: (aside) Now with our hatred for a brother consummated, can our enmity end or must it find another victim, compelling our nature to prey on another, detesting the admonition to be another's keeper, continuing to follow our inner demons. Sworn to secrecy, never confessing, we have no conditions compelling us to repent, wondering if we can never expect redemption. Confession only within my heart, trusting God knows my heart, can never cleanse me of guilt, a baggage with lifelong consequences. Must I confess with my tongue, never knowing who must select to hear my words?

Reunion of Brothers in Disgrace

Bystander: The Ishmaelite caravan stopped for the night at an oasis, a place for resting and watering the animals. The design for Joseph's life began at a similar watering site, where his father and mother first met. Still shackled he refreshed as well as he could. In this place of building humiliation, void of all distractions, feeling cool breezes on his face, hearing only rustling palm leaves, he began to discover his true worth to God, the blossoming of his faithfulness, his ardent love for God, never taking it in place of his deeds, making it his greatest treasure, inviting him to embark on building righteousness, reaching out to God's covenant, searching His ways to develop his virtues.

Joseph: I exalt my God, praising Him forever, His greatness most worthy of praise, His majesty unmeasurable, as I joyously meditate on His glorious splendor, proclaiming His mercy and compassion, being slow to anger and filled with unfailing love, establishing goodness as part of everyone, for all know He always keeps his promises, is gracious in all He does, righteous in every thought and deed, close to all who call on Him, ones seeking Him in truth, trusting I will praise Him forever, hoping everyone on earth will bless His holy name forever and ever.

Ishmaelite cousin: How can you praise God, choosing your afflictions to make you suffer?

Joseph: It would ease my discomfort if someone would unchain me.

Ishmaelite chief: Knowing one like you, you would try to escape at your first chance.

Joseph: Where would I flee to, surrounded by nothing but sand in this expanse of desert, waiting for dawn to dry me to a bone?

Ishmaelite chief: You are smarter than most. You can be released but restrict yourself no further than the vagrant over yonder, one making his home here who we call has-been Job. He has been waiting on his friends for consolation, seeking some way to speak with God.

Joseph: Why do they call him has-been? Has he always been homeless?

Ishmaelite chief: Ask him.

Joseph: Are you a leper, forced to live here, isolated from all others?

Job: My fortunes have failed me, testifying to my isolation in this no-man's land of nothingness.

Joseph: You look familiar, remembered from some chance meeting earlier, recounting how God holds you blameless and upright, leaving me to wonder why you have changed, disfigured to the point I hardly recognize you.

Bystander: Job is blameless and upright because he fears God, trusting fear drives him to obedience and its lasting. Being blameless, he never feared or dreaded anything, nothing evil to befall him, but trouble came, sneaking in unexpectedly.

Job: Fearing God is never enough, needing something additional, more than terrorizing one to demand reverence, more than advice of human reason, trusted human wisdom, encountering its failure, springing on one unseen, unexpected in its effects, making me hardly recognizable to ones like you, encountered as a different person in the past, bringing me to ask God why, why me.

Joseph: Fear is never the power driving me to be obedient. My love for God cannot move me to disobey His instructions for life, trusting any fear of Him would help me little.

Bystander: Defying reason, moving you to be more humble, grows your mind to become wiser.

Job: It all began for no reason whatsoever. God met with Satan, asking where he had been, Satan giving him the answer of to and fro. Since God knows all, why would he ask Satan where he had been, a question more likely coming from some unknowing demon-god? And why would God ask specifically about me, thinking to allow Satan to tempt me, a blameless, upright man, already recognized as such by His omniscience, trusting my virtues, while seeking to determine if I believe in God? My God tempts no one, but Satan, the aspiring-to-be deity, tells me all my treasures are now under his power, their giving and taking at his discretion, involving all my gifts having come from God, blessed with His love, but now unprotected by His consent, everything I had no longer encircled with a hedge of security, guarding all I am and had.

Bystander: Scribes tell us Satan tempted God to believe, Put forth thy hand now and touch all Job's possessions, and watch as he curses you to your face, but only upon himself leave protection, do not put forth your hand. Whose words do you trust knowing God cannot be tempted? God restricts Satan to be no more than a messenger, having no powers to destroy anything God created. God does not temporarily change in order for Satan to prove his lie, giving His nemesis a victim, one of His creatures to work over, but He could allow demon-gods to implement Satan's suggestions. A God of love values nothing Satan has to say, never considering to meet him face-to-face, inviting him to tea for entertaining his thoughts. Satan sought power God had never given him, suggesting what He could do to test humans, relying on demon-gods to implement his suggestions, satisfying evil, seeing all people's treasured accumulations destroyed, gifts from God's generosity. Scribes describe how created beings can interfere with God's plans, proposing actions God gives to no one, giving advice they are not empowered to offer. If you must fear anything, dread a demonic witness called on by your will, never sent by your Lord, needing no one seeking evidence for your judgment on the Day of The Lord.

Job: There was a day my sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house, when I was interrupted by a messenger coming with bad news, reporting on the fate of oxen plowing and asses feeding beside them, fallen to theft by Sabeans, slaying the servants in charge, followed by a second messenger telling of fire of God, falling from heaven, burning up sheep and servants, succeeded by a third messenger reporting on Chaldeans raiding upon camels and slaying more servants. Concluding this day of infamy was news on the fate of my children feasting and drinking in the eldest brother's house, carried by a messenger saying, Behold, a great wind came across the wilderness, striking the four corners of the house, demolishing it, burying all the young people in death, shaming all the idols within, failing their protection, witnessing to wicked ungodly ruling ones.

Bystander: The earth can tremble at the Lord's discretion, driving people to fear, waking them from complacency to question their worldly truths, alerting them to hear eternal truths, sending them messages to heed God's voice. This happens when evil prophets deceive God's people, saying all is peaceful when there is no peace, where people have built flimsy walls, reinforced by prophets camouflaging them with lies, never based on truths from God. Telling these oracles such walls will soon collapse, the sovereign Lord says, I will sweep away your whitewashed walls with a storm of indignation, sending a great flood in a mighty wind of anger with hailstones of fury, destroying idols these people have implanted in their hearts, sweeping away gods they embrace, causing them to fall into sin. God never deceives people, sending them prophets bearing messages not from Him, telling all is well; be assured, the wicked will not rule the land of the godly.

Job: By my understanding all was well, needing adjustments by no one.

Bystander: God's voice carried a message in the wind coming upon your children's house, toppling it with its celebrants within. This house was never constructed with substance of solid materials, lacking virtues to withstand the world, swaying in warning winds, prophetically telling of worse to come, until it finally collapsed. Job failed to prepare his children for the world's natural ways, giving them confidence in their own wisdom, teaching how their common sense can protect them from natural disasters.

Joseph: Could there be reasons for God to allow misfortune to descend on one He had favored?

Bystander: Could Job's children have sinned, tarnishing God's trust in Job being upright and blameless? How could any of them know if they had all forgotten sin's nature or if some human had redefined sin? When we change the hallmarks of sin, we curse God in our hearts. Feasting in self-assured harmony, how could life be better, following tribunals we have chosen, basking in praise for being blameless and upright, worthy of embellished pride, serving as a necklace covering our violence, soon to speak wickedly on injustice as our tongue walks through the earth? Were all Job's blessings, his well-off family and his personal wealth, rewards from God testifying to some righteousness he never deserved, assuring him of being blameless and upright? When did God begin rewarding us so, inciting us to name it and claim it?

Job: I did not try to name and claim anything. I worked hard for the rewards of my endeavors, expecting no one would steal or destroy them.

Bystander: Must Job be rightly judged, evaluating his worthiness, different from criteria rewarding him with many children and possessions? How does God judge anyone, meriting them to receive His blessings, ones acknowledging everything belongs to Him, distributed by His will, perhaps rewarding their upright status, reflecting the wealth of their toils, but being riches eventually deteriorating to nothingness? Does Job's wealth promote him to be one of greatest in the East, serenely satisfied as ones proud, trusting in themselves, their lives warped by vanity, without understanding wealth can be treacherous, blossoming arrogance, roaming in sincerity, disturbing values, seldom boasting of virtue, ignoring invisible messages, blocking paths to righteousness, dismissing a life faithful to God, believing wealth buys security, assuming wealth itself is a virtue, putting a family's nest beyond the reach of danger?

Joseph: What more promotes one to greatness, assuring a legacy to inscribe on one's gravestone, if not wealth then maybe children? Did circumstance's afflictions steal all promise from Job's heritage?

Bystander: Don't count on children, living unpredictably to establish their greatness, many trusting in reasonable life-styles to be blameless and upright, believing in their goodness, trusted in as by most of their parents, convinced to be a morality pleasing to the Lord. Job's children lived to feast, believing the righteous can eat to their heart's content, freely consuming as gluttons, carefree drinking, following a deliberately unconcerned existence, celebrating in distraction to veil obligations, suspected but never instilled, never indoctrinated by a blameless father. Is not the parent charged to raise up children to show them the way to go? Or can the village step in and lead ones to follow the world, showing them life comes but once, so go for it, enjoy it while they can, never allowing a feast to pass uncelebrated, urging all to revel in unending desires, partaking in ways of the world? Job rose to sanctify them after their partying, never considering any cleansing would last at the longest to the next celebration, vainly attempting to purify them with sacrifices God proclaims to be unneeded, hoping to comfort his soul, but could have been insured by efforts now too late. God blessed Job, giving him breath to say it was good while it lasted, knowing it would run out of abundance as all good things end, acknowledging His grace must end. But does His grace end or prepare us for something better, raising us beyond being blameless and upright, bringing us to be righteous? We may believe our memories represent the zenith of His grace.

Job: It would be best to have my memories vanish, destroying them as has happened to all I held dear. Hear my undeserved woes, making me despised and rejected--a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. All turned their backs on me, looking the other way, uncaring and crushing me for reasons unknown. Oppressed and treated harshly, I was tempted to utter no words, but I was driven to find someone, anyone to blame, one never transformed by God's grace, resolving my frustration by cursing the day of my birth, calling on the day to perish wherein I was born. Hearing my wife's wisdom to curse God and then die, I chose not to die.

Joseph: Is your fate worse than mine, losing all your treasures, believing you were created to be hated, given a gift defying fulfillment without being detested by all, wondering by what design is a person created to deserve being tarnished with hate? I too have lost everything, my entire family, all my possessions, including my freedom and dignity, asking if you lost more. But believing God has plans for me, beyond these losses, never threatened by them, I will never curse my birth, knowing I am here for a reason, one I must patiently wait to know, trusting He does not want me to die.

Job: God planned for me to be blemished, afflicted with the sores you see, making me unacceptable to be near, unwanted by all, avoided as anyone's company, out of sight by all, invading no one's memory, imprisoning me in isolation, waiting in vain for healing, compelling me to shout for all to hear, unclean, unclean, unclean, warning others to stay away. Suffering can have rewards, however, considering my afflictions spare me, protecting me from relationships threatening further torment, urging me into a shelter of silence, not even permitting a feeble voice to denounce my tribulations, fortune's wrath, fate's fury on my soul. Perhaps God's mercy reprieving me, saving my life, expects me to witness all to some detestable sin, revealing my unworthy wrong, invisible to my remembrance, calling me to confess to what I do not know.

Joseph: I have been blemished with unseen afflictions, evident only on hearing my story, calling on no need to warn the uninformed, nothing worth confessing.

Job: What leads the Lord to change, telling ones He has blessed, I will suddenly fling out ones I choose from the gifts of this land, pouring great troubles upon them, suffering them to feel my anger, destroying their complacency, inflicting them with wounds, saddling them with great grief, afflicted with incurable sickness, forcing me to bear unbearable consequences, destroying my home and leaving no one to help in its rebuilding. My children have been taken away, never to be seen again, their shepherds having lost all senses of creation's goodness, leaving no one to seek wisdom from the Lord, no one to offer counsel, discovering false prophets fail all completely, isolating all from reasons to believe, leaving no one to reunite my hope, scattered now in the wilderness of nothingness.

Bystander: Were any of your family deserving of their losses, plundered property, ransacked homes, raping of their souls, blindfolding their existence, sending them to wander, groping around for reality, dismissing any divine life within them, waiting for their blood to be poured into dust, their bodies to rot in the ground? Who cried out to God, claiming injustice, and which one accepted a fated destruction without protest? Which one understood the ways of God? Hear the psalmist say, Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what He did for me. For I cried out to Him for help, praising Him as I spoke. If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But God listens! He pays attention to my prayer. Praise God, who does not ignore my prayer nor withdraw His unfailing love from me. What sorrow awaits those who argue with their creator, knowing He will remove all proud and arrogant ones from among His people, leaving the lowly and humble to thrive, ones trusting in the Lord's name, as He cares for the ignoble, hearing their worries, waiting for the right time to lift them up, honoring the insignificant, as He distances Himself from the proud. Let's hear what wisdom Job will honor with attention.

Job: Joseph and I have both lost dear treasures, the abundance of our toil's efforts, blessings from our unceasing endeavors, sealing our family wealth, maintaining our honor, preserving us as upright citizens, but I have lost more, being inflicted with pain, suffering my body to think of nothing else.

Bystander: You differ from Joseph, distracted by your passion for justification, begging God for signs He will hear you, explaining yourself while getting no response, never understanding your need for constant vindication destroys your soul's integrity, tempting you to lose faith in Him, thinking there was trust in Him to begin with, but your Lord never explains anything, waiting for you to correct perceptions of yourself, never giving discernment for understanding to criticize Him, giving only insights to intercede.

Joseph: God, visiting visions on me, reporting them where appropriate seeming to bring me harm, calls me to be good, even if it means suffering, following His commands to never sin or deceive anyone, committing my responses to Him and never retaliate when insulted, never threaten revenge when suffered by vengeance, leaving all in the Lord's hands, knowing He always judges fairly.

Bystander: Little do upright people know, concealing sins precludes prosperity, confessing iniquities brings comfort, turning away from transgressions promises mercy.

Joseph: My suffering must be to please God, trusting it is right and must continue, obeying the One creating me, convincing me it conforms to fulfillment of His plan, believing I will return to Him and last with Him forever.

Job: I should not suffer trials, punishments from God, when I am blameless, honoring Him by my virtues, upright and devoted to obeying His commands, trusting He does not want me to suffer, tormenting me to improve what I am. Obedience to His laws sanctifies me, but God sometimes needs to remind me of the many and difficult ones to honor. Consider my suffering, reexamine it for further judgment, rescue me instead of believing I must be punished for forgetting His instructions. I argue my case, enlisting the full range of human wisdom, calling on Your full consideration of love, knowing You are a God of mercy, the only One dispensing grace, so I can depend on You to side with me and protect my life as You promised, creating me with innate assurances, oaths transcribed in my being.

Joseph: Although I have lost my freedom, I still cherish my greatest expectation, trusting I can continue life with promises secured by hope. My being, with its body shackled and enslaved in adversity, but free to think openly, trusting my soul can never be bound, is confident nothing can quench my thoughts to know and honor God, trusting Him always, waiting on Him continuously, patiently to know His plans for me, plans for sustaining His goodness, never for any disasters, never intending anyone be subjected to unending slavery. If He assigns me to experience terrors of hell, it will be to show me this would be for His purpose.

Job: With your youth and health intact you have more future than I, making your worth greater, and I will be left here, having no value, even as a slave. With my life having no lasting value, it would be better if it ended soon, seeing my friends have not come to bless me with useful counsel, without any worthwhile suggestions for confronting my creator. It is unlikely I will see you again.

Establishing Joseph's Servanthood

Bystander: Joseph's circumstances changed, preparing him for unpredictable events.

He was brought to Egypt and presented for purchase at a flourishing slave market. His Ishmaelite traders priced him to be sold for more than a common laborer, and he was sold to an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian selected and trusted for his leadership, bearing the religious name of Potiphar, given in dedication to a sun god, one he was committed to worship and maintain virtues, expecting such devotion from one with such an honored appointment.

Potiphar: You are a costly addition to my household and you can prosper if you prove your worth. I will call you Joseph because you were taken away, from where it does not matter, and this name demands you maintain virtue and dignity in my household. I will call on the gods to counsel and oversee all you do. I pray the gods will show you to be blameless. Be a good and humble servant. Never disgrace my trust in you.

Joseph: I remain always in God's hands, trusting in his grace, seeing He cared for me during my enslavement, designating my sale to you and hearing you to be a religious person, committed to worship someone other than earthly idols. I will give you satisfaction in everything I do, promising to fulfill all your demands.

Bystander: God had reasons for blessing Joseph, creating him handsome, pleasing to see, but more splendid in mind, guiding him to be chaste in body, directed by a virtuous soul, shining with beauty throughout, divine goodness capturing his soul and governing the elegance of his body, acknowledging one's soul rules the body, convincing all to seek righteousness, the soul being a body's mistress, one's body being the handmaiden of one's soul. Always aware the will can succumb to temptations, yielding to vices of the flesh, enslaving the body in evil practice, submitting one to bondage in sin, no person escapes temptation, arousing desire, opened by eyes to human beauty.

Joseph: Today has been a good day working in this house God prepares for me. Seeing my master's mistress, I greet her.

Bystander: Joseph must beware, coming to delight in a newly found luxury, streaming with temptation, beckoning him to satisfy lust, waiting for him to fall into sin, destroying his virtue, enslaving him into begging for God's mercy, praying again to be called from darkness into light, to welcome a time for rejoining freedom, to devote himself again to God's commandments, to speak without shame about His laws, to delight in grace and mercy, to exist for His love, passing it down for all creation, living to meditate on all He is, the I Am.

Sultry: You greet me but never with your eyes, hardly ever noticing my glances for you. Other men find me irresistible, their gazes never leaving my body. Why are you different, maybe preferring men to women?

Joseph: My Lord guards my eyes--protecting them from feasting on female endowments, ones designed to tempt me--keeping me pure for Him, reminding me my body is a temple for the Holy Spirit, telling me any woman entering my life, unveiling my eyes to acknowledge her beauty, would be chosen and sent by Him.

Sultry: The gods tell us to uncover our gaze, enjoy creation's goodness, celebrate its beauty, so come lie with me. The gods, glorifying use of our bodies, compel us to go for all one can get, never denying what our willing nature honors us to do.

Joseph: Doesn't the lord of this house, your master, believe you belong only to him and would punish you for straying from your marital bed? My master, being also yours, trusts me, having no concern about anything in his house, putting everything he has in my hands, keeping nothing from me except you because you are his wife. I will do nothing wicked, never anything to destroy his trust in me, nothing unworthy to sin against my God. My God differs from your gods, your idols created to worship bodies without a soul.

Sultry: Our master, my husband, cares little, spending his time regularly at the temple of prostitutes, giving no indication of his gender preference.

Joseph: That may be true but a man's common sense tells him to protect his wife from disgraceful encounters with other men, especially with trusted servants, humiliating him as the protector of his home, serving him with shame from such liaisons, disgracing him with discovery by others, realizing sinful discretions cannot be hidden from other servants in his house.

Sultry: Many times I have lusted after you and knowing you would refuse I now seize you by your cloak and will hold you until your nature wills to cover my body. You cannot get away. I must not fail, believing nothing can defeat me, suggesting to others my attraction might be fading, perhaps signaling my allure could be vanishing, proclaiming I cannot decorate an aging body, restoring it to its former beauty, having nothing to iron out crinkles my ticking clock exposes for one to see.

Joseph: You are beyond my authority, exceeding its limits, for the reason you are my master's wife, so how could I succumb to your desire, engaging in a wicked deed, sinning in God's eyes, tarnishing us both with shameful dishonor, fleeing from clamors of our conscience, destroying any virtue of modesty, punishing our souls with remorse, subjecting me to deserve greater enslavement, jeopardizing my freedom as a trusted servant. Only one unsleeping eye needs to see and report our deeds. Could you trust we would be unseen?

Bystander: Gripped with fear, escaping from her clutches, losing his coat, stolen in her grasp, Joseph freed himself, running away from her sinful desires. Again, Joseph's garment would determine his fate, this time no clothing of divine design, but one signifying his servanthood, introducing again a divinely designed circumstance, God introducing an opportunity to continue His purpose, acknowledging God creates all circumstances for Joseph to prosper, blessing all deeds, prompting his Egyptian master to give him authority over his household. Would this end his prosperity? Would he have to lose his clothes again, seeing them rent by fury, destroyed in protecting his chastity, seemingly to win God's grace, renewing something He had already ordained?

Joseph: Lord, free me from this woman and her temptation, seized from the serpent in Eden, condemning her with lust, forever encouraging her to want a man. Let my spirit within prevail to withstand her assault on my chastity, trusting some day God will choose a virtuous one for me, one I can love, smitten by her purity rather than her body, so I flee from anyone's lust, impure and insolent, demanding and wanton, respecting nothing.

Sultry: My Adonis escapes, leaving only this garment, colored with markings of a servant, identifying it as Joseph's. He will pay for rejecting me. No man can insult me so. I'll call for others to come quickly, enlisting accomplices, convincing them of my humiliation, shedding tears to confirm my dishonor--exacting vengeance--using others to betray Joseph, telling them: My master brought among us a Hebrew to insult my virtue, dragging me in to lie with, but I cried out loudly, sending him to scurry away when he heard my screams, leaving his garment during his hasty retreat, my cries protecting me from assault, as he abandoned intentions for me to be his victim, but my vengeance is for more than seeing him leave my house.

Joseph: If there was a time to desire Job's tormented face, scarred with festering agony, driving lustful ones into hiding, it is now for me, trusting it would assure protection. Common sense would shield me, voicing on my behalf, convincing listeners no one would venture close to anyone with Job's appearance, but God gave me no opportunity like his and prepared me for the worst when my master arrived, waiting claims of his accusing wife.

Sultry: I suffer because of my beauty, especially when I must follow the ways of women to make me more attractive. This was one such day when your slave hungered for my body, engaging my attention to satisfy his nature, coveting me with his attention, coming in to insult my purity, seizing me as no slave should do, but as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried he ran out, forgetting his garment with me, fleeing from the house, protecting purity for my virtue and honor. This is how your servant treated me.

Potiphar: His mistake confirms my troubling uncertainty, chancing a slave as a servant, knowing little of his past, wondering what drugs his mother might have taken before he was born. He will now spend his life in prison.

Sultry: (aside) Insulting me deserves the penalty of my fury, protecting my vices I join deceit to deceit, justly condemning this innocent self-righteous one, concealing my devious ways, insuring they can find new conquests on another day, trusting the next victim will not abuse my advances. History shows imprisonment is needed for ignorant innocents, testifying their devotion to some obscure God. We have many gods here for people to choose and justify their desires. He should have chosen one; instead he follows his own. Would he have bedded me well, we could have secreted lasting happiness in each other's arms, but now I detest him and he must be punished, satisfying vengeance for one I come to loathe.

Joseph: I accept what God decides for me, agreeing He has reasons for my unknowing, appointing someone evil to oppose my virtues, letting a vile accuser stand at His right hand, ready to be used, wondering when she is tried, eventually on the Day of the Lord, if she will be found guilty, condemned by any interceding judgments.

Ministering to the Victimized

Bystander: The Lord's fated circumstances for Joseph destines him to be shackled again, this time bound by isolation in prison, but by His grace, His steadfast love for Joseph, He instructs Joseph's jailer to grant him favor, assigning him charge over all inmates under the keeper's care, authorizing him to oversee all their supervision, because the Lord was with Joseph, prospering whatever he did. Innocents should never be troubled when attacked, facing accusations on false charges, fearing perversions of justice, but they must trust God is always with them, becoming captive to Him who promises to never leave them, believing in His power, never forgetting in all circumstances people are more than conquerors through Him who loves them.

Joseph: Trusting no adversity, no power of my incarceration, no things present or things to come, can separate me from the love of God, assured within my temple, not this prison, but my home to the Holy Spirit, the guardian leading me, I remain silent, trusting Him, my advocate telling me I need no voice, no words but His to speak for me, knowing no one hears Him with ears but with open hearts, as I believe God is with me.

Bystander: Joseph was surprised on finding Job was also in prison, never knowing why he was there, for what he was being punished. Listen to what unfolds, hearing Joseph's adventures first.

Joseph: Patience begs us to wait on Him, trusting He will answer. Listen to my words.

Bystander: Joseph would soon learn to live by his words, to be his brother's keeper.

Joseph: The ways of kings are unpredictable, more so than for common people held accountable for their actions, unlike rulers who can live as they like, punishing a queen by dispatching her for disobedience, defying her king during one of his drunken celebrations. My Egyptian sovereign was offended by his butler and baker, and he punished them by incarcerating them in this prison where they were put under my care. To understand them as brothers I invited them to share the reasons for their fate.

Butler: I cannot understand my king's thoughts. As his chief butler I observed all his wishes and gave him no reason to distrust my integrity. I watched my assistants closely and can blame them for nothing worthy of judgment. Being a eunuch, he would know I had no affairs with women. I prided in being loyal and trustworthy. Devotion to our gods marked my every day, proven by my attendance at the temple without interruption, unblemished as I was to never disturb their peace. I am blameless and upright, unfairly confined here, shackling my existence with blameworthy criminals, justifiably condemned and sentenced to imprisonment, compelling me to be associated with felons of the worst kind. Is there justice in this world?

Joseph: You don't know why you are here but God knows. Your gods could never tell you.

Baker: My injustice is greater because it is harder to understand, preparing only his bread, never even seeing him. Someone coveting my position probably lied to him, but what could they lie about except perhaps I prepared his bread with poison.

Joseph: Was being a chief butler dangerous, making decisions more risky, subjecting you to be more transparent, coming naked before all authority, exposing all your deeds, designating you as where the buck stops, and when your ruler needed a scapegoat, demanding one must be found, you become the one. Were you a stranger to humility, a prideful one doomed to fall, unaware justice has no mercy for the arrogant?

Butler: My life wastes away here, wondering how another other person could replace me, performing my services for the king, striving to learn all his peculiar needs, catering to his special desires, remembering how we were bonded in serving each other, having lofted me to a position I could never have reached elsewhere.

Baker: The king did me injustice, barging into my kitchen uninvited, meddling in my baking, upsetting my routine, pridefully done without boasting, disrupting my workers, knowing one more idea could spoil all my endeavors, accomplishments no one else is qualified to do.

Bystander: God had not forgotten the butler and the baker, and began His plan to use them, maybe unusual for ones never knowing Him, worshippers bowing down to their idols, wooden gods unable to hear or speak.

Butler: Last night I dreamed, something I never do, dreaming never being in the repertoire of my gods, believing they are unable to greet me with any visions. I trust someone can interpret my dream, but I don't know who to ask.

Joseph: You acknowledge your gods have no mind and use no tongue to interpret your dreams. Likewise no human being has the wisdom to unfold the secrets of your dream, being mindless and silent on hidden mysteries, promised to be revealed only when the time is right. Until all unknowns are revealed, seek God, for all interpretations belong to Him and can be revealed to ones who trust Him. Tell me your dream and I will approach God in prayer, beseeching Him for its answer.

Butler: In my dream there was a vine before me, bearing three branches, ready to bud, to shoot forth blossoms and transform its flowers into clusters, eventually ripening into grapes. Into Pharaoh's cup in my hand, I took the grapes and pressed them, returning the vessel to Pharaoh's hand. What is the meaning of all this?

Joseph: This is God's interpretation: The three branches are three days, foretelling within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, restoring your duties to place Pharaoh's cup in his hand, forgetting the judgment placing you in prison, returning you to be his butler.

Butler: What grandeur you promise, returning my former splendor, restoring lost hope, assigning me to again fill my king's cup with wine, delighting me in recovered prosperity, regained freedom as justice awakens to discover fate's wrong done me. Gratefully I will never forget you, remembering to praise your powers for all to hear.

Joseph: It is not my power but God's. Tell this to your gods if you think they can hear. God does not damage people or repair injustice without a purpose, and you wish to understand reasons for neither in your case. If you could be a brother's keeper, remember me when it is well with you, and do me kindness, I pray, to mention me to Pharaoh, confiding in him to release me from prison. Although God shows me how to interpret your dream, he still hides why I was stolen from my homeland and now serve my days in this dungeon.

Butler: I will remember your kindness, interceding with your Almighty One to reveal my dream, and I will never forget to praise your God as greatest among our gods, a Lord for our kings to honor, a revealer of mysteries who we must give sacrifices to learn His secrets.

Joseph: (aside) I wonder if he will remember without being prompted by God. If He has a purpose for me, only time will tell, testing my patience until I begin to learn. Will the cup-bearer be nudged by draining Pharaoh's half-finished cup when the king senses wine doing its thing, veiling his awareness, remembering when not tempted by reason to forget?

Bystander: Be careful what one prays for, never knowing if it might come true, and maybe visiting one's request with something to regret. The baker seeing the butler's success reasoned he might profit as much. What harm could come by trying?

Baker: I also had a dream, hoping you could provide an interpretation, trusting you are one who can make dreams come true. Are you willing to try?

Joseph: I can pray and ask God what your dream reveals, realizing my hand makes no dream real.

Baker: Listen and do not laugh at what I tell you. I dreamed that there were three cake baskets on my head, and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked foods for Pharaoh, but birds were eating them from the basket on my head. Can your God make sense of this vision?

Joseph: God knows everything destined to happen. Are you sure you want to see what the future holds?

Baker: I am as worthy and blameless as the butler, so I expect only the best to happen.

Joseph: This is what God says about your dream. The three baskets in the dream represents three days, and within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head--from you!--and hang you on a tree, bringing birds to eat your flesh, a morsel more tasty than bread.

Baker: Your God's interpretation is far-fetched, something my gods would never imagine, a fantasy beyond anyone's comprehension.

Bystander: On the third day, Pharaoh's birthday, a feast was prepared for all his servants, and fulfilling Joseph's dream the ruler lifted up the head of the chief butler and off the head of the chief baker, restoring the butler to his former position, placing the cup in Pharaoh's hand, but hanging the chief baker he left him with nothing more to say.

Butler: I could praise Joseph's God, but He may be no more than a seer, chancing in a fortunate moment, prophesying at an opportune time, luckily being right, no better than our gods could discern, but I am thankful for this turn in my fate, acknowledging all gods as being great, lords over kings, revealers of mystery.

Bystander: The butler could have had more to say but he did not remember Joseph, God saving its recall for another day.

Joseph: Why does God mute butler's memory? Does He wish to continue my refinement in this inferno to some unknown time when He will have prepared me to further His plans, enduring hardship so I may someday reign with Him, purifying me to never greet lust, destroying my self-interest to make room only for His, making me insensitive to other's ridicule? Is this to clean out all myself's concerns so I belong only to Him? I have not become like Job whose spirit is broken, listening to mockery, provoking him to welcome the grave.

Bystander: Since God Himself has gone through suffering, constant testing by our sins, He can help us when we are tempted, lured by desires, frustrating us with delay, trying our patience, by training us to become righteous, rewarding ones treated unfairly, seeking our confession and repentance, promising us justice and forgiveness, ending constant accusations, removing all reasons for us to remain angry, suspending punishment for our sins, exercising mercy, abolishing any need to deal with us harshly, withdrawing what we deserve, assuring love of the Lord remains forever.

Joseph: Indeed, God tests my patience, revealing messages of people's dreams, tantalizing my hopes with other's promises, seeming to entangle me in hopelessness, wondering what might come next, trusting He must have reasons to extend my stay in a hole of nothingness.

Bystander: God has reasons, patiently unfolding His design, never for our knowing now or much later, perhaps coming at my life's end. Behold His plan, seeing reappearance of the afflicted one, Job.

Suffering Endures Amid Comforter's Failures

Joseph: I welcome you again Job, if there can be such a greeting to this place, but now at least you find a home if you can call this home, trusting it is somewhat better than trekking through a desert of nothingness. Welcome.

Job: I trusted your destiny would be more hopeful than mine, counting the gifts blessing you more than me. So nothing surprises me more than to see you again.

Joseph: Fate's gods instructed by my Lord swing me high and low as my story has told, but let me first hear of your journey bringing us to meet again.

Job: After you left I was ordered out of the oasis, being told no one could stay there more than one night, exercising caution, preventing vagrant homeless people--ineligible misfits--from making any oasis a permanent home, not even for ones qualified to be blameless, being upright never being enough. So I was forced to move on, continuing my exile, wandering to some other place, unknown in the morning, known by evening. After some days, another caravan coming through, stopping to consider my worth, examining me for value, never as a person but as a commodity, soon believed I could be sold to rebels, rogues fearing me little, discounting my suffering, valuing me as a living sacrifice to appease someone's god, believing Molech would be satisfied with me, accepting my life, ending it to gather their rewards, so they picked up my pieces, scattered as they were, my dignity in shambles, weeping from my sores.

Bystander: God scatters upright people, dispersing them as pieces, reducing their pride to shambles, hoping they sprout into new endeavors to be blessings He created them to be.

Joseph: So if you suffer in a manner pleasing God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you.

Job: How can I do what is right, knowing I am worthless by all accounts, because I was never sold, deemed too worthless for any price, so the traders gave me away, someone taking me for their amusement, but they found nothing to entertain them, less than a baboon on a chain, so they cast me on a dung heap, but even there I was rejected, it's visitors offended by me, contaminating their site, regarding me as an unacceptable defilement of their latrine, driving them away from their daily visitations. I had no alternative but to hide in the necropolis, knowing it would be avoided at all costs, the last place to visit, shunning the final depository, the dump for unfilled human hopes, forever silent except for the noise of decay, unheard with its overwhelming stench. With my spirit broken and my fruitful days extinct, the grave awaited me, mockery taunting me having ended, as I no longer suffered provocation. But my graveyard sanctuary was stolen, having me thrown out as some caretaker for the dead spotted me, and reporting me to authorities, I was seized and judged to be demon-possessed, believing no one would live among the dead except ones harboring the devil's assistants. Judged to be hopeless, I was sent to this prison, trusting it would torment no one except those deserving to be here.

Joseph: Is your spirit now broken, destroyed so you can find sanctuary here?

Job: Exiled from all fearing people, running as anyone unkempt of mind or body, some may dread me here, mocking me to conceal their understanding, ignoring any empathy to exalt my spirit, the self-righteous holding to their way, believing my days are past, gone with any desires of my heart, never asking again where is hope, trusting fate has determined my destiny to be merely dust, ashes to be thrown into the air for lamenting life's meaningless nothingness.

Joseph: This place, one step selected as an opportunity by God, does not need to be the pit I was once destined to survive, but is better than the beautified world of temptation I first encountered, attracting to distract me by human vices, but growing my wisdom, He was pleased with my response, recovering my destiny to resume His way, His plan to assure the commitment for me to be a brother's keeper, especially for ones like you, showing you have not been discarded, forced to move from one refuse heap to another.

Job: You think this place is more than a nursing home, waiting for time to prepare us for the grave, after society winnows us out as misfits, blazing cruelty out unjustly on the blameless, leaving them confused, wondering if they can ever have an arbiter, believing their destiny is hopeless before the Lord. Could I ever receive mercy, knowing it would be my only consolation, forgetting I have been a laughingstock for the senseless, easing my frightfulness for the righteous, granting me mercy to intercede for a new judgment?

Joseph: Can mercy bestow new wisdom, changing ones wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight? Be not wise with your own selves, wanting to return to being upright as you were once. Would those proud of being wise, learn to be foolish so they could become truly wise in God, realizing He tells ones seeking to be righteous to accumulate no treasures here, ones such as accumulated in the wealth you lost, telling you instead to store up treasures only in heaven?

Job: Yes, He showed me, destroying the treasures I lived for, built up here to make me upright, sending thieves to steal my wealth and winds of chance to end my family's lives. Expect no guardian angels to protect treasures coveted by human wisdom. Having lost my fortunes here, I can only wait to hear the Lord's words, giving me His side of the story. Hoping someday to rejoin life as I knew it seems impossible now. Still being blameless, no one can make me curse God, but I still call on Him to answer my suffering. If I hear no answers I will join those wanting to use me for destroying His goodness.

Bystander: Admitting you refuse to curse God, do you blame him for your tragedy?

Job: Could I blame God and preserve my virtue of being blameless, making me blameless but not God, One seeming to deserve blame, choosing me to be His victim, tarnishing His virtue, assigning Him a blame to consider? Would I be so bold to charge Him with blame, seeing it might be worse than cursing Him? With my accusations to blame Him, could He still claim to be righteous, bearing a stigma of One blamed?

Joseph: Where could you find wisdom to know?

Job: Fate sent wise ones, appearing in the wilderness, coming to help me, freely giving their advice, but my afflictions remain. Hear what they said, trusting me to follow their counsel.

Eli: Job, as I know you are named, I dare to venture words with you, hoping you will not be offended, realizing you have counseled many, upholding stumbling weak ones, filling them with sound wisdom, so I come to you as you advised others, trusting in the integrity of your ways, giving them hope, thinking the innocent never suffer to perish, asking where were the blameless cut off or the upright needing to become righteous. I will linger awhile, speaking now, knowing our thoughts require much contemplation, integrating our discernments, trusting our wisdoms will choose to unify us with their presence.

Job: I need some one to present me faultless before the throne of God, inexpressibly pure, absolutely righteous, profoundly justifying my deeds. Who can share God's wisdom, helping to transfigure me, to save me from hell and destruction, advising me on how to continue sacrificing to Him, to satisfy the One wanting our absolute unrestrained devotion?

Eli: Seeking to bargain with God, wanting some spirit's witness to advocate for your innocence, to justify your blamelessness, testifying to the obscurity of His commands, pleading for someone to clarify God's expectations, reasoning to understand His wisdom, advising you what to do, you have always been in the way, perhaps blameless and upright, reasoning why you should never abandon yourself to Him, never completely surrendering, never thinking to witness Him as important, to acknowledge His Spirit being in you. With confession and redemption, you will no longer disrespectfully debate with Him, dismissing your obsession to call on Him for explanations, for responding to your persuasive arguments, rescinding your intensive resolve, giving up your will except for belief in the Lord, as you behold His spirit within you, looking to Him for revealing all your needed answers.

Joseph: Job, you can become a victim of words, even ones the Lord leads you to speak, convincing me to sometimes remain silent, realizing treason bristles in my family. Remember Bystander's admonition to be careful what you pray for, wishing for fulfillment of something to regret.

Bystander: Can we believe the blameless and upright are righteous, requiring nothing more to be complete? Listen and believe, The righteous perish, a truth no man lays to his heart. Why then should the blameless, claiming to be sinless, but having sins more than the righteous, not also suffer as much?

Joseph: Do we remain so stained by Adam's sin that no degree of righteousness can ever prevent our suffering? We know we are all programmed to die, but must we also suffer?

Bystander: All of you, fearing to suffer ills and endure torments, cannot be righteous, never remembering you must suffer for the sake of eternal blessings, remembering human fears are sinful, fears created by refusing nourishment in faith, little trusting lives should be an absolute hymn of praise, symphonies orchestrating perfect, irrepressible, triumphant belief.

Job: My deeds are recorded for all to see, testifying to my works, uplifting the misery of others, for how else could I be blameless, certifying my righteousness, asking how an unrighteous person could have been blessed with so much wealth and a happy successful family as mine?

