Brothers Keeping: Joseph and Job



  Brothers Keeping: Joseph and Job

  By Tristam Joseph

  Text copyright © 2014

  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 sad
dling 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