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 m
e 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