Eli: If your declarations contain a shred of truth, none of your misfortunes would have befallen you. You can never develop truth dredging from the bottomless pit of facts, knowing more are generated with each bite you seize and when reason fails you find something to blame, easing your dread, but menacing you with visions of failure, questioning your blamelessness, claimed to be a Word of your Creator, but never heard by prophets seeing Him face-to-face, erroneously believing in anyone being blameless, trusting faultlessness can be an inherent human possibility. Name one, even His angels, who are not fallen, such being the curse of His beings, asking if you are one never condemned for your actions.

Job: My actions are not unlike others of the world's upright. Could my blamelessness have been for nothing, rewarding me with the fate of evil doers? Where can I find answers? Who can I call on?

Eli: Calling on God each day, hear Him speak, beginning with His visions brought in dreams, continuing with opening your eyes to witness His messages written in nature, speaking eloquently for all to hear, begging you to listen, convincing wise ones to examine all His words with care, relinquishing the foolish to perish, suffering His wrath, the simple to magnify their calamities, greater than the sufferings fated for all humankind.

Job: How can I call on God, more than my needs have called me to do?

Eli: Seek God, loving Him, praising Him for the great things He has done, thanking Him for providing all your needs, for judgment in sustaining all people's essentials, for exercising justice while recognizing injustice. Did you call on Him for these actions or were your intercessions to name and claim more than your share, to enlarge your territory, realizing to seek more must always be at the expense of others. Prosperity has never shamed you, humbling you to share your blessings with others, concealing thoughts which are not of God.

Job: All I had was blessed by God, rewarding me as one of His, seeing I obeyed His creation's commission, satisfying His decree to be fruitful and multiply, exercising dominion over all He entrusts to me.

Eli: Do you lament now, being dead to the happiness found in this world, having lost your blessings with no reason given, thinking they honored you because you were always seeking the Lord, committing all to His cause, doing great things, unsearchable and marvelous without number, forever thwarting craftiness of the wise, bringing to end their wily schemes? Do you know the basis for your blessings, why you were so chosen? Did others deem you unworthy, ranking you low in pride, despising you for loving God, set on high by Him, chosen to receive His rewards, as He prepared you to establish His way and implement all His truths? Did your choices prepare you for a seat beside him, reserved next to the son of man? Did you flee prosperity, endure torments, and accept crosses prepared for ones despised by evil? Have you been a stranger to grief, never needing to partake in the joy of consolation?

Job: You dedicate your words to my defeat. Have you nothing to comfort me?

Eli: God patiently endures, revealing your transgressions in His time, exposing them for their sinful nature, reproving ones content in serving happiness, unfit for promising joy, ones selected for chastening by the Almighty, embracing wounds He may never hasten to heal, judging to never redeem you from suffering's visitation, never hiding you from the scourge of His Word, fearlessly exterminating you when it is due. Look within yourself for God's kingdom, perhaps searching in vain, seeking the Holy Spirit's indwelling, sprouting from seeds of God's image, sown to protect against evil temptations, striving to unjustly persecute the tenuously righteous, working to destroy your fortress guarding peace, the peace He leaves with us, the peace only He can give us.

Job: No one has forewarned me, giving me a portent my blamelessness is lacking, my uprightness is insufficient, telling me my ways are unreasonable, never conforming to ways being better than others can boast, and now you admonish my efforts to have lived the best I am able.

Bystander: God forewarning all, giving them His entire message, including every word, thinking they would listen and turn from their evil ways, proclaimed He will change His mind, pouring out disaster on sinners, never listening to His servants, prophets sent forth again and again, bearing warnings, heard but unheeded, as they listened to false prophets telling them they are upright and blameless, reciting words they pay to hear, noting their good works, giving tokens to the needy while amassing wealth, boasting about their sons celebrating abundance from raping the earth. Did treacherous ones perpetuate lies, proclaiming blamelessness can equate with righteousness, the fabrication God hears, reportedly from someone watching your activities, defying God's established omnipotent powers of knowing all of what you are? Messenger servants of God are sent with His contingency plans--do this or else--never for uncovering secrets hidden from Him, acknowledging nothing is unknown for Him. Did Job collaborate with some carefully chosen biographer to pen his woes, proclaiming an unsubstantiated righteousness, never smiling on him from heaven, castigating God for being someone like him, but remaining silent in face of his defiance.

Eli: Job, you have thrived, seeing all your desires fulfilled, blessing you as few can boast, but now your enough lacks fruition, driving you to lament life's ending as you reach the age of suffering determined for all humans, rueing forewarnings you denied heeding.

Bystander: Did Job ignore God's prophets, carrying threats, warning unrighteous ones, listening only to himself, never demanding any messenger's destruction, a usual fate for seers bearing God's unwelcome words, warning people, foretelling destinies--a Day of the Lord--for smug, satisfied, unrelenting humans? Scribes merely changed which prophet Job should believe, trusting one who testifies he is blameless and upright, satisfying the need for nothing more, and they equipped a messenger to follow Job, arming him with powers from God, authorizations He would have never allowed, changing them as written, endowing them to carry an evil nature, thereby dishonestly transfiguring Job, destroying his faultless resemblance, demeaning him, once heroic at the expense of all others, followed by summoning his friends, sending them to feign his rescue, appearing on the scene, ineptly ordained to console him, unsuspecting of their immanent failure, waiting to be condemned for their futility. Never wanting to face life, as often wished by all of humankind, Job lamented ever being born, committing him to sacrifice all God had blessed him with, ignoring destiny's prophetic fating, all God's creations being here only on consignment, waiting to be taken away. Allow true prophets to live, prolonging innocent lives, preserving eternal words, and continue blessing us with God's grace. No one, speaking to us in the name of the Lord, the Almighty One whose nature never changes, deserves death, but you, having heard God's messages, cannot ignore Him forever, knowing they will escape from hiding, even in death from an unmarked grave, unearthed to declare His intents.

Job: God, His mercy never interceding for me, condemning me as unworthy, attributing my misfortune to impiety, believing I deserve no better, conditions me to trust I have been a sinner so His grace can close its doors, setting this calamity before me, seeking some vengeance, recognizing none of my worthy deeds, after all I have done to distribute wisdom to ones in need. Eli, are any of your admonitions words from God, attributing His decisions as judgments to condemn my deeds? Tell Him His want terminates my blamelessness with merciless violence, ending my ways no other would choose, for how else could arrows of the Almighty be in me, dribbling out poison on my soul, nurturing my life in unspeakable ways?

Eli: Your myself's reason magnifies your virtue exceedingly, enhancing it to be undeserving, thinking your blameless worthiness transcends you to righteousness. What does your reason desire now?

Job: Hear my request, grant my desire, asking God to please crush me, loosing His hand to cut me off, consoling me to spare no more pain, beseeching Him to suffer me no longer, forgiving my limitations although He may never acknowledge my righteousness, leading me never more into temptation, never thinking I should blame Him, never cursing Him for creating me to suffer through His ingenious trials, testing me in every conceivable manner, handicapping my strength to bear through, examining me to see if I have endurance of a righteous one, equipped to wait patiently, silently until He determines my fate. Can strength of righteousness stifle my flesh's suffering and annihilate life's desires for gratification, vanquishing temptations, crushing allurements of prosperity, ignoring persuasions promising eternal rewards, or can I reason strength of flesh and bones insures my salvation, trusting truths of help in myself, denying any immanent resource of value, ignoring transcendence from no one but myself?

Eli: If you claim righteousness who is it with? Is it to be right with God or right with your brethren?

Job: Brethren are created to be treacherous, hiding beneath masks of smiles, presently claiming they are closest friends, counseling all in their worldly wisdom while turning me away, harshly accusing me, unrelenting during the heat of my troubles, such as you confront me during my suffering, confounding your truths, unable to deliver me from adversity or ransom me from bands of oppressors. Can you silence my innermost treasured thoughts, changing them to be different, teaching me to recognize and accept my errors, erasing memory's traces of my prosperity, stolen to satisfy some hidden justice, bribing me to accept your judgment, thinking you can reprove my words, censuring the lamentations of a brother in creation? Be pleased to face my honesty, acknowledging my blamelessness can accuse me of no wrong, witnessing I speak no wrong, nothing sufficient to suffer me with calamity.

Eli: Can you say more to protect your upright vanity?

Job: Fearfully, I have borne a life of pain and suffering, knowing I could be wounded by the Lord's blows, coming at any time, even before the Day of the Lord, paid as wages for being human, allotted with months of emptiness and apportioned with nights of uncertainty, combining for my share of misery, awarded equally to all, not only to ones living their lives as misdeeds, ones clothed in corruption and defilement by dust. Time has passed quickly, bringing me to moments destiny determines I should suffer, a time I can no longer call on for my flesh's renewal, it's time's allotment being depleted, responding to my creator's call, sending me to a place of no return, ending dreams of returning to my mother's home, a place knowing me no more.

Eli: What hope came with your virtues of being blameless, promising you something for being upright? Can the distinguished life you claim offer anything, rewarding the virtues you profess?

Job: I am content to have had no more than I earned, yet the Lord wants to make more of me, as I ask why does He make so much of me, visiting me every morning, testing me each moment, never looking away for me to take a breath on my own, distrusting me as if I were some temple for hidden gods, never letting me realize an end for my suffering, wondering why He can't pardon transgressions hidden from my knowing, taking away iniquities unrecognized by me. What must I do?

Joseph: My fate follows yours with losses of everything I had and more. You claim no one predisposed to determine your losses, no one with reason to hate you, unlike the enmity for me, activated by my brothers' bitterness, inherent to their soul's desires, stirring up another's suffering, igniting lasting misery, tormenting me, setting the stage for all my afflictions, tempting me to long for death, hunting its whereabouts, digging for it more than for hidden treasures, breaking God's barriers to find the grave, wondering if I would rejoice in discovering being's ending. True, I have not yet had my flesh tormented, but knowing the unjust punishment awaiting a slave, I expect afflictions await my bones, coming when an anxious whip readies it's turn.

Bystander: With little encouragement from Eli, Job listens to another, hoping he has answers for his suffering.

Reckoner: Both of you restrict your mentality to the world's, judging your fate by the happiness it promises, justifying your arrogance, ignoring words appropriating truths of justice, speaking deceit in everything you see, perverting the Creator's goodness, One so wise and powerful, One just, precluding Him from ever being unjust. Perhaps Job trivialized sin, discounting his own, never acknowledging a sin is a sin, always being a sin, a belief inherited by his sons, even though he repents for all their undeclared deeds, never wanting to discover their manner, believed to be minor indiscretions, small enough to be covered by prayers, trusting they safeguard his peace. But Job, have you ever confessed, admitting to know sin's nature, professing to be penitent for sinful actions, acknowledging their need to be divulged? Confession cleanses all, removing lasting reminders, more than any happiness veiling them only momentarily, understanding sinfulness demands recognition and acknowledgement before healing is possible. Seek the Almighty, appealing to Him for wisdom, trusting He will respond to the truly pure and upright, rewarding you with riches greater than any this world can offer, blessing you with joy so you never question yourself's creation, but eternally praise God, proclaiming convictions of His everlasting goodness.

Job: I never judge anyone, especially my family, never speaking evil against anyone, criticizing their deeds, never being qualified as the Almighty, maker of the law, for I would then be judging His decrees, seizing a right belonging only to Him, knowing only God can judge and I happily leave this to Him, anticipating I would be hastily criticized if I call others on their misdeeds, some waiting to accuse me of being a hypocrite, telling me to look at myself and mind my own business. Forcing me to judge, myself or others, compels me to confess, so I confess only I am unable to confess.

Reckoner: Never judging anyone makes you a wimp, disingenuous in never matching words with your thoughts, for we all have unmentioned conclusions judging others, afraid of disclosing, and so we preserve our blamelessness, protecting our image as a nice person, tolerant as we want others to see. The Holy Spirit informing us, calling us us to discern hearts of blameless people, claiming to be upright, sealing their belonging to the Lord, proclaiming they commit no sin, testifies to truth, calling attention to their dubious convictions. Are you justified in overlooking another blameless person's sin, tolerating other's wrongdoings, claiming all people do it, making their sins of no consequence--ruling the majority cannot be wrong--thereby, maintaining your image of fairness, never judging another, never jeopardizing your position in the band of believers, swearing loyalty to each other, ignoring where your real loyalty must lie, as you maintain harmony in your mutual admiration society? I step forward as my conscious leads me, revealing a cause for your afflictions, brought on by your disobedience to God, forcing Him to correct you. You must acknowledge your unworthiness before your afflictions can disappear. Consider making God your strength, foregoing trust had for your lost riches, dismissing reliance on your blamelessness.

Job: Judging others will worsen me, bringing greater afflictions, voicing judgments to shatter other's opinion of me, so I will not consent to change, making me like a prophet, acknowledging people's afflictions so I can reveal their sins. Show me one prophet who escaped people's wrath, unless they chose to tell them what they wanted to hear. Prophets reporting God's will can expect death by the sword or saw, starvation in a pit, abandonment on a cross, or incineration to ashes, by proclaiming His messages, unveiling His Word, assuring their hearing by blameless ones, content in never seeking righteousness. Never being a prophet, God nevertheless suffers me with afflictions. Despite His decision to punish me, I will never criticize my blameless brothers and sisters, judging those who uphold my dignity and honor my virtues. I must call on God to learn the reasons for the judgement He orders for me. Until then, I will judge not, trusting I would be so judged for any judgement, knowing what it can do, perhaps questioning my uprightness, understanding the judgement I invoke, the measure I use, will reciprocate, returning to gauge my virtues. I refrain from looking on the splinter rotting in my soul to judge another like me.

Reckoner: If a prophet announces some wicked people are sure to die and you fail to tell them to change their ways, they will die in their sins, making you responsible for their deaths. If you warn them to repent, however, and they don't repent, they will die in their sins, removing you from responsibility, saving you, rewarding you with judgment's honest decision, never escaping you from a prophet's responsibility.

Job: What assures truth for your words, coming from someone who knows less than any prophet I know?

Reckoning: My time here, maybe less than yours, a brief shadow glimpsing God's reality, recorded in His words, penned by our fathers for understanding, our patriarchs praying for deliverance, released from their own wisdom, gives you moments to consider Scripture's revelations, asking you to never despise my words as banter, meaningless chatter displayed for the upright's hearing. Remember, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Was the Lord employed to build your son's house, filling it with the providence He freely contributes, blessing those who seek Him, wondering if you built a temple in your body, a dwelling for the Holy Spirit? Was one ever built?

Job: Never in my life have I forgotten God, realizing hopes of godless people perish with them, never letting my confidence in Him break asunder, certain of His showing me how to sink roots here, into the soil of His holy ground, drawing on its nourishment and water for life's abundance.

Reckoner: You acknowledge your blessings have sprouted profusely, but have you ever pruned their wild proliferations, restricting their growth to patterns pleasing the Lord?

Job: You are asking if I ever stunted their growth, restricting their development, confining their flowing freely as the will allows. As long as my sprouts maintain my upright blamelessness, following the inheritance my coding assures, they want nothing threatening to slay their individuality, leaving them untouched as they are, proudly reflecting results of my seed.

Bystander: Individuality faking spirituality, feigning love for anything but one's independence, lusting after unfulfilled wants, counterfeits any desires reconciling one to the Lord.

Reckoner: The flowers of your endeavors cannot thrive without living water, never springing from unholy beds of blamelessness, wilting and decaying before their time, destroyed by the heat of happiness, dissipating in life's tormenting sun. Asking withered blooms do I know you, you remain unrecognized, hearing your brethren deny you, saying I have never seen you as you cling to remnants of your past achievements, now inert stones with nothing more to claim, the happiness of your ways having vanished.

Job: Your truth comes with no argument from me, agreeing with wisdom our fathers wrenched from the Lord, testifying to His power and omniscience, believing He knows all, watching our movements, our deeds and misdeeds, but does He ever entertain justice, giving us a ruler to measure our ways? Can He fathom our actions with a yardstick marking inscriptions to determine just decisions? Does He record things beyond our understanding, marvelous things without number, but never revealing them for us to perceive? Will He show how I can be just before Him, appearing to tell me how?

Bystander: Acts of God must always be honored according to His holiness and almighty being, never appearing open for scrutiny for they can never be unjust, never for contending with a person's pride seeking to demand His counsel, prying to reveal His motives, giving Him a message to remain silent when exposed to our demands, but He ignores human wants to know, frustrating our desires to penetrate secrets of God's majesty, reminding us of His riches' depth, how unsearchable are His wisdom and knowledge, how inscrutable are His judgments and ways. Can you profess to know the mind of God?

Job: I may be helpless before God's power, but I still have reason to question His ways, determined to hear His answers, why one of His creation should come to loathe life.

Joseph: God trusts me with His silence, testing my patience, a reticence promising great meaning, believing it waits to reveal greater sense for my visions and fuller understanding of His wisdom. He blesses me when I never plead to know His ways, waiting for His time to reveal His plans for my life. I sometimes sense His wrath, but trusting all His plans for me, I am satisfied with His silence and beg for nothing more, trusting patience will reward my silence. He knows I belong to Him, hearing my prayers, genuinely praising Him, demanding, no, seeking nothing more than greater abundance of His goodness. I wait in silence, humbling myself under His mighty hand, trusting He has plans exalt me, finalizing His purpose in due time.

Job: Free to utter my complaints, I must speak further, reclaiming my lamentations, voicing my soul's bitterness, asking again why God condemns me, judging to unfairly distress me, despising works of my hands, as I watch Him favor designs of the wicked. Does God know ways of humans, thoughts of ones He created? How could He not? His design instills me with fear, ever present to confront me with judgment, afflicting me with disappointment, torturing my flesh to suffer, troubles all done unjustly, perhaps decided on a moment's whim, concluded after counsel with evil advisors.

Bystander: Running your tongue increases chances of stumbling your thoughts, entangling them with nonsense, fating you to speak lies, mumbling dripping words incoherently, an inevitable outcome for blathering ones, never ceasing to speak, wondering if the nature of some, seldom corralling their words, predisposes them to fabricate unreality, such being the outcome of gossip. Who can object, saying it isn't so?

Bystander: Did God not call on goodness to assist in your creation, to equip you to be righteous? If you consider making the Lord your refuge, the Most High your shelter, no evil will conquer you, no plague will come near your home.

Job: God molded me in His image but He prepared me to be only blameless and upright, leaving me to determine how my ways should be constructed and conducted. He may have thought I could be endowed with a framework for righteousness, filling it in completely with His image, but He did not consider the impossibility of this for a human being when He created us with free will.

Bystander: Have you attempted to be righteous or did you merely watch it as an impossibility, discounting its value even before trying it out as a virtue?

Job: Incarnation of His nature, making me righteous like Him, is incompatible with human nature. Our knowing God has never tried to create an individual completely righteous with free will, a creature never being understandable except perhaps by Him. I could never choose to be righteous, negating any need for free will, requiring nothing for modifying anything coded in me to be righteous. Observe animals, obeying all the Creator's laws imprinted in their being, never creatures with free will, responding to only inherent directions, unable to ever claim any different instructions, following a form of innate righteousness, plodding through life with no freedom to change innate commands. God decided to improve on His creation by fashioning humans, giving them free will and then expecting them to become righteous. His error was using one of His beastly creatures to make humans while forgetting to delete the codes confining them to their beastly nature. God realized His error when He made the mistake of creating us to be forged out of goodness, but He corrected His blunder by designating our disobedience, falling into following our beastly ways, as sinful, condemning all humans from birth. Does God have reason for my creation, giving purpose now for my afflictions, with me never believing they could be merely for His amusement?

Joseph: Have you exhausted your patience, waiting in vain to receive answers?

Job: I pray for hearing God's voice, trusting intercession is my only hope, realizing the impossibility of a response for why I was born, lamenting why my birth only gave purpose for the grave, silencing me before providing any comfort, beseeching God to end my afflictions, sending me to where I will beg for no return, trusting there is no place in His realm of goodness to covet.

Reckoner: You speak too much, never realizing your words can intermingle your blamelessness with confusion, tarnishing your voice with babbling ideas, claiming doctrinal purity, testifying to your righteousness in being upright, never discovering the deep things of God, unlimited in His mightiness, but never decreeing anything new to tell us what defines iniquity, while never forgetting human weaknesses. You have not learned yet to love one another, knowing little to be your brother's keeper, hardly taking notice of safeguarding another. Speak less and listen more. Wait patiently on the Lord.

Joseph: My father, spinning me garments of splendor, uncovering the vanity of my blamelessness, exposing me to chants of hypocrisy, unveiling the evil of my naked pride, tried to hide my birthright of sin, but his favor for me inflamed contempt, aggregating hatred from my brothers, jeopardizing any commitment for them to be sanctified, never living to keep God's trust. I learned to speak less, voicing only what I was led to divulge, never knowing if God called me to be a prophet, believing I would be no more than a messenger. Reluctantly I accepted father's gift, but I abhorred fulfilling the words of wisdom telling us, Every living human being is altogether vanity.

Job: I may have lived with vanity but it is not an iniquity which my blamelessness denounces, attesting to my unrecognized righteousness, judged by some to be impure and lacking.

Bystander: Does your righteousness stream from a pure heart, never requiring you to lift hands in trivial prayer, or to consummate obligations for satisfying your Lord, never idolizing it's routine to insure iniquity will be banished from your thoughts and wickedness will never rule your actions, assuring you will never blemish your countenance with fear, quaking you before God while forgetting to love Him? Fear of the Lord without love destroys a person's comfort, opening the way to misery.

Reckoner: Job's blamelessness is a compromise, dutifully satisfied with prayers, enabled by reason to justify his wants, modifying virtues to accomplish his desires, argued to veil his innate sinful nature, acknowledging he will never try to be righteous, or more truthfully, he can never be righteous, so why try. Job may have been blameless but he can never act righteously with impurity hidden in his heart, even though he acts with mercy. Listen Job, You were not righteous, only upright, and you can only be converted to untarnished virtue if your nature began in sin. Living in prosperity as a blameless one, you invite contempt, risking loss of your human glory, ardently raised by ambitious endeavors, feared to be transient and destined to perish.

Job: God promises if I am willing and obedient, I will be rewarded with the good of the land. Show me how I lack these virtues?

Joseph: Obedience to the Lord is costly, often unrewarded, some to me but more to others, compensating envious one to hate me, unable to accept my faithfulness, weakening their little faith, seeing deference to Him hardly serves to name them blameless, never driving out their demons, convinced they are upright, secure in their wisdom, being like all others, worthy of maintaining their dignity, free from judgments of righteous hypocrites.

Bystander: All live convinced of blamelessness, assured by dispositions of illusion, convictions of innocence, trusting their wisdom to intercede on behalf of others, conveying truths all cherish, promising their importance, but people soon show where their heart lies, determined by earthly treasures, never supporting their claims of uprightness, consistent with desires to surpass other's powers, accumulating an abundance of possessions, expecting admiration from all, making them appear kind and gracious, preserving their image of being blameless.

Joseph: You see through us all, revealing we are indeed born to sin, but we are not hopeless.

Job: All claims for wisdom, understandings people have created, die with them, making mine no less worthy than theirs, dying and never deposing God's wisdom, concerning me to wonder if my wisdom in some way caused my misery, perhaps developing from sinful one's profound thoughts.

Reckoner: Joseph, venturing so little to say, does silence testify to your guilt, unveiling your shame? Ones without words must be suspected, hiding evil thoughts, unlike Job whose unstoppable invectives scream out, pleading for justice.

Joseph: God has given me few things to say, and what I have been led to utter has done me little good, leaving me to question what I have thought to hear, unable to be certain if what I said was my words or God's. My youth has not prepared me for wisdom, seeing my hair has yet to lighten, and though I listen, I am not ready to advocate truths developed by humans. I also am not so presumptuous, believing God chooses me to be His messenger, trusted to deliver His truths, and especially ones concealed in apparitions so difficult to understand. Realizing His prophets come threatened with danger, such as demands for death at the hands of fear, why should I have jeopardized my fate, ending promises for a life abundant with happiness, by telling others of dreams I didn't understand? Removing all my restraints, commanding me to follow His orders, God compelled me to reveal His visions, never divulging them as unseen threats, so I reported them to my family, never anticipating they might disown me or even consider taking my life. Having little wisdom to respond, to say anything, God directed me to report His messages and remain silent as He prepared my siblings to do their thing.

Bystander: The Lord's covenant proclaims My Spirit will not leave you, and neither will the words He gives you. They will be on your lips and the lips of your children and your children's children forever. Have your brothers also sealed them on their souls, assuring little need for prayers to protect them from being cleansed away, removing hidden sins, consequences of their revelry, trusting all humans must never neglect His command? Take heart, for though God may oversee your suffering, supervising your afflictions, He will always be with you, exercising mercy through His grace.

Reckoner: You were treated justly, driven by your brothers to exercise vengeance--despite knowing it belongs only to God--for what messenger from God suffered any better fate, judgment by humans, death being people's answer for any of God's messengers. Maybe He silenced your tongue so you would accept your fate without any questions.

Joseph: Could silence possibly hide wisdom, saying nothing to confront God's displeasure, displaying prudence without knowing it, but wondering if He will invade my thoughts, prompting me to reveal what I decline to utter?

Reckoner: Maybe you should demand justice, even if undeserved, seeing Job's trust in doing his right thing, reminding God of His testimony, declaring him blameless and upright, a pronouncement spoken by God, rewarding Job, acknowledging virtue for his deeds, fruits ripened by wisdom of his years.

Job: Joseph has lost the love and respect of only his family, but nothing of other humans. I have lost regard and honor from everyone, making me--declared a just and blameless man--their laughingstock, contemplating my body disgraced by disease, disfigured for all to see, transformed to be unapproachable, an outcast even to the most merciful, hiding in the shadows, never coming out, remaining in darkness, never venturing into the light, but wisdom has never abandoned me with reason remaining at my side, promising to never leave as long as I live, assuring convictions of my virtues, sustaining my honor.

Reckoner: God, testing for righteousness while tolerating sinners, patiently waits for them to repent, so He bears with unrighteous ones, blameless ones engaging in efforts to store up wealth, waiting until His grace can absolve them, erasing consequences of their evil doings, easing judgments to release salvation.

Job: Do you think you are the only one wise? From where did your wisdom materialize? Will you bequeath it to anyone after your time, preparing it for others who may suffer my fate, thinking they will lack understandings of mine, believing my acts have never been stained with injustice and should never suffer retributions reserved for the wicked?

Bystander: Not only creation but providence testifies to God, both witnessing He controls everything, both supporting the life and soul of human beings, allowing Him, as the need arises, to punish and correct their ways. If you are unjustly punished, give time to understand this, wait on reason to fathom God's ways if the Spirit has been silent. Have you seen evidence for God's retribution, mandatory for administering His justice, essential for being a God of reason, acknowledging no one is free from inherent sinfulness, no, none at all?

Reckoner: I have known this for many years, enough to have honed my wisdom, sharpening it to parry anyone's words.

Bystander: You may claim greater insights than Job's, responding to his narrow understanding, impatiently waiting for maturity, impetuously relying on his own truths, but couldn't you offer more, relying on eternal truths, destroying your truths as well as Job's, dismissing them to consider the Lords?

Reckoner: My truths may be worth something or they would have gone the way of Job's, destroyed by God so I could never oppose His will. He leaves me here for a reason, preserving my aptitude to counsel Job, revealing his truth as tenuous, exposing the shortcoming of his blamelessness. Evil ones can soon discover the peril of their ways while upright ones likely never admit they are born in sin. Job needs me, more than any wayward sinner, telling him his decency is unacceptable, never enough to cleanse his conscience, making him tolerable, unlike the common human. He claims much innocence but he will never be like one after discerning my wisdom and partaking of my strength.

Bystander: Truth says to the wicked, Depart from me, never ask me to know you, you an evil one, as I judge your unseen thoughts, hidden from all others but me, sent by God, assigned to expose Job's self-righteousness, convincing him to confess and change his ways, dismissing other's encounters claiming he is blameless, distrusting uprightness as being good enough. From where comes your truths?

Reckoner: My reason whispers, telling me God hereby makes me a messenger, His prophet to right some wrongs.

Bystander: You may have been chosen before time's beginning for this, designating you for this moment, creating it as your opportunity, knowing God develops such circumstances for every one.

Reckoner: People might say my judgment is unfair, telling me I am casting the first stone, to judge not because I might be judged, to cleanse myself of sins I accuse Job of, but God can choose to change my speech, transforming my words, convicting me to not speak unfairly, convincing me to hear only Him for truth, renouncing all authority for my truths. I must listen to Him who tells us, Come out, those of you in shadows of your truths, show yourselves, restore life to those tottering at the brink of being.

Job: Why did God choose now to bring the shadow of death to light, exercising His authority for revealing His eternal truth? My eye has seen and my ear has heard all this, understanding all, more than handwriting on the wall, knowing all you claim to discern, making me not inferior to you, so I fail when listening to your advice, believing it no better than my determinations, convincing me to best consider speaking directly with God than heeding your words, begging you to protect your truths with silence, reasoning it would be a blessing. I pray God would hear my arguments, exercising free will's power He equipped me to use, to consider my pleading, coming in humility, soliciting mercy to hear my sufferings, releasing me from your banter, my companion's babbling claims to know all.

Reckoner: We are here for you, caring for your needs, sensing times for comfort, offering solace God might neglect, because He may decide to remain silent, frustrating you for no good reason. Besides, would you know if He speaks to you, recognizing His voice, being confident of His messages?

Bystander: Silence could be His message, confusing you with empty revelations, fleeting imaginations, nothing to discern, confident your impatience would never survive, lasting only to destroy your composure.

Job: Do you think you console me, offering dismissive suggestions? Do you think God would remain silent as the fool to be considered wise? My accusers, unlike God, continue to blame me, telling all I suffer because of my sins, but they may discover my suffering is for a different reason, uncovering my inherent virtues for all to see, never more to remain hiding in silence. Don't believe you can deceive God as you do for a human being.

Bystander: Words tumbling from a person's tongue has convicted many claiming innocence. Be careful of words God may return to judge you.

Job: It is too late to lament an unwanted birth, but I can control my life to end my undeserved and unexplained suffering, trusting only this to console me and relieve my agony, allowing me to freely determine life's ending, exercising my will's option, but I must wonder if God might intervene and invoke His compassion by ending it Himself, believing it is time for His mercy and for me to praise my executioner. If He writes the orders for my death, could my blamelessness offer any hope for salvation so all would not be lost? Could I give Him more cause to judge me righteous by words more truthful than others? He must hear me to be convinced of my virtue, prepared by my arguments, giving me consolation of being vindicated.

Bystander: God is always available to listen, but hearing His answers are dependent on your patience and if you are one with Him.

Reckoner: Job, you must fear God, more than seeking oneness with Him, knowing righteousness demands reverence and reverence commands fear and awe, both making you right with God.

Job: I may want to encounter God face-to-face, but only to be certain He will listen, asking Him to withdraw His hand from me, removing me from the terrifying fear of His presence, trusting I would consent to honor His invisibility, protecting me from death on seeing His face, assuring my reverence for Him, never seeing His countenance on holy ground.

Bystander: Reverence abhors fear. Perfect love casts out fear. Do you love God? He will never isolate you in bondage to fear, rejecting laws never promoting you from fear to love, assuring you will never fear again, allowing your love for God to be perfect, needing no admonitions for perfection to become more perfect.

Reckoner: Only the righteous never fear facing God, but is anyone righteous? No, not one. People have been hiding from God ever since Eden, beginning with Adam and Eve, hiding among its trees, concealed in sin's shadow after being disobedient, maybe thinking it was a trivial act, leaving them blameless--merely exercising their novel gift of free will--but preventing them from being right with God, defiant in their willfulness, exercising their prerogative to choose, following a conviction never encountered before. Hiding behind blamelessness tainted Job, giving him no excuse, leaving him bereft of righteousness.

Job: I ask no more than for God to reveal my transgressions, but He never speaks up to let me know. I have hidden nothing, call some things transgressions if you will, believing so-called sins--justifying me to be unworthy, but worthy for my afflictions--have been commonplace if anything, no more than like petty deeds for other blameless people, convincing me of being mostly upright, giving no one anything noteworthy to write about. I disagree every sin is slavish, trusting only some are bound to evil, so I can claim blamelessness and its freedom to be.

Reckoner: Have you hidden iniquities of your youth, inflamed by lust, inherently peaking unabashed at its time, excused by ignorance, forgotten now as indiscretions of little consequence, relegated now to the nature of immaturity, tolerated as common to all humans, never believing sin is always sin, but by disposing of their memory, you think your sin seldom affects another person, especially ones of scant consequence?

Job: Must I be hounded by forgotten liaisons of youth, trusting they would never be resurrected to haunt old age's comfort, tearing away what little happiness remains? The flower of my youth, quickly fading, had been filled with happiness, but withering soon it packed my baggage with trouble, created by me, invading beyond limits I should not have breeched, tormenting me and never looking away, renouncing the world's goodness believed to be everlasting, leaving me to repent for sins, unjustified as evil by my innate directions, having driven me to do what I must do. Is it better to remain here, suffering decline in a tormenting existence or would it be better to be in God's custody, however that might be?

Reckoner: Do you think your hope can be grafted on some healthy root, giving birth to new life, sprouting a bud removed from a decaying branch, thinking God devises a plan for you to live on?

Job: If God provides a living water, who knows what He will do. His truth tells us, Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, so we shall all be humbled by death; going on it tells us, One who humbles oneself shall be exalted; and we ask how are we exalted beyond death, questioning if we would live again, to toil with the work of our hands, trusting our transgressions would be sealed, covering our iniquities, believing if the Lord appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is, expecting then He would respond to my call.

Joseph: I may have dreamed of being exalted, but I don't know now how this could have been more than a nightmare. Does reporting a vision exalt oneself, believing it was of God's doing?

Bystander: Did pride contribute to the downfall of these men? Does God tempt us with pride to facilitate His plans, knowing its pitfalls, the possibility of unrighteousness thwarting His intents? He tells us, For I know the plans I have for you, plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you. Without prideful certainty, assuring us of God's existence, how can human beings hope to find Him? Don't blame Satan for human's pride, classifying it as a sin, when it is essential for driving people to find God. God has laid the framework and now continues to create the circumstances for continuing His plans.

Reckoner: You, Job, mourn your circumstances, never understanding why you must suffer, but you are still free, having full faculty of your will and common sense, enabling you to commiserate with your friends, and giving you freedom to reject God and creation's goodness. Look at Joseph, who losing his freedom was bound and shackled, forced to leave the Promised Land, exiled to a foreign place, always declared off limits to ventures by His chosen ones, enslaved to a situation never having been blessed. Should Job suffer such bondage?

Bystander: Job cannot be satisfied with the advice he has heard, nothing to understand why his Lord continues to remain silent, seeming to dismiss him as just another complainer. Here comes another to offer suggestions for his afflictions.

Finegold: Wait more moments, tarry to hear wisdom other than your own, seek a godly person, ordained by righteousness--as much as can be allotted--consulting common sense, trusting in truth. Avoid anyone steeped in wrath, destroying themselves by foolishness, falling on the sword of their tongues, beckoning you to follow and suffer their demise. Do not condemn yourself with unprofitable words, engaging your iniquity to choose crafty responses, shunning any fear of God, frustrating any chance for mediation, forging obstacles to His presence, confirming your wisdom surpasses any other's.

Job: I speak from my heart's reason and my mind's common sense, arguing with my own words of wisdom for I hear none from God, One never open to revealing His ways, never hearing my urgent cry, calling to Him whenever I'm in trouble, pleading why have You forsaken me, being so far from helping me, unresponsive to my soul's groaning, but giving me no answer, perhaps You respond with silence to those reaching out with blame.

Finegold: Does anger direct your words since they do not seem to be suggested by reason? If you are afflicted unjustly, the one afflicting you must be accused of iniquity, raising the question, Can God be sinful. Can you reason with Him if He is the cause for your problems where your treatment is unjust? Do you fear someone who is unjust, contemptuous of one, even if He is the Almighty, or is He your equal, acknowledged to be no greater than you, castigating anyone's pride for giving you counsel?

Job: Do I dare to speak more, hearing nothing to help me, nothing but gibberish, vainly attempting to justify my suffering?

Finegold: When blameless ones, discovering lapses in their uprightness and striving to become righteous, are afflicted with misfortune, they must confess their involvement, acknowledging trouble never springs from nowhere, openly admitting their sins, never for self-expiation to seek solace, but for unveiling hidden secrets, unfolding them with uncompromising sincerity, unblemished truth tumbling from a humbled spirit, convincing their unrighteousness they are repentant, unlike the sinful ruler pleading with God for healing, beseeching Him to forget his lies, claiming he walked before Him in truth, spilling out from a perfect heart, weighing words of righteousness, spoken by his immediate needs, translating them into a sudden feeling for God, reconstructing his faith on feelings. But God judges the words of each by one's inner thoughts, judging which truly guide one's actions, knowing when He hears a humble spirit, rewarding ones with a contrite heart, honestly admitting they can never resemble God's image or attain His purity, acknowledging only He is holy.

Bystander: With God indeed opposing the proud, favoring the submissive, humble yourselves under His mighty power, waiting for His time to lift you up in honor, forgetting your cares and worries, giving them all to Him, knowing He cares for you, trusting after your suffering He will restore, support, and strengthen you, placing you on a firm foundation. Work hard, making every effort to respond to God's promises, supplementing your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, supplanting moral excellence with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with patient endurance, patience endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, brotherly affection with love for everyone.

Job: If I am blameless and upright, what must I do to be holy? Were counselors ever there to show me? Where should I have looked to become righteous? Did not my time here prepare me to be wise? Was my advisor's tenures here longer than mine, assuring their wisdom would never be prideful nothingness, trusting it dwells with prudence?

Finegold: Wicked people writhe in pain, afflicted with anxiety, haunted by troubled souls, soothing their minds with numbing potions, awaking to hopelessness, hoping for some ending to their dubious prosperity, but unable to pull the chain announcing their demise, they remain in darkness, terrified to see any light, bidding defiance against the Almighty, hiding themselves in gluttony's garments, inhabiting empty nothingness, the barren desert of godlessness, isolated by obesity shielding them from dictates of tolerance. Could you be one such person?

Job: Do my friends not know me, distorting my blamelessness, giving me little credit for being upright, expecting more of me than from others, acknowledging none of my pleas, giving no credence to my arguments, crucifying me with abuse, wanting no more to visit me, expecting my time to end soon, probably hoping I will last little longer, never thinking it worthwhile to soothe my suffering.

Joseph: Listen to one who lost as much as you. Having never lost my love for God, waiting patiently for His directions, knowing His plans for me are good, I begin to reap benefits of His promise, placing me where I suffer no remorse for any afflictions, accepting the consequences He planned for my circumstances, being a servant as I will always be, a servant for the Lord and I faithfully honor His commands.

Bystander: Joseph has more opportunity for restoring his dignity, more than for Job, scarred with blemishes, afflicted with lesions, making him unacceptable and unwanted, to be avoided and never seen by others, imprisoned in dark shadows of shame, waiting for healing, thinking it would never happen, shouting to all unclean, unclean, warning others to stay away, a victim of the Almighty telling him, one never to listen, I will send ones deaf to eternal truths great trouble, all the things one fears.

