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