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 no
thing 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,