Job: Indeed, chance favors you Joseph, seeing fate placed you as no slave but as a servant, probably honoring you more than before when you had to dodge your sibling's jealously, knowing the blessings of servanthood, and moreover, you have not lost your handsome appearance, once envied and detested by your siblings, but now helping in your acceptance by others, believing your fine face underlies a virtuous heart, guiding a worthy composure. My fate suffers, however, my thrashed being attracting no one to accept me, no one wanting to buy me as a slave, disfigured as I am with festering sores, wondering if they can ever heal, isolating me in desolation, a fugitive from creation's goodness, abandoned, never wanted to be visit by another human being. God has shriveled me up, making my appearance witness against me, my gaunt face peering out through a wounded facade, tormented and distorted by His wrath, descending on me with negligence of His mercy, transforming all people to be my adversaries, collecting me in their gaze to strike me with disgust, running from me, escaping before I can cry out, Why me. Having become a target for venomous gaping, shunned by uncaring others, ones created by God to be like me, I ask who else suffers my fate, dooming me to face and joylessly endure, wondering if there exists a place for sufferers to gather, hoping I would not be cast with wicked ungodly ones? Would God ever again choose one of His creations to be scorned and suffer as I, creating someone to be tortured and rejected, despised and sacrificed, transfigured to fodder for angry mobs, ending a life to appease the blameless multitude. I pray my distress would never be dispatched to oblivion, hoping my torments would be recorded in heaven's annals, sealed for the coming Day of the Lord, until a witness, examining my deeds, acting as my advocate, could justify uniting with a redeemer, maybe God if He chooses to change His mind. My counseling brothers, eager to lift me up with their words, reproving me with elegant pronouncements, can never be my witnesses in heaven, never knowing me as I trust I should be known, waiting to be revealed after I go the way of no return.

Reckoner: Discern what the Lord might be saying, Your injury is Incurable--a terrible wound, with no one to help you or bind up your injury, no medicine to heal you, leaving you abandoned, deserted by all your admirers, your allies having left you, no longer with any concern for you--following My plan to have you cruelly wounded, making you think I am your enemy, but for your many sins guilt is great, deserving the punishment you protest, your wounds without a cure.

Bystander: Fate doesn't always favor one with unwanted results, knowing it requires implementations on a person's volition, responding by seeking the Holy Spirit, inviting Him to breath in greater faith, inspiring one to know God, coming often as an opportunity disguised as suffering, testing one's patience, trying one's endurance, giving faith a chance to grow, blessing those patiently resisting enduring temptations, waiting for the crown of life promised by God. To many, prayer--maybe strange to your practice--is not practical but absurd. Do you hide your prayers from foolishness, protecting its practice from shame, so no one will accuse you of having discarded common sense and throwing reason to the wind?

Joseph: How great are my blessings, having the Lord at my side, seeing me through all turmoils, directing me by mysterious--sometimes alarming--visions, settling me with peace and accept things I cannot change, extending my patience to trust His plans, gracing me with opportunities I don't deserve, promising He will never leave me. For what more could I ask?

Job: Considering the fate of others here, I could yearn for either the butler's or baker's destiny, never knowing which to prefer, freedom for the birds to pick my brains, enslavement binding me forever to carry a cup, never knowing when time would surprise me again, imposing on my ruler's mind a jester to distract him for a freaky moment, sending me to some outback, home to beasts for savoring my corrupted body, fulfilling a sacrifice I am meant to be, achieving finality's injustice, waiting only for the grave to exalt me, promising to send me to a better place, knowing none could be worse than here, home to no sensible people, no one wise except in their own eyes, prudent in their own sight. Maybe this is the foolishness one must suffer to become wise, but I discern nothing coming of the foolishness dictating the destinies of the butler and baker. These thoughts scatter my reason, racking my heart, discerning nothing to love.

Reckoner: How long will you hunt for words, striving to vindicate yourself, believing some chosen words will be answered by God, meanwhile commenting on the follies of His human creations, directing their thoughts on foolish deeds, never understanding the wisdom of God, never knowing His economy with regard to the righteous and sinners. Listen up, you who tear yourself in anger. Do you desire the earth to be forsaken for you, praying for the Day of the Lord, waiting to meet God face-to-face, anxious to plead your case, trusting you will be vindicated as the world disappears, vaporized into oblivion?

Job: My light wants to continue shining, believing flames of my fire must keep burning, protecting me in its light, never thrusting me into darkness, never driving me from the world, trusting God to hear me and raise me from my plight.

Reckoner: Your fire shines no more, the flame of yourself, flourishing once to make you prosper, your beacon of blamelessness, as all memory of you perishes, leaving you nameless, alone in the street, with no survivors thinking to mark your name, living with the ungodly, caring nothing for your plight, associating with the wicked, never seeing truth in their eternal darkness.

Job: Do you relish tormenting me, breaking me up with words, unashamedly wronging me, humiliating me, broadcasting my faults, judging me but never for breaking any laws, snatching judgment possessed only by God, brandishing your wisdom to condemn me and explain my suffering. Crying out violence overtakes me, justice never running to my aid, onlookers offer only silence, listening to your accusations, your explanations denying my blamelessness. You uproot my dignity but find nowhere to replant it, no garden willing to accept it, leaving its roots to shrivel, it's substance to rot, making me an alien crying in the wilderness, having become the bane of my existence. Your words offering no comfort ally with God's wrath to compound my misery. Must I hear more of your incriminations, critical of my uprightness, belittling my blamelessness, destroying everything, bringing me no comfort?

Joseph: God has settled no new dreams on my slumber, no visions to unveil awareness, nothing for answering your injustice. He may have already revealed enough, enlightening your understanding of His ways, but still dimly seen until you move closer to Him, waiting in unwavering patience, hoping for you to acknowledge Him as your redeemer, the Savior you long for.

Job: Patience for what? For more to suffer? I have submitted all the arguments He needs and sometimes wonder if He hears me, my voice and prayers for mercy. Maybe my words should be documented, written, inscribed on a scroll, ones He could not ignore, preserving them, enduring until a Redeemer comes to save me, trusting in One who lives, remembering someone promising, I know my redeemer lives, someday to stand here with me, surviving attack by tormentors, equipped with powers for healing, promising to take me to a better place, one already prepared for me, having judged me worthy, asking only that I wait for His Day. Never choosing to rant from a troubled mind, trust my words are truthful and reasonable, hoping my accuser has resigned.

Joseph: Eternal God, knowing all, requesting nothing to be in writing, gifts humans to be scribes, realizing their memories are short, requiring plaques to preserve their thoughts and deeds, documenting their blamelessness, giving the Judge unneeded evidence to consider on His day. Fear the Judge, now before His Day of the Lord, before you can see Him with your arguments, before His execution of judgment, acting now before it is too late, waylaying vengeance before it can strike.

Wiseman: Consider who Job censures with his thoughts, voicing unacceptable words, awakening me to respond, revealing how his spirit answers, criticizing calamities he endures, sufferings allowed by God but never condoned by Him, attributing Job's torments to God's passive indifference, forfeiting His sovereignty to another, giving up rights for judgment to messengers, commissioned to see all evil and judge those guilty of crime.

Joseph: Is this the call of all human beings?

Wiseman: If this is the claim of all, professing to be blameless, believing an impossibility for being righteous, deceiving themselves to become hypocrites, never wanting to follow the Lord, the God hypocrites worship, prideful ones mounted up as high as the heavens, claiming to be saints as holy ones before, but such hypocrites are damned, perpetual sinners, forever doomed to be merely dust, to be blown away like a dream, never to be found, chased away by time like visions of the night. Eyes seeking such ones find them no more, beholding their place empty, their wealth vanished, their children seeking favors for the poor. Hypocrites continuously seek revelations from God, using His truths to bolster their arguments, proclaiming His truths to live their way, honoring Him with their lips, worshipping Him in vain, while living by the wisdom established by them for their reality, honoring rules fabricated by humans.

Bystander: God asks, Why should you declare my statutes, for what reason should you broadcast my covenant from your mouth? Hypocrites appearing to honor His revelations, but striving to avoid them, dooming themselves by their judgement, are condemned for disobedience, whereas not even bad people are denied God's good gifts, remembering His promises are everlasting, His will to maintain creation's goodness.

Wiseman: The Lord should ask Job, Were your riches unjustly gathered, collected to build your fame, celebrated to demonstrate your prowess, but created from plunder, stolen by cheating the unsuspecting poor? Justly derived treasures, self-justified but really thefts, are recovered by time, waiting for God's justice to prevail, decaying all you hold dear, assuring replenishment to maintain the earth's promise, providing all human needs, recycling our effort's treasures, terminating inclinations to hoard, ceasing accumulations for wealth, changing what constitutes affluence. Goods amassed will not flourish joy, becoming corrupted while still in bloom, justifying God's fury to assail hoarders with His wrath.

Job: Your words are unjustly gathered, more than the pious for themselves, but if you are willing to hear, listen carefully to my words, and let this be your consolation, bear with me, and I will speak, and after I have spoken you are free to mock on.

Reckoner: I will also listen unless some evil spirit seizes control of your tongue, directing your words to appear blameless.

Job: My complaint is not against ones like you, sinful as wise ones always are, but in dismay I ask why the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power? Am I ungodly, prospering, with the godly fated to suffer, so God converted my ungodly prosperity to godly suffering? Could He not have created me to forego prosperity, to be godly and suffer, having no temptation for me to prosper in wealth? But He who made me must blame me, not you, a mortal person who shouldn't judge me, puzzling me if I should remain silent, never attempting any response to your indictments. Can my maker justify any blame for one He creates, expecting all to obey His commission, fulfilling his decree to be fruitful and multiply, to exercise dominion over all entrusted to them? I still wait for an answer.

Reckoner: God must always reach out to the wicked and ungodly, blessing them with prosperity if needed, patiently waiting for them to see His ways, to obey His commands, to follow Him, realizing He would never ignore them and forever reject them, denying them from His presence, but He offers His love to the unrighteous as well as the righteous, priding Himself as the God of love.

Job: What kind of Almighty do we share in our thoughts and words? Why must your ideas differ from mine? I know you as a fellow creature never out of sight and mind, but I know little of God who I never see or hear, confirming I can never know what my senses cannot reveal, my perceptions never able to stretch out and behold God. Incapable of appreciating God, unfit to know who He is, people pray for visible gods--idols--ones they can see and imagine to hear, never for the invisible unseen God and what He purports to promise, leading them to pray for things of this world and seldom for what might be in His world. Is it wrong to be so concerned with things of this world, praying to name and claim our blessings. I ask you, Who is the Almighty, proclaiming we should serve Him? And what profit do we receive if we pray to Him?

Reckoner: I see you as one of the world, caught between being righteous and wicked, compromising by being neither, satisfied by being blameless, questioning no justice for the wicked and no suffering for the righteous. Does your wisdom answer this dilemma?

Job: Is the lamp of the wicked seldom snuffed out prematurely, precipitating calamity to inflict them with suffering, witnessing to God's wrath, distributing pain, vexing His displeasure, inflicting wicked ones with His anger, or is their deserving afflictions short-lived, leaving no lasting memory? My suffering is unjust, ignoring my upright deservings, revisiting my trivial sins--if any--condemning my generations to come, destroying any hope for their ever being, voiding their existence of worthy virtue.

Bystander: The light of the righteous forever shines, burning brightly, preparing humankind for the eternal light of God's glory, asking, Do you see that promise? The light of the sinner is always snuffed out, prematurely yes, ending with time allotted for human life, never continuing as the eternal life knowing no darkness.

Reckoner: Counted as one blameless, Job can't understand why he is punished as the ungodly. He began his thought's footsteps on gratifications rewarded by life here, forgetting God's commands, ignoring promises for eternal life, never neglecting obeisance to his idols, drawing a veil over his activities, concealing his deeds, giving no cause to accuse him of being evil. Wedded to the glory of his circumstances, thriving in opportunities for unending happiness, blessed by many accomplishments, Job deserved to eventually suffer, coming long overdue, waking him up to experience how most human beings live. Job should rejoice, for God weakening him before it is too late, saving him from His patience growing impatient, suffering Him to watch ones with frivolity as their only pastime, fating them to be condemned, marked for certain eternal punishment, walking the ways of the unrepentant. Why should God meddle with deeds of the wicked, far from rescue, ignoring His decrees, dismissing how great is His mercy, if their fate has already been determined? Let them continue in their ways, ones sealed for belonging to Satan. Job must accept his fate as a wayfarer, existing here only for a moment, and accept what has happened to him, a predictable destiny for those never reaching out to God.

Job: All your answers, having never discovered truth, are delinquent in comforting me with their nothingness.

Reckoner: My words have been too kind, passing over you with no discernment beyond your unwrapped understanding, received by you as trivial wisdom, telling how a person can be profitable to please God, showing how one can change, transfigured from one whose own truths are the only ones fruitful to one's myself. Can you please the Almighty by choosing to become righteous, or are you content by remaining in your blameless ways?

Job: My wisdom has been of service to God, not only to my desires, and when He tells me none of His considerations I follow my own, never those of impious ones. Are your truths gainful, embellishing your deeds, greater and more useful than those of the Lord's?

Reckoner: Look at what happens to people suffering from their sins, afflictions they bring on themselves, despite anyone's persuasion they are blameless, as they wait to be convicted of sin, the beginning of understanding God, brought by messages of the Holy Spirit, circumstances revealing His will for them.

Job: I am beginning to believe people's adversities are afflicted for no fault of their own, acknowledging human beings can attribute anything to fate, never always blaming others for misfortunes, but my destiny has been to suffer beyond what reason should allow.

Reckoner: Adversities descending on us can seldom be explained by our reason. Seek God's reason to reveal the determination for your afflictions.

Job: Are you privileged more than others to understand His reason?

Reckoner: God gives us common sense to understand afflictions by all.

Bystander: Does it matter to the Lord if Job has been blameless in his works, if he has been as righteous as the law prescribes, or if what he does interests Him any, making a case to judge him? God knows our faults, recording and using them to judge one as He wills. Time will tell how much they matter, how much blamelessness will count.

Reckoner: Our sense sees Job's wickedness, readily observed by critics, reporting his unending iniquities, bargaining to amass wealth, exacting pledges from brothers, stripping them of their needs, manna for survival, sending them away barren, hiding his activities in darkness, thinking they are hidden from God.

Bystander: Gather ones with like ambitions, hoarding all abundance the Creator provides, reducing His Providence, making it barren, annihilating its promise, voided beyond restoration, dismissing His pledge, never considering redemption by confession, but maybe by the grace of God, healing will surface, activated by an unknown code, restoring creation to it's once was.

Reckoner: As a blameless person did you ever deny anyone's daily bread, refrain from rescuing a single lost sheep, withhold living water from a thirsting soul, sending lost ones away empty-handed, crushing their hopes into despair, destroying your shield of virtue by looking away to ignore your conscience, preserving your blamelessness, hiding your wrongs behind uprightness, trusting all your deeds deserved merit because none were followed by revenge, believing the Lord cares little for what happens under the sun? Can one be holy and righteous while blaspheming the Holy Spirit, ignoring His voice, His words directing one to obey, following only some of His commands, ones myself chooses to honor, deeming only some to be acknowledged? Not all blame is yours, following priests who have violated God's instructions, defiling His holy things, making no distinction between what is holy and what is not, profaning the goodness of His temple, adopting you as a protege, conferring on you a mantle of blamelessness.

Job: You cannot hold me accountable to wrong-doings, accusing me of sins no one can escape. Does this justify my troubles, bringing about my personal Day of the Lord, satisfying retributions bypassing justice.

Reckoner: Your suffering comes from God. Agree with Him and be at peace, trusting He will come to restore your blessings. Accept His instructions, laying up His words in your heart, dispatching your pride, humbling yourself, banishing your unrighteousness, delighting you to come into His presence, joyfully joining the Almighty, lifting your soul in prayer, knowing He will listen, confessing your unworthiness, asking Him to show how you can be purified.

Job: My afflictions, never purifying me, reduce me to nothingness, nevermore useful for anyone or anything, divested of all once making me someone, removing all my inclinations to sin, never again to be involved with iniquity, as God dismantles my pride, reducing me to one lowly insignificant and despised being, preparing me for innocence and it's existence of nothingness, destroying my inherent nature, my being born in sin.

Reckoner: Does God still not hear you, never responding to your petitions, ignoring your requests to be heard, perhaps because your misdeeds continue, removing you from His concerns, disbelieving your vows, seeing you still shun essential feats of righteousness, as you rest comfortably on laurels of blamelessness, boasting confidently of your uprightness, ignoring its evil arrogance, never considering the Lord's ways, trusting only your wisdom's decisions, isolated with protection beyond any judgment's criticism, forgetting God gave you the law, the basis for all critical jurisdiction.

Job: I have always used God's gifts, maybe at times uncertain of their purpose, using them in ways directed by my truths, but always faithful to the world's perceptions of Him.

Reckoner: Are the virtues expected for using God's gifts ones for your understanding, lights to shine on all your ways, beacons beaming righteousness, banishing articles of your wisdom, driving off your prideful glory, depreciating your worthiness, encouraging you to embrace humility, treasuring diffidence above all your myself, removing all the tarnish tainting your deeds? God responds to our use of His gifts, rendering to all peoples according to their deeds. Have your actions been faultless, acknowledging that no humans are innocent as they trust themselves to be? You, as all of us, prepare for the last judgment by testing our uprightness on how innocent we have been.

Job: Your words help me none, spouting your wisdom, no better than others, overlooking my complaint, unending with bitterness, hearing no response from my Creator. If God still cannot show His face or clear my understanding by His explanations, I might ask why He cannot provide an advocate to plead my case, one who could face Him as I cannot, who endowed to distribute grace could plead my innocence and declare me righteous, maybe undeserving but at least white-washing me as better than blameless, knowing I can never be sinless, protecting me from torments fated for evil ones, recognizing I have devoted myself to doing good.

Bystander: Job doesn't know he shouldn't rejoice in the service he deems successful, when he did not seek a right relationship with the Lord, neglecting to know Him better, ignoring His power, never calling on His indwelling spirit, forgetting His authority as Almighty God, overlooking trust in obedience, consecration, and dedication to make him right with God, but he must acknowledge the supernatural miracle of God's grace, never questioning His wisdom, never trusting the wisdom of his own repentance, but accept His mercy for undeserving sinners.

Job: How can I trust the invisible One ignoring all my pleas? I need a crusader who knows where to find Him, to lead me into His presence, to hear my case, to understand my arguments, obligating Him to answer, but I fear He would never face me, heed none of my troubles, explaining my reason is never His, my justification as an upright man is unacceptable for acquittal. Alone with only laws to obey, I can never answer to any human beings, to decrees and dogmas never knowing mercy, scribblings unable to judge me as a person, such being their invisible and incomprehensible nature, words sanctified as the signature of God workings. Should I be purified, cleansing things veiled, removing them from my memory, unworthiness remaining concealed by my blamelessness, ignored in their hiding, but held fast unforgotten by the all-knowing Almighty, unforgiven and tarnishing any decree to welcome me into His holy presence, condemning me to be unfit, never qualifying me for transfiguration into His image, as I beg for assistance, seeking righteousness to enter His realm and be like Him?

Joseph: You gain righteousness in increments, taking difficult small steps, ponderously moving toward an unreachable nearness, striving to become like God. I know some of His commands, some being innate before I learned them, like ones to run from temptations, such as when the master's wife called me to her bed, but trusting God I know He has a purpose for me, ordering me to deny her desire, although it could place me again in bondage. With full reason to call on God for an explanation, I accepted my fate and wait patiently for a time when I might be vindicated.

Job: Do you pride in your continuing unworthy deeds, justifying God's retribution, or maybe you insulted a woman unfairly, behaving as directed by her nature, responding like females of all times, seeking affection denied her by being one's sole possession, belonging to only one. I suffered as you, but for far less reason, having to seek God to justify my afflictions, none being readily apparent for one ordained blameless. If He will never reveal His problems with me, magnifying my sins to an importance beyond any human's understanding, I may have to look within myself, searching for greater wisdom to explain His displeasure with me.

Joseph: What can you find in your deeds, justifying Him to interfere in your steps to discover reasons for His displeasure, responding only with silence when you wonder why blamelessness is never enough, never telling you what else must be done to gain righteousness?

Job: I am not a wicked person, being secure as one priding in deeds of righteousness, never rejoicing in doing evil or delighting in wicked acts, never walking in darkness, but always in the light, believing its righteousness surrounds me. I protest, having no evil in my bones, declared by all to be blameless; trusting in my innocence, I have no reservations asking God to explain my fate, never fearing to face Him, because my goal still remains to confront Him.

Joseph: You cling to hope as long as you remain unconscious of your sins, never recognizing hope's power, beginning only with acknowledgement of one's sins. Ask the Lord if the righteous need hope, and whether righteousness precludes any need for hope, trusting ones drowning in hope have not yet become righteous.

Job: I only hope for vindication, waiting for someone to prove me a liar, to convict me of sins unusual to humankind, to convince me I should repent. You should be no different, even though pride you acknowledge damaged your family beyond restoration, knowing God tells us what fate befalls the proud.

Reckoner: You still argue, seeking to confront God, calling on Him to explain your afflictions, relying on widely-held declarations you are blameless, believing you are upright, but how can a mortal be righteous before God, knowing no human being can ever be righteous, always a sinner, always destined to be judged, and you insist on being judged now, before the day set aside for judgment, because you think you will be found innocent and never deserving of your torments. If righteous people can never exist, your demands to approach God are in vain, thinking you can be examined now and judged to be right by Him.

Job: How have you helped me, one with no power? Instead of criticizing me for seeking God's attention, you could have suggested ways to attract His hearing. You counsel me as if I have little wisdom, telling me to improve it by interacting His wisdom with mine, suggesting the two would be greater than one, trusting declarations not to be wise in one's myself, exceeding the degree one's myself can be wise, proclaiming prudence for one's ideas but risking them with imprudence, dragging human wisdom beyond moderation to delve into foolishness.

Bystander: God sets limits on everything, exacting all to obey moderation's boundaries, determining times for light and darkness, restricting extents of land and sea, controlling climates for life to survive and thrive, and He trusts humans will not step beyond His restraints, forcing Him to bring down prideful ones. How little do we remember wise ones telling us the Lord's words, For My ways are not as your ways. Pray for discernment to understand His ways.

Joseph: Better to pray for patience because discernment never appears suddenly, needing meditation's endurance to wait on the Lord.

Job: I have lived long enough to know God has taken away my rights, dismissing what our leaders guarantee, making me bitter, disenchanting my soul, forcing my truth to admit defeat, disclaiming any decreed dignity, proclaiming my integrity to be an illusion, abusing my reason to trust in any possibility for righteousness, pouring out my heart in disappointment, believing others would never reproach me, but I follow no enemy's footsteps, mired in wickedness, boasting in unrighteousness. My conscience reminds me of no shameful acts hidden in my memory. If there were any, I would be forced to be silent.

Joseph: I remain silent, knowing nothing else to do, relying on hope for something better.

Job: You surprise me. What is the hope of the godless when God cuts one off, taking away life, unable to lament troubles, crying unheard by deaf ears.

Joseph: I am never godless, having a trusted One, greater than any craftsman's image, invisible to all, guiding my spirit, faithful and full of grace, as I wait on His time, for me a fullness of time.

Job: I have also never been an impious one, a wicked one deserving justice, terrorizing goodness day and night, trapped in the work of one's own convictions, but I have been wounded, deserving only of an enemy, unjustly punishing an upright man.

Joseph: Silence has been my wisdom, never proclaiming the soul of my heart, unsure of words to reliably assert my uncertain truths, certain today but never for tomorrow's knowledge.

Job: But where shall wisdom be found, in what place of understanding, never to be revealed in your silence, frustrating us in never knowing the way to it, forever changing so it cannot be found here in the land of the living, beyond anyone's comprehension, hidden from the eyes of all living, never growing from our knowledge, the pied piper leading us to greater pain.

Joseph: Wisdom hides in nature, luring us to discovery, revealing wisdom hidden in bodies, life beholding its truths.

Job: God must then know the way to it, knowing its place, as we seek wisdom, looking to earth's ends, searching everywhere under the heavens, all the while hearing Him declare: Behold my truths, fear Me to find wisdom, shun evil to discern My understanding, fear the Lord to begin your wisdom, the platform to practice perceptions.

Executing Joseph's Destiny

Joseph: God did not forget He spoke to me earlier, bringing me visions to create my troubles, and now, some years later, asking me to reawaken, to hear His new revelations, but none being for me, to send me as His messenger, wanting me to interpret more dreams, nocturnal visions troubling the king, determining destiny for who knows what.

Bystander: Pharaoh dreamed he was standing by the Nile and the following vision came to him. Out of the Nile arose seven cows sleek and fat, coming to feed in its marsh grass, followed by seven more cows coming up behind, out of the Nile, scrawny and thin, lining themselves up beside the fat cows, emaciated alongside the thrifty ones standing on the riverbank. The gaunt and thin cows promptly ate the seven healthy, fat cows, which suddenly ended Pharaoh's dream, waking him up, but only to send him back to sleep, dismissing his nocturnal visit as a prank of some demon roaming in the dark. On falling asleep again he had a second dream, a different drama continuing God's revelation, assuring Pharaoh would take heed, a scene picturing seven heads of grain, plump and beautiful, growing on a single stalk, followed by appearance of seven more heads of grain, shriveled and withered by the east wind, drawing his attention little until these thin stunted heads swallowed up the seven plump, well-formed heads, alarming him to spring out of slumber, awakening him to the realization all was a dream, but leaving him concerned, wondering why intrusion by such fantasies would invade his peace, disturbing him so, compelling him to believe these visions might bear some importance, waiting to be unveiled by his wisest counselors.

Pharaoh: I summon you, the wisest of anyone I know, including my magicians, to decipher my nightly visions, normally never disturbing me, but for some reason they provoke me to understand their meaning. Listen as I report my dreams for your interpretation.

Bystander: Enlisting his most enlightened trusted seers, all unable to venture a meaning for his dreams, calling in vain on their gods and goddesses, who unable to interpret his dreams all thought they were stupid, a sign of developing dementia, and led them to finally summon the oracle, desperately begging him to satisfy the king.

Oracle: Your prophets, self-selected to be all-knowing like me, offering little advice, not enough to settle your frustration, rivaling with each other to demystify mysterious visions, seeming to be trivial, read unintelligible signs unsuccessfully, meaning to only disrupt your peace, perhaps from too much wine. Seek your dream's understandings from one lowly serving in your household, one with greatest pride in protecting your taste, one you restored to freedom because of reasons unknown to you, interpreted by one he had forgotten, one hearing a pledge to speak for him, casting his unjust plight before the king. Search the king's butler's memory to identify one who can interpret your dreams.

Bystander: Take care in making oaths, pledging vows to be forgotten, promises sneaking back unnoticed, springing unwanted surprises, as God never forgets, reminding His will is to be done, never needing us to pledge anything with an oath.

Butler: Your calling aggravates me, stirring my conscience, resurrecting my faults, speaking what is expected of an oracle, reminding me of a past failure, negligence in keeping an oath, forgetting a promise made to a fellow brother, a caring being who made possible an unexpected miracle, returning me to my king's service, removing me from a pit reserved for the wicked. You remind me of my fault, urging me to honor my commitment, taking this time to tell Pharaoh.

Oracle: This kingdom's wisest seers could be terminated without delay, falling by swords severing their heads, silencing the wisdom of their words forever. Take pity on them and tell the king all you know, now rather than later. Your master is ready to hear you now.

Butler: I remind your majesty of the time when you were angry with your servants, enough to put me and the chief baker in prison, under custody in the house of the captain of the guard. One night the chief baker and I each had a dream, and each dream had its own meaning. A young Hebrew there with us in prison, a slave of the captain of the guard, was told our dreams, and he reported what each of our dreams meant, giving an interpretation to each of us according to his dream, and their interpretations came to pass, restoring me to my position as cup-bearer, and the chief baker was executed, impaling his head on a pole and serving it up as a feast for birds. Confessing all this, I do not know what moved the oracle to uncover my memory so I can relate it now.

Pharaoh: Why does an oracle choose someone stinking from the pit to reveal wisdom my wisest prophets can never discern. Did someone's sage select him from the lowest of the lowly, thinking he can be transformed from living in foolishness to reveal revelations concerning my dreams? Will cleaning him up give created credence to his words, capturing my attention by newly-fashioned clothes? I will give him full attention, hoping he can remove my dream's disturbing demons.

Joseph: Always chosen from the lowly, prepared to offer in humble ways, I will listen, but never being ordained to give you a dream's interpretation, being only a messenger for God, I will seek to hear from Him, trusting only God can interpret Pharaoh's dream.

Pharaoh: I dreamed that out of the Nile came seven cows sleek and fat, and they fed in the marsh grass, followed by seven more cows, thin and scrawny, coming up behind the first, also from the Nile, to stand beside the fat cows on the riverbank. Then the gaunt and thin cows ate the seven healthy, fat cows, but when they had eaten them no one would have known it, seeing them still gaunt, emaciated as at the beginning. Then I awoke, thinking little of this dream until I fell into slumber again, only to see further visions, revisited by a less understandable sight. This time I saw seven heads of grain, plump and beautiful, growing on a single stalk, followed by seven more sprouting after them, seven additional heads of grain appearing different from the first, shriveled, withered and blighted by the east wind. Mysteriously, these stunted heads swallowed up the seven plump, well-formed heads. On reporting this to everyone, enlisting all the wisdom and magic in my land, there was no one able to offer an explanation, some thinking my senses were developing the certainty of old age.

Joseph: I have learned human wisdom extends little beyond people's foolishness, seeing nothing worthwhile coming from your sages, and expecting little more from the world's. You can learn from me, hearing interpretations made for other's dreams, remembering their explanations never spring from human reasoning, including my own, never calling on common sense, the consensus of majority thought, while always relying on what God reveals, trusting only His truths, as I ask Him now to tell me what He has put on your mind.

Pharaoh: If God invades my peace with dreams, seizing my slumbering thoughts, afflicting me with anxiety, compelling me to toss and turn, He must reason them to have meaning, but He distributes them as riddles, disturbing my days as well as nights, concealing them, never enlightening me, leaving me unaware, sealing them in my thoughts, unable to forget, leaving no moments unfilled with their mystery, making my nights sleepless since.

Joseph: Both of Pharaoh's dreams are one, telling him in advance what God is about to do. The seven good cows are seven years of great prosperity, promised throughout Egypt, reiterated by the seven healthy heads of grain, completing the dreams as one, revealed by God, instructing Egyptians to consider these years as blessings, giving them more than they need, and prepare for lean years during times of plenty, warning them to anticipate and prepare for the unexpected, certain in coming as seven years of famine, great enough for all prosperity to be forgotten, as famine destroys the land, devastating all memory of the good years, leaving them lamenting for what they once had. God knows your dream must be retold, sending two different versions, to convince you of the famine's coming, deterring you from heeding your prophetic soothsayers who will try to convince you with their reason to live as if abundance will never cease. Now you must select someone discreet and wise, choosing one to oversee the entire land of Egypt, preparing one to protect its prosperity by conserving creation's abundance, to prevent your people from wasting their treasures on what they never need, insuring survival for all.

Pharaoh: How should an overseer begin, seeing we have a population wishing to never give up anything, wanting never to suffer from want, desiring freedom to live as their senses demand.

Joseph: Appoint supervisors to collect one-fifth of all Egypt's crops during the seven good years, assigning them to store the land's over-abundance in warehouses, collecting it under your authority, reserving it to protect against future starvation, storing it for use during the predicted seven years of famine, assuring a dearth of food will never starve your people and destroy their country.

Pharaoh: Your advise seems wise. Our people may thrive better than living from feast to famine, from thriving in gluttony to starving in years of want. I will consult my officials to please their inclusion, but while waiting for a response, I ask, Can we find such a man as this, so obviously filled with the Spirit of God? I will wait my wise one's suggestions.

Joseph: Waiting on your wise seers failed you once. Can they offer more wisdom than my God, the one who sent your dream and explained its meaning?

Pharaoh: Your perception of my wise ones, discerning their failures are faulted by reason, turns my attention to hear you, promising God reveals the meaning of my dreams by choosing you to be His messenger, blessing you to do what none of my wisest ones were able to do, convinces me to believe He sends you, Joseph, one awakening me to understand my dreams, to also oversee our people's welfare. We still must honor our gods, remembering them all, many as there are, and worship them all for the speciality each one oversees. On second thought, realizing my wise advisors, seldom able to agree, arguing to prove their petty points, are likely to take days to reach any conclusion, so I must hereby appoint Joseph, having greater insights than any ones I trust, to be in charge of the entire land of Egypt, installing him with this signet ring, removed from my finger, authorizing him with authority second to no one but mine, and I will array him in fine linens and fashion a gold chain for testifying to his importance, attested by his riding in my second chariot, witnessed by people bowing down to his coming, obeying the ritual for honorees as criers announce his arrival, and I assign him charge of all Egypt's land. I do this because God has revealed all this to you, acknowledging no person is more discerning than you.

Joseph: I now have a mystical ring, bestowed on me undeservedly, bearing a potency given only by humans, a power never given by the Lord, a ring ordaining me to be worshipped, no, better said to be honored, convicting others to bow down in praise, a garment decking me out to radiate the king's wisdom, and trinkets of gold, reminding others of my exalted merit. Having God's blessings already what do they add? Does He think I need them for doing His work?

Bystander: You have faithfully waited on the Lord, having persevered through many trials, learning distress promotes endurance, endurance promotes character, character promotes hope, and hope does not disappoint.

Joseph: How could a king's wisdom clear me of my penalty to be imprisoned for adultery, forgetting something I never did, knowing many would still think I should never be pardoned, cleansed of a deed we are all thought to commit. What would Potiphar think about my station now? Would he care? Would he think he is more deserving because of his loyal service to the king? Am I deserving because I bore trials faithfully, without protest, trusting my Lord in silence?

Bystander: Look now to Job. Don't forget him.

Joseph: Job will always occupy my thoughts. I believe he needs help to be freed, releasing him from imprisonment in the pit of his doldrums, trusting he could change, restored by healing, needing little more than acknowledgement of an upright life, needing little more to be worthy, to be right with the Lord. Before I begin my new assignment I will revisit him in prison.

Job's Salvation

Job: I would never have thought you would humble yourself by returning to this abyss, surprising me with your visit, wondering what could bring you here, the last place anyone would expect you to be seen? Do you believe your coming to this place for the dead could comfort the forgotten, counseling them, promising better days to come, thinking something can be done for them?

Joseph: You could be helped by a consultant, and until God chooses to send one better, I volunteer, asking Him to send me, still believing brothers need keepers.

Job: You think your words can help, thinking they can heal my wounds, but what else can you offer, seeing the afflictions I suffer having imbedded hopelessness in my soul. The futility of my pleas and the unprofitable words of others have rusted my patience in waiting for some response.

Joseph: You have been praised as blameless, but have you been loved by all, and have you loved all others as yourself, loving them as you would love your Father in heaven?

Job: What you ask is impossible. Many people deserve no love and I can never be one to love them.

Joseph: Then you can be honored as blameless by many without loving all who God created, judging some to never be loved, ones blemished by their deeds or appearance.

Job: So be the way God created them. It's His fault not mine and now His guilt prevents Him from answering my pleas, never wanting to discuss the wisdom of my arguments, refusing to hear my thoughts. After creating me with goodness, installing me with reason, training me to use dialogue, why did He change, beginning now to ignore my requests, never acknowledging my pleas, leaving me to suffer, never showing me why? I long for the days when I trusted God, knowing He watched over me, shining light to show my way, accompanying me in my autumn days, insuring my family's prosperity, blessing my seat in life's square of activity, as young men rose to honor me and wise ones silencing their thoughts waited to hear my words, seeking my eye's attention, watching as I delivered hope to the poor and comfort to the fatherless, praising me as upright for blessing ones about to perish, causing widows' hearts to sing for joy, calling attention to my blamelessness by my attire of righteousness--showing all--justice being my robe of existence, breaking clenches of unrighteousness seizing the innocent, as I was revered as a wiseman, never thinking it could end.

Joseph: Your fellow citizens counted you as blameless, but are they qualified to judge you upright, directing their scribes to report you so?

Bystander: Scribes write words for their understanding, telling us they are truths revealed by their spirit, coming from God, and we must accept them, every word as inspired by the Holy Spirit, but many such words disagree with what the Holy Spirit within my temple has to say, revealing different reflections on His truths, prompting me to cast crumbs of my thoughts on the waters, testing them to see if they float, surviving on waters blessed as living.

Job: God sees me recall these memories, longing for them alone, knowing they all count for good, reporting what they witness as truth.

Joseph: Fond memories are easy to recall, knowing many somewhat evil deeds are soon forgotten, helping to preserve your blamelessness. What good would come of returning to a few moments of your glory days, realizing you would have to suffer again in losing them?

Job: I was needed to sit at the city gates to preserve peace and prosperity for our people, trusting they are now impoverished without my wisdom, their hearts hoping for my return.

Joseph: Call on honesty to prevail, confessing you sat at your gate to insure peace and prosperity for yourself, attested by your wealth, enthroned before others, regaled in your finery, witnessing to your blamelessness? Did youthful ones rise because they feared your judging others, but who appointed you to look into other's thoughts, believing you could be equipped for this on your own, thanks to some self-assigned virtue.

Job: I gave them what they needed to hear, no more, no less, trusting they would not dare add anything, fearful of adding anything to another's words, saving the poor in spirit from the hand of the powerful, working in obedience to God. But now, suffering me with their derision, all mock everything I do, laughing at my predicament, disrespecting my honored name.

Joseph: I see how they have wounded you, festering you with weeping sores, afflicting your dignity with shameful disgrace, but I see no outward signs of your transformation, still thinking you are blameless, convinced of being enlightened, convicted of being upright, believing you need not be transfigured. Knowing it is impossible to bring ones to repentance, those once enlightened--having experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, having tasted the goodness of God's word and the power of the age to come--who then turn away from God, you are not one of them, not one impossible for bringing back to repentance, a righteous one having turned from righteous behavior, inaugurating iniquity, shaming oneself with sinfulness, committing one to die in sin, disregarding the Lord's promise to judge each according to one's actions.

Job: No one can share my suffering, my torments being my own, so I can't expect you or others to discern my troubles or understand my afflictions, realizing you cannot wear my shoes.

Joseph: Then how do others witness your downfall?

Job: My afflictions are evident for all to see, many rejoicing now, proclaiming my blameless is visibly tainted, reflecting my virtueless uprightness, as bystanders, once reluctant to judge me--the blameless ones--freely announce, We told you so, in my heart always suspecting, Job is no different from the rest of us, but was better than all others in coaxing a scribe to pronounce he is as righteous as any other person, entitling him to be blameless.

Joseph: You perceptions may be reliable, but truly righteous ones, more righteous than any others, suffer no less, becoming victims of martyrdom for their beliefs. Can you say your suffering is executing you for your beliefs?

