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