Job: So I must be as righteous as those you describe, constantly tormented, my prosperity stolen by unpredictable gales of thievery, afflictions destroying all hope, decimating my soul, demolishing my home for the Holy Spirit, fating violence to remove all I had, consigning my virtues to dust and ashes, hearing no answers for my pleas, preparing me for life's ending, without acknowledging my worthwhile deeds, grieving for the poor, weeping for the hopeless, calling for creation's goodness to intercede, but my destiny is resigned to welcome evil, acknowledging no hope is left for me, my prosperity and welfare having passed away like a single cloud. Judgment flocks to my dilemmas, ready and willing to explain my suffering, but no one comes volunteering to mediate my pleas, as I coexist with proponents of democracy, declaring no one should be deprived of an advocate to plead a victim's case.

Joseph: You have a mediator but listen to none of His words, the Holy Spirit sent to advise you in all things. Instead you listen to human wisdom offered by your chosen friends, complimenting you on a blameless life, advising you to maybe blame God for casting you into the mire, explaining why He arouses cruelty for persecution, never heeding your cries for help, watching as you wait for death to end your anguish, bringing you to life's final abode, created for ones convicted by their own state of corruption.

Job: My companions have offered to be my mediator, coming gifted with guidance but with little compassion, thinking their words offer comfort and reveal reasons for my suffering, but are they competent to be my counselor, appointing themselves to express their truths? Have they achieved greater righteousness, ordaining them to take on God's image, qualifying them to be the Almighty's spokesman, volunteering as Isaiah to be sent, but considering themselves more than prophets, special messengers, overflowing with self-endowed truths, more than eager for me to hear, while anxiously struggling with eternal truths they neglect to acknowledge, bearing only darkness to smear my blamelessness, professing it has tainted my life, allowing me to be less than righteous, claiming my uprightness has been a self-inflicted wound.

Joseph: Your friends did not know you well, understanding compassion is reserved for the most-closely loved, hardly offered to strangers, and forgotten for the distant needy, reserving it mostly for their own kind, wondering if you were one of theirs.

Job: My friends persecute me without cause, for one never veering from God's laws, grieving me more than if coming from unbelievers or adversaries, surprising me with their self-righteous judgments. Are they more blameless than I, claiming undeserved righteousness, giving them authority to be God's judge? I should ask them what advice they would rely on if my suffering should fit their sandals. Would they find complaints worthy for calling on God?

Joseph: Do you find your deeds worthy enough to attract God's attention?

Job: I have always made a covenant with my eyes, concealing all visions able to inflame innate lust hidden in my darkness, trampling down desires stealing out into the light, wants foretelling calamity, passions beckoning for the impure and obscene, lusts chasing pleasure, but I follow God, trusting Him to protect me from temptations luring me into malice and deceit. If I have walked with treachery, following paths to deception, turning aside from His way, convincing my heart to seek pleasures promised by my eyes, let God judge me, convict me of adultery, making me reap what I sow, a whirlwind of suffering if it must be so. Proclaiming to be without crime, claiming to have no sin, deceiving myself of innate hidden directions, temptations to follow lustful thoughts, mostly leading to destructive actions, trains me to increase my arts of sin.

Joseph: Does God expect more of you?

Job: Making me from the same mold as others, I must respect all people, hearing their desires as I would want mine heard, extending mercy to strangers, proffering benevolence to ones unfamiliar, blessing ones worthy to be created by God. Pity for His creatures humbles me to never despise the poor, but to grace the needy, freely giving to distribute the Lord's abundance, as my pride is forgotten, allowing me to honor other's dignity, equally as I revere mine. Heeding the prophets, I always feared the Lord, but never appreciating the calamity He could spring, retributions for disobedience.

Joseph: God wants you to love Him, never threatening fear to promote love.

Job: I know I must love Him, but is not reverence for Him more important?

Joseph: Reverence most importantly is defined by love, not by fear, but by awe that is an important part of love.

Job: I have loved Him more than any certainties I have ever known, the rising and setting of the sun and stars, the abundance He provides our creation's home, the joy we celebrate as coming only from Him.

Joseph: Do you love Him despite insecurities driving you to anxiously worship idols, admitting them to allay all your worries?

Job: I admit worshipping philosophy, my idol for instruction in philanthropy, convicting me to be my brother's keeper, filling me with joy from its wise directions, convincing me to fulfill my quest to be blameless, a good person, never intending evil for anyone, but the sun was never crafted to be my idol, the stars never being depicted as earthly creatures to hold my attention, the moon never being used except to measure my months.

Joseph: Did you seek only philosophy to better your ways, trusting human wisdom supplants all others, minimally recognizing revelations coming from God, hardly trusting Him to measure your way, needing something more tangible to fix your broken thoughts, believing your ideas can cover the sins you were born into, sorting out insignificant ones from the important?

Job: My wisdom advised me to hide my faults, protecting them from other's awareness, believing their concealment would sustain my blamelessness, the uprightness I cling to, hiding my failings under self-avowed virtues, never confessing anything, making me like others, living like them as we all do. So has philosophy prepared me.

Joseph: Your philosophy fails when it creates your wisdom, never developing needed virtues, but you never fail when your ways develop from the fear of God. Is your pride great enough to never need any fear of Him? Have your priestly friends any fear of God? They seem to glory in your afflictions, convincing you of sins they never admitted, never entertained as tempting, thanking God they never succumbed to willfulness, glorying in their dubious righteousness, boasting with convictions to never blemish their blamelessness. What should you do? First of all confess, spontaneously admitting your sins in order to be justified. God is waiting for you to change, making you right with Him, to justify your entry into His kingdom.

Job: God has an account of all my doings, knowing I have not been a reaper, stealing fruits of the land without payment, bringing on death for its owners, causing the earth to stand up and shutter, moaning because I had made an unjust use of its bounty. I still wait for the opportunity to plead my case, to adjust His ledger and justify my doings.

Bystander: Here comes another bringing a bushel of advice.

Dumdum: Being one young in years, speaking to ones older, being somewhat timid and afraid, reluctant to voice my opinion, advising aged ones filled with many days to grow their wisdom, but learning little to direct their ways, I startle their attention, reminding them it is a person's spirit, breathed in by the Almighty, acting to make one understand, defying one's trust in age to grow wisdom, believing the aged possess greater understanding of what is right. Listen to my words declaring a useful opinion.

Reckoner: You can add little to help Job's suffering. We have tried to awaken him, revealing his barely sinful deeds, telling him all are destined to sin, sin, sin.

Dumdum: Patiently waiting, hearing all your words, considering your personal wise sayings, searching for profound thoughts, proclaiming them as truths, I give you my attention and found none confuted Job, none answering his pleas. Beware trust in your wisdom, knowing it can never come to equal God's, who may vanquish your pride. Job has not yet spoken against my words, waiting for them to be heard, and I will not respond to him with your speeches, even though he justified himself rather than God. Your declare Job guilty, but offer nothing for him to be redeemed, and now I can give him different suggestions to release him from his demands of God.

Reckoner: My integrity ages like fine wine, enhancing my virtues beyond your reach, wondering if you will ever outgrow your name. You could have sided with us, concealing your foolishness earlier, without interjecting your ignorance into our wisdom. You can't use youthfulness as your excuse. You will some day learn: never be sympathetic with ones whose situation leads them to conclude God looks for reasons to deal harshly with them, dealing an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, judging everyone by an unrecognizable justice, never authorizing ours to surpass His. Is your self-styled goodness better than His, the way of people's faith today, confronting no one's beliefs, tolerating everyone's as their privilege to be respected.

Dumdum: Trusting I cannot match your pride, I would have never convinced anyone with my words until now when you compel me to speak, after hearing everything your aged wisdom has to say.

Bystander: (aside) Why did Dumdum remain silent until human wisdom's ending? Did he wait to collect most mature thoughts for judging their criticisms or did he wish to learn people's limited wisdom, understandings to which he could offer more, to proudly promote his own insights or to discover other's lacking to know God's truths, to expose haughtiness of know-it-all advisers, or to speak with the humility of one belonging to God, an essential virtue of righteousness, waiting humbly to follow His ways? The partakers in this discussion will never know, leaving it for God to understand.

Reckoner: Convince me of your precious truths.

Dumdum: The wise, enriched with learning, exposed to information by living many years, are unsettled, answering few of my thoughts, telling me they will acknowledge my interjections after I partake of solid food, to which I respond the nourishment appropriate for my discernment is the milk of kindness, fearing what other food might do, making me proud of my wisdom. They remain silent as I press Job with my suggestions, interjecting different opinions, constrained by my spirit, breaking no limits it has established, speaking nothing to flatter my ego, voicing nothing to make me seem arrogant, yet I will be accused by others who never wish to acknowledge another person's message, seeming to disagree with theirs, entangling us in a battle of truths. Witness my joy, comparing it with any others can claim, rejoicing for those who deal justly with others, trusting what they do is right.

Reckoner: I have opened my wisdom and given Job all my truths, as I watch you struggle to attract hearers for your words.

Dumdum: I must speak, urgently, relieving me from hearing your voice, constantly whining as you express your convictions, while I promise partiality for no person, never choosing words biased in their favor, flattering no one to accept my beliefs, knowing if I speak to gratify another's worldly truths, my Creator would end my usefulness, disabling my gift to challenge false teaching. Patiently waiting encourages me, confirming assortment of needs takes time, determining which deserve a response, maybe more time than others want to wait, as I voice truths dear to the Almighty, never betraying His righteousness, honoring Him instead of seizing admiration for my own truths.

Reckoner: Your arrogance reveals you are one of us, but still speaking with ideals burdening youthful innocence, having yet to reach the realities of maturity.

Dumdum: I expect you to question all my words, but they are not for you, reserving the declarations of my heart for Job, beseeching him to listen, to hearing truths by which God made us both, His breath creating human life, instilling His spirit into a beast formed from a piece of clay, realizing I was never chosen to terrify Job with words, never speaking to pressure him with my convictions, to lean heavily on him, wanting him to accept my words.

Reckoner: Coming to speak last, breaking away from fears of conflicting with wiser helpers, thinking you can convince Job of your truths, believing you can dishonor my thoughts and refute my judgment, you coax him to trust your juvenile wisdom, concealed from truth by your immature virtues, painted with exuberant arrogance, inviting others to adopt your beliefs.

Dumdum: Speaking with neglected understanding, you vie with Job, challenging him to accept your truths, but I prepare him for speaking with God, setting his words in order, preparing his attitude before approaching God's bench, claiming, I am clean, without transgression, being pure with no iniquity, but Your silence finds occasions against me, counting me as your enemy, afflicting my every breath with criticism.

Reckoner: Mighty ones, inflicting themselves with self-esteem, thinking they can prepare ones for an audience with God, are mired in arrogance, inflating their understanding above all others, forgetting words of eternal wisdom, The heart is exalted before destruction and is brought low before honor. Take heed. Remind Job he may be blameless now, but he must pay for the reckless deeds of his youth.

Dumdum: I will remind Job of much, especially telling him God is greater, beyond any human discernment, and we contend with Him, our almighty Creator, when we ask, Why don't You answer my requests, ignoring me, Your creation, neglecting our needs, so how we can trust You are first in justice, above all others, flowing living waters from Your fountain of eternal wisdom?

Reckoner: God rightfully ignores Job, for fabricating unjustifiable requests, denying acknowledgement of all his unworthy deeds, satisfying himself with blamelessness, attested to by others.

Dumdum: God spoke when He established all creation, but realizing we need more to know, He appears in mysterious ways, invisible to our senses, except in appearances we can comprehend, coming in visions and dreams, awakening our perceptions to heed His commands, to distrust any pride defending our ways, chastening ones reluctant to obey, censuring their ways with warnings to capture their attention, promising new covenants to restore their flesh, healing decays from squandered discipline, returning vigor of their youth, responding to prayers, opening ways into His presence, to feast at the fountain overflowing with joy. Pleading for a mediator, does one not recognize the Helper in his visions? Begging for his torments to cease, does he not recognize innate processes for healing installed at his creation? And how do people put their recovery to use? They recount to others their salvation, praising God for restoration, each one proclaiming, I have sinned, perverting what was right and required of me, thanking God for redemption, exalting their soul, keeping them from descending into the pit, assured their redeemer lives, calling them to continue seeing the light of life, the face of God, never to encounter with their own wisdom, but to welcome the joy of being in His grace.

Job: I begin to see where I have failed, being ashamed to confess my sins, never exposing any humiliation to debase my standing.

Dumdum: The bitterness of sorrow need not be final; hope can be waiting to bring consoling joy, to recall souls from corruption, enlightening them with discernment, restoring them to the living, to realize those existing only for this world remain in darkness, while enlightened ones living in the light and shunning the world's darkness return to splendors of inward brightness. Job, if you have anything to say, answer me, speaking your case for truth, voicing desires to justify yourself. If you wish to say nothing further, listen to me, silently, giving me your attention, and I will enlighten you with wisdom, understanding beyond what you seek.

Reckoner: I have reached the limits of your wisdom, never wanting more to tolerate, trusting little more of yours can be useful, my common sense telling me to wait for a day when your wisdom grows to become as mine.

Dumdum: Is all your claiming to be wise? Hear my words, shuttling them within your mind, discerning what is best for Job, you who has sense, knowing God can never be blamed for wickedness, but repays us according to our deeds. We cannot support Job's request for a debate with God, because the rules of debating permit both sides to lie, committing perjury rather than speaking certainties, never trusting truth to win an argument, and believing God cannot lie, Job is left to debate with us, each side voicing arguments claimed to be true. We must consider if God truly repays us for our deeds, and how He determines what any payment should be.

Reckoner: God never condemns without reason, and he can punish as He chooses, afflicting us to suffer, deliberating mysteriously, usually in ways unknown to us, deciding how justice should be measured to satisfy retribution.

Dumdum: If God appears, coming to judge us for our deeds, leaving His comfort, rising from His throne, interrupting His day watching us pass time, disrupting His attention from watching His clock tick, reluctantly wanting to be disturbed, dirtying His righteousness to hand out retribution, it would seem unlikely He would delegate any power to one of His untrustworthy creatures, especially none for exacting justice, where no one can comprehend what's just for a blameless person.

Bystander: You know God's way better than your aged friends, self-sufficient in their wisdom, who think God knows little of Job's doing, requiring Him to recruit a roving reporter to be informed, as you distrust scribes describing God as a wimp, sending out a dubious messenger, empowered to report on lapses in His omniscience, neglecting knowings during His distractions, watching humans in their games, correcting His errors by authorizing a messenger to do His dirty work. I man up as He tells us all, obeying only Him, following all His commands, sending me only to foretell, emphasizing I am no more than His messenger, sent only to convey His commands, never to be empowered for determining punishment, exercising as Yahweh any needed retribution, protecting His prerogative to punish, claiming vengeance is Mine, for I discern all through the spirit He sends me.

Reckoner: Job chose to live by the world's spirit, and so he chooses to die by its spirit, suffering in worldly afflictions if so destined, for how else is one committed to leave? He has demonstrated arrogance in demanding to speak with God face-to-face, pridefully boasting of his convincing eloquence, convicted by someone's pronouncement he is blameless. Let him realize he is only dust and ashes waiting to happen, lingering for God to wield his fiery judgements, exercising the justice obligated to prevail.

Dumdum: Can you know the essence of God's justice? Is it our prevailing fear, proposing His justice must be like ours, dreading consequences for our deeds, assured He sees them all? Should He be one like us, hating judgement, detesting justice, ordained as the One to govern? Would you condemn Him who is righteous and mighty, the only one eternal? Can you judge the actions of One still working out His plans, knowing He has eternity to continue His designs, pausing occasionally to consider the pleas of His creation? Job is indeed in His plans as all His noble creatures professing to be blameless.

Bystander: Can God identify any person of having been better than blameless? Name one. He wants us to be greater, more than being upright, requiring someone's human judgment, asking it to mediate by His laws, to determine if we reach His standard, requirements for us to become righteous. Job's biographer did not tolerate honesty, prevailing for little truth to determine blamelessness, perhaps ignoring or ignorant of mandatory criteria for judging righteousness.

Dumdum: God has the power to govern and needs no assistance of others--who may be tempted by heartlessness to defy His goodness--after creating humans, fashioned in mercy and shepherded with His grace. He cares for Job as any other who may stray and become one of His lost sheep, using His power to give blessings, being greater than ones who are blessed to be blessings but leave them concealed by shame.

Reckoner: Job's vanity overflows, pridefully confident in God's decisions, trusting He will respond, hearing Job's invitation to reconsider his injustice. God must not ignore the poverty of Job's dedication to other people, taking license to ignore their needs, condoning his actions as common for upright humans. Never by righteousness was he authorized to name it and claim it, yet look how the Lord blessed him with wealth coveted by worldly people, blessing the blameless without requiring them to be righteous. God's prerogative is to bless who He wishes; seeing no one worthy He must chose some from them to further His kingdom.

Dumdum: You can name many who admire blameless ones, testifying to their virtues, never embarrassed by their lack of righteousness, chaffing to be by their side, eager

to learn at their feet, but how many are never truly righteous, enough to be ridiculed, eagerly dishonored by other blameless ones, humiliated by token attempts of human wisdom, never with convincing arguments, reasoning feebly to demolish their faith, trying to destroy faithfully correct convictions, binding their belonging to the Lord? Few have trusted messages of God's prophets, killing those He has sent, believing the same fate for all He is planning on sending. Beware all those who never agree to become victims for proclaiming eternal truths, trusting it is safer to be blameless than a righteous one expected to die for virtuous convictions, realizing if Job were chosen to be righteous, he would not be the center of our discussions, having gone long ago, suffering the fate of martyrdom. Could he choose to be worse than he is now, electing at this late date to become righteous.

Reckoner: You ask of him an impossible task, embarrassing him by becoming an imaginary person, for we know that no can claim to be righteous, no not one!

Dumdum: We can patiently wait for Job to confess, telling God, I have borne chastisement; I will never offend any more; teach me what I do not see; if I have done iniquity, I will do it no more; but will Job truly cover himself with humility, speaking words to destroy his pride, expecting his circumstances to change? Or would he speak without conviction, never acknowledging wiser counsel, revealing his ignorance, devoid of insight, trying him to the end, leaving him answering like one wicked, adding rebellion to his sin, multiplying words against God, admonishing anyone calling him less than upright?

Reckoner: Job believes his arguments are appropriate, exercising his right to call on the Lord, asking God to be fair and justify His goodness, thinking he will be victorious, vindicating his blamelessness, believing he was afflicted with suffering for some unmerited reason, sent to wash away wrongly calculated sins, concluding he shouldn't be faulted for never being better than blameless, remembering the evil one's words, never admitting blame with words to God, You moved me against him, to afflict him without cause. Could this evil one know of Job's past deeds to judge he was privy to the exactness of truth? Was this wicked one all-knowing as God, having knowledge where a blameless one falls short of being righteous, revealing iniquities deserving judgment?

Dumdum: Can a prophet know more than God, concocting his own messages to judge people of sins, assuming he must take control when God doesn't seem to know what His people are doing? A prophet can rightly tell us no one is righteous, getting this truth only from the Lord, for who else can judge us for our sins.

Reckoner: Job knew he was less than righteous because a righteous one would have no need to call on God, begging to be heard, confident in being right with God's eternal truths, trusting in his salvation, needing no audience to argue his case, nothing to explain his fulfillment of the Lord's commandments, assured of his security in being right with God. Striving to be righteous, one can only approach God's holiness, realizing it must be distant to any hope's perception. Job has much to learn, as a recovering sinner, searching for righteousness, to begin looking to the heavens, discovering there God's key to eternal truths.

Job: All your comments, spinning a web to trap my thoughts, suggesting them to be foundations for sin, enlighten me little, giving no evidence whether any sin is less tolerable than others, or maybe living in iniquity with opportunity to cancel sins by confession and repentance is the preferable way to live.

Dumdum: Confession with repentance doesn't help God's problems, hearing cries from the oppressed, demanding retribution for their tormentors, confused when He doesn't respond swiftly. Some are oppressed by seemingly trivial iniquities but these victims can mount up arguments with the best. Job must have a dedicated spokesperson to argue his case and who might supply this need he finds uncertain. When humans suffer a sense of need, God imparts them with the Holy Spirit, energizing their personal spirit by the Spirit of God, sending an advocate to satisfy their needs, ordained to plead their case before our Creator.

Job: Crowning me, establishing me as unique, more than any beastly creature, God gave me reason, equipping me to determine my wants and desires, so why should some additional spirit be needed, sending a postscript to prepare me better, an addendum for using my reason to confront a reasoning God?

Dumdum: A spirit may reveal some truths to give you more wisdom than you can extract from yours. Without the Holy Spirit, you are likely to multiply words without knowledge, forcing you to rely on yourself for advice, commandeering your common sense, trusting your memory to offer suggestions, but no more than human truths you probably heard before, verities once believed but now obsolete.

Job: I could reject all your advice, becoming one who thinks you squander your lives, squabbling in futility, using your reason to talk about an invisible Almighty One, instead of constructing life's meaning for yourself, developing idols to please your being, accumulating wants for making life worthwhile, enriching you to dwell in a happiness of your making. If I don't hear from God, He may compel me to follow my way, the option directed by my reason and common sense. I could recover all I lost without His help, and my doctor can help restore my health.

Dumdum: Beware, God scourges each person He creates, rebuking and chastising those He loves, trusting He loves all His creation, spinning them from His clay of goodness, breathing them into existence with His spirit, indwelling them with a memory of conscience, equipping them for His day of judgment. Don't dare to deny God.

Bystander: (aside) You can never deny God, creating your circumstances, willing you to direct your reactions, responding as you choose, surrounding you with people trusted by your reason, advising you with flattery, exuding confidence in their wisdom, questioning your common sense, impugning your reason, as you deny opportunities He determines to be yours. Job could become the saint God wants him to be by understanding God-sent circumstances offer opportunities.

Reckoner: Does God, giving Job freedom to choose sin, know he will lust after all, attempting to satisfy every want in this world, requiring Him to prepare ways for his punishment, a consequence evident to all human reason?

Dumdum: Your reason can never discern God's, understanding only hints of His thoughts, revealing little for you to know, so in all honesty, your ways can never be His. Bear with me a little to hear things I have yet to say, speaking on God's behalf, trusted to be wisdom He consigned for understanding Job's circumstances. We believe God is mighty and despises no one, making some with power for His purpose, hoping some would grow their strength into righteousness, lamenting others caught in consequences of disobedience, ignoring voices of their innate spirit, becoming entangled in cords of affliction, continuing to pridefully showcase their arrogance, compelling God to recognize their transgressions, commanding them to reject forays into iniquity, to return to their Maker and complete their days in peaceful prosperity, to live with His love, harmony He intended for all creation, to be blessed as the poor in spirit, trusting theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Those responding to His instruction, following His calling, will unseal their memory, revealing hidden iniquities, small as well as large, and confess their sins, trusting our benevolent God will relent, removing the stains of their transgressions and prepare them for rejoining Him in His eternal home. We must never remain ones stricken, refusing to grieve in repentance, scourged ones rejecting any admonishment, accepting no correction, wasting God's time arguing for innocence. We must not use our afflictions to arm us, embattling us to bolder actions, proclaiming blamelessness to justify our life, demanding victory without confessing failure of our ways.

Reckoner: Realizing no one is righteous, no not one, we all believe in the impossibility of living to change, minimizing the Holy Spirit's success within us, dismantling the temple dedicated to be His home, established and waiting to be occupied at our creation, but slowly we decimate its integrity, invoking idols, gluttony, alcohol intoxication, and drug use to distract our being, following thrills of reckless behavior, abandoning ourselves to idol worship, fulfilling lusty desires of all our senses, infatuating us with senseless folly. Job must answer to this, ending his impeachment of God, blaming God for inflicting him with suffering, and acknowledge we are all blameless and upright, realizing none of us can ever claim to be righteous. Nurturing anger as a favorite response to lament his afflictions, Job should have changed his tactics, crying for help, rather than demanding explanations to vindicate an unjustly perceived fate.

Dumdum: God, delivering afflicted ones by suffering, opening their recognition by adversity, revealing sins the blameless hide, calling on the unworthy to accept judgment, unleashes wrath He has concealed from knowing, contesting the decisions to name people blameless, giving sinners little reason to confess, leaving them imprisoned in tempests tormenting their soul.

Bystander: Do we rely on pride to judge, filling us with arrogance during our training, depending on the blameless to be our victims, delivering justice, abhorring anyone's rehabilitation? What can we expect God to do?

Dumdum: Behold God, unquestionably exalted in power, asking if there is any teacher like Him, His way established to be loving and righteous, allowing anyone to say, You have done wrong? Have you lived long enough to evaluate the breadth of His work, to know He can redeem the blameless, to extol His actions and praise Him for being your almighty Creator? You, who must see to believe, trying to imagine your invisible God, calling on your reason and common sense to describe Him, working for us to know Him better, acknowledge your eyes never see Him, and you must depend on the Holy Spirit for His direction, seeking to follow what is deposited in your heart.

Bystander: Also consider how a person can see God who is everywhere, maybe waiting for a vision to observe One so vast, recognizing we have sensual perceptions to see Him now, always evident in His entire creation, witnessed by people having lenses of faith, magnified to perceive and recognize Him in all things.

Dumdum: I never need to call on God to discuss His justice. Sensing His will, my heart trembles and leaps with joy, recognizing His voice speaking through His spirit within me, thundering in a small voice for me to hear, telling of great things I unclearly comprehend, never calling nature to deliver justice, never to use my reason for proclaiming nature's ways, accepting His plan to nurture creation, changing its formations as He judges necessary.

Bystander: Stop and hear my words, Job and all you blameless ones, upright in the eyes of people, spinning your virtues for all to hear; pause to consider the wondrous works of God, laying His command on all creation, bringing His light to shine on all, glorifying His accomplishments, revealing His perfect knowledge, joyfully leading us to praise Him, beckoning us to be transformed, bringing His righteousness near.

Reckoner: Count the many self-proclaimed blameless ones, seldom standing up to recognize God's wondrous works, rarely respecting the power of His doing, occasionally rising up to worship Him, but they fall, grasping failure, thinking falsely, their proclamations never admiring heaven's judgments, dismissing God's announcements, ignoring His promises of eternal life, neglecting His requirements, forgetting His commands to love others as themselves, never living their lives accordingly, shifting them to idle while expecting more than neutral results, neglecting declarations attesting to the promise of heavenly hope, needing little of God's assurance, relying on convictions of their reason, protecting them from any punishing afflictions, isolating them from God by staying uninvolved, remaining out of the Lord's battle, investing their moments in trivial concerns, fighting others, growing wisdom in their own conceit, never believing they should fear Him.

Dumdum: Job, now in the midst of affliction, knows in time he will be given rest, understanding divine wisdom foresees death as a solution to end human tribulations, but he has little patience for anything to happen, whether to hear God's explanation or to know how his afflictions will end, conceding he will never discern His invisible nature, but hoping it would be revealed to him soon.

Bystander: God can come to answer all people babbling in confusion, reminding them they can have the Holy Spirit within them, waiting in His temple, patiently wanting to attend their needs, praying for those turning to righteousness, reporting God's messages to explain His ways, asking of Job, Who is this darkening counsel by words without knowledge? One believing to know something must still learn what to know. What does anyone say? More than the Holy Spirit, directed by God, wants them to know? You were not there when God's breath blew information on the fabric of creation's design, springing all into being and directing all actions, measuring its dimensions from His decisions, weaving in uncertainty to mystify human understanding, creating creatures with innate commands to obligate their nature, creating light essential for all life to thrive, confining darkness to the space of nothingness, created as the residue, arraying room between His lights, giving quarters for some choosing to suffer afflictions, creating humans as one creature to be invested with reason, creating them to have some of The Lord's power, fashioning them to discern more than any beast. By instilling the wisdom of reason in souls of mortal humans, God gives them a gift, endowing them to know much of His knowledge, uncover secrets, enabling them to discover some of the codes He uses for creating and operating everything, but there is still much for them to know, unless they continue to follow paths to self-destruction, ignoring His will for human life to continue.

Reckoner: I accept all of God's thoughts, knowing we must write them on our hearts, remembering them all so we can hold anyone accountable who breaks His laws, blaspheming the Holy Spirit.

Bystander: The Holy Spirit's words for ones willing to hear, tells them to be careful, to never be ones lacking the grace of charity, looking down on neighbors as strangers, never as brothers, despite acknowledgements all were begotten by God, making the blameless hypocrites, claiming wisdom by their own truths, devoted to earthly considerations, insensible to the Spirit's truths, never to be heard, chained from being released within. Do you claim the grace of charity, while boasting wisdom for holding others accountable, as you guard unworthiness hidden, never to be purged from your wishes?

Reckoner: Job's deeds must be unlike ours, seeing him with sufferings we have avoided, afflictions we have escaped, rewarding us with blamelessness, telling him to expose his misdeeds, asking him to remember his sins.

Bystander: So if truly blameless ones can demand the somewhat blameless confess and repent one's sins, how do they differ? By the degree of sinfulness? Doesn't our conscience know a sin is a sin, always a sin. Realizing no one is righteous, people are all hypocrites, and as a sin is a sin, a hypocrite is a hypocrite, always a hypocrite, never able to be righteous, giving no one any right to condemn a brother, but we all have powers to change, drawing on grace to show others mercy, no longer tempting anyone to vilify another, banishing all such thoughts. Remember, only God can judge Job and we must wait to see how that happens.

Reckoner: Job has pretended he is holy, hiding under the guise of good works, rejecting our attempts to console him, to dismiss his blamelessness epithet as hypocritical, pridefully broadcasting his uprightness, abandoning our advice as useless, wondering if all the world's wisdom can help him, as he wanders about, speculating if he will ever again enjoy other's praises, while maintaining arrogant attitudes, estranging him from all others, scorning his creator, blaming Him for all his afflictions, as he finds comfort only in his pride, but with fading trust in his worthiness, little realizing pride has a dead end, leaving him hopeless, never generating grace or mercy, never learning how to love, holding tightly to his remnant, a license for further sin, he sees no reason to change.

Bystander: Job has not tuned into hearing the Holy Spirit, carrying messages from the Lord, asking, Should fault finders contend with the Almighty, ones arguing with God? I wait on their answer. When carefully weighing the good virtues of others, people must enlighten their own deeds with a powerful dose of humility, banishing their pride for at least a moment, acknowledging their ways are like others, equal in never achieving righteousness, living by accepted ways of people, drifting in and out of blamelessness.

Job: Behold, being of small account, how shall I answer you? Must I now kneel before you, donning a mask of humility to face you?

Bystander: I suspect the Lord answers you through His Spirit, believing Him to say, I will question you and expect you to answer honestly, asking whether you declare Him wrong, condemning Him so you may be justified, reinforcing pride in your blamelessness, decking yourself with majesty and dignity, clothing yourself with glory and splendor, compelling you to pour forth anger, demeaning pride of others, degrading their value, vindicating your self-esteem, searching out prideful ones to debase, to tread down as wicked, to judge, reducing them to dust, to matter heading for a world below. Are you like God, making you so, molded in His image, affirming your suppositions of being your own my I Am, thinking He made you as the Behemoth, complete in itself, self-reliant in all circumstances, confident in its power and strength, but lacking reason so it would never know to worship another? You were never made for this except by your hands, willing your way to eminence, preparing for your adoration, sealed for lasting by your pride, training you to build weapons to defend the domain you claim, surrounding you in shadows to conceal your deeds in darkness.

Job: What must I say to convince the Lord of my distress?

Bystander: Have you searched your heart, wanting to hear more of His Spirit's words? Can you will his words to be more convincing, confirming innocence for your blamelessness, or maybe pray you might understand what He is saying.

Job: My reason and common sense have always taught me how to discern God's ways. Cannot reason to believe reveal the Lord's ways?

Bystander: People need more than reason to believe, needing a ring of virtue in their nose, reminding them how they must be led, the ring being the key to follow their innate conscience, provoking them to follow the Lord.

Job: Unsolicited thoughts suggest how to hack into my will power and dismiss any virtue's leading, disclosing how to ignore any power of God, allowing me to do my own thing, making all my decisions right and worthy, justified by my reason.

Reckoner: You can capture decisions of your will and sentence them to your memory's dungeons, never to be considered for pardon or parole to tempt your lust, preventing them from renewing your desires, but confining them forever, never bringing any up for confession, suggests you should call on God.

Job: Who needs to call on God, suggesting what I have already done, calling on Him in vain? Maybe He hears the hope of some, ones unlike me, disappointed, never achieving their dreams, losing battles for their wants, trusting they would surrender all to an invisible God.

Reckoner: Those never accepting defeat, fiercely standing up, challenging God, declaring everything under the heavens to be theirs, are acclaimed by godless ones, proclaimed as icons worthy of adoration, persons for all seasons. Was this Job, never calling on the Lord before, but now awakened to question His justice?

Bystander: In becoming an icon, an idol to himself, he asks, Who has given to me anything, obligating me to repay? Proudly proclaiming his self-made accomplishments, he owes others nothing, being the icon he is, the stone-faced idol doing nothing but gather dust, while confirming he is a self-proclaimed leviathan, a dubious capture for his soul, never knowing God promises, I will bless those who have humble and contrite hearts, who tremble at my word. But those who choose their own ways, delighting in their detestable sins, will never have any offerings accepted--never even to boast their self-worth--seeing their pleas unheard, as God sends them great trouble, all the things they fear, for when He called they did not answer, when He spoke they did not listen.

Reckoner: You recognize my intent, to unmask Job, showing he is no icon, maybe blameless but never worthy to be worshipped, but I understand justice little when so many wear its mask, concealing all they really are, revealing what they want to be, playing imaginary roles on their fantasized stage of life, catering to the world's lusts, protecting all other celebrants from being admonished, ignoring their revels, bonding all upright ones in mutual defense against righteousness.

Bystander: Called by the Lord of Heaven's Armies, telling you to weep and mourn, instructing you to shave your heads, to admit sorrow for your sins, wearing clothes of burlap to cover iniquities, showing remorse for unworthiness, you ignore God's voice, continuing to dance and play, slaughtering creation's bounty, reveling in your desire's extravagance, feasting on more than your needs, proclaiming let's indulge, feast and drink, for tomorrow we die.

Job: I know the Lord is empowered to do all things, having purposes protected from being thwarted, never revealing His counsel to ones rejecting the Holy Spirit, ones forming all wisdom from their own knowledge, ones urging me to utter what I did not understand, ignoring things too wonderful for me to know. Hear me now Lord, requesting, no begging, to correct my ignorance, recognizing at last You understand all our thoughts, believing no one can hide from Your knowing, not even from silent secrets of our minds, recognizing You are ready to instruct us with Your unseen aspirations, rewarding ones humbly confessing their ignorance. Therefore, I despise myself, repenting in dust and ashes, as I begin to listen and follow the Holy Spirit, no longer ignoring what He urges me to know.

Bystander: (aside) God clearly said to Job, Do you think I deal with you in any other way than to make you only appear righteous, calling your appearance sufficient for Me to name you blameless? We know you lament in frustration, complaining over your afflictions, never for condemning your actions but for justifying all your deeds, your worthiness to merit being called blameless.

Job: My self-pity gave way, yielding to despondency, as I was exhausted by shame and dishonor, tormented by my adversaries, whipping me with scornful words, vomiting their truths, making me more unclean, unloading gifts of their wisdom, until I recognized

self-pity revealed its nature, failure in doing things my way, inheriting consequences of my truths, looking for something to blame, someone to accuse, vainly to justify my adversities, never considering it a sin of my own doing, common to all attested to be blameless. Have we heard it all, convincing us there is nothing new under the sun?

Bystander: What do you expect from a debate with God, wallowing in self-pity, knowing you grieve His Spirit, calling on Him to justify your adversity, afflictions orchestrated by circumstances you chose to implement, never realizing, despite your expectations, He is adequately sufficient to supply all your needs. Silence is all your will hear from Him until you recover from your tantrum, giving you time to experience impatience, waiting for His unknown moment to come.

Job: I trusted with understanding we can walk uprightly, asking who can criticize our wisdom, formed from our breadth of knowledge, trusting in it to last until our purpose vanishes, disappearing with the multitude of comrades supporting our decisions. Now I begin to claim no importance for myself, knowing I have never been worthy to be called righteous, accepting God's justification for all my circumstances, confessing now I was never worthy of bowing down to His majesty, begging for His answers, never wanting to discern His will for me, never accepting His qualifications for me to become sanctified, never knowing what could change for my purpose.

Bystander: After sanctification it is not difficult to identify your purpose, God having moved you into His justification, revealed only through the Holy Spirit, heard by your willingness to listen, dismissing anything from your myself's will, seeking to magnify yourself, believing "God has called me for this and not for that", barricading God from using you. As long as you remain captive to your own interests and personal ambitions, you cannot share or even discern God's interests, calling you to develop absolute faith in Him and His goodness. Self-pity from failures intensified by self-interest, satisfying demons, leaves one wallowing, useless in serving God's purpose. Nevertheless, as human suffering continues, people never understand God's purpose completely, with Him never clearly announcing His way to all, knowing it would make them spiritually proud, seeking shortcuts for the long road home.

Job: Truly, sanctification promises me much hope, knowing my sins will be forgiven, trusting an end for needing sacrifices to gods, confession becoming my solution, in sacrifice becoming a continual praise to God, proclaiming my allegiance to His name.

Needing no answers for my earlier requests, badgering God to accept hearing my arguments, I would like to know more of His ways, thereby explaining some mysteries I cannot fathom.

Reckoner: You will not be the only one. Ask so we might know.

Job: God, having had eons to create and rule, planning His tenure to be unending, extending beyond infinity, begs to never answer why He created me to exist no more than a moment, believing He should suffer my fleeting time with afflictions, giving me little peace, unfilled with joy, accomplishing only brief instances of happiness, a mysterious gift found only on earth. Is creating me to suffer only to make me hate His created world, telling me He might have something better to come? I expect no answer.

Bystander: Reaching his limits of frustration, despising himself beyond endurance, regretting all his words, Job now confesses, accepting all his unworthy actions, realizing only confession can reward him with redemption, preparing him for repentance which he now freely entrusts to his hopelessness, impossible before without confession, deploring his prideful ways after suffering through God's pages of wisdom to discover what he was. Confession bridges all ways to escape pride, converting one to repentance, understanding repentance without confession provides a porous mantle of security, penetrated by frequent sharp pains of remorse, waiting for confession to collide with a person's respectable goodness, convictions of being blameless, adequate to be upright, never compelling one to struggle for more, never to enter treacherous waters, floundering to reach righteousness' shore, battling to remain afloat, bobbing about in a sea of seemingly faultless sins, never comprehending wonders waiting, fulfillment of salvation's promises, interwoven by confession's conviction of sin, repentance, forgiveness, and holiness, opening the way to God's kingdom.

Reckoner: Must we, Job's counselors, also be required to make confession as the basis for our redemption, needing it to become righteous?

Bystander: Confession begins Job's run for righteousness, allowing God to begin his redemption, revealing Himself more, giving Job more of His knowledge, enabling him to comprehend God's grace, mercifully planned for human beings, leaving ones unconfessed behind, without escape from their my-selves, continuing to claim blamelessness, basing their goodness on imperfect knowledge, comprehending understandings incompletely, suffering misfortune of their reason and common sense, continuing to justify their pride and hypocrisy.

Job: Hopefully, repentance dependent on confession will bless me, scour my past from memory, cleanse me of my sins, dismiss my self-pity, accept circumstances God placed in my way, and I now pray for nothing but sanctification, seeking more than freedom from sin, deliberately committing myself to God, my salvation, by following His way, the only path to righteousness, as I willingly pay the cost. The Lord baptizes me now, ordaining me to witness, to tell others blamelessness is never enough, sacrificing empty words, promising no rewards, exacting only tokens of worship, expecting upright ones to honor the Lord, but hearing Him now, He tells us He is no longer satisfied with sacrifice, demanding instead complete surrender to Him. What I suffered can be expected for people seeking sanctification by trusting in the power of sacrifice without confession, thinking it can atone for sins, cleansing us with forgiveness, empowering the divine miracle of grace.

Dumdum: Seeing what God now does for Job, we can honor him as a new priest, ordained by God, sent to call all upright ones to bring Him offerings, precious gifts of confession sacrificing for their sins, judging him able now to deal gently with ignorant ones, subject to his same weaknesses, with Job praying they could be redeemed like him, hoping God would justify them all, succeeding where other high priest's judgments failed.

Bystander: God sent Job's friends His spirit, ordaining them to be His messengers, prophets selected for a finite time, instructing them with His plan, telling them to show Job the prideful ways of blameless people, to gain humility for revealing their deceit, initiated only by confession, and God could not emphasize His message without hastening fate's coming circumstances for Job's life.

Dumdum: Does God think we did not speak His truths, exposing the faults of Job's blamelessness?

Bystander: Ones accusing Job's friends of lies are blameless ones--call them hypocrites as all upright people are--seeking to show Job his pride and lack of humility caused his suffering, as truly blameless ones believe if he was righteous he would never had deserved his suffering circumstances. See here how blameless ones write stories on how injustice serves upright people. Blameless Job carefully reasoned his case, using arguments taking many words to counter God's silence, but he never found the key to become right with God until now.

Job: I pray now for my siblings and friends, knowing at last the Lord hears me, one now filled with the Holy Spirit, having confessed, completing my renewal with repentance, trusting my prayers will intercede and bring them all to believe more in Him. Was I destined for this, never realizing this purpose when I was secure in my blamelessness, basking in the accolade of others, supporting pride in my uprightness.

Bystander: God chooses to bless you now, restoring your wealth beyond numbers, rewarding you for your change of heart, inscribing on it your promises to follow Him, redesigning it to accommodate the Holy Spirit.

Job: Changing my goals, I no longer wish to be honored by wealth or measure success by treasured idols, and cease to decorate my self-esteem with other's praise, no longer choosing favored places on life's intersection to gain other's attention, wanting no more to win other's admiration, realizing at times to perhaps be empty, but usually enough as in the past to satisfy and sustain my pride.

Dumdum: What other honor would you rather have now?

Job: Recognizing wealth here is unreal, depending on other upright as well as have-not people to acknowledge its importance, realizing all will be snatched away by time, I choose now to deposit treasures accepted for banking in heaven, and look to the Lord for deciding on the things He values and promises to reward. I may have exalted my desires, priding me for more, deserved for my great achievements, but I now recognize others as brothers, assigning me to be their keeper, committed to counsel them, urging them to rise above blamelessness and discover ways to implement righteousness.

Dumdum: I once looked to the ways of my brothers to justify your suffering, but as one like them, suffering with self-righteousness, I trusted their wisdom, biased by pride, never blessed with humiliation, damaged by the ravages of time, to form my thoughts.

Job: I forgive all who proclaimed my suffering was justified, honoring their honesty, bringing me to recognize my virtueless blamelessness, realizing how it prevented me from confessing and repenting. God blesses me now by renewing my happiness with a new family, a circumstance providing the opportunity to show how they must mature into people never dependent on being blameless, to believe they must be more. I trust I will know them more than my first family, educated by me to be an unworthy example for, measuring merit by success, fulfilling desires, celebrating achievements, toasting to all which passes away, treasured as blessings, believing they attest to embracing uprightness.

Bystander: The One having the power to bless, blesses Job, sparing a life seemingly deserved to be ended, His grace protecting him from death, saving him for a day when he would be ready to confess, acknowledging his mentionable and unmentionable sins to all, resurrecting memory of iniquities relegated to remain sealed during his lifetime.

Blessed to be a Blessing

Joseph: Bless those opening Job's eyes, prompting him to acknowledge his sins, veiled in security by proclamations of blamelessness, showing he must confess his unworthiness to repent, only thereby to initiate a standing with the Lord, transfiguring him, preparing him to become righteous. I trusted in a relationship with God from my memory's beginnings, starting before any visions He laid on me, suspecting He had plans for me when He led father to make me a special coat, one to promote my brothers' envy, inciting trials laced with jealously, tormenting me with fear, threatening to afflict death, trusting it to erase their hatred for me, but they decided on banishment, a reprieve to pacify their conscience, the only blessing coming to give me peace, as I was destined to wait on others for tormenting my soul. I know now these trials--selected by God--were for testing my patience, challenging my trust, waiting to see if I would scream in frustration, deploring God for His answer, asking why I must suffer, but I remained silent, never asking Him why, seeking no response to understand His plans, trusting in His ways for my life, still believing He has good reason for His actions, accepting they are only for Him to know, acknowledging His thoughts will never be mine. I still wait patiently because He puts me in a position I have never been prepared for, but I trust He will teach me on the job.

Bystander: Joseph contends with people whose truth springs up from the earth, suffering torments from their ways, but he waits silently with patience knowing righteousness blesses him, smiling down from heaven.

Job: Patience is nothing the Lord gifted me with. Blessed with common sense, working my wisdom to accumulate wealth, I relied on reason to confront God, demanding answers from Him as would anyone here, expecting some sort of explanations, thinking if flimsy they would be easy to counter, if necessary giving me grounds to blame Him, realizing blame is always necessary to accept closure, and blaming Him could satisfy me, but He remained silent, maybe hearing my complaints and refusing to reply, frustrating me when He could have given me answers. My common sense told me I missed nothing by having little patience.

Joseph: God has heard your confessions and accepted your repentance, and you need no more sacrifices to reach out for righteousness, realizing He has restored your health, resolving your afflictions, acknowledging your changes, and He prepares you to live your remaining life in contentment, showing others how the Lord can bless their lives. He still has me struggling, many times uncertain, seeking to be sure of His way, as I wait patiently to know how my life is to play out.

Job: I must now live out my life in this never promised land, exiled from my fore bearer's roots, forced to learn a new language, trusting God to put His desires in my new words, expecting me to tell pagans about our God, realizing my words will distress their traditions, their reliance on wood and stone figures, unable to speak but trusted to listen and hear their supplications, begging in vain for blessings never coming from dead wood or harvested stone. God sends me as a missionary here, having destroyed all my wealth, sending thieves, slipping in as rust to tarnish my treasures, killing my progeny, destroying all I loved, valued above all other things, knowing I must put all my once possessed behind, once connecting me with love for the world, idolized treasures, knowing now they would always interfere with my efforts for the Lord. I should have been a stranger in this world before, but wasn't and now I will be committed to actions promising to never hamper my relationship with the Lord. He will never have to ask me, Do you love me, Do you love me, Do you love me. Such now constitutes my richer blessings, greater than everything I lost. Mark me as the first missionary to Africa.

Joseph: Pharaoh appoints me to oversee something many people will dislike, telling them how to farm and give a portion to the kingdom, saving it for distribution determined during times of future needs, putting me in a tyrannical position, accusing me of stealing from them, using the king's power to redistribute wealth, insuring all will share during lean years certain to come. You can help me with this.

Job: We lived with abundance, providing more than needed, living off lands more fertile than necessary, stripping them bare of promise, stealing their wealth, accumulating all their inherent treasure, only to foster gluttony, resulting in fat and never sleek attitudes, developing infirmities exacted by indulgence, prematurely aging people's bodies, seeing ones stumble into obesity, never experiencing starvation exacted by lean years, never accepting wisdom of ones living with moderation, suffering little without assistance during good times as well as bad. Have we lost trust in God, always providing us with manna, producing no more than needed, never missing days of production, as we now will be confronted by feast and famine, depending no longer on God, but on people for sustaining needed provisions. Was my previous wealth, accumulated by hoarding, depriving others of their basic needs for survival? My new mission is teach people to trust in the Lord, promising manna to insure provision for all their needs.

Joseph: I have been made to suffer by many, all for different reasons, for some provoked by envy, for one led by lustful eyes, beseeching me with passionate words, all for managing their dignity, satisfying their need to be someone. Can I be on a mission for God, one under His direction, trusting He now brings to completion the visions He revealed many years ago?

Job: I have no uncertainty, confidently trusting God now directs my life, changing me to forget everything I lost, sanctifying me so my old desires disappear, no longer binding me to my way or veiling me in blamelessness, hiding all attractions to tempt me, dismissing lust blinding me to its charms, as I am now born again, rejoicing in the Holy Spirit released now, speaking to transfigure my soul, delivering me to follow His light, empowering me to recognize God's mandates, discarding unworthy ones having deceived me to power sinful wants, freeing me to always walk in His ways, acknowledging He is the light, creating all by His Word. Out of darkness I come, released from the world's ways, still encountering trials but recognizing them as opportunities, directing me to actions often uncertain to my discernment.

Joseph: You now are blessed above all others, abandoning your treasured harvest of blamelessness, decreed by people to satisfy your pride, as you now fill your soul with the Lord's food, preparing a way to follow righteousness. I still have some ways to go.

Job: I begin a new life by praying for friends, ones having counseled me, expressing their concerns, but knowing little how to help me, unable to soothe my suffering or mend my afflictions, never understanding my healing could only be by my awakening, to never blame it on another's failure, but they advised as best they knew, trying to comfort me while awakening me to acknowledge my sinfulness.

Dumdum: We sense the Lord admonishing us, blaming us for giving you inappropriate advice, thinking ours was the best the world could offer, so we will all join in preparing a sacrifice, destroying some of our choicest animals, burning them to offer God a pleasing aroma.

Job: Burning flesh of the Lord's creations produces aroma pleasing to no one, generating only the stench of destruction, showing humans the errors of their ways, thrusting their fingers at someone else, assigning one to be blamed, but they destroy themselves, never knowing the Lord they believe in, ignoring His glory while shamed with their household gods, believing their sacrifices save them from idol worship, ignoring God who tells them He wants no sacrifices, telling hearers many times the folly of following ancient pagan rites. He wants people to sacrifice their bodies to Him, all their thoughts and deeds to purify their souls, pleasing Him with good deeds and sharing with those in need, never glorifying this as success, but as obedience securing His purpose.

Dumdum: We blameless ones all hear to give sacrificially, parting with our wealth to be blessed many times over, giving God enough so we can name it and claim it, to be blessed without being a blessing, making sacrifices so we can continue life as we choose to live.

Job: If my friends did me wrong, spreading lies, being prophets to explain how justice was mandatory for my sins, can I change them by my forgiveness, without seeking their forgiveness for accusations believed by them to be right? The blameless seldom admit wrongdoings, and I can only accept what God chooses to be given and demand nothing more.

Dumdum: On becoming a righteous one, divorcing yourself from this world, expect ridicule from blameless and upright people, creating for yourself no home, in isolation from relationships, an island to yourself, impossible for any human being, worse than your recent afflictions.

Bystander: Those choosing to live in compliance with God's edicts will suffer persecution, so be prepared for distress in this world, acknowledging they must endure great tribulations to enter the kingdom of God.

Joseph: I was rescued from previewing death's home of isolation, pits of a dungeon, freeing me to return to this world, enlisting me to determine deeds never leading to righteousness, perhaps impeding my way to savor God's glory with a garment robing me in royal uprightness, similar to my cloak of youth, destroyed and camouflaged with animal blood, stained with innocent blood to deceive the ignorant, witnessing my anxiety mount to a climax. Was I to experience more of the world, insuring my distress would never abate? My faith has never been based on experience, outcomes of my life's circumstances, proving my faith has survived them all, trusting my faith grows with my love for God, depending less on following His decrees, thinking they build my faith to a higher level by merely exercising tenets of His truths.

Bystander: As foretold by God, abundance served its time, making way for famine's arrival, ceasing accumulation of labor's fruit, coveted for gaining wealth, beginning distribution of stored grains, harvest's yields saved to nourish all in times of need, revealing the Lord's wisdom implemented in Joseph's decisions.

Joseph: I could easily fall into apathy, disinterest, except for my position's splendors generously appointed by the king, but dwelling in luxury would likely erase my memories, such as done with the butler until he was nudged to a act, to remember a promise he had made and forgotten. To assure this wouldn't happen to me, I named my first-born so I would forget my past sufferings and express my constant gratitude and I named my second to testify God made me fruitful in the land of my affliction, bringing me prosperity out of nothingness.

Job: I will be with you, never leaving the one who helped me see myself, advising you to never do as I did, accumulating wealth to pridefully show prosperity, changing now to be at your side, securing spiritual nourishment together, showing us how to avert famine's consequences.

Bystander: Nothingness, scattering famine's threat throughout the land, was thwarted at Joseph's behest, disrupted by his wisdom, his decision to ration food, rationing enough to satisfy people's needs during good times, permitting none to be accumulated as wealth, filling stores to overflowing, saving enough to meet everyone's needs during lean years. When drought famished Egypt, people came to Pharaoh, asking to meet their needs, only to hear him say, Go to Joseph, do what he tells you to do, you returning at evening, hungering like dogs.

Joseph: People come, begging me for food, calling me lord of Pharaoh's abundance, proclaiming me the shepherd sent to minister to their needs, and the Lord wills me to pity them, leading me to tell them, Come, eat my bread. I feed them, leaving no one to lack nourishment, trusting I can feed any multitude, expecting the entire world to come, seeking the bread of life, knowing we can feed them all, as we ask only what they can pay, now watching the gaunt and emancipated come, seeking a share, no longer witnessing our fatted ones, basking as before in contentment.

Job: Everyone who hungers, suffering from famine, is told, Come to the abundance secured by our moderation, nourished by the wisdom of living waters, welcoming all with or without money, come for the bread of life, knowing God always provides, distributing His wealth to meet our needs. Our commission is now revealed, ordaining us with gifts from God to represent His love, adopting His love to assure equality for all, disbursing needs as He does with manna, sustaining everything we require, fulfilling His promises made at creation. Let no one hold back, welcoming all, taking no consideration of one's poverty, embracing all who have little, offering only a life to share, trusting in a faithful God.

Joseph: The Lord never honors wealth, asking little but one's unneeded things to share, a portion of all He has given us, expecting us to be graceful, showing mercy by sharing with impoverished ones. Now people come from other lands, sent by who knows, hearing from someone of our bounty, maybe God, taking pity on His hungry creation, suffering from poverty of food, distributed unequally for many to suffer, coming to beg sustenance from our treasures, and maybe somehow convinced God has chosen one to allocate His harvests, believing His words stating Come, eat my bread and be nourished by all I have to offer, asking you to trust little except the Lord will provide. Thus, they come to learn what faith can do, and leaving they learn God is love, always there to answer their needs.

Job: God, placing me here to assist you, showing how faithful He is, full of grace and mercy, feeding all as He promised, blessing me as I relinquished my old life, immersed in believing my role was to find happiness, trusting in my accumulated treasures, none of which I have now, has changed me, living only to please Him.

Bystander: Finding your gift without looking far, remember prophets reporting God's words, Behold the days come, and I will send forth a famine on the land, not a famine of bread or thirst for water but a famine for hearing the word of the Lord. Consider this famine prevailing over the land. Those minding earthly things cannot perceive things which are of the Spirit of God, and suffer a famine of understanding Him so famine recurs and continues, waiting until people meditate on God's law day and night.

Job: Let those weak in understanding come to me, bringing their will to listen and hear God's wisdom, reporting on my recent discovery.

Bystander: God reveals His wisdom in bits and pieces, trusting progressive revelations to guide people's thoughts, as He confronts them with unexpected circumstances, confounding their best-laid plans, convinced by dim-witted ones to be trials, but they are sent by Him as opportunities, coming at a cost, expecting a price to be paid, counting on payment for everything, in this case giving up one's dearest treasures, completing the circle, taking some away what He had given. What is the cost here?

Joseph: I must listen to Pharaoh's direction, setting a price for all grain, selling it to cover his Kingdom's expenses, accumulating enough to meet future cycles of abundance and famine. During this famine, having had so much demand from outsiders, our grain prices had to increase, and soon Egypt's people have to draw on resources other than their money to buy grain, using their cattle first, then their land, and finally selling themselves into bondage to survive.

Job: Do they sell themselves into slavery, never for survival, but for continuing a life they cherish, enslaving themselves to dependence on Pharaoh, but freely independent to live ways of their true king, following ways of their will, enslaving them to be servants of sin?

Bystander: Affected by the famine, now throughout this part of the world, Joseph's family suffered as others, and hearing of the availability of grain in Egypt, Jacob looked at Joseph's brothers and suggested they journey there to buy food, else they starve and die, never knowing their venture could doom them to bondage in a foreign land, despite God's warning, a country He told them before to never enter. So ten of Jacob's sons traveled to Egypt, leaving Benjamin the youngest to remain with his father, who feared harm could take the only remaining memory of his favorite wife, Rachel, now long-deceased. Did Jacob ever understand fear is never of the Lord, never His doing, despite being taught reverence he must have for the Lord conspires for him to believe reverence joins fear with awe to worship God, forgetting love for those never inclined to love Him.

A Rainbow on the Horizon

Job: We have a group of strangers, brothers, coming from north of us, a place they call home of Israel, to buy food. Here they are to meet you.

Bystander: Bowing down, addressing Joseph as a lord, honoring his position, believing he might be holy, hopefully expecting him to be just and righteous, the brothers approached fearfully, trembling before someone believed to be unknown, maybe honored as a god by his pagan subjects.

Joseph: (speaking through an interpreter, never in the language of Hebrews) Do you band of strangers always bow down to ones in authority, following some custom in your land, or maybe fulfilling some prophetic vision, one your family may have had, thinking the heavens proclaim me, one unknown to you, righteous, every nation seeing me in glory, or do you worship idols, thinking I brag about worthless gods, expecting we all must bow down to them?

Reuben: Speaking as the oldest, we have no such custom, but fear we must honor one we seek to do business with, following our God's instructions to venerate leader's positions, ones anointed by Him to serve His creation

Joseph: Where are you from?

Reuben: We come from the land of Canaan, parched, in want, its land scorched, fomenting famine, denying growth for anything, forcing us to travel here, seeking to buy food, hearing your wisdom has led you to husband your grain, saving it from greedy accumulations by wanting hoarders.

Joseph: (aside to Job) These are my brothers, having flagrantly violated God's charge to be their brother's keeper, having justified their hatred for me, accusing me of pride, proclaiming my visions lorded myself over them, being arrogant as my father's favorite, adored as the first son of his favorite wife, coveting the garment he gave me, a coat of no special mention, but visioned by them as one of splendor. How can I be civil to them?

Job: Accommodate them as any stranger coming in quest of food, knowing the Lord would never deny them. Continue speaking in your Egyptian tongue, and knowing their language I will continue as your interpreter.

Joseph: Suspecting this band of brothers to be spies, they come to determine the weakness of our land, sneaking in as a group, trusting each one will see what another may overlook. I consider you to be spies.

Reuben: No, my lord, but to buy food have your servants come, never as spies enlisted for some military design, but merely as brothers, the sons of one man in Canaan. We are your servants, always having been honest men, never thinking to come as spies.

Joseph: Convince me you are not spies, coming to see how your ravaged country can sneak in and find a way to steal our wealth.

Reuben: We are twelve brothers, ten of whom you see, with one, the youngest, remaining with our father, and one being with us no more. We come on behalf of our family, no one else, begging you to trust us, ten men intending no conspiracy to steal anything of yours, never planning to discover your strength and weaknesses, journeying all this way only to buy food for our families.

Joseph: I must test you, to examine your experience, to discern whether you have ever feared the unknown of being in a pit, a dungeon for three days, before being resurrected to freedom, trying you with an ordeal, giving me time to judge your intent, watching if your maturity might reflect you have wisdom molded by honesty, testing me as well, my patience in waiting for an answer, determining an outcome for your fate.

Job: (aside to Joseph) Are you testing your brothers or God, looking for reasons to justify vengeance, convincing the Lord to lend you retribution, conferred by Him to satisfy your wrath, gleefully finding the time has come, most fitting to punish their wicked deed, but perhaps with consequences, sealing your fate, sending you to perdition? Wait the three days, hoping them to pass swiftly, giving you time to avoid a blunder, a tempest of impetuosity, to reveal whether love or retribution will rule your passion, to discover God's intent for your action, which may not be for striking revenge, remembering His admonition, telling all vengeance is only His to claim.

Joseph: Who would have ever thought I would see my family again. Have them do the things I say, seeing love prevail as God commands, living with no need for vengeance, for if I must fear God, I love Him more.

Bystander: Job continues to translate Joseph's following words for his brothers.

Job: Show us you are upright by accepting this offer, truly one of grace and mercy, sending you into limbo for a mere three days, giving him time to speak with his Lord, praying to Him, searching His wisdom for answers.

Reuben: Your master is generous but he demands strange terms, judging us for commitment to a pit of uncertainty, giving us little reason why. Let me consult with my brothers, even though our fate is already decided.

Judah: Why do they wish to isolate us in idle time, certain to be useless except for fearful imaginations, resurrecting of our past, bringing back troubling deeds, reminding us of actions our conscience labored for years to forget, forcing our memory to recall, beseeching us to confess, admitting we are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we still picture his anguished soul, pleading with us in vain, but we silenced our hearing, considering nothing he said, drowning out his pleas with our unvoiced responses, assuring we never intended to consider his begging supplications, and now our circumstances have come full circle, recycling our distress to a new form, changing us from being stricken with envy to become victims deserving retribution, realizing invisible vengeance now comes as a cloud to darken our day, one hoping for something better, acknowledging distress indeed comes upon us?

Reuben: My innocence is claimed for your deeds. Did I not speak to you, saying, do not sin against the boy, but you would not listen? Therefore behold, blood of a lamb returns now to condemn us, requiring us to endure his trials, perhaps soon compelling us to confess all, but never able to right our wrongs, never cleansing the blood from his shredded garment.

Judah: Thinking you are blameless, confess your complicity in telling father of Joseph's fate, lying, presenting evidence to suggest his death, concealing the truth hidden by his bloody coat. Did we ever confess our sinful deed to cast out Joseph from memory's presence forever?

Job: I hear you hide a story from telling. I once possessed dignified blamelessness, known to be upright, believing all my afflictions were unjustly inflicted, complaining to deaf ears, proclaiming God's mercy spoke nothing to satisfy my understanding, compelling me to heed prophet's unwanted words, counseling me with their own wisdom, convincing me of unworthiness, denouncing me for never striving to become righteous, hiding my unworthiness behind a veil of blamelessness, concealing my true self, but transparent to God who was instructing the Holy Spirit, speaking directions I never chose to hear. Finally all my afflictions descended on me, bringing me to suffer, brought to bear as for all humans, awakening me to the Lord's demands, telling me to confess my sins, paving a new way, the only one leading to righteousness, forcing me to forget any claim for blamelessness, once shielding me from accountability by the world, but never protecting me from condemnation by God. Offer confession, trusting it as your only bridge to righteousness.

Reuben: We are not ready for your suggestion, broadcasting our wrong doings for all to see, degrading our character, making us like everyone else, damaging our dignity, destroying our pride, tarnishing our identity as God's chosen ones.

Job: My master has decided, needing three days for wisdom to consider your fate.

Bystander: (aside) Joseph already knew what he would do, never needing three days for a decision, but asking for three days to confirm his judgment would be from the Lord.

Joseph: (aside to Job) I forgave my brothers long ago, but can I ever know if they will acknowledge their misdeeds, exiling me from a happy life, away from my loved ones. The innocent trial I propose is viewed by them as a calamity, holding them hostage to time needed for deliberations, as I wait on hearing from the Lord, trusting He would resolve all with a new opportunity, one never intended for retribution, one He would favorably entertain, knowing my desire to reunite with my young brother, commanding the band of brothers to return with this beloved one, last in coming, following me from my mother's womb, coming as most-favored from my beloved source. Why would they hide him from me now? Can this be of God's doing? Could he be not well in body and spirit, trained to deceitful living as his brothers, or maybe he is enslaved to a mediocre life, serving their pleasures, denying his needs, hiding their displeasure of him from father as they did with me, scheming to make his life one of nothingness. Can I trust them without seeing my youngest brother?

Job: My master confiding in me, offering you brothers a merciful answer, wanting to grant your request, acknowledges you must truly have needs, coming so far to save your family. Repeating his words, he tells you: Do this and you will live, for I fear God, asking you if you are honest men to let one of your brothers remain in prison, and l will release the rest of you, letting you go to carry grain for alleviating the famine of your households, but only on the promise of returning, bringing your youngest brother with, verifying your word's integrity, assuring none of you will die.

Reuben: He says he fears God, but we know nothing about his gods, witnessing them as nothing more than speechless idols, silent figures of wood and stone, unable to be trusted, absurdly vying with our only true God.

Job: Conversing together, the brothers agree to the master's proposal, believing they have no other choice, confirming their decision in unity, telling me, In truth we are guilty, accepting blame, being envious in our youth, despising favored ones, witnessing distress from hatred laid on innocent souls, begging for mercy, hoping for grace to save our afflicted family, certain to be unforgiven, condemned to be dysfunctional, each one with a legacy of marred blessings, tarnishing their blamelessness with silence, beginning now to distress them greater, reaching out for someone to listen, but they found no one there, only silence as when Joseph sought attention, isolated in the pit where no one could hear, bringing on the brothers an instigation of their own doing.

Reuben: I told told my brothers not to sin against the lad? But they would not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood,

Job: Are you prepared yet to clean out your part in this deed, confessing your role, or is it to late, knowing a blameless one can soon forget how to repent, leaving a sin to stain your family forever?

Judah: Proven to be still lacking compassion, ignoring our needs, we experience agony in your demands.

Bystander: How many trials does it take to awaken one to the need for confession? God knows and He patiently delivers them until sinners relent, giving up their will to Him, abandoning their wants and desires.

Joseph: Whatever it takes, God directs me to show my brothers the folly of their pride, lasting beyond time, from the day their envy was satisfied. I am satisfied with their present distress, tribulations deserved in coming, driving them beyond the comfort of their blamelessness. No vengeance can change them, and I weep now, praying they might hear God's calling for confession, acknowledging no hatred has ever been in my blood, for enmity can never be reconciled with doing God's will.

Job: The master instructs his servants to bind the brother called Simeon, doing it for you all to see, sending him to prison, waiting for love to remove his fetters, releasing him from the brother's denials of the one no more, scattering the remaining band of brothers, never knowing if they will be seen again, sending them back to the uncertainty of their blamelessness.

Joseph: Look upon my brothers. Do they show any more concern for Simeon in bondage than they did for me in chains? Are they concerned they might have one less of their kind? Would they hasten to return because of love for him? God only knows, revealing if they are their brother's keeper.

Reuben: Simeon leaves us for a time, who knows how long, maybe until our longing for him drives us to return, perhaps when our food is gone, hoping our love for him will never be abandoned.

Bystander: On Joseph's orders, every returning brother's sack was filled with grain, and the money each brought to buy grain was put into each one's sack without their knowledge. What was this intended to do? Ones living fearfully all their lives, threatened by unacceptable relationships, acknowledging this jeopardizes any integrity they claim, especially now for their dealings in Egypt, marking them dishonest unless they immediately return to remedy this perception as a mistake, might wonder what consequences would ensue upon discovery of their true nature? Would returning the money immediately not be too late, to never believe it was stolen rather than a mistake, returning it in confession rather than as an oversight, perhaps correcting it as an error requiring no confession, needing nothing for which to repent, allowing them to continue their home-bound journey. After one day's departure, stopping for rest, one of the brothers, opening his sack, was astonished with what he found.

Reuben: With my burdened beast, tired and hungry, slowing, wanting to trudge no further, signaling me to stop for rest, withholding any more progress, unwilling to suffer another step, I satisfied her, and on opening my sack, ready to scoop out a share of grain, look what I find, money glittering greater than any amber harvest, golden coins somehow finding there way into my sack, sneaking their way back into my possession, here in the mouth of my pack. Trembling at this undeserved treasure, a finding one should rejoice in seeing, I shutter what it might mean for me, an ominous fortune or sinister misfortune, pleading to God for He knows the answer, What is this You have done to me?

Bystander: This may be God's grace, the priceless gift nothing can barter, generosity providing His promised abundance, assuring His faithfulness for all. Is your trust in Him sufficient always, believing your find might be an undeserved reward, or perhaps He is testing you, determining if your faith is aroused by fear, needed to build your trust, making it fearless, never for fearing, trusting faith can never tolerate fear, suspecting it is of His doing?

Judah: We cannot return and must move on, reminded by the master's most compelling command: Return with your youngest brother, most important for him but never for our understanding, suggesting his need to understand our relationships more than to count our wealth. Would it be more important to carry out his wishes or to return treasures straying from his riches? Does it take this money, a mere token of his abundance, to bring on fear or to remind us its value is less than any relationship we should protect? The master tells us not to return without our youngest brother, seeming to be treasured more than these coins.

Bystander: Coming home to Canaan, to their father Jacob, they told him all that they experienced in Egypt.

Reuben: One we met, known as the master, the Lord of Egypt, seeming to be indifferent, speaking harshly, took us to be spies, stealing glimpses of his land's weaknesses, which his reason could not justify. Speaking to convince him we are honest men, never known to deceive anyone, unprepared by our virtues to be dishonorable, unable to be snoops, we told him we are twelve brothers, sons of one father, one being no more, with the youngest home this day with our father in the land of Canaan. Then the master, skeptical of everything we told him, tested us by saying, By this I shall know you are honest men, leave one of your brothers with me, take grain for the famine of your households, and go your way, leaving a brother hostage to assure your return, coming back with your youngest brother to verify your claims for being upright, confirming you are not spies but honest men, and I will deliver your brother from confinement and you can trade in the land.

Bystander: The brothers emptied their sacks and found money scattered in each one.

Jacob: Should I suspect hidden rewards, coming with concealed intents, offering no explanations, greeting them as the Trojan horse, waiting to steal my peace, destroying my being, wondering why a human would reason to give a gift without payment, especially for precious ones to sustain life? Are humans made to be so generous, giving gifts, expecting nothing in return? Could this be a concealed bribe, attracting my attention, veiling my eyesight, blinding me, enabling someone to steal the remaining of my most loved one, distracting me with unexpected bounty, returning wealth I had spent, dedicated to save my family, and now tempting me to abandon more relationships, consuming my efforts devoted to a lifetime of being human.

Judah: The decision will be yours, giving you time to decide, waiting until our grain is gone, asking you how much you trust the Lord to follow ways you must believe he has planned for us, or to trust the fears you might envision to embrace. You told us of a dream you once experienced, wrestling with the Lord until He consented to bless you. Have you forgotten His blessing, trusting Him only at times of convenience, never returning to wrestle Him again, thinking your blessing endures forever, while you wallow in pity's distress, forgetting He created you to never fear.

Jacob: The Lord has bereaved me of my children, Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and now you would take Benjamin, all this coming upon me for no reason.

Reuben: Judah reminds you God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Never fear, despite being one not being made perfect in love. If you insist on being distracted by fear, listen to an oath I make, Slay my two sons if I do not bring Simeon back to you. Put his fate in my hands, entrusting him to my care, and I will bring him back to you.

Jacob: My son Benjamin will not return with you to Egypt, fearing he will join his brother in death. He is the only one left to remind me of Rachel. If harm comes to him, journeying with you to a God-forsaken desert, populated by heathen idols, ruled by pagans worshipping a multitude of gods, you will doom my gray head to the grave in sorrow. This fear exceeds any blessing I have fought for in the past. My time for blessing reaches its end, and no great expectation can compensate for my greatest fear, losing the last son of my dearest Rachel.

Judah: We have been blessed to be a blessing, chosen ones, promised by God's covenant, the seed to grow His people, but now the promise is threatened by famine consuming all we have, watching our food stores diminish each day, soon to approach nothing, jeopardizing the promise to be numbered as stars in the sky. We cannot wait much longer, knowing Simeon wastes away in prison.

Jacob: I will not submit to your fears, knowing I must protect my own. Benjamin remains as the only tie to my beloved wife.

Judah: Your concern is only for yourself, lasting only as long as you live, but if God's plan is for His people to become a nation, He could end your life to insure His promises, overlooking your petty anxieties. Trusting His covenant, assuring His will be done, what happens to you matters little, choosing the time for ending your life. Our famine remains severe, unrelenting without any rain, leaving us to wonder if God sends a prophet for rain to fall elsewhere, selecting a different people to bless, because we have failed to be a blessing, seeking blessings for no one but ourselves, and failing in this to His dismay.

Bystander: Hunger changes people's convictions, pushing many to heed Molech's calling, sacrificing loved ones to nature's forces, now bringing Jacob to his day of reckoning.

Jacob: Benjamin and memories of Rachel no longer sustain me, realizing we have consumed all our grain, hampering my will to reason, hunger making me irrational, fearing to approach starvation, inflicting more serious consequences, afflictions destroying our community, so I tell you to go again, buy more food, at least enough to satisfy me through my remaining days.

Judah: I remind you again of the conditions for us to return for more food. The master deciding on who could buy food told us, You shall not see my face, unless your brother is with you. We must obey what he orders, compelling you to send Benjamin with us, assuring our journey success in going down to buy food, but if you will not comply, we endanger our clan, believing the master was serious with his words warning us, You shall not see my face, unless your brother is with you.

Jacob: Why do you endanger my peace again, having taken so many years to recover, babbling so much about me, more than anyone needs to know, broadcasting my past and present, giving others fodder to judge me--better for them not to know--telling this unknown master you had another brother, like it should mean something to him?

Reuben: The master questioned us carefully about ourselves and our kindred, asking, Is your father still alive? Have you another brother? Upon answering these questions, could we in any way know what he would say, telling us to bring down our brother? He could just as easily have said, Bring down your father.

Judah: Send the lad with me, dispelling your fears, trusting in the Lord for a safe journey, going and coming, and see us off now as we arise and go, sending us off with prayers, believing in intercessions for us to live and not die, both for us and for success, insuring our little ones can still become as numerous as stars in the sky. I will safeguard Benjamin, bringing him back to be a certainty for your remaining days, trusting my hand to satisfy your love for him. If I do not bring him back, setting him before you, then let me forever bear blame, despite lamenting for our delay, thinking without our hesitation, we would now have returned twice.

Jacob: If it must be so, then do this, Take some of our land's choicest fruits, storing them carefully in your bags, and carry down a present for the master, a little balm and a little honey, gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds. Take money with you, carrying back the money, returning the coins discovered in the mouth of your sacks, but never fret about intentions for their concealment, regarding it perhaps as an oversight. Take also your little brother, arise, go again to the master, beseeching God Almighty to grant you mercy before the master, praying He will intercede and release Simeon, sending him back with your brother Benjamin. If I am to be bereaved of my children, I will be bereaved.

Preparing for Inevitable Confessions

Bystander: Traveling, especially through a drought-stricken wasteland, numbing the mind to its barren scenery, forgetting it might have some beauty, monotonously slowing time, moving nomads without any sense of urgency, wondering how God survives existing outside of time, seeming to be wandering aimlessly, needing no time to mark His progress, is perfect for minds to prowl, feasting on imaginations, fearfully deploring ominous soul-searching, banking all thoughts once on fire, or fearing what may suddenly appear to disrupt the peaceful monotony, perhaps around the next bend, but more likely from within the band of brothers, little understanding a person's foes lurk within, hiding in one's own household

Judah: Must there be circumstances where uncertainty makes me fearful, upsetting my composure, disturbing my confidence, dreading what might happen, reminding me of when we lied about Joseph's fate? Why should anxiety grip me now, fearing our meeting the master might spring unexpected results, prodding us to unveil our past deceptions, forcing us to be honest, exposing our hidden memories, maybe for the master, perhaps for our father? What more could I imagine the master doing, maybe tampering further with our secrets, asking more about our family, leaving me to wonder why he should care?

Reuben: You think too much, imagining only bad things to happen, wondering how we will be treated, whether a continuing famine would force us return again, more than this time, making us dependent on someone other than ourselves, interfering with our efforts to control destiny, effects of famine on our needs. Determine our needs for this moment and do what is necessary to satisfy them. We can't worry what tomorrow will bring.

Judah: You have lived by, Just do it. Look what it has gotten you, a document of your unlawful deed in a record lasting for your many ancestors to know, never to be erased, indelible as all sins, proving you were born to sin, never worrying what tomorrow will bring, never discerning your virtue is destitute.

Reuben: You believe I am devious, but my reason proves me to be clever. We could disable fate's endeavors by substituting another person for Benjamin, temporarily securing a replacement for him, exchanging him for a deaf and dumb slave, borrowed from a slave trader, leaving Benjamin in safety until we return, defying the master's demand, and easing our anxiety. The master has never seen him so he would never suspect this action to be devious.

Judah: What if fate reveals the ruse? What consequences could you fathom? Our destiny could become disastrous, ending our promises to be a blessing.

Reuben: We could find a bearded one about Benjamin's age and the master would never know, even if he had seen him before. Finding one deaf and dumb would preclude anyone questioning him. We could explain his deafness as due to a plague, sweeping through our land some years ago, afflicting relational senses for many.

Judah: Must we continue to live a lie, refusing to acknowledge we sinned against Joseph and our father, never wanting to confess and repent, admitting our wrong doings?

Reuben: I offer only a suggestion to ease your anxiety.

Judah: The Lord has already given me peace, and I suffer remorse no longer. We will meet the master as planned with Benjamin. Following His way, not mine, removes all my anxiety.

Reuben: As we approach the master again, my conscience speaks loudly, crying out to rectify our error, our decision to not immediately return money left in our sacks, procrastinating on its return to the master, to delay showing him money left in our bags, its inner voice claiming he left it there to judge our integrity, testing us to reveal our virtues, prompting us to worthy action, but I wonder if we indeed have any. The master is likely to doubt any good for our questionable ways since we have taken so long to return.

Judah: We deceived our father long ago. Do you think we have lost our cunning ways much since then?

Reuben: The master may not know about our payment for the grain, having no knowledge of its accounting, perhaps trusting one of his assistants, but who knows how honest his workers are, wondering how many will skim off coins, stealing some, leaving some with the payees, suggesting they will be judged, making them victims incriminated for dishonesty to blame for any shortfall. Do you think they have a lord to direct them otherwise? Not likely. Their gods tolerate anything, existing merely to be worshipped, never asked to honor virtues, expecting only to receive homage, people thanking gods for what they possess, for nothing more, except maybe for being the top dog, marking their way in the world, calling evil good, and good evil.

Judah: Isn't it time for us to change and begin to follow our Lord's commands, to start honoring the covenant made with our fathers, respecting Him with our worship, no longer paying homage to our idols, destroying them all, and resurrect God's instructions on what we must do?

Reuben: You being one us, no different from your brothers, propose something near impossible, changing ourselves to someone we can never will to be. Tell us how you would transfigure yourself to become someone working your way to righteousness?

Judah: We have always lived blameless lives so we would be respected by others, but the fault of our blamelessness is all eventually exposed. I failed in raising my sons, my derelictions causing the Lord to end their lives early, telling me to intervene on behalf of their childless widow, making an oath soon forgotten to promise the widowed Tamar my youngest son when he reached maturity, but in neglecting this pledge, the Lord created a circumstance for me to sin, visiting an apparent prostitute, treating her less than a sister or daughter, and impregnating her with twins, naming one Perez. Without ever confessing my sins, acknowledging this could happen, I conceived a man in sin, consummating my oath to be broken, showing I could never be blameless. Whatever I may promise, swearing to enact, my will will not be done, trusting the Lord will prevail, seeing His will be done. I confess now, but not knowing if it is too late. If we don't confess and repent now, who can guess what unforeseen circumstance God will greet us with tomorrow.

Reuben: The Lord's unpredictability makes me nervous, not knowing what will come next, fearing the worst, taking a chance by following our reason, believing others are all like us.

Bystander: The band of brothers came before Joseph, facing him as earlier, except this time having Benjamin with them, hearing the master--but without understanding--instruct the steward of his house, Bring these men into the house, and slaughter an animal to make ready a meal, for they are to dine with me at noon. Following Joseph's orders, the steward brought them all to the master's house.

Reuben: What is this new threat to fall on us now, coming to the master's house instead of his office, leaving us to wonder if we would survive, thinking our deceit may have been uncovered, leading him to disband our lives from seeing tomorrow, taking vengeance, acknowledging its justification as determined by the Lord.

Brothers speaking all together, lamenting: It is because of the money we brought to buy grain, unknowingly returned to us, placed in our sacks and discovered journeying home from the first visit, rewarding the master with an occasion to justify punishment, likely to enslave us, confiscating our meager belongings, assigning us to be beasts of burden; see how money can destroy lives, witnessing forty pieces of gold doing so much damage. Has our venture been worthwhile?

Judah: You with broken hopes should ask the master's steward why we have been taken to his house. Is he waiting for us to confess? I will tell him, hoping he can understand my words, interpreting them for his discernment. On returning from our first visit to buy grain, we opened our sacks, and behold, there was each one's money in the mouth of his sack. We now return it to you because it is not right to keep money for buying the grain together with the grain, and we now bring additional money, handing it to the master to buy more food. We don't know who put the coins in our sacks, or for what reason they found a place there.

Steward: I understand your language, having been stolen from your land, sold to slave traders, resold to the master of this house, who treating me with dignity, assigned me to be his steward, allowing us to understand each other, as I urge you to stifle your terror, hearing me to calm you with consoling words. Rest assured, do not be afraid; your God and the God of your father must have directed someone to return your coins, depositing their treasure in your sacks, assuring no one would accuse you of not making payment, allowing me to confirm we received your money. It is not because of any money matters for inviting you here, for bringing you into this house. We eagerly await your return because of the truths you honestly expressed, never for condemning you, accusing you for something you did not steal. You are summoned to recline and be seated before our master, for he is just, honoring you for reasons unknown by me, reserved for you on this second visit, hoping to make you forget any disgrace you endured the first time here.

Judah: We try to justify our innocence, explaining all by reason, proving all by our works, but the master's grace, reflecting on none of our justifications, invites us in, blessing us to come into this home, offering hospitality, presumably directed by one of his gods, although he has never heard of our God, whose grace and mercy are boundless, unlikely as gifts from your gods. Why?

Steward: My master knows whose money you carry, back and forth as if your own, but he trusts it to be no one's possession, given by divine grace to be a tender for people's needs, never intended to be accumulated as wealth, tokens for building vanity and pride. Now I bring out Simeon, one to gather our attention, more so than concerns about earthly treasures.

Simeon: What took you brothers so long in returning for me? Did concern for me never begin until your food ran out, shrinking your belly to bring on hunger pangs?

Judah: We have no good answer, having to wait on father's consent to send Benjamin with us, wondering if he would gamble his youngest son to see you again.

Simeon: To appreciate what Joseph must have endured, living these months in prison, experiencing what patience it takes, wondering whether faith is required, interceding with prayer, questioning the need for my trial, for selecting me to be the chosen one, I thank the Lord, celebrating Him, awakening me to survive, living with hopeless ones, condemned to a life of nothingness, trusting Him to direct my release, thanking Him it is now finished, justifying me after serving time for my past unworthy deeds. If we must be held in ransom to sustain life with food, I trust you select another brother to serve next time, incarcerating a different one each time, dividing justice evenly so we will all take our turn, suffering judgment to cleanse us all.

Bystander: The band of brothers, still disbanded by fear, no one trusting any words to speak as Joseph entered the room, bowed before him, thus fulfilling the vision they heard many years before, the dream received by Joseph from the Holy Spirit, the prophecy directing the brothers to hate him more than ever--as prophecies frequently do--leading people to detest messengers and suggest their rejection, killing them if necessary, some even before the altar in God's temple. Would the brothers be tested further, discerning if their nature had changed, convincing Joseph their heart may now be moved by love for someone other than their my-selves?

Joseph: (through his interpreting steward) All of you appear well, thriving on the food from Egypt, but what of your father, the man now old of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?

Reuben: Your servant our father is still alive, well, serving our God with honor and dignity, humbly with modesty, relinquishing pride, sending his favorite son, willing to give him up to serve our needs.

Joseph: Your count is now one more, added by what must be your youngest brother, the one of whom you spoke. God be gracious to you, my son!

Judah: He is Benjamin, the last of his mother's womb, with her sadly dying to give him life, never to see him as he is now. His father protects him ever since, maybe regretting God made a choice to favor the life of another son over continuing life for his favorite wife.

Bystander: (aside) Choked with a loss for words, unable to speak without revealing his emotions, Joseph turns away, hiding himself from his brother's eyes, hastily retreating from the room, his heart yearning to embrace his brother Benjamin, seeking a place to hide his tears, grateful time had not diminished love for his brother, still wishing to be a brother's keeper. Joseph, regaining his composure, returned, knowing his time had yet to come. The brothers remained, speechless and dumbfounded, waiting for the master to direct the next step, lacking confidence to do anything, biding a seeming endless time, looking at one another with dismay, when on his reappearing they listened to his announcement.

Joseph: Let food be served.

Bystander: They served Joseph by himself, feeding the brothers by themselves, and the Egyptian servants eating there by themselves, because the Egyptians could not break bread with Hebrews, such communion being an abomination to Egyptian customs. Seating the brothers before him, the first-born according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth, arranging the others in order of their birth, the band of brothers looked at one another in amazement, hardly noticing their meal, distributed in portions taken from Joseph's table, but especially astonishing them was Benjamin's share, five times greater than any of theirs. So after drinking the master's wine, they soon forgot their fears, abandoning their concerns, joining all in merriment, rejoicing in all being well.

Judah: Master of all in this land, how do explain your good deeds, entertaining us with the most precious fruits of Egypt. Are your gods like our God who blesses us to be a blessing?

Joseph: Hear my interpreter Job tell you about his God, revealing his God who is like yours.

Job: At one time I was blameless, measured by all to be upright until suffering afflicted me, sending me to my God, presenting Him with arguments to do me justice, disregarding my friends bent on justifying my injustice, until the spirit within me began speaking directions I had never heard before, telling me my faith was never enough, admonishing me for benevolent works I never did, urging me to begin working in humiliating endeavors, to decimate my pride, all for tearing down barriers preventing communications with God, decimating my will to reason, humbling me to confess my sins, removing the veil from seeing Him face-to-face. My faith was only words until deeds satisfied it with completeness. What can you say for your deeds? Did anyone answer this for you?

Judah: My friends tell me what I savor hearing, reinforcing my desire to be loved, protecting me from prophets' visions, and I resent anyone telling me something different.

Job: Then you must expect circumstances to alter your vision, perhaps draping you in blindness until you begin to listen to God's spirit, calling on Him to be with you. You people have more to learn, seeing you have as many idols as the people here, different gods for meeting your coveted ways. Watch now for what is to come.

Joseph: Without their knowing fill the brother's sacks with food, as much as each one can carry, and put each one's money in the mouth of each sack, and put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, with his money for the grain. Send them on their way at dawn, and wait until they have left the city, going only a short ways further, and then I will give you further instructions.

Job: Will anything good come of this, making them look like thieves a second time?

Joseph: I have good reasons, seeing if they have any roots to grow greater character. Go now, tell my steward to follow after them, and on overtaking them have him ask, Why have you returned evil for good, stealing my silver cup, knowing it is the one my master drinks from, and by which he divines? You have done wrong in so doing.

Bystander: The brothers leave without understanding if their fortune is too good to be true, convincing them to cast all fears aside, never knowing new circumstances will soon overtake them.

Steward: On chasing you down, I repeat my master's words, asking why you would steal his cup, the only one he drinks from, doing a wicked deed after all the hospitality and generosity his grace saw fit for you. His cup is missing and you were the only ones in his house.

Bystander: Seeing this more than a question of giving up sin but of giving up rights to one's self, natural independence and self-will, acknowledging one is never blameless, admitting things right, noble, and good from the natural standpoint keep us from becoming God's best, removing our most coveted veil, opening us to realize our prize possession, natural and inherent moral excellence, opposes belief in the Lord, obviating needed surrender to the Almighty, drawing our soul into its greatest battle, awakening us to discover the good opposes the best, realizing a better good our dubious moral excellence can boast, never justifies greater intensity for opposing God, convincing us to purposely sacrifice the natural, opening the way for the supernatural to become habitual to us, integrating its way with all we do.

Reuben: Speaking for all of us, why does my lord say such things? Far be it for your servants to steal from the master. Showcasing our honesty, we brought back items we found, returning things not belonging to us, silver discovered inside the mouths of our sacks, so why would we steal silver or gold from your master's house? With whomever of your servants it be found, let him die, and the rest of us will become your lord's slaves.

Steward: Your justice is too harsh, more than my master would sanction, never condemning one to death for petty theft, so allow me to offer a gentler sentence, showing my master treats you with mercy, telling you what I know he will say, He with whom it is found will become my slave, and the rest of you will be free from blame.

Bystander: With all agreeing, the brothers lowered their sacks to the ground and opened them, waiting as the steward searched each one proceeding from oldest to the youngest one's sack.

Steward: After searching most of your sacks, I thought we might find nothing but grain, but there are also silver coins, noting this finding strange, and then I find the master's cup and wonder if you are thieves, wolves coming disguised meek as lambs, reeking of sheep's odor, nomads stealing as magpies.

Bystander: Renting their clothes in despair, believing they would no longer be needed, trusting their hopes had all but disappeared, resigning their lives to greater fear, anxiety over a certain destiny in slavery, they loaded their beasts and returned to the city, contemplating whether death would bloody their clothes or they would be cast into a pit of drudgery, recalling the fates they had considered for Joseph many years earlier. Arriving back at Joseph's house, they fell before the master, begging for mercy.

Joseph: What deed is this that you have done? You must have thought you could escape, pilfering my treasure, hiding it in your sacks, never dreaming a man as I can know things by divination.

Judah: What can we say to my lord? What can we speak to clear ourselves and convince you of our innocence? Your steward tells me, Only the man in whose hand the cup was entrusted will be enslaved, but as for the rest of you return in peace to your father. Without Benjamin, I can never go back in peace, expecting none with my father, for he will know no peace until he dies.

Bystander: Can this cup be an idol, serving to instruct people by divination, formed as an icon to rule their ways, trusting it instead of its bearer, having magical powers, working in mysterious ways, while never knowing what it's next message will be? Is this cup to make one stagger, drinking the wrath of God, or to celebrate in thanksgiving, perhaps for shaping a new covenant? It depends on what the cup contains, for what purpose it is given. With wine, the cup will offer visions of people's desires, becoming a holy grail.

Judah: In blindness, veiling me from so much unknown, I see no reason for fate to determine our circumstances, inflicting us with trials without offering any solutions, testifying to our faculties' failing, suggesting no ways out, returning us to suffer indignity logic cannot explain, calling us back for further injustice. The grace of the master returns us to be cursed, using his cup for unexplained vengeance, forcing us to drink his god's wrath, executing affliction on us, thrusting nonsense on us by the master's pagan gods, exacting humiliation for their pleasure.

Job: Little understanding my master now, bewildering you by his visions for foretelling, I will continue to interpret his words, hoping to bury your unease.

Joseph: Pharaoh presented me with this cup, given because of my prophetic abilities, increasing my divining powers, promising it to be a cup of salvation, enabling me to call upon the Lord, to discern His purpose and follow His will, calling on His name. This cup must never be filled with God's wrath. He needs no cup for that, using it only for pouring out His mercy. This cup is never to be used for evil, only for good, and now you see its importance as my holy grail.

Bystander: Some things must be hidden, such as by Rachel when she hid her father's idols in her saddle, stealing the heart of his soul, testifying to a faith she was compelled to continue, practicing a worship she could not abandon, hiding it where he wouldn't dare to look, deceiving him with a lie, telling him she was having her period, while exacting one to pronounce an oath, satisfying retribution for one losing his precious treasure, sentencing one to death for stealing wooden gods, but we often conceal our dearest treasures, never flaunting them for others to see, especially our holy objects, artifacts reminding us of our Creator, which should never be hidden, leaving them in the open for all to see, just as He never hides His wonders, wide open for us to witness, telling us to examine the majesty of all He has done. Our oneness with God must always be evident, never concealed by shame, never protected from ridicule. The time had come for Joseph to reveal himself to his brothers, disclosing his oneness with God, his protector, his assurance of being a brother's keeper, always there for abandoned souls, searching for meaningful relationships, as he had done all his life, belonging to God, shaming his brothers' pride, submitting to them with humility.

Joseph: My time has come, waiting long in preparation, but I must send all my attendants away. All my servants leave this room, giving me the opportunity to let these brothers know who I am, who I have always been. Leave now.

Job: My master sends his servants away.

Judah: Is he wanting to sentence us without other's hearing, tarnishing his image, tainting his integrity as a great servant of Pharaoh, justifying it all over some meaningless cup? Can't he be bold enough to proclaim his actions to all?

Reuben: What can you expect from ones worshipping a sun god, bowing down to images of cats and dogs, putting faces on lions, creating creatures unknown to our creator, our God who made everything as they must be?

Joseph: Hear me as I speak now in your language. I am your brother Joseph and I weep on seeing ones I never thought would cross my path again, weeping with joy for this moment God chooses to surprise me. Listen to me, asking, Is my father still alive? Am I forgetting your words when I ask again if he lives?

Bystander: Silence springs forth with shocking news, muting all to any spontaneous response.

Reuben: Your words, speaking now in our tongue, stun us with this pronouncement, stupefying us to say nothing, terrifying us with your claim, resurrecting dreadful memories, mortifying our consciences, confusing us to tremble, as we search for something to say, fearing we would speak from babbling thoughts with any response, forcing us to beseech God for mercy, knowing nothing more to do, wondering what we should think, seeking wisdom to ease our fear, searching for some healing answer.

Joseph: Come near to me, I pray you. I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into slavery. Do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me, knowing now it was in God's plans, developing circumstance to send me here, preparing me to solve food disparities, to assure grain for all during cycles of feast and famine, determined by cycles of rain and drought, normal for creation's goodness, knowing He would bring you here, forcing you to make a journey to preserve lives and insure His covenant's promises, reiterated many times to our fathers. With the famine in our lands these two years, knowing there will be five more, times for neither plowing nor harvest, God prepared me, beginning when your father's love dressed me to be hated by you, to be sold into unknown suffering, equipping me to preserve our nation, insuring He would maintain a remnant, assuring life for many survivors, not only for you but our multitudes to follow. So it was not you who sent me here, but God, revealing visions to initiate His plan, selected me to divine Pharaoh's dreams, visions sent by God, by which he appointed me lord of his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Make haste and go up to my father and say to him, Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not tarry; you shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children's children, and your flocks, your herds and all that you have and there I will provide for you, for five years of famine are yet to come, hurry now lest you and your household, and all you have, come to poverty. And now your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, it is my mouth speaking to you. You must tell our father of all my splendor in Egypt, and of all you have seen here. Make haste and bring father down here.

Bystander: (aside) See how God arranges for people to seek His lost sheep, sending young Joseph out to find his brothers, wayward ones tending their flocks, but refusing to be rescued from worldly ways, astray in following their wants and desires. Testing God, thinking His patience can be tested, waiting long for His time to be right, God continued to fulfill His plan with this little piece of the puzzle, working to complete its picture, waiting for all it's other pieces to fall into place.

Reuben: As the first-born gifted to be most discerning, I ask why you elected a ruse, devised to accuse us of thievery, sending us away without knowing your identity, and never revealing who you are when we dined with you?

Joseph: Grief overwhelmed me, confusing my thoughts, disabling my tongue, preventing me from rejoicing without candor, thinking erroneously joy must follow some logic, reasoning with common sense, admitting some human nature still controls much of what I do. Can you accept this and drive all fears away, believing God wishes us to exist without fear.

Reuben: Now we have to face father with our hidden truth, revealing our long-held deceit, fabrication of a lie to cover up our sinful deed. What will we tell him? Can we concoct another tale or should we confess our wrong doings, admitting the guilt we sequestered for many years, realizing it will devastate our integrity, disintegrating our pride, demolishing the virtues of our vanity?

Joseph: Coming to me as lost sheep, you have nothing to fear, understanding now that God used you as a tool, selecting you to play the role of an evil one, performing duties destined to preserve His covenant, knowing it would disappear upon decimation of His chosen people, destroying their destiny to be numbered, never more counted, numbered no longer with sands on the beach of existence.

Judah: What should we tell father?

Joseph: Tell him, Be not grieved; God has made me master of the whole land of Egypt; come and see for yourself; witness all earthly powers He has given me, surveying God's design for me, His plan for all my circumstances, never blaming any on human depravity, but on God rewarding me, counting my obedience as a treasure to be stored in heaven, and in directing your ways, He cannot reproach your deeds, planned by Him, a crime to reject me, a judgment considered only by humans, God choosing you to send me away, preparing you to insure our lives, trusting Him to protect His promised ones, selecting someone to show us how we are to have life, surrounded by idols, entangled with pagans worshipping created gods, calling us to return to Him, to your identity as His people, trusting He will never reach a time when He will stop calling. Examine all your opportunities as you must do now, discerning the circumstances God lays before you, unveiling how confession acknowledges people's need for repentance, redeeming us all to understand and follow His way. Do you not want to be with Him always, seeking righteousness to experience peace on the Day of the Lord? As I choose His way to serve, I now know my family and I will be with Him forever.

Reuben: I cannot imagine how you can weep for us now, knowing tears never come from persistent animosity, thinking tears can dissolve continuing anger, tears never expressing any reason, tears saying no more than I weep, never understanding how our reason breaks down, bringing us to proclaim I weep, weeping to remove us from pits where envy and pride assign us, confessing to acknowledge truths to set us free.

Bystander: It is true Joseph had been enslaved by humans, but his only bondage was to God, obediently reporting to Him, waiting patiently for His will to be revealed, realizing His visionary gifts made him suffer, but giving him strength to persevere, protecting him with humility, waiting for His time to be right, preparing the Egyptians to recognize Joseph is someone special, shaming the pride and reason of the kingdom's wisdom.

Pharaoh: News reaches me of your brothers' return. Believing they must be like you, virtuous, filled with integrity instilled by your God, they must be encouraged to live with us, as I hear you have suggested. Have Joseph say this to his brothers, Load your beasts and go back to the land of Canaan, gather your father with your households, telling them to return here, and I will give all of you the best land in Egypt, gifting you with means to thrive, feasting on our land's blessings, commanding them also to take our wagons for bringing back your little ones, your wives and your father. Give no thought for gathering up any needed belongings, for the best of all Egypt's land is yours. We will bless them for the way you have blessed us. Until they return, stock the wagons with all their needs.

Bystander: Once more, God's chosen ones are directed to leave the land He promised Abraham, sending him to develop as a nation, continuing to honor the covenant He promised. Sometimes God tells Israelites to avoid sojourns in Egypt while at other times He gives them no other options but to seek refuge from their circumstances by leaving a land insuring their promise. Having a place of exile, offering freedom with so much abundance, a new Eden to satisfy their wants and needs, does anyone know how long it will last before God decides it's time to leave, departing for a new offering, a better home sweet home, pioneering for some new place to satisfy wants and desires, after they had disappeared as all good things, disappointing their dreams, waking them up to finally realizing they had never arrived, still waiting to reach the promised land. Could their blessing, to be God's servant, blessing others never knowing the Lord, ever open the hearts of different people, ones they consider pagan Gentiles, and see them accept the Lord's truths? Were they sent to Egypt for a purpose other than to be fed and thrive in a land of plenty, perhaps to unfold their banner of blessing, proclaiming God alone, without idols or fabricated gods, to worship?

Joseph: I give my brothers purpose, beginning with it now, gifts with meaning they never had before, garments never wearing out, brilliantly displayed, attracting everyone's notice, asking things they never discerned before, restoring my garment, one once tattered by envy and hatred, stained with blood of life, stolen from some life's being. Wearing them daily, never considering their removal, trusting they could lose memory for what they represent, endowing them with wisdom as never before, assuring them possession of the Holy Spirit, His indwelling mystery, empowers their communication with God. These gifts unshackling the brothers, freeing them to be blessed, blessed to be a blessing, trusted them to be a remnant, relying on only them, their tribe, to continue the Lord's plan.

Judah: Blanketing us with wisdom's eternal truths, conferring knowledge of the Lord's ways, we can understand your words, giving us a legacy to promote His commands, long after God gave yours, revealing visions to implement His plan, acknowledging his power, implementing the use we must put them to, but why does He lead you to also give us pieces of gold?

Joseph: Fragments of precious things, silver and gold, can be used for good or bad, unacceptably when decorating for vanity, embellishing one's pride, destroying any remnants of humility, or to be thrown at a person's feet, paying for an unworthy deed, staining one with a memory unable to be forgotten, marking one with an indelible sin. God, directing me to gift you, surprising you with gold coins, tells me to wait and see, giving time to see how you will use them, wondering if someday you might save them for fashioning some idol, knowing some other god might contest Him for your allegiance. God designed gold to glitter, testing you to see if it can distract you from the brilliance of things more precious.

Reuben: We would never use this gold to make an idol.

Bystander: God made some things scarce, rare commodities, distracting people with their attraction, tempting humans to lust after meaningless scarcities, to love the insignificant, never designed to built relationships, advised to be left in diggings where they should remain, glittering but unable to replace affection, hunted for its fickle luster, its glamor waiting to tarnish. People, searching to unearth anything worthwhile, dredging out promise from fertile soil, losing their lives in wasted endeavors, digging bottomless pits, wandering endless streams searching for gold, never escaping from its enchantment, stumble, entrapped with their dreams and hopes unfulfilled, perhaps at last realizing gold never needs refashioning into any human design to become an idol. By one's choosing, gold is treasured, people determining its worth, or perhaps making it valued no differently from the soil releasing it from hiding.

Judah: Gold is an idol. Blemished as we all are, trusting no one is unblemished, we need something to adorn our bodies, acknowledging gold is a sacrifice to make us whole, but can I ever be restored, removing my blemished deeds, atoning for the making of Perez?

Reuben: Care nothing about gold, value the good news of discovering Joseph, treasuring his resurrection, thanking God for now preparing us all to be prophets, selected to carry good news to our father, rejoicing in all of God's new blessings, carrying gifts He chooses for us to have, returning to our father's home, designated by Him since father Abraham, changing his name to be His blessing.

Bystander: Would you commit yourselves to forsake your God-chosen home, wondering for how long, being tempted by Egypt's abundance, never considering if you will long for returning to your designated home, returning to Canaan, or will you soon forget its promises by remaining in a foreign land too long, forgetting to yearn for what your ancestors enjoyed. You are blessed with Egypt's love now but how long will it last, knowing few people accept immigrants long, soon detesting their difference, tolerating them minimally, burdening them with menial tasks, sometimes leading to virtual enslavement. Don't tarry in Egypt too long or God will develop ways for you to suffer, breeding greater intolerance for you, beating you down by Egyptians, hating you more each day, enslaving you as Neanderthals, hoping you to go their way, vanishing, leaving only fossil remains.

Joseph: Trusting you now have a time of joy, consider everyone's welfare on your journey home, contemplating nothing to entangle you in quarrels, voicing no claims of one being most blameless, least responsible for my exile, telling another, It was you who counseled us to throw him into the pit, or you urged to sell him naked and in chains to slave traders. As I send you in peace, I have forgiven you all, so must you forgive each other. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, for where there is peace, wrath has no place, trusting discord is displaced, dissension is routed, permitting no one to be angry with a brother. Maybe I erred in sending gold with you, tempting you to envy what another might have been given, wondering about an unequal distribution, pondering a count for each one's share, thinking another might have more, believing you are just as worthy and should receive more, but wondering if your convictions have never changed by these many years, be content each of you carries the same share of gold, satisfied I do not test you now.

Reuben: Blessed to be a blessing, exercising virtues unknown by us, you dismiss any thought of us being your enemy, showing you love any would-be foe, convincing us of your love for all, forgetting our sins against you, forgiving us for exercising hatred.

Joseph: Surely it was not you who did this against me. It was God's plan, permitting my circumstances to materialize, assuring the realization of my dreams, providing the opportunity to equip me, preparing me to ensure His promised people's survival. God in His wisdom orchestrated all my circumstances, leading me in unrevealed ways, disclosing nothing of His plans, giving me few insights to understand His intent, revealing His plan in bits and pieces, until now, as I understand His plan is not for me, never about me, only about God. You were chosen to be the instrument for developing His plan. He only asks you to forgive me, attesting to your willingness to serve Him, in an unworthy way if necessary.

Bystander: Working at living in peace with everyone, striving to live a holy life--understanding unholy ones will never see the Lord--looking after each other, assured they would receive God's grace, convinced no one succeeds in dishonesty, the brothers fear yet imagined troubles, trusted to be inevitable.

Reuben: With peace, knowing you have welcomed and forgiven us, we must still face our father, telling him of our envy, pride and deceit, stealing his devotion to Joseph, demolishing relations for his most loved one, leaving only memories, forcing us to confess our lies, deceptions concerning his disappearance, stranding him in hopelessness, never certain of his fate, disguising it for father to know.

Bystander: Can anything surprise one filled with years of experience, believing nothing else remains worth seeing, nothing left to disturb someone's few remaining years? Jacob's peace is fabricated from experiencing all life's trials, settling all, putting all at rest, convincing him nothing can awaken new ordeals, nothing to disrupt his comfort with new turmoil. Can Jacob survive what is about to happen, a surprise never dreamed of coming?

Jacob: Welcome home my sons, bringing both Benjamin and Simeon with you, surprising me with God's mercy, proclaiming no other blessing could please me. The master in Egypt must be filled with grace, helping us to survive.

Judah: You haven't heard our greatest good news. Joseph lives, being the master we met who rules over all Egypt, being second only to Pharaoh.

Jacob: I don't believe you, telling me about a son you convinced me was dead, convicting me of its truth, making me sorrow until I could weep no longer, eventually drying my tears, but to never forget my beloved one.

Judah: Forgive me. When Joseph disappeared from your life we knew he still lived, never being killed by some animal, seeing him alive after he came looking for us. Considering his death by our hands, we were reminded, The soul that sins, the same shall die. With nothing to temper our hatred for Joseph, remembering we struggled for a decision but stymied on every side, offering us no way out, a choice of sinning for doing what we wanted, killing him as the first suggestion, trusting it would demand our death, or choosing a less blameless option, exiling Joseph from life's promises, delivering him to nothingness, he returns now to haunt us, springing a new trial, renewing our anguish, threatening us as never before, giving us no escape from the inevitable terror of your thoughts. We report your son Joseph is living. We confess our deceitful words telling you of his disappearance. I confess my words, suggesting he be sold in slavery, saving his life from certain death in a pit, removing and exiling him so his presence would no longer darken us, banishing any reason to continue our hatred and deceitful ways. It had to be this way or eventually one of us, hating Joseph more than any other, would carry out Cain's way to erase his life.

Jacob: Your startling words, giving no assurance they are true, knowing you all have ways to deceive me, distrusting me with more convictions of your reports, never knowing if they are true, or perhaps you are beginning to believe in visions of Joseph's reappearing, of someone's resurrection to resemble him, convincing you to see him as atonement for your sins, cleansing you, wiping out your persistent hatred, lurking unnoticed in your soul, transfiguring you into rebirth, renewing your conscience, all in efforts to make you worthy now. Surely, discovering a master in Egypt, solving the problem of your famishing afflictions, you could discern him as a redeemer, picturing him as one of you, sent by God, planned by Him, sending one from humble beginnings to do great things, blessing me with a great surprise, telling me my son Joseph is still alive.

Judah: We deceive you of nothing now, seeing no phantom of truth, wishing to return the joy of your life.

Jacob: In trusting your message, I will go with you, believing I will see Joseph, hoping to renew love for a forgotten one before I die, trusting God to delay my ending, reviving me long enough to meet my favored one, long forgotten as a victim, but reported to me now as never succumbing, never a prey for wild beasts, resurrected, but only from slavery, to become a ruler in Egypt, restoring my hopes, renewing my faith in God, revealing His plan to redeem us all, fulfilling His goodness. Hopefully, God rekindles my spirit, reigniting my life, reuniting me with my beloved son, his blood remaining in life, never having been taken. With his garment rent, his shroud bloodied and torn in two, God revealed the beginning of His plan, climaxing it with adornment, robing Joseph in splendor, ordaining him as a ruler in Egypt. I no longer need to go down mourning to rejoin my son in the nether world.

Bystander: Confession, whether freely given or by coercion, is better now than later, releasing one from torment, certain to continue with sins concealed, predictable for sins hidden until judgment on the Day of the Lord.

Judah: Joseph accepts our confession and forgives us for sinning against him. We also beg for your forgiveness, understanding this may be harder but not impossible, surprising you with good news, suddenly reporting what may be difficult to comprehend, confusing your imagination with judgment, giving no time for discernment, judging jumbled considerations, deciding whether any are deserved, never worthy of forgiveness, as we recall our crime, confessing it to you today, revealing it openly to you our father. Our error was failing to understand Joseph's dreams, picturing us all becoming his slaves, making us servile to him alone, never understanding he dreamed for us, visioning freedom from slavery to sin, calling for us to bow down to God's commands. I entrust little truth to my wisdom since awakening to its frailty.

Jacob: I can forgive you if you can justify the afflictions borne of his circumstances, describing any responsible for great suffering.

Judah: Joseph encountered many instances to make him suffer, but God was with him always, telling him to endure suffering, to trust Him, and wait for him to understand all would never be for evil but for good, so I will tell you, during our journey to Egypt, all the events shaping him to become a ruler under Pharaoh.

Jacob: Your confessions, giving me new life, renewing hope with good news, convincing me of the Lord's goodness, promise me to trust all you say, as I digest your remarkable reports convicting me to believe. Because of your good tidings, reviving a life forgotten, bringing back Joseph, restoring my joy, you bring me great joy, resurrecting your offense into a blessing, changing my quiet suffering, long-dead but simmering, awakening periodically to taunt me, spelling me with anxiety, waiting for its affliction to abate, never rewarding my patience until now, seeing God restores hope, bringing forgotten despair to be revised with fresh buds of joy, bursting in anticipation, for on hearing your words, all is forgiven. I too regret what I surmised, saying once to Joseph: Do you mean to say I and your brothers with their mothers will come bowing to the ground before you? I regret having dampened the Spirit, but now with the fanning of your words it begins to glow again. Let's hastily prepare to depart, and leave with no time to spare, returning to my time of joy, never believing it could come to pass, to happen before my passing.

Bystander: With the Holy Spirit indwelling, Jacob followed the Lord's leading, carrying on as his forefathers before, obeying the commission to sanctify a journey, stopping to offer God a sacrifice, praising Him for leading his company, trusting He renders it promised. God, speaking to Jacob in visions of the night, told him, Here am I, your God and the God of your father; do not be afraid to go down to Egypt; for I will make of you a great nation. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, after Joseph's hand closes your eyes.

Jacob: This day I will join my son in paradise, spending my last days, returning moments stolen from my joy, rejoicing in my Lord's mercy, bringing me to the land where He will make us a great nation, fulfilling His promise. Joseph will soon close my eyes, purifying me from this world, knowing God will restore my sight, giving me clear visions by His spiritual hands, awakening me to His understandings for the law, to see not those things which are seen but the things which are now unseen. He has been stingy, revealing few secrets kept in hiding for most but not me, making me struggle with Him, consenting to fight with me, wrestling for wisdom of His truths. I welcome God taking away blindness of my mortal visions so I will then see, taking away the life in my body so I can begin to see my Lord face-to-face. In this and all my journeys, I know God is with me.

Judah: We have had few ways to know God, having no visions such as yours, depending solely on your teaching for us to understand His covenant, His promises to make us a mighty nation. When father dies how will God lead us?

Reuben: We will have nothing to lead us except our customs and traditions, and we must wait upon the Lord for His timing to send us visions for directing our ways, never knowing if they will be enacted by miracles, prophets, or laws inscribed in tablets of stone. Will we flounder until His timing arrives?

Judah: We can never know the time or place, known only by God, sending us revelations at His pleasure, exacting patience we can never understand, being unlike any human's waiting. Meanwhile we must obey His command to make us a mighty nation, numbered with uncountable people, masses blessed to be a blessing.

Bystander: Who is there to lead God's promised ones? Depending on those who receive His visions, Jacob can be of some help, but his dreams came long ago, giving none since then. Joseph is the only one still in touch with God, hearing God to interpret dreams, helping His chosen people, assuring they will not forget His plans for them, remaining steadfast in His covenant, His bargain blessing them to be a blessing. Did partial blindness befall His chosen ones, veiling their purpose, waiting seemingly forever, never anticipating the full number of Gentiles could enter His fold, thereby saving all Israel as well as all humankind. What better group of Gentiles could be found than in Egypt, starting with them to be blessed, blessed by our missionary efforts, witnessing to peoples not knowing God, pagans having been forced to create their gods? Was Jacob's family blessed to be a blessing, reaching out to heathens in Egypt, approaching them with love, blessing them to become a blessing? Or would they fervently isolate their favored One, their God, protecting their blamelessness, vainly trying to follow His laws, never mixing their uprightness with any pagan virtues, never arguing for their one God to replace heathen idols, never admitting recognition of their own personal household gods, hiding their idols from all but God, while never trusting idol-gods of other people?

Jacob: I still discern God's ways, promising to gather my family together, telling them what must bless their efforts. We are commissioned to tell Pharaoh's people about our God, convincing them of His powers, proven by the wisdom He has given Joseph, teaching them to accept Him as their supreme ruler, and never shirk His commands, spoken for all to know, so we would never be enslaved by their powerless gods, urging pagans to silence us if we complain, to deafen our lamentations, when exiled from our promised land, stilling our voices with forced labor, building monuments to gods blind and deaf, unable to interact, never responding, seeing only occasional drops of sand from their faces of stone.

Judah: Does God still wish us to never pollute our relationship with Him, preserving our purity, never allowing us to marry foreigners and adopt worship of their gods? We could marry pagans and heathens with the goal of convincing them to accept and worship our God.

Reuben: That is unlikely. Despite our customs, traditions, and laws, we marry heathen unbelievers and begin to worship in ways they follow. We have already polluted our family, no different from the customs of our fathers, tarnishing their hopes of ever committing their lives to the Lord, defiling ourselves with the very gifts He gives us.

Jacob: Do we pollute our ways by loving pagans or by killing them, exacting retribution for being unlike us, blemished beyond hope, warranting us to exterminate uncounted scores, decimating countless numbers, claiming petty injuries to justify vengeance, proclaiming victory in restoring our family's honor, doing all to justify thievery, stealing other's lives and seizing their properties?

Reuben: We were never created and blessed to be the creatures you portray.

Jacob: Do you forget so soon the dishonoring deeds of Simeon and Levi? They failed to see God's plan, hoping all humans would love one another, but some were inflamed with passion to never love foreign others, none of their tribe's belonging, never choosing a commitment to serve another, ones tainted with different beliefs, worshipping gods

crafted by human hands, designed by people's meager wisdom. Thus Dinah was fated to be possessed by another's desire, promised to be faithfully served as the wife of a pagan, but when violated by nature's innate forces, my two sons were driven to deceive this pagan's tribe into adopting God's command, compelling them to be circumcised, and after complying they killed them all. Can we turn a decree sealing our covenant, promising us to be the Lord's chosen ones, into a wisdom telling us to kill others not worshipping our God? Can this teach us to love one another, this kind of witness to our God? I know what the passion could have been by the pagan for Dinah. I was smitten by Rachel, but was deceived by a relative--Laban--supposedly following God, making me wait seven years for her to become my wife, although I didn't wait for her to bear my child. Driven by greed, justifying retribution by anything he could fancy, Laban chased me down, looking for ways to punish me, provoking me to declare an oath, promising me to kill the one stealing idols representing his household gods. Could one blame him more for dishonoring our God by coveting idol-gods than for the tribe consenting to honor our God by circumcision? God gives us opportunities, this one being possible to tell Egyptians about our God, showing how He is the only one true divinity, proven now to Pharaoh by visions in his dreams, shown by Joseph to be from God and verified by events in ensuing years. Now as ones truly blessed, God presents circumstances, inviting us to exercise our blessings, challenging us to witness who we are, chosen ones, placed here to do His will.

Bystander: Has the Lord completed Jacob's punishing circumstances, revenge for his deceitful ways, pay back for all his unworthy deeds, such as in the womb, struggling with his brother, continuing to his maturity when he fought with God, wrestling with the angel, winning the match with weeping, pleading for a blessing. Boasting only by the treasures of his toils, I am rich, I've made a fortune, toiling many years, all from myself's efforts, testifying no one has caught me cheating, I make my record spotless. God now calls, Return, O Israel to the Lord your God, acknowledging your sins have brought you down, bringing your confessions to make way for repentance, asking Him to forgive your sins, to graciously receive you, so He can hear you praise Him, vowing to never again worship idols, never more swearing to ones you have made, You are our gods. No, in You alone do orphaned ones, committed to live on earth find mercy.

Judah: Wrestling with God, demanding Him to reveal His knowing, will cripple us for life, warning us to only wrestle Him on things of this world, never wrestling Him in arguments, reasoning to convince Him we are blameless and upright, acknowledging nothing He holds us to, so we trust Him in prayer to make us effective, equipping us with the whole armor of God, without which father Jacob was crippled.

Reuben: We are few here, making it more likely we would become one with beliefs of our neighbors, seeing us come to worship like them, crippling us also.

Judah: We are few now and may remain few, never becoming the multitude God promises, but despite being few or many, as chosen ones we will always be blessed with a remnant, continuing our relationship with God for life into eternity. We must hear God, heeding His counsel for ways to protect survival for His remnant, but then, no matter what we do, He will certainly assure its lasting.

Reuben: If your sojourn here is lasting, who or what will we trust in years to come?

Judah: Only God knows. He is always in charge.

Joseph: Indeed God is in charge, blessing me with prophetic visions, disturbing my relationships with their interpretations, teaching patience seeming at times to be unbearable, sometimes forecasting hopelessness, other times promising hope, veiling me from much of His purpose, but telling me to trust Him as He prepares me for an unknowable task, at times training me in a prison's pit churning with despair.

Judah: How will He use us here, realizing we have no talents other than for tending flocks of sheep.

Joseph: God expects us to be the remnant so we will not be tempted to enjoy life as an Egyptian, promising us to raise up leaders, obedient to His ways, disavowing Egyptian life, preventing His loyal remnant from sanctioning idol worship, assured providence will continue His covenant's promise, realizing we can never know the circumstances for His time and place, offering opportunities to do His will. We must keep our faith alive, training our children to know and reach out to the Lord, never knowing one may be chosen as a remnant. You can succeed, being no more than shepherds, trusting God raises up ones so lowly, laboring so menially, blessed with little knowledge, but willing to learn, certain He will promise to fill them with wisdom, sufficient to fulfill His tasks. Announce your gifts to Pharaoh, telling him of your experience as shepherds, wishing no time to learn Egyptian wisdom, while thanking him for his concern, looking out for your welfare. Come with me now to tell him.

Reuben: How do we approach this mighty ruler?

Joseph: Follow me and listen as I relay our requests, My father and my brothers, with their flocks and herds and all they possess, have come from the land of Canaan and are now in the land of Goshen, ready to be in your service.

Pharaoh: What is your family's occupation?

Brothers: Your servants are shepherds, as our fathers were, coming here to sojourn in your land, seeking pasture for our flocks, driven from our home by the famine, severely devastating the land of Canaan, responding with no rain despite our prayers; your servants beseech you to dwell in the land of Goshen, where fertility can still be exploited.

Pharaoh: Rejoice Joseph. With your father and brothers rejoining you, choose them to stay. Survey Egypt's land before you, settling them in the best you can find, making this their promised land, finding none better to dwell in than the land of Goshen, and by the way if any able herders are among you, put them in charge of my cattle.

Bystander: Joseph bringing in Jacob his father, standing him before Pharaoh, we all look on as Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

Pharaoh: Jacob, how many are the days of the years of your life?

Jacob: Mostly tearful ones, filling years of my sojourning, amounting to one hundred and thirty years, few knowing joy, counting many as harsh, have marked the days and years of my life, but never approaching the days of years lived by my father's fathers during their sojourning, knowing greater peace compared to my turbulent days, conflicting with my father-in-law, grieving over Joseph's passing, long-lasting fears from Simeon and Levi, committing deeds to wipe out a city of men, remorse for all my children's deeds, falling on me for no good reason, never anticipating them to happen, never believing anything could have been done to prevent them, trusting changing unworthy deeds would have transformed many with hatred to love me.

Pharaoh: We have ones who could have helped you, seeing your God did not come to your rescue, promising no wisdom to relieve you of others suffering you with trials. We have many gods waiting to assist us, answering cries for help, providing immediate needs, knowing only local gods can support us. It is too much for a single god to understand all people's needs, especially when traveling in foreign lands having different gods, ones attuned to local needs, equipped to resolve all native problems.

Jacob: You worship many gods, claiming each provides different needs, but are any like us, made in our image so they can understand our desires? You worship a sphinx, never knowing if it thinks like us, or bow down to a cat, thinking its mind is like ours, or venerate a warrior god, believing its powers are more than human. Your gods, perhaps created to think like you and reason in your manner, are forced by their human nature to compete with each other, fighting each other to death, while our God, having no enemies other than of His making, has no comparable god He must defeat, maintaining His Almightiness, never needing to kill some god humans think are equal to Him, as He waits patiently, knowing gods humans create will eventually die, following all others of their creator's hands.

Pharaoh: We have tried to identify a single god to venerate, but have failed because our people insist on having many gods to worship, asking each to satisfy their wants, so we allow them to worship as they choose, while assuring they do nothing to disrupt the kingdom.

Jacob: We are little different, continuing to worship gods created by our imaginations, chiseled out of wood and stone, despite admonitions from God, commanding us to worship only Him.

Pharaoh: Then your people are prepared, trusting in belief for many gods, discerning they must learn about our gods so they can also reach out to them in worship.

Jacob: Joseph is probably different, trusting only his one God, attested by the visions he has been given, all proven by events having happened, and he maintains faith in his Lord despite all, moving him beyond being blameless or upright, seeking to win the prize of righteousness. He is still trying to succeed, fighting the good fight, but conflicting with ways of the world, he tries to please everyone.

God provides as He chooses

Bystander: With the severe famine continuing, no food was produced anywhere, as God withheld rain for both Egypt and Canaan, sending Egyptians to Joseph to buy more grain, which eventually drained their savings, forcing them to beg for food, complaining, Why should we die before your eyes? Our money is gone. How must Joseph answer?

Joseph: If your money is gone give Pharaoh your cattle, and I will give you food in exchange, scolding you for being poor stewards, wondering why your needs are squandered, speculating you wasted treasured food to satisfy your wants. Does God allow the famine devour your seed-grain, drying it to nothingness, until you begin to nourish your soul with living water, flourishing its seed to sprout, growing it the only way possible, nourishing it with true bread, provided only by heaven? Telling you to never love money, to be satisfied with what you have, God promises He will never fail or abandon you, giving you confidence to trust Him as your Helper, never thrusting fear to demobilize you, rendering inaction, asking what can mere people do to me.

Egyptians: We need bread now for our lives to continue flourishing with abundance.

Joseph: Your bread alone, as you want it, will continue wasting your flesh away, returning you next year to seek more grain.

Bystander: When they return next year, Joseph's predictions will be true to his words.

Egyptians: We will hide nothing from my lord, our money all spent, forcing us give him herds of cattle, leaving nothing left in sight but our bodies and land. Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our wasted land? Buy us and our land for food, making us slaves to Pharaoh, exchanging us for essential needs, giving us sustenance to live, preserving our lives, assuring we would not become desolate.

Joseph: Are you prodigals, returning after misusing your nourishing needs on fleeting delights, prepared to give away your birthright, everything to gain a bowl of porridge, learning nothing from advice, counseling you to neither live on bread alone nor tempt your fantasies, never realizing worthless dreams cannot feed your soul, coming only to serve justice. My ruler, Pharaoh, commits me to accept your request, making you farmers on land you no longer own, putting you in bondage to sustain your lives, to be in slavery as I have known, as I ask you to begin to know my God, to receive His grace and mercy. Behold, this day I buy you and your land for Pharaoh, paying you with grain to survive, seeing you squandered your seed, never conserving it for survival, wasting it when abundant, leaving less to sow in good times, harvesting little to store for times of need, giving insufficient amounts to Pharaoh for later needs, trusting your meager plantings could flourish without water, but you must come to me now, selling your land and yourself to provide food for yourselves, your households and to feed your little ones.

Egyptians: You having saved our lives, may it please my lord, we will be slaves to Pharaoh.

Joseph: You should be slaves to no one, for God never created you to be in bondage, with your only possible enslavement being to your free will, making unwise choices, some perhaps being sinful, dedicating you to evil intent, dragging out innate greed, envy, and pride, fating you to live in sin, consuming costly pleasure at the expense of goodness, bankrupting any integrity you could cherish, doing everything for fleeting moments of happiness. Watch how we live, our family from Canaan, following our God's direction only, denying the many pleasures you worship, never praying for your gods to provide, ones luring you into passing moments of contentment, chiding any calls by God for moderation, trusting only what feels good, do it. Watching our people live, according to our one God's ways, could soon bring you to despise us, as I know, one having been loathed for being His prophet, reporting visions to my loved ones. We have been saved from your position, never allowing this prevailing famine to harm us, to be despised as gaunt beggars, but as you see, we live by God's laws assuring us life sustained by the needs He provides.

Egyptians: With your God not favoring our desires, pilfering our wants, just as He directs you to steal from harvest's abundance, you ask us to abandon our trusted gods, compelling us to worship the poverty your God offers. We must return to our gods, trusting they will free us to live as we want, to enjoy the things they created us to desire.

Joseph: Human will determines disaster ravaging our lands, famine resulting from waste, people living extravagantly, spewing out litter from nature's goodness, deteriorating their bodies with idols of delight, never acknowledging scarcity also follows for the word of God, people starving their souls more than their bodies, never wanting to heed His way. Famine continues for the Egyptians, trusting in their wisdom, preparing its table, victimizing victims with afflictions of people's doing. Those rich in faith will gather feasting on God's wisdom and drive out the famine prevailing over their souls, but our sojourn with pagans should not be lengthy, minimizing time to bind us to another ruler's desires, a time when a prophet's visions will be harder to prevail.

Egyptians: Then we need not be slaves to Pharaoh for any lengthy time, enlisting our reason to determine its ending.

Joseph: You can choose its ending, but remember people are likely to give up enslavement to one thing only to enlist trust in something else, selecting an idol to worship, capturing it to dominate them. Find God as the only One who can set you free.

Egyptians: As one who sells us everything to sustain our lives, we must hold you accountable for our poverty, assuming it will last as long as some foreigner dictates terms for our survival.

Joseph: I am only a messenger for God, foretelling what will happen, and a servant of Pharaoh, carrying out his orders, indeed making me an alien for those never wanting to deny their wants.

Egyptians: Your family thrives so you must favor and take care of your own.

Joseph: My family prospers as long as they heed my words to follow the Lord. They will be free as long as they choose God's truths instead of theirs, trusting His truth will set them free. Your gods know no truths other than yours, stamping your beliefs on their stone, ones unable to set you free from worshipping idols. You who never renounce all you possess cannot submit to follow my God. Your gods claiming earthly possessions, willing them for you, have no portion laid up in the Lord's treasures.

Egyptians: You offer me little but your way.

Joseph: Pharaoh accepted my way, receiving a unknown messenger, trusting his premonitions, coming in the name of God, a prophet bearing His word, trusting his majesty would receive a prophet's reward, saving his kingdom from famine, realizing this only by making his subjects accountable, convincing, no forcing them to live in moderation.

Egyptians: We still do not trust your God, believing you proclaim Him for your benefit, worshipping One who none of us trust, having none of the powers you claim for Him, using Him to support your agenda, enslaving us to Pharaoh's ways, preparing us to ordain him as a another god and worship everything he does. We do not need another god, multiplying the ones we have, increasing their number to match the many laws you must remember, for we know by your ways how they are counted.

Joseph: You are as one of us, created by the Lord, a human being my Father has blessed with life, showing me you are hungry so I can give you something to eat, bringing me to where I am, trusting Him as our loving God, generously surpassing without fail everything we are able to do. We accept God's providence, trusting it even though He might change our circumstances. For those weak in understanding, He beckons, calling them to Him, to be filled with wisdom greater than their own.

Egyptians: You may be favored now, privileged by the grace of your God, unlike our people who are now enslaved by Pharaoh, but your time will come, when with a different Pharaoh, less benevolent, you will be treated as we are now, maybe worse, looking for victims to snare, probably considering aliens for enslavement before others.

Joseph: Our God determines all circumstances for His followers.

Bystander: Thus, Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in its fertile region called Goshen, gaining many possessions, leading exceedingly fruitful lives, multiplying their numbers as promised by God, verifying this to Jacob, soon to pledge blessings, foretelling all by visions describing his sons' destinies, as he approaches his last days sojourning in Egypt, living there seventeen years, completing his days with peace never encountered before, beginning to end his life after a hundred and forty-seven years. Realizing God was preparing to call him home, he summoned his son Joseph for final words.

Jacob: If now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh, and promise to deal loyally and truly with me. Even though I have rejoiced being with my family in Goshen, always drawing closer to my Lord, thriving, drinking from His fountain of joy, Egypt is not my home, and when I die don't bury me here, but take my body out of Egypt and return me to lie with my fathers, inhuming me in their resting place, in our promised land, designated by God to be our home, the haven for sleeping with my forebears, all having passed on, waiting for the Day of the Lord, patiently trusting for completion of their covenant, resting until then in its partial fulfillment, having received an installment on His promise, but still seeing its fulfillment from afar, I can only greet it with hope, trusting my final vision from God.

Joseph: I will do as you have said.

Jacob: Swear to me, giving your word, trusting it to be true. Your oath is most important, more than any monument marking the soil for my decay. Needing no gravestone, chiseled rock to honor my achievements, my Lord needs nothing to recall my deeds, knowing grave markers crumble, wiping away their words with time, where the Lord's memory for my time here will never escape Him, hoping the virtue of my being will be sufficient for Him to lament little of my deeds, and perhaps invest me with a crown for a race well run.

Joseph: Father you are aged, speaking as one ill and ready to accept death, so I must call our family for a final visit before you leave.

Jacob: Listen to me first, hearing my recollections, urgently coming on me now, strengthening me enough to sit up, as I tell you one of my visions, reminded now by God to repeat for your understanding, God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, saying, Behold, I will make you fruitful, multiplying you, making of you a company of people, and will give this land to your descendants coming after you, assuring them an everlasting possession. And now your two sons, born to you in the land of Egypt before I came here, are mine, claiming Ephraim and Manasseh as mine, no different from Reuben and Simeon, and the offspring born to you after them will be yours, but called by the name of your brothers in their inheritance. Having so much to say now, knowing there is little time left, I must disentangle my jumbled thoughts, all competing for my words to utter, maybe digressing to speak of my sorrows, still plaguing my composure, never ceasing during my final breaths, as I never forget coming from Paddan, when Rachel to my sadness died in the land of Canaan, journeying on the way to Ephrath, before reaching its destination, compelling us stop and bury her near the way, at a site I can remember to find today, recalling a memory I could never forget.

Joseph: I remember her well, my mother lost during my childhood, moving from her home to settle where it would never become the promised land for her.

Jacob: Should not dying unveil God's mysteries, bringing discernment to reward us for the penalty of death, revealing more to explain His wisdom? My rambling dementia still is coherent enough to ask why God never wanted us to leave the promised land, even at the time of famine coming during Abraham's time, telling our people, Do not go down into Egypt, but dwell in the land where I show you, dwell in it and I will be with you. Is this a trial or punishment to live with pagans, being tempted by their evil ways, surrounded by their many idols, worshipping opulence and gods unable to answer their needs or satisfy their desires?

Bystander: Did you ever destroy the pagans as the Lord commanded, building barriers to their sinful ways, never lusting after their men and women, disavowing allegiance to all of their many gods, never sacrificing the fruit of your wombs to Molech, never living under direction of your pride, disregarding advent of certain humility to prepare you for becoming righteous, forgetting your God to live the way of the world, did you ever?

Jacob: We obeyed God's laws as well as we could, being too many for extending remembrance for all. He never understood our limitations when He gave us so many to obey.

Bystander: Perhaps when He recognized you did not live as you should, it would matter little where you lived, seeing Egypt no different from the promised land, supporting the same sinful indiscretions in both. Striking a famine in each, severe enough to revoke His order to never go down to Egypt, seemed a good way to stir the pot of His blessed people to become the blessing God planned for them.

Jacob: Do you really think God uses famine to achieve His goals?

Bystander: No one can predict His methods, much less understand them, unless He chooses a messenger to reveal His plans, a prophet to convey His intent, but discernment may not be profited for one without His spirit. Egypt may be the best place for separating wheat from its chaff, for protecting those choosing to follow Him, preventing vagrant ones from claiming any blessings, allowing earthly ones to suffer famine, minding worldly things, but people doing the will of the Father in heaven, feeding their souls with the bread of life, can never be oppressed by starvation of their spirit, blaming it on famine, trusting the Lord will not strike down just souls with famine, assuring them to continue their nourishment with bread from heaven, never suffering them with a famine of hearing the Lord's word.

Jacob: Do you believe God has used me to achieve His goals?

Bystander: You must wait for Him to tell you, seeing your time is almost finished. He assures us many answers come only after ending our days here. You have one remaining obligation, your father's enduring custom, more than a tradition, passing on the blessing, instructing your heirs how they are blessed.

Jacob: I fear the Lord will tell me, He who has not renounced all he possesses cannot be a witness to Him. Must I claim this for my sons to believe.

Bystander: God will not ask to snatch your needs and give them to ones for whom He provides, to return your gifts, the possessions He has blessed you with, gifts never for cultivating your land, but for the soil of your soul, never for terminally lasting but for eternally lasting.

Blessings—Exposing the Blameless

Jacob: God dims my vision, reducing my possession's value, blinding me to its worth, established during my prideful younger days, but now age tarnishes its brilliance, reducing its luster, as I approach sunset's descent foretelling my end. He has not destroyed my mind's acuity, however, so you can trust virtue still clings to my blessings, as I remain obedient to His visions, remaining important for sight of my soul.

Joseph: Standing before me are my two sons, born to my wife who grew up not knowing our God, worshipping only gods, so many to cause one to stumble, obstacles to one's every endeavor, but these sons have been instructed to be true to our God, learning to trust and obey Him in all things, and they wait now for the blessings He ordains, following what He has done for our forefathers. Bringing them here, gifts of life God has entrusted to me, following customs He prescribes for His chosen ones, they bow down to await your blessing, directed by God, believing to be blessed by you might be your final celebration for their lives.

Jacob: Bring them to me, I pray you will consent, allowing me to bless them before my life departs, close enough for me to embrace and kiss them, to rejoice in my final moments, having seen my Joseph's face again, never believing God would bless me so, resurrecting my trust to be with his mother again, my favorite vessel for my most cherished sons, and lo, God, piling blessing on blessing, lets me also see her seed now, my offspring in life, entrusting them to continue in obedience, never forgetting our covenant's promises.

Joseph: I bow before you, facing the earth reflecting God's grace, springing from the soil of His creation, as I give father Jacob my sons to bless, dedicating them to carry on God's promise. I take Manasseh the first born to your right hand and Ephraim the younger to be at your left hand, each one for you to bless.

Bystander: Jacob stretched out his right hand, laying it on Ephraim's head, and laid his left hand on the head of Manasseh.

Jacob: Having blessed Joseph in the name of God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, God who has led me all my life, continuing long to this day, His angel who has redeemed me from all evil, I bless these lads, expecting them to perpetuate my name, and never forget the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, letting them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.

Joseph: Father, remove your right hand from Ephraim's head. You are not blessing the first-born, Manasseh. Bless him with your right hand on his head. Your age and eyesight confuse you with this mistake.

Jacob: I know well my actions. Don't change what I do. I know, my son, I know, seeing my right hand chooses the one who will become a great people, following God's direction. My left hand blesses the older brother and he also is to become a great people, but the younger shall be greater, with his descendants becoming a multitude of nations. I bless them now, proclaiming, By you Israel pronounces blessings, ordaining you both, created by God, making you Ephraim and Manasseh, as I hereby put Ephraim before Manasseh, knowing he will always be faithful, never fearful, leading us into the promised land. Awaken to the reality of my flesh, realizing I am about to die, I pray God will be with you, promising to bring you back to the land of your fathers. Moreover, I have given you rather than your brothers one mountain slope which I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and bow.

Joseph: You bless my sons as they were yours, realizing you must be following the Lord's direction, disregarding tradition's custom, seeing something unseen by me, discerning things invisible revealed through the eyes of faith, gathering your actions to prophetically prepare our people for times to come.

Jacob: My blessing is to insure perpetuation of Joseph's virtues, assuring them to retain their radiance, passing them down unblemished to protect our people's promise. God knows who must be blessed to protect His covenant. Now call all my other sons together, bringing them in so I can tell them what will befall them in days to come. Assemble and hear, O sons of Jacob, harken to Israel your father, hearing my words of fortune and woe, assembled from visions foretelling what you should know, revealing what your lives promise for your sons and daughters.

Bystander: Jacob watches, interpreting his visions, transforming them into words, blessing his sons with important understandings, incomparable insights, begging them all to hear, telling of things to come, imprinting all to remembrance, foretelling circumstances directed by God for sustaining their nation. Hear what he tells his other sons.

Jacob: Reuben, you are my first-born, my might, and the first fruits of my strength, pre-eminent in pride and celebrated in power. Unstable as water, you will not celebrate virtuous distinction because you went up to your father's bed, defiling it, staining my couch with your seed. You shame creation's intent, separating us from beasts having no instincts to deny adulterous behavior, wild ones driven innately by inherent lusts, without any choice if they would ever be approved, conflicting with creation's virtues assembled for you, but chosen by you to ignore. Can't you wait for God's commands, telling your actions are unacceptable--responding to your instinct's calling--condemning them as sinful, painful to His sight, as you silence His voice within you, never listening to the conscience He implanted in your soul? If you could have waited until scribes spelled out God's laws, inscribing them for all to see, you would have seen the invisible become visible, telling you how to live. None the less, Reuben will be blessed, with his seed living and never dying out, promising his progeny will never be few, so a prophet will come to erase his sin, assuring he will never be cut off from his brother's number.

Reuben: Who can lay claim to a concubine, making her for only one to possess, invading her virtue as only one man's prerogative to lust, desiring her more than the wife God ordains man to be united with as one? Is your concubine the slave who gives you freedom to be yourself, pridefully deciding who you are? I am the first-born. Don't you know the privileges and ways of a first-born son?

Jacob: You have a stigma of blame, recorded for posterity, testifying to your lust, unyielding in endurance and willfulness, priding you as a ram of nature, defiling any modesty a concubine might have remaining.

Reuben: Am I born cursed, indelibly stained by my father's past deeds, destined to be no other way, trusting I might be blessed by my father's passing, but now cursed by his reproach, announcing God's first-born people would suffer in being sinful, chasing lustfully after pagan ones, tempted to worship their idols? Will I carry on the tradition of bowing down to the ways of others?

Jacob: My other sons also deserve blessings. Simeon and Levi, being brothers with convictions for justifying retribution, wielding weapons of violence, never let peace stand in the way of their swords. O my soul, come not into their council; O my spirit, be not joined to their company, for in their anger they slay men, and in their wantonness they hamstring oxen. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.

Simeon: Should we consider your words a blessing, sounding it more like a curse, dishonoring our honored family, choosing a way unlikely to meet your approval. We were instruments of retribution, cleansing our tribe, removing its dishonor, determining vengeance for pollution of our sister, treating her as a concubine, wanting her to be yoked with a heathen, giving us reason to deceive pagans, believing they always threaten our unity, disrupting us from being chosen, ridiculing us for following God's law.

Levi: If we are destined to be blessed, leading our people to follow God's laws, we had to begin then, showing Him we can decide what should be done.

Jacob: Would God accept other people's commitment to join Him, becoming members to share in His covenant, mandating their circumcision, and then condemn them to be slain, destroying them during their resulting infirmity?

Levi: God insists on our purity, never wanting us to be contaminated by worshipping pagan gods, a real threat if we mingle with the lives of others. God will always support the extermination of others who threaten our way of faith, our God who wants no other gods before Him.

Jacob: Does God also tell you to maim innocent beasts He creates, hamstringing oxen to make them useless?

Simeon: We did indeed make them useless, trusting God would approve of our action.

Jacob: How could the men you killed find useless beasts of burden worthy for anything when their masters are left in death? Would you care for needs of beasts you have maimed, hampering their ability to survive?

Levi: You must accept some stain for our deeds in Shechem, maybe not acknowledging it at the time, but now in your old age telling Joseph, I give to you, above all your brothers, one mountain slope (Shechem) which I took from the hands of the Amorites with my sword and bow.

Jacob: Attribute those words to senility, misleading you by my dementia, meaning to choose one most holy, Joseph before others, as preferred heir, rewarding his good works, comparing his virtues, with your's never matching. Simeon, you are destined to document our tribe's doings, assigning you to faithfully record God's truths, disclosed in his revelations, shown as they appear, but the scribes your seed will create are destined to fail, never accurately reporting His will. Levi, you will be chosen to father our tribe's priestly line, but they will be remembered for bringing wickedness to completion and filling up the entire measure of their father's unholiness, without passion for the Lord, telling each, Let us bind the just one for He is profitless to us, and kill any prophet coming with good news decided by us to be heresy. Pray for visions of things to come to witness actions of your inheritors, the scribes and high priests. Woe to their soul, for they have devised an evil counsel against themselves, bringing me to bless them with division.

Bystander: Is dividing Simeon and Levi, scattering them throughout Israel, a blessing or a curse. Are they cursed to perpetuate their deceit, writing and proclaiming to satisfy other's attention, pridefully to loft their reason above the Lord's truth, wearing splendid robes, seeking only to be one with themselves? Do they know how to become one with God, never wanting them to be merely trophies, showcased in radiance of their choosing, but listening to how He wants to use them, justifying them to receive His blessings?

Jacob: God will scatter them to beyond the borders of the promised land, their home, their only school, having prepared them to be a blessing, but likely to see their purpose never fulfilled, never using their gifts after being sent out. As they scattered Joseph, sending him into a desert for training, surviving on only manna, testing his patience, removing all his longings, they destroyed his wants for any desires. Scattering Simeon and Levi could be a blessing, awakening them to use new opportunities like Joseph, circumstances established by God, but as we know now they never chose to be equipped with virtues like him. In collusion they may convince many of their integrity, but Simeon's legacy of virtue can never be for his scribes, lauding Levi's heirs, proclaiming them to be priests forever. It will be for others, simple ones, to receive the Lord's greatest revelation, to recognize good news when He sends it, never trusting the scribes and priests with His message.

Bystander: With God scattering Levi's heirs, limiting their time's usefulness, He will ordain others for His purpose, bringing them to say, I regard not my father and mother, disown my brothers and ignore my children, so they can observe His word and keep His covenant, shunning fleshly knowledge, spurning carnal relationships, seeking to be nourished by divine wisdom revealed in God's knowledge, His everlasting word. No prophet knows this now, understanding how God will use sinners to do His work.

Levi: Hearing your prophecy for us, being a blessing attenuated with a curse, can you choose one of your sons to bless with a worthy future?

Jacob: Judah deserves to be so blessed. Judah, your brothers shall praise you as I bless you now, foreseeing your hand on the neck of your enemies, your father's sons bowing down to you. Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. Stooping down, crouching as a lion, stalking as a lioness, who dares to rouse him up? With his scepter never departing, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs, Judah will reign, commanding obedience from all his subjects. Binding his colt, foal of an ass, to the vine and its begetter to the choice vine, he washes his garments in wine and his ventures in the blood of grapes, leaving his eyes washed in red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.

Simeon: Why should Judah be selected by you for praise, knowing none of his brothers have such intentions to be ruled, never by one with no greater gifts than them? Why should his blessing exceed yours for us?

Jacob: The Lord says I will bless who I will bless, apparently for His reasons, knowing His reasons are not those of ours, but coming at His discretion, suggesting I reason actions without understanding, sometimes wanting to override His decisions, choosing outcomes coming from my direction, without trusting His blessing may be for something important, some unknown event He will reveal in the future. His visions, reflecting who He will bless, remain veiled, coming with little discernment.

Bystander: Judah's heir, as the true confessor, will declare the Lord's name to his brothers, being the Lord by nature, a brother by grace, stretching out hands to unbelievers, subjecting hostile powers, calling all people who are without faith, devoting their worship to ancient deities, transfiguring unbelievers to be brothers, teaching them to be ready and eager, praising the Lord, thereby foretelling how Judah's seed is prepared to serve his brothers in proclaiming creation's goodness in His name, in leading all to realize His promises in the land.

Levi: If my heirs are to be priests, proclaiming, protecting, and perpetuating God's law, how can others such as those coming from Judah rule? God tells His chosen ones ordained to be priests, confronted by turmoil in the midst of their enemies, to sit at His right hand where He will place all foes under their feet, ordering their enemies to bow down before them. If Judah's seed rules, will we become subjects, compelled to bow down? We will never be committed to bow down to anyone. No, no one will drive us with their hands on our back. We will always be moved by our will, driven by our trusted reason.

Simeon: As a lion's whelp, Judah may learn to roar, but will he be robed with a majestic mane, entitling him to be some king, a regal authority, expecting us to bow down to him? The Lord, ordaining kings, maybe from Judah's heirs, his stump, may nurture a shoot, raising it to become a ruler, but God has no good reason for revealing it to father, having done nothing to deserve it.

Levi: There may come a day when brothers will praise a brother, but Cain showed this is impossible and we could never desire any praise for one of us. Brothers are slow to reason any praise for brothers, needing God's spirit for that to happen.

Simeon: Jacob still gives no reason for giving Judah his highest praise, ignoring his first-born trio to bless him more, struggling us in disbelief, telling us of his days asleep to the world's doings, asking who will wake him, resurrecting him from his stupor.

Levi: Father Jacob assembles fables in his waning moments, talking about scepters, thinking a shepherd's crook can be transformed into a symbol of authority, changing his sheep's clothing into regal attire, making him someone all must obey, trusting he is better than us, his brothers born from the same seed, knowing he like us, battles the passions of our souls.

Simeon: As the scribe I am destined to be, my heirs can compose stories showing our father is wrong, transcribing his visions as delusions, as well as creating myths for skeptics to ponder and seeking reasons to punish prophets with different beliefs, but they may be instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, becoming like a householder, bringing out of his treasure things new and old, great things out of a small beginning.

Bystander: Skeptics' words are sustained only by human truths, here today and gone tomorrow, never having any eternal verities to sustain endurance, never any true vine to tether one's spirits, never following commands to untie souls, committed solely to people's my-selves, releasing nothing to nourish virtues, leaving any fruits to wither, as they respond only to the pride of their reason telling them I can do all things by myself, never needing an ass of ignorance, an unclean beast of imagination, never bound partnered to be shamed, humiliated like one required to call out unclean when venturing anywhere. Skeptics flee from being tethered to any true vine, shunning the Lord as a vinedresser.

Simeon: You can trust me, reporting God's hopes for His people, doing His will to faithfully protect His promises. I must confess we did not trust Him before, seizing his right for vengeance, exacting retribution by killing ones He created.

Bystander: You indeed washed creation's garments in blood, never giving them the chance to wash its clothes in wine, in the blood of grapes, after deceiving all this being done and defying God's prerogative to exact vengeance, knowing He proclaims to all, Vengeance is mine.

Simeon: By their blood they were cleansed, atoning them for their sin, purifying them with death, assuring they will sin no more. So be it for our enemies.

Bystander: People living in the light, as God is in the light, fellowshipping in His truths, loving brothers and sisters in the light, causing none to stumble, understand how to be cleansed of their sins, needing no periodic letting of blood to atone for their sins, never following ways taught by the world to forget the Father's love, His goodness in creating all. Soaking His creation with blood covers no unworthiness, excusing no human cravings, persisting for pleasures and pride in achievements.

Levi: Prophesying Judah heirs will have eyes darker suggests their eyes will be darkened by wine, but we know humans searching for truth may drown their spirits in wine. Is this his progeny's destiny for seeking truth?

Simeon: We will write on imbibing wine, beyond the point of revealing any new human insights on bringing slumber in drunkenness. And what of anyone having teeth white with milk? Will they always be babes who never mature to begin eating solid food, basking in ignorance, unable to digest human truths they encounter?

Jacob: You all have your own ways to understand my blessings. Hear another. Zebulun will dwell at the seashore, establishing a haven for ships, and his border will be at Sidon. Honored from his birth, his mother acknowledging him as someone special, naming him with a blessing, freeing him from things of the night, protecting him to remain in the light, assuring shipwrecks of darkness would never threaten him, Zebulun will become as a beacon beckoning to shipwrecked souls, bobbing about in life's heavy seas.

Levi: He will never amount to much, being one of the last, living near the edge, close yet far from other's lives, humbly in silence, ministering to their needs, never being remembered for anything. How can one such be blessed, seeming to never covet anything?

Jacob: Blessings often come for others to belittle, understanding them with ridicule, rationalizing less has been offered them. I have more to bless. Blessing Issachar, my son by Leah coming after Judah, requires me to take notice of his plans, recognizing he is a strong ass, crouching between the sheep folds, finding this resting place good, situated in land fertile and pleasant, so he bowed his shoulder to bear weighty tasks, making him an enduring slave, forcing his labor, serving to gather fruits of good works, fulfilling his name meaning reward, deserved from walking virtue's ways, obeying God's commandments.

Reuben: Issachar never matured beyond his work ethic, never awakening his innate gifts to live by instinctive passion's impulses, content to remain on the farm and never be distracted by glowing city darkness, following no one ever tiring of diversions as their ongoing folly, as he will be led by rewards promised to abound in his fruited valley.

Jacob: For following this blessing, he must be a strong ass, no, better with a strong and clean soul, respected by God to be one of His own, following His wisdom, never turning to the right or left, following the way to righteousness. He will be rewarded, reaping deservings of his name, never desiring splendors enticing youth, shunning wealth sought by greed, always following his destiny, desiring good from the beginning, never tempted to covet evil, inherent in him before knowing how to call on his father or mother, never trusting unworthiness, choosing what is good, listening to the Lord, hearing Him show what is good, what He requires of us all, to love mercy and walk humbly with Him, cutting all free from ropes binding the ungodly.

Levi: Issachar's blessing shows his seed will also amount to nothing, bowing their shoulder, applying themselves to the plow, patiently accepting insults certain to come, ignoring any shame heaped on their toil, sowing their soil with good seed, planting fruitful trees with deep roots.

Jacob: It is usual for one to judge another's blessings and decide whether one's truth justifies it's deserving. Here is another for my sons to evaluate, asking each to discern whether appropriate. Dan will judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel, waiting as a serpent in the way, a viper beside the path, searching rider's horses to bite their heels, causing their riders to fall backward. I wait for thy salvation, O Lord, knowing your judgment will be more just than Dan's, committing You to be your creation's keeper.

Simeon: Should my scribes-to-be list many accomplishments for Dan, waiting for horsemen bearing dreaded evil, lies waiting to explode, attacking them bearing their words of lasting truths, toppling messengers of fragile and fleeting human beliefs?

Jacob: Dan, fleeing from confusion, must be like a serpent to destroy evil by evil, fighting fire with fire, trusting judges must rule this way, waiting in preparation for one's salvation. Dan will go last in his journeys, bringing up the rear, eating dust of others, shaken off from their boots, slithering through as the way of vipers.

Levi: If my heirs ever become judges, taking over where Dan might leave off, they would never use evil judgments to rule people, but I would ask Simeon's heirs to construct new edicts, permissive, permitting them to be upright, allowing them to live by their wishes, never enlisting serpents to vent retribution. We would show them how to win their salvation without upsetting tranquility developed by their truths. We won't need a serpent to insert a thorn for afflicting any one's flesh, distressing and removing them needlessly from their comfort.

Jacob: Moving on with my blessings, raiders will plunder Gad, but he will descend on their heels.

Levi: Gad will never understand these words you wrap in mystery. Are you saying he will be tempted and tried to the point of seeking vengeance and wreaking retribution?

Jacob: Trial will strain our heirs, testing them with tribulations, confronting perpetrators, striking at their heels. Be careful in judging another, should one come back to try you, thinking your wisdom can match theirs, asking by what authority do you judge, showing you must take care, fearing you could be silenced, tying your tongue, binding your scattered thoughts in silence, or entangling your ways of thinking so no response is possible. Blessed is He who enlarges Gad, protecting him from attacks by temptation, testing him little with trials, fencing off raiders stealing in to snatch his virtues.

Levi: I have memorized God's myriad laws, protecting me from temptations, and I bequeath this to my heirs. Striving for perfection, I know I must travel a way strewn with temptations. Gad can look to me for help.

Jacob: Now consider the younger son of Leah's maidservant, Asher whose food shall be rich, prepared to provide royal dainties, fit for a king. Born to be blessed, given the name of being honored with God's richness, blessing him with bread from heaven, food designated to develop saintly ones, devoured by those destined to be swept up for eternal life.

Simeon: My heirs writing for all to know, will rarely ever mention Asher, his name falling through memory's cracks. How his food could be rich remains unknown, unless his heirs will be gluttons, surviving on their taste for delicacies.

Jacob: Asher's riches endows him with eternal truths, rewarding him with God's wisdom and knowledge, designating his beginning with nothing but a name, proclaiming an innate richness in a newborn's poverty, enlisting his penury to enrich others, an impoverishment dictating his life, enabling the fringe of his garment to heal, making his knowledge of eternal truths a rich treasure, promising rich sustenance as the only bread of life. Most blessed of my sons is Asher.

Levi: For what reason can you justify this greatest blessing for Asher?

Jacob: My blessings are not justified by me, coming only from God, His spirit directing my words, sealing my thoughts, deciding what all should hear, confirmed by His Almighty presence, coming in visions I cannot disregard.

Simeon: What made Asher so? Why is he different to be so blessed?

Jacob: It may be because of his mother, her obedience, being no more than a servant, taking charge of life's most important duty, never distracted by a rival's envy or pride, knowing her life could never be as theirs, having become a slave to bear children because of another's disappointment, realizing she could excel in nothing else, so she focused on only one thing, her children's welfare, and doing well, but only by the grace of God, she never stopped looking to His direction. Looking to the future, your heirs will take little notice of her, hardly mentioning her in our story's annals.

Simeon: There is little worthwhile we can say about Asher's life now so how can future scribes remember anything to say?

Jacob: You have said the same for others while remembering your brothers by noting their sins or by your evil acts against ones you hated. See another one you would ignore, who I bless, telling all, Naphtali is a hind let loose, bearing comely fawns, abounding with God's favor, full of His blessing.

Simeon: What does your words mean?

Jacob: They are not mine, being God's they describe his blessing. Naphtali is a spreading vine, propagating new branches, blessed through the grace of faith, stripped of death's bonds, and foreshadowing in him righteous people, responding to God's invitation, to freedom, to faith in Him, to the fullness of grace, taking Him in to indwell, purposefully to spread His name throughout the world, a spreading vine, putting forth beauty in each new shoot, witnessing by its fruits to the wisdom of God, waiting until some day when He will send One, blessing us with truths we have yet to discern.

Levi: I assume you reserve the greatest blessing for your favorite.

Jacob: Joseph is a fruitful bough, a profitable vine by a spring, growing his branches, running them over the wall, encountering unknowing people, leaving a bountiful harvest, waiting to be reaped. Archers fiercely attacking, shooting at him, harassing him sorely, failed in moving his bow, his arms remaining agile, steadied by hands of the Mighty One, our Father God always there to help, the Almighty Creator showering blessings from heaven above, blessings of the deep lying below, blessings of breasts nourishing miracles from the womb. Your father Jacob's blessings are greater than those of eternal mountains, than bounties of everlasting hills, falling now on Joseph, on the brow of him, once separated from his brothers.

Bystander: Jacob, following the lead of his dearly beloved son, remembering one who

brought him great joy, faithfully reporting God's visions, ultimately realizing no prophecy comes from a visionary's own understanding, never from any human wisdom, received wisdom from God telling him it comes only through words of the Holy Spirit.

Reuben: Brothers as determined by you, putting us all down, making us less than Joseph when you named him, telling everyone this son is increased, the pick of the litter, destined to be greater than the others, giving you a self-fulfilling prophecy, taking revenge on us, retribution for events not of our doing, judging us unfairly, how can one be so blessed, perhaps because God suffered your patience, forcing you to wait for a trusted-to-be prodigy, watching your favorite wife beg God to be blessed with a pregnancy, Rachel urging you to use her maid, surrogating her to give you a child, one you could be tempted to adopt as hers. When you wait too long, anyone could become your fruitful bough, one arriving late in your life to pamper and spoil, to shower with your undivided affection. If you had given me a chance, as the eldest, I could have been the increased one, deserving the blessings of being the first-born.

Jacob: I know nothing of destiny's plans, and I trust this is all in the hands of the Lord, attributing all to His doing. I know now our redeemer lives, saving us to live out our time on earth, only understanding God destines Joseph to save us.

Simeon: You speak also of archers waiting to attack him? Do we know of any to accuse? Let anyone attacking come forward. As surely as The Lord lives, the person who does this deserves to die.

Jacob: Examine your reflection in the pond, asking are you the man. Trusting your human wisdom you voted to kill Joseph, and for my knowledge you did until God protected his life, preserving his virtues, resurrecting him for me to use.

Simeon: Life couldn't have been too bad, seeing how he prospers now, suggesting he had few tribulations, no more than any other person, and now he can boast of abundant treasures, living regally as a king.

Jacob: God indeed made him to rule, but making his arms agile, he remained benevolent, virtuous, humble, obedient and patient, waiting to serve human needs.

Reuben: Many such people exist, serving others, humbling and obediently, working to fulfill people's needs.

Jacob: Only servants working to build God's kingdom are truly blessed, excluding many you describe, ones deceiving us for their own profit, chasing after notoriety to fatten their storehouses of treasure. Never name Joseph as one of their kind. He is being blessed beyond blessings of life coming from the womb, beyond blessings promised from the earth's never-ending sustenance.

Levi: You should remember Joseph as one never being humble, exalting himself, prideful of his dreams, committing the most dreadful sin, shaming you before him, foretelling how you would bow down to him.

Jacob: My understanding lacked clarity then, never discerning God's revelation, veiling His intentions for Joseph, believing my heart uttered a good word. I had forgotten God creates us all by His Word, breathing the spirit of life in us, giving me understanding, explained by: From the mouth of the Most High we all come forth, with God telling us, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you came forth from your mother's womb, I sanctified you, enabling you to be righteous, crowning you with my blessing, bestowing it on one most just, because you won it through My grace, responding to become one with Me, witnessing with My visions only, coming from the Lord, proclaiming My name to everyone, singing praises to My name, even if waiting years for them to hear, for transfiguring their envy to fruit, testifying to the increase in Joseph's faith, filling him with greater indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Bystander: Justice finally crowns Joseph, completing God's purpose, rewarding him, having survived many trials and temptations, bringing his brothers to realize their ways, reflecting their deceit, revealed by God, triumphing with Jacob's blessings. Joseph, the fruitful bough, becomes the son increased, growing his virtues to achieve the Lord's great victory, beginning His increase in Judah through confession, in Zebulun's dispelling the security of darkness, in Issachar's rewards for his works, in Dan's keeping a correct capacity of judgment in the context of his free will, in Gad's resisting temptation, and in Asher's reaching beatitude. The increased son, beginning as an envied one, a model imitated by righteous ones, becoming a victim of envy and hatred, despised by the wicked, making much of him but only as a scapegoat, loathing him but for no good purpose, while with good zeal he says about himself, My soul feels a divinely inspired jealousy. Joseph resurrected from his brothers' plans, never realizing it was fated by God, could have descended into a bottom less pit, into obscurity, but God had plans for something different.

Jacob: Benjamin came to be my consolation, and I bless him not least of all. Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, in the morning devouring the prey, and at evening dividing the spoil.

Simeon: Clearly you bless him to be a beast, a warrior to disrupt a peaceable kingdom, predicting war and corruption, lasting longer than it ever has.

Jacob: No. Benjamin, as a ravenous beast, will snatch all souls captured by the evil one, releasing them from bondage, enslaved to sin, appropriating their iniquity, seizing it for himself, fulfilling what he was born to carry, innately decided for him at birth, for how else could his mother name him son of my sorrow.

Bystander: God will indeed bless Benjamin's heir, crowning one to inaugurate His kingdom on earth, but failing by trusting truths of his common sense and reason, never trusting to follow His ways.

Jacob: God trusts me to have a blessing coming from Benjamin, one He will be justly proud of.

Bystander: Thereby Jacob trusts the Lord, revealing for this blessing one coming from Benjamin, blinded by outpoured light, driven from living in darkness, as God proclaims, Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him, shielding him all day long, trusting ones the Lord loves rests between His shoulders. The words of his witness will be spoils of battle, distributed for all humankind, elected to be spread never by his merit, never by his reason to believe, but because he will be chosen as one most unworthy of the unworthy, transformed to be worthy by the Lord.

Levi: Benjamin will be proud to have an heir so worthy from our family.

Bystander: You may spend the rest of your days enjoying harmony with your brothers, but beware your seeds have potential for germinating discord, waiting to germinate, bursting forth when your heirs will have forgotten your once in accord, fore-going obedience to the law, long before you beseech God, asking Him for a Messiah, sending One to be more worthy, greater than any Jacob can imagine to bless now.

Jacob: I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittites, the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in Canaan, which Abraham bought as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite, along with the field. There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah are buried, and there I buried Leah, but alas, only near where I buried Rachel. The field and cave in it were bought from the Hittites, at a time we could coexist with them.

Judah: With all his blessings given, Jacob takes his last breath, and see how Joseph who knew him least weeps over him most, kissing the remnants of his being, as he is gathered to his people.

Joseph: Send for my servant physicians, instructing them to embalm my father's body, following the practices of the Egyptians, but wondering if God would smile on this practice, exposing it as done for pagan idols, conforming to worship of their gods, preparing the dead for an afterlife like the one they leave, supplying them food, sending them off with their favorite trinkets, entombing them in regal attire, perhaps preparing them to revisit Eden.

Reuben: No such requirements are established for our family's dead, never being authorized by our God, so would He be upset if we follow some pagan practice?

Bystander: Justification for embalming Jacob could argue he must remain preserved, lasting to appear as he was, enduring without decay during the journey to his burial site, preventing dishonor for stinking remains, disgusting with stench, overbearing those bearing him, his pall bearers. Having finished the designated time for weeping, Joseph spoke again, this time to the household of Pharaoh.

Joseph: If now I have found favor in your eyes, I speak, praying for the ears of Pharaoh to hear, reporting my father made me swear, saying, I am about to die, waiting for me is a tomb, hewed out for my body, a resting place in the land of Canaan, there you must bury me, beside those having passed before. Now therefore, I pray you let me go up to bury my father, after which I will surely return, acknowledging my service to you remains unfinished.

Pharaoh: Go up, and bury your father as he made you swear.

Bystander: So Joseph went up to bury his father, accompanied by Pharaoh's servants, elders of his master's household, and all elders of the land of Egypt, as well as Joseph's and his brothers' households and his father's household, leaving behind only their children, flocks, and herds in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen, making a very great company. Arriving at the threshing floor of Atad, beyond the Jordan, they mourned greatly, sorrowfully lamenting for seven days, paying father Jacob homage, celebrating his life with full honors. When the Canaanite inhabitants of the land saw this mourning, weeping and wailing by so many on the threshing floor of Atad, they exclaimed, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians, bringing them to name the place Abel-Miriam, locating it beyond the Jordan. Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded, carrying his remains to the land of Canaan, burying him in the cave of the field at Mach-pelah, to the east of Mamre, which Abraham had bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite, purchasing it for a burying place. After he buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.

Reuben: Maybe we should have stayed in Canaan, fearing our father's death would finally condemn us, justly to exact retribution, finally coming with deserved vengeance, patiently having awaited its day, as we can't expect to trust Joseph, having become a powerful ruler, fulfilling his vision, dreaming we would bow down to him, now capable of doing anything he wishes, despising us with contempt, hating our betrayal of him so many years ago, but not so long to erase his memory, to forget what we did to him. Justified in exacting retributions, he can will anything he chooses.

Levi: Perhaps Joseph hates us, scheming to pay us back for all our evil, giving him an opportune time now for revenge. Let's send him a message saying, Your father gave this command before he died, beseeching your brother Joseph to forgive his brothers, praying he would pardon their transgression planned to harm him, doing the evil they exercised on him, as they contemplated exiling him to death or slavery. Now we, pray you, forgive the transgressions of the servants of the God of your father, honoring your father's final request before he died.

Bystander: On hearing these words, Joseph wept, as his brothers all came forward and fell down before him, fulfilling the prophecy once more.

Brothers: Behold, we are your servants.

Joseph: Fear not, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring about circumstances for many people to live, surviving as they are today. So never fear, realizing I am here for a reason, providing for you and your little ones, reassuring and comforting you as the Lord directs me, enabling His creative wisdom to continue. For those loving God, all things work together for good, uniting us here under the umbrella of His blessings.

Bystander: So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's house under God's blessing, continuing Joseph's breath for a hundred and ten years, allowing him time to see Ephraim's children of the third generation, cradling the children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, born on Joseph's knees, continuing His blessings until the Lord brings Joseph to his final hours, to reveal his ending thoughts.

Joseph: I am about to die, but never forget God's promises, having visited on His chosen people the covenant for us to obey, an oath to bring you up out of this place to the land He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Promise my bones to partake in His covenant, remembering His pledge, recalling it when God revisits you, announcing the time for your return, going home to your promised land, pledging you to carry up my bones from here, bringing them home to rest with my fathers, crowning my existence with this final reward, honoring the blessings the Lord has given me.

Epitaphs For Remembrance

Bystander: With the end in sight, don't we all struggle, forcing our words to be heard, grappling with its rationed time, as we have more to say, frantically speaking, not knowing which will be last, perhaps repeating some, forgotten in being said before, slipping away by our decaying memory.

Joseph: Truly, God is good, bringing great things out of my small beginning, testing me, acknowledging my trust for Him, never thinking of being disobedient to the heavenly vision, directing me to begin a new journey with Him, never refusing to grow where He plants me.

Bystander: God tells us what many ignore, refusing to hear, showing us what is good, what He requires of us, to always do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with Him, planting us to acquire joy, coming only from Him.

Job: I once painted myself with goodness, decreed by my wisdom, seeing space for nothing more, reflecting my image from a mirror, visioning no room to establish something better, assured the best had been included, proclaiming goodness satisfied, testifying to my virtue of blamelessness being complete, needing nothing more, surely leaving God to lament, But in vain do they worship me, teaching doctrines formulated by people, commandments of scribes, forgetting to concentrate on keeping their lives open to Me, ignoring my Word going forth, never knowing it will not return to Me void, assured of accomplishing only what I please, prospering where I send it.

Joseph: Before recognizing who you were, you were unable to change until discovering the need for confession, realizing confession was never considered till you began to know yourself, remembering pride once told you there was nothing for you to reconsider, your knowledge being complete, closing the door for new insight, stagnating your wisdom to be unchanged by the world, never calling you to repentance.

Bystander: With all being conceived and born in sin, all committing unworthy deeds, none ever being acceptable, they have no recourse except confession, committing them to repent, admitting they fall short of creation's goodness. Afflictions, sufferings dedicated to oneself, are removed by confession, cleansing sins from one's soul, preparing one for baptism by the Holy Spirit, opening the way for Him to enter, leaving me to wonder if Job's children's celebrations ever included invitations for Him to join their feasts.

Job: Having little time for an invisible One, an imaginary Holy Spirit, impatience destroyed my peace, driving me to anxiously seek answers, wanting reasons to know why afflictions chose me, believing I had never sinned against the Lord, until He brought me from darkness into light, illuminating His truths, revealing I could only be cleansed by confession, and I began to see His righteousness, promising a day when His grace might visit me with compassion, filling my void, trampling my sins asunder, throwing them into bottomless depths.

Bystander: Delight dwells on your hearing the Lord, but also humiliation in taking so long, neglecting to listen to His voice, wasting some of your years waiting to discover joy.

Job: Do Joseph's brothers now also hear God's words, inscribing them on their hearts, recalling them often to live by, integrating all their deeds according to His will? Jacob's blessings in some ways appear to curse them rather than bless their seeds.

Joseph: God only knows how they could convict themselves of being blameless, their relatively acceptable virtue, not bad in belonging to most, possibly disclaimed by their conscience, but reasonable in claiming their deeds were controlled by creation's inherent nature.

Job: Would it be preferable to be convicted of blamelessness, being upright as I was, never being victimized as freedom's keeper of violence, nor being a righteous one demanding justice for everyone's trivial indiscretion, exacting vengeance for every broken decree, realizing blameless ones are satisfied to live with a self-willed determination to be godly, but never in perfect oneness with God, wanting to be somewhat godly if convenient, often to reflect images worshipped, sometimes idols fabricated of wood and stone, knowing they can never represent godliness, leaving it entirely up to the idolizers, reasoned by their judgment to certify purity, innocence, and guiltlessness, self-assurances for acceptance into a form of afterlife, trusted imaginings to justify their worthiness?

Bystander: Should righteousness ever be a goal for humans, trusting no can be righteous, thinking people will suffer few consequences of acceptable unrighteousness, realizing the righteous might be compelled to suffer deprivations, existing in a realm of nothingness? Have you ever taken leave of being moral for one moment, expecting it to never tarnish your blamelessness, as believing you can dismiss your spirituality briefly and maintain your uprightness, disregarding any goal to be righteous?

Joseph: We cannot accept existence in nothingness, realizing from the beginning it is not good for man to live alone, recalling God's testimony for all to believe, never tormenting people by isolation, voiding their relationships, secluding them completely, giving them solidarity as their only companion, unable to count meaningful moments, suffering them with life's cruelest form of punishment, such making one a victim of nothingness, seeing righteousness denies one the ability for relationships, indeed cruelty at its worst.

Bystander: Your separation from heathens, mandating you to destroy pagans, counseling you to never associate with blemished sinful ones, eliminates all others, all those never being righteous, so becoming righteous does deprive you of relationships with all others, forcing you to become a disciple of nothingness.

Job: Seeing these consequences of righteousness, hearing prophets condone uprightness, blamelessness cannot be so bad, maybe falling short of what God wants for us, but allowing us to exercise the free will he imputed in our creation, driving us to accumulate great worth. Moreover, I let no one set the standards for my blameless but establishing their limits I trusted no others to use their measure to determine mine.

Bystander: But did not your treasures come from something, requiring you to covet anything teasing your desires, hiding covetousness in a dark corner of your blamelessness, secreting it in a place reserved for sins of murder, adultery, fornication, and theft, concealing it with evils of envy and greed?

Job: My blamelessness convicted me, convincing me I was just like other people, assuring me my wealth here was a blessing for being upright, built by my virtue of being right with God.

Joseph: You comforted many, other upright ones, with your comments, giving little reason to strive for righteousness, attesting to its impossibility, but convictions of truth heard now for your words demand we must always confess, acknowledging no one can ever be righteous, but ones trusting themselves blameless think they have nothing for which to repent, seldom convincing them to confess, relying on sacrifice as a more comfortable way to cover their sins, if they ever must acknowledge any.

Bystander: Take care. What if sacrifice loses its appeal, diminishing its priority, facing indifference, seeing people refuse to give up their treasures, idols supporting their desires, abandoning their trusted scapegoats, resorting to wine to forget their unworthy deeds, confessing all with partaking of their cup, emptying their sorrows, consuming wrath, dispelling memories tormenting their souls.

Job: Then if my upright behavior had been enough, justifying no blame for my afflictions, treating my adversities as a chance of fate, should I have asked no one for explanations?

Bystander: Be careful in what you seek and who you ask, never knowing what can be expected, appealing for admonitions, freedom to be yourself or demands to be righteous. Righteousness demands tolerance for no one, for nothing, realizing all are blemished with sinfulness, never even tolerating blameless ones, considered tolerable and acceptable by most, whereas seekers of freedom also tolerate little, denying both righteous and upright one's virtues, unworthy in judging them to be intolerant.

Job: What should we be then? Righteous, blameless, or seekers of freedom? Do they all make way for the custodian of violence, never knowing whether comes the Grand Inquisitor or some henchman of evil?

Joseph: Do our desires open doors for such a person?

Bystander: People all make way for the keeper of violence, companion to seekers of freedom, knowing destructive weapons are needed to exact ultimate freedom, but those striking out for unbridled justice also claim its attention, testifying they can do nothing unarmed. With freedom intact no virtue can claim them, never letting any others keep its company, avoiding all completely, wanting to be in partnership with none, but righteous ones believe all others are chained to evil, never knowing righteousness' value, being rarely seen, attested by prophets to be impossible for humans, considered to be a hypothetical virtue, bothering all little, seldom calling for mercy, continuously inflicting judgment, never satisfied by violence unleashed for sacrifice, slaying some innocent life, dismissing any sanctity claimed for people's wants and desires, so people must rule for moderation, realizing ultimate freedom conflicts with absolute justice, unable to let the living live, compelling people to never accept violence for sinners seeking to confess and repent--searching vainly for righteousness--disrupting their endeavors, intruding, invading their composure with anxiety, confusing their reason, and mismanaging their common sense.

Joseph: Guardians of righteousness, ordained with jurisdictions to determine justice, also appearing as you say to be custodians of violence, mandate and execute orders, laws inscribed in stone, determining deployment of verdicts, following decrees of Molech, sacrificing life for many solutions, isolating others by torture with seclusion's torments, punishing them with hopelessness, contending with God's proclamation creating humans to never be alone.

Bystander: Beware of praying for righteousness, receiving results you could never tolerate, lasting epithets for others to remember. Blamelessness may not be all bad, tolerating indifference to shun intolerable extremes, avoiding unacceptable forms of justice, compelling one to judge no situations, but it comes with protection from violence, no disrupting actions for building relationships, complying with the purpose of God's design, relationships being the substance of everything, making everything from the void, preventing all from returning to nothingness.

Job: Thereby the Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, judged by my degree of blamelessness, according to the innocence of my hands in His sight, being merciful as I extended mercy, for an upright one shown to be upright, for a faithful one shown to be faithful, for a blameless one proven to be blameless, for a pure one showing himself pure, recognizing me as somewhat humble, but to the crooked He shows greater shrewdness, bringing low the prideful haughty. If this be so, I was truly made, but not in His image, a blameless one undeserving of His grace and mercy, accepting I was born to be sinful, discovering I must confess, acknowledging I fall short of His image, compelling me to live by relative virtues, willed by my choosing but not entirely of my making.

Joseph: Your confession concedes we must give up, surrendering pretense we are anything, giving up claims of being worthy, falling short of God's consideration, seeing ourselves as the Lord sees us, exercising pride's awful nature, our heart's dearest treasure, held tightly, unable to surrender, realizing confession confiscates our greatest love, walking in the flesh, fulfilling my lusts, never accepting the light of truth, proving myself to be a child of darkness.

Bystander: Confession's hiding, concealed behind human pride, impaled on indecision's fence, shields truth claimed for people's reason, protecting human convictions from growing uncertainty, realizing they become untrustworthy suspects, conflicting with dubious certainty, begging for acceptance, but never knowing how long any dogma will survive, realizing human truths all exist with a half-life, waiting for some genius to reason something new. What should people tolerate until that happens? If everything possible could soon become a truth, why can't people reason to tolerate everything now? And who can suggest what tomorrow's truth will be? Perhaps confession should hide, protecting our blamelessness from becoming nothingness, convincing us to become righteous.

Joseph: You speak of human reason's ephemeral delusions of human truths, deceiving people into trusting themselves for generating lasting wisdom, determining all their judgments. What is new under the sun?

Bystander: With human truths cycling through a revolving turn-style, changing now only to change again, should people tolerate all now, preparing for tomorrow's certainty, but tumbling through its cycle could tolerance be abolished in the name of tolerance, protecting my way is as good as yours?

Job: Then wait for the promises of its companion, its soulmate of violence, disruption of goodness scattered to nature's whims, for human reason must live through its tyrannies.

Joseph: Blamelessness exudes with willingness, no eagerness, to compromise, living and belonging in the world, tolerating human truths determined by the majority, while we hide our token eternal truths, hoping to adhere to them enough to assure us life after death. Admired for being upright, we must never forget we can carry it to an extreme and be shunned by happiness in this world. Even priests profaning the Sabbath remain blameless, escaping condemnation for being unrighteous.

Bystander: Does sin also lie at your door, accumulating on mats, where you wipe away evil, thinking it prevents you from entering the kingdom, convincing you sins can be brushed away easily, as effective as removing your shoes, following the command to walk on holy ground, but even bare feet carrying sins cannot be washed sufficiently, reminding you it is impossible to clean your sandals of all the sins you carry, condemning you to be no more righteous than blameless.

Joseph: We remember. He who covers his sins will not prosper, trusting whosoever confesses, forsaking them, will have mercy.

Job: Being one blameless, devoted to worldly cares, investing all my thoughts in the deceitfulness of riches, lusting after all my desires, I choked out the life of God, closing the door for Him to enter, but being upright I never dared to curse Him, only lamenting my plight and God's injustice, sanctioning and sustaining my afflictions, my adversity for no reason, rejecting my friends' suggestions I am guilty, as I insisted on my innocence, shifting all burden of guilt to God.

Joseph: Would you trust ending human trials by seeking after righteousness, believing the righteous never suffer? Know the ways of the Lord, settling all with trials, revealing many are afflictions for righteous ones, but He delivers such ones from them all, redeeming them, rewarding their righteousness, or better said, showering mercy on those reaching for its heights.

Bystander: Remember the demands of seeking righteousness, impaling all on the cross of violence, following what judgment demands, destroys many.

Job: Though the righteous never receive their due on earth, expecting no protection against trials, contemplating unjust afflictions, often little different from blameless ones, I agonize no longer, now knowing my redeemer lives, my Lord revealing and promising redemption, coming when I confessed my unworthiness, opening the way for my image to approach His, the one promised for me to copy.

Joseph: Rejoicing now, you can expect your reward, restoring life, removing your afflictions, replacing all earthly treasures stolen by thieves, returning all your peace taken by nature.

Job: Should I expect all to come back, reviving moments of my blamelessness, comforting who I once was, returning to know all would be lost again? Better I should wish for something different, never wanting securities of my previous life, flocks too numerous to count, children living only to celebrate life, a wife telling me to curse God, friends coming to aid me with trials testing my conscience, all this for cycling back to rerun my existence and suffer again, resuming life with new afflictions, expecting some even for the righteous.

Joseph: Since you confessed, learning its necessity, all has changed.

Job: I thank you for bringing me to confession.

Joseph: Never give me credit belonging only to God. He created circumstances for you to change, confessing your blamelessness to protect you from His judgment, to admit your uprightness is no regal garment guarding you from innate desires. He was merciful, choosing your time to come, convincing you to confess, opening your will to receive the fullness of His grace.

Job: Yes, give Him thanks. He has now given me a treasure greater than I have ever known, joy, and I seek nothing more from Him, nothing of what I struggled to make me blameless before. With my confession, I faithfully follow God, never choosing how I would do it, but allowing His will to determine my work for Him, calling me to His service. I once sat at the door of His purpose, hearing none of His directions, never entering, enduring a slow death through self-pity, afflicting me worse than by my persisting sores and wounds.

Joseph: You have discovered His promises. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--never from yourselves, but as a gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast. With your confession, He poured out mercy on you, desolate and afflicted, troubles tumbling from your heart, authorizing confession to bless you with integrity, revealing uprightness couldn't preserve your dignity or cover hostilities shaming you.

Job: My love for this world had been reserved for being cautious, wise, sensible, shrewd, and limited to scrutiny by reason and common sense, never surrendering totally to any commitments, as I depended on growing personal holiness to remain blameless, concerned about focusing on myself, walking and talking rightly with God, trusting He would never expect me to totally surrender, releasing my all to Him, to love Him unashamedly, rather than being seen to do works He expects of me.

Joseph: Why must it take so long to realize treasures of wickedness profit nothing, preventing us from being holy, believed to be never possible in a realm of created beings, thinking wrongly we can find ways to approach righteousness and be holy as God in His realm.

Job: I persisted in crying out to the Lord, seeking an argument, demanding to learn His reasons, His supernatural ways, realizing if I sat calmly by, hearing nothing from Him, I would be forced to deify my reason and common sense, accepting there is nothing else to rely on. I suffered because I believed there must be answers to justify my afflictions. If there were none, I would worry no more, expecting no answers to be given, resigning to believe no supernatural powers were at work, joining others believing in no God, no gods, trusting only in seeing to believe, committing ourselves wholly, investing in reasons to believe, to using our common sense, making ways through the world on our own.

Joseph: As you have discovered, faith by its very nature must be tested and tried, verified as by Abraham and humans since, tested by everyone, seeking miracles for verification, asking proof to assure reason and common sense, unsure of His life for us, but we must trust God's character and truths as the only essence for our faith.

Bystander: Has anyone a heart for more than neighborly love, greater than for friendly love, perhaps matching love for your child, without discovering love's depth required for your Lord, a love beyond anything one can feel or describe, always answering God with agape's commitment, unrestricted, never to be dismissed, always there, encoded in one's soul, inherent for eternity, growing one to become part of the Almighty, preserving souls to be with Him always.

Job: Once we all tested commitments, trying evidence for friendships, evaluating love for brothers, trusting our image of God, but I carried it too far, treating Him as a big brother, expecting Him to hear my arguments, while He waited to hear me declare I love Him. Wanting to be certain of his being, being present to acknowledge my requests, I sought some miracle to prove my invisible Father was there, ready with fatherly love. It took me a long time to learn He expected me to relate to Him with a different love, more than any love I might have for another human being, with love different from any other.

Joseph: Did you stumble on this understanding?

Job: Sort of. He kept asking, Do you love me? It took me some time to discover how to answer Him, to trust His words and expectations, to accept His testimonies as certain, making wise the simple, discovering His statutes are right, rejoicing for my heart, His commandments being pure, His judgments always true and altogether righteous, blessing me by enlightening my spirit.

Joseph: Did some scribe lead you to this understanding?

Job: Scribes instructed me on being blameless, sacrificing continuously to appease a blood-thirsty deity, no more, no less, counseling me to withhold nothing, so my arguments were never ceasing, persisting for anyone willing to hear, driven by being right in my own eyes, following ways customary to all, exercising prerogatives of the upright, thinking the Lord is a friend seeking love as all other friends.

Joseph: Who gave scribes credentials for their words, authorizing them to counsel ways of people, to believe they have insights, such as offerings of philosophers?

Job: Struggling with my adversities, I never questioned their authority, hounding me with accusations, until by His grace God sent me the Holy Spirit, realizing I needed more than another human filling me with earthly truths, someone to give me a clear vision of His will, directing me to walk in the light, and above all to understand what love for Him requires, never realizing love for Him is not supported by my blamelessness, more than filial love trusted to maintain my uprightness, forcing me to abandon my father's ways, noted for scorning God's decrees they failed to obey, ones needing sincere expression by self-sacrifice, giving up oneself, confessing I can never be right in my own eye, acknowledging my sinful nature, listening to the Holy Spirit, calling Him to inscribe a new form of love, circumcising my heart, erasing intentions I had willed to dwell there, implanted by my freedom to be, replacing them with love for God, sealing it with sincerity surpassing all human understanding, marking me with righteousness growing to become indelible, silencing my tongue from further transgressions, settling me with joy and peace.

Joseph: Needing no scribes to adjust my thoughts, never allowing any to tamper with my beliefs, I always hear God and know He hears me, uniting with Him in prayer, devoted to discerning His Word, transcribed by Him into creation, transformed into more than flowers, trees, birds and stars, as I devote my attention to His cosmos, never distracted by human words or works, treasures crafted for endearment by people, inventions created by scribes.

Job: Confession has taught me to love God, training my tongue to praise Him, never speaking without any doubt, assuredly proclaiming His goodness, ignoring words of all others but to seek His almighty glory.

Bystander: You have discovered reality, never being human goodness or holiness, or heaven or hell. Redemption is the only reality, revealed by confession, turning people fixated on their blamelessness, changing them from saying what I want is anything God can do for me to make me more desirable in my own eyes, never realizing God delivers no one guarding self-established interests, protecting their self-esteem, blinding them to discern His calling.

Job: Trusting redemption requires meaning, it had no real sense for me until I worked it through for my understanding.

Joseph: Vanity preserving one's interests, defiling one by evil coming from the heart, responding to the will's directions, making indiscreet choices, choosing from innate evil, inborn inclinations to sin, dismisses what is inherently good, distrusting anything else, everything comprising God's goodness, the guardian of His reality.

Bystander: Can one cling to self-interests and love God more than anyone or anything?

Job: With all my heart do I love Him.

Bystander: With all you have put in your heart or with a fullness you were created with?

Job: With the fullness of love I would have for a best friend. Can there be any other kind of love?

Bystander: God will continue to ask all, Do you love Me. What kind of love will condition their answer?

Job: As a human being, my inheritance never consulted me in my making, giving me no say, no decision on what to be, making me neither holy nor likely to be, never distressing my soul by telling me what I should be, never stressing my reason to conform to God's standards, invisible as they are unless He revealed them to another human, a covenant to obey, never knowing how it would succeed, inspiring all to remove their purpose and follow His, knowing any covenant could eventually become obsolete, out of date, forcing God to provide a new one, changing the ground rules for redemption.

Bystander: You once viewed creation to be a mixed bag, as you struggled with your afflictions, tempting you to blame God, leaving me to wonder how you would respond to His ongoing question, Do you love Me?

Job: Without doubt God is my best friend, even though He tests me, examining my deepest thoughts and secrets, scoring my degree of righteousness, judging if I truly obey His Word, loving others as myself, loving Him more than the world, realizing love for the world conflicts with love for Him, telling me I can't have both, but is this important, being instructed to be filled with reverence for Him, knowing reverence requires fear and awe, saying little or nothing about love. How should I love Him, never knowing how to love someone I must fear, but maybe when I discover how to love Him all my fear for Him will vanish.

Joseph: Let us be thankful and please God by worshipping Him with holy fear and awe, never needing to call on Him for consciously serving and showing Him devotion, but by our never ending true love striving to join Him, modeling His image of righteousness, infinite goodness, and eternal beauty. Without reasoning, I delight in all His ways, pondering all His deeds, marveling all He does, bowing before His glory and majesty, knowing His righteousness never fails, trusting my wisdom will be magnified to obey His decrees.

Job: My blamelessness distressed others disliking me, invoking license to call me a hypocrite, ridiculing my worthiness, permitting them freedom to always criticize, disgusted by all claims of my holiness, condemning my silence on sins I tolerate, branding me a hypocrite, freeing others to call me what they disdain, a fraud dressed in remnants of righteousness, until I discovered my hidden sins prevented prospering, precluding delight from knowing God, from thriving by His grace, as He patiently waited for me to confess and turn away from sin, assuring me of receiving His mercy, releasing me from striving to be blameless, transfiguring me to become one with Him, experiencing a love to end my yearning, beyond all others, living with no end for fulfillment.

Joseph: I suffered in a manner pleasing to God, doing what was right, trusting my life to the One creating me, hoping He may judge me sufficiently righteous to be barely saved, redeeming some fragment of my worthiness, justifying me into becoming one with Him, leaving me to shutter what will happen to godless sinners.

Job: Was I right with God, trusting I might become one with Him? Indeed, when I was blameless, once without the law, never realizing His coming commandment's would reveal my sins, making my uprightness unworthy, never convicting me of being innocent, I had to wait for the Spirit of God, calling me to be obedient, reviving me before sin could take its ultimate toll, but I hesitated, wondering who can obey God to absolute perfection, pausing to consider if I had any chance. All now is past, as I am called to live a perfect relationship with God, encouraging a yearning for Him by others, dismissing any admiration for myself, thoughts hindering my usefulness to God. If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would have never listened to me.

Joseph: Confession equips us to bring righteousness near, shrinking the boundaries of blamelessness, overwhelming us with the sense of being brought into union with God, transforming us to radiate peace and joy, completing the blessings He promises for those transfigured into being one with Him.

Job: Confession may qualify us for redemption, but it leaves most of God's knowing still behind the veil of understanding, guarding most of His reality, having had eons to create and rule, planning His tenure to be unending, extending beyond infinity, never revealing why He created me to exist only a moment, believing He should suffer my fleeting time with afflictions, giving me little peace, an existence unfilled with joy, rationing but brief instances of happiness, a gift mysteriously found only on earth. Does He create me to suffer only for making me hate His created world, hinting He might have something better to come?

Bystander: Given the will to choose, more than enough time to understand, eternal truths to research, you wasted much of your hours seeking distractions, ignoring your assignments, inherent instructions of the Holy Spirit, as you chased after fleeting butterflies of happiness, caging them for your contentment, only to see them disappear in death.

Job: Have I been a fool, dismissing words of prudent voices, following recklessness scrambling to flee into the open, responding to freedom to be myself, faithful to my impulses, true to my own ideas, even my own insights about the Lord, having been created with free will to develop religious beliefs, judging me to be upright, but anger tormented my soul, greater than afflictions suffering my flesh and bones, never resting, persisting as a burden of my choosing, proclaimed to be part of my foolishness, clinging stubbornIy to my worthless pride, never becoming the pure in heart.

Bystander: Blessed are the pure in heart, never rewarding them to be merely blameless, acknowledging the upright can obey laws, but each decree suggests another to be written, numbering them countless, waiting to be understood and obeyed to preserve the blameless image, whereas the pure in heart has already established spiritual harmony with God, maintaining spiritual vision with Him, assuring a time to come when they will see Him face to face. Job, perhaps blameless but never having been pure in heart, was never prepared to meet God, never hearing His voice or seeing His face, but now confession releases him to build his faith.

Job: The Lord dumbed me, silencing my words, bridling my tongue, hearing none of my pleas, burning in earnest, waiting for me to confess all wickedness tarnishing my blamelessness, until I discovered confession is the perfect offering to God, making complete those He will be making holy, hearing the Holy Spirit proclaiming this is so.

Joseph: All who exalt themselves will be humbled, until discovery shows how confession humiliates them with joy, creating in them a clean heart, asking God to renew a right spirit in them, unchaining the Holy Spirit, releasing Him from bondage, shackled by their unworthiness.

Bystander: Confession, denying one's worthiness, eagerly releasing words, glorifying them with honesty, convicts people to expose their sins, to repent for unmerited deeds, and reward them with unrestrained forgiveness, weaving holiness into their being, beginning their way to righteousness. Without confession, no one can understand repentance, leaving it to remain isolated from revealing sins hidden in one's heart, acknowledging only those of one's choosing, some rewritten to remain sins no longer, ones changed so they will be tolerated, unremarkable for confession, no longer worthy of mention before God, justifying one to repent without confession, without value in seeking the way to becoming right with God, releasing one to live on with a clean conscience. Confess, return to the Creator, rejoining Him to live eternally, leaving behind pretenses and hypocrisies of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies, coming to witness His mighty flood of justice, and endless river of righteousness.

Joseph: We may still be hypocrites, following ways contrary to our words, proclaiming them for others to obey, while ignoring words of the Holy Spirit, proclaiming them also for others to obey, making us spiritual hypocrites, working to get others right with God, interceding for them with prayers, but discerning little of our hypocrisy, confident in our blamelessness as before.

Bystander: Do you know if your faith remains disordered and unfocused, still scattered into confusion, exercising little in life's realities, often ignoring God's purpose for His circumstances, relying on feelings and blessing to sustain it, unable to endlessly praise Him, proclaiming all is well, acknowledging our faith may be real but still in flux, waiting to become permanent.

Joseph: Witnessing circumstances God brings to our attention, obediently responding to them, never by feelings or expectation for blessings, exercising unrestricted faith, we rejoice, praising God all is well. Or do we discern by our human ways, judging the Holy Spirit's words sometimes by our inattention, trusting all is well? Our faith maybe real, but not yet enduring.

Bystander: When He possesses your soul, He promises to never leave you, and true to His Word He remains with you until the end, the time for returning to the Father, but He never remains with your ashes, and keeping God's promise He returns your soul to Him. Insure your soul will be well with Him.

Job: And so it was. My blamelessness proclaimed my goodness and virtue, sympathetic to the understandings we all see in estimations of ourselves, stubbornly needing no atonement, no need to intercede for comrades in uprightness, interceding only to glorify what we determine to be justified, judged by our reason to vindicate, but by destroying my self-reliance, praying for dependence on God, making way for His Spirit to claim me, calling on Him to be my strength, waiting on Him to exhibit His power, foregoing trust in my earthly treasures, dismissing reliance on my blamelessness, brought me to know God, better than encountering Him face to face.

Joseph: Blessed as one of Jacob's seed, secure in His covenant's promises, I praise, honor, and revere God, for He has not despised or ignored sufferings of afflicted ones, never hiding His face from them, always listening to their cries for help, even those hating Him who long for death.

Bystander: God decrees this year for His jubilee, rejoicing in the return of ones He created and sold to the earth, determining the time for redemption of His own, bringing back ones once bartered for a given time to be used by another, free will to be their own.

Job: In that day I became one with the Lord, one with my Father, my Creator, having confessed the iniquities of my blamelessness, becoming one with Him, I no longer needed to ask Him anything, awakened by the light of His truth, the only lasting verity, eternal as His being. Pray that we all would become one in Him. Now I ask Him nothing, no longer asking why I should possess the Holy Spirit, once regarded as only a messenger, dwelling in me only for His purpose, invading my soul with no reward, residing there to expose my faults, only to leave me in dust at the end.

Bystander: Prophets clothe themselves in fancy eye-catching attire, attracting listeners to messengers, seldom to their message, as they speak in riddles, never expected from God's messenger, the Holy Spirit.

Job: Peace I have found, immeasurable and deep, is never of my doing, gifted only by the Holy Spirit, giving me a spirit of simplicity, clarity, and unity, finally ending my search, returning me to the Redeemer, my Creator.

Joseph: God makes kindness a universal language, encouraging us to add to our faith goodness, to goodness knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love, establishing a platform to follow His ways.

Job: God has tested my faith, working on my impatience, letting patience have her perfect work, striving to perfect me, completing me entirely, wanting nothing more after I become like Him, but I have an urgent question, wanting an answer until some unknown, asking Bystander, Who are you?

Bystander: I can choose whatever I might want to be, an observer watching and doing nothing, but the law of the bystander compels me to action, never competing with the

Holy Spirit, but being with you when called on, coming to advise faithful ones, never intruding to force anyone, different from the bystander compelled by law to act. I voice objections, advising ones to wipe out wrongs, acting as brother's keepers to undo injustices, stepping out to heal afflictions and minister to the needy.

Job: God's opportunities changed my life's drudgery to difficulty, bringing me afflictions, unjustified adversities, arousing me from meaningless boredom, working to reestablish my pride each morning only to see it fading each evening, sustaining it with wine to bring me sleep, until dreams invaded, disturbing my peace, revealing who I really was, reaching out but never catching redemption, never knowing its promise until confession would tear apart my self-willed adoration of myself, protecting my position in the society of uprights, mutually adoring each other, knowing if I confessed all secrets hidden blamelessness, I would be cast out from its body, charging me with ignoring their laws.

Joseph: Should we protect our residual blamelessness, declining its destruction to seek after righteousness, disengaging from our upright comrades, leaving in dispersion, moving on to become righteous, establishing new judgments as the righteous deem necessary, violent if necessary, becoming confident, celebrating our way as being better than others, ignoring our dispersion fails the unity to be one, hardly for all to be one in accord with the Father.

Bystander: In having the last word I can add nothing more to help their souls.

