Greetje: New page: {{info}}Less than a month had passed since they
Returned from Canaan where they lay
Their father Jacob in the cave
Of Machpelah, and made the grave
Of Abraham complete. Three w...

2008-10-13T12:53:45Z

New page: {{info}}Less than a month had passed since they Returned from Canaan where they lay Their father Jacob in the cave Of Machpelah, and made the grave Of Abraham complete. Three w...

New page

{{info}}Less than a month had passed since they Returned from Canaan where they lay Their father Jacob in the cave Of Machpelah, and made the grave Of Abraham complete. Three wives, Three God-intoxicated lives Of flawed and faithful patriarchs Now rest in Ephron's field. Stone marks The mouth where earth has drunk the cup Of death five times, and swallowed up Rebekah, Isaac, Abraham, The wife to whom he said, “The lamb Of Mount Moriah raised your son As if from death, and there is One From your own loins, my precious wife, Who will give back to me your life.” And next to last, near twenty years Ago, and now recalled with tears, Especially by Joseph who Had given her a mother's due, Though she was not his own, the bones Of Leah had been laid on stones Within the ancient tomb. And last, When the appointed years were past, A hundred-forty-seven full, The sons of Jacob stooped to pull The fragrant coffin in beside The body of his sleeping bride. 

Less than a month since Joseph stood Beside the open cave, and would Not let his brothers close it, till The rising sun could once more fill The cavern with a golden light, That brought a hopeful end to night, And kept him through his prison stay, Awaiting God's appointed day. He loved the light.

But now the grief That Joseph felt found no relief When he returned to Goshen. There Aflame with fever lay the fair And fragile woman he had wed When he was thirty-one and dread Of his dream-powers was upon The royal court, and priests of On Were fawning at his feet. Her name Was Asenath, and when she came To Joseph as a favor from The king, her father had become The leading advocate in all Of Egypt for the blazing ball We call the sun, and held in sway The people for a god called Reh, The deity of dawn. But she Would not bow down. “Idolatry,” She said, “is loving anything Above the God whose pow'r did bring The sun and moon and all the earth To be, or to ascribe more worth To what he made, than what he is. The heart of Asenath is his.” Now five and twenty years these two Have loved their God as one, till through A common passion they have come To cherish this: that marriage, from The first embrace, is but the small And faulty echo of a thrall And union high above this bent Old parable of what is meant By God's allegiance to his own.

This night his sons could hear him groan From where he knelt beside the bed Of Asenath. And when he spread His arms full length along the frame Of her damp sheets, and said her name, She stirred with life, and wakened from Her sleep. “I'm glad that you have come,” She said. “We hadn't kissed good bye. Besides, I need your help to die.” “I need your help to live,” he said. She smiled. “No other man has fed More deeply on the providence Of God than you, nor seen events Turn in the hand of God from bad To good, the way you have. One sad And painful season followed by Another one, and yet the high Designs of God, in time, revealed. O Joseph, if my soul is to be sealed For God, and faith sustained tonight, I need to see some glimpse of bright And hopeful purposes that go Beyond what man can do. I know That God is good and wise and strong. But O how every painful wrong, Is like an arrow at my soul. And I begin to doubt the whole Design of God, and that the pain And loss will really turn to gain. I need you, Joseph, this is why. Now speak the truth and help me die.”

He looked at her in wonder, then Across the little room at Ben And Judah, keeping vigil all Night long, then said, “Do you recall I told you once, long time ago, About my sister?”Yes, I know You loved her very much.”When I Left home, she lay with fever by Her mother Leah just the way You lie by me tonight. They say She died the day I left. Do you Know what her mother said in view Of Dinah's nearing death? She said – And mind you, we both knew she's dead – She smiled and said, ‘She'll be all right.' She meant it, Asenath. Despite The fever and the death, she meant That she would be all right. I spent Some two and twenty years before I understood. But now, far more Than any earthly hope, I hold Unwavering to this, and bold I whisper, Asenath: death does Not have the final word, nor was The promise Leah made absurd.” She gripped his hand and said, “I've heard You say this many times, and I Would love to know before I die How, Joseph, you became so sure That this is true. It is no cure For doubt, to simply give the sense Of promises. One needs defense And warrant in the flood of claims That swamps the dying soul, and shames What little thought remains.”

“I'll tell You, Asenath. And, Lord, dispel By this the doubt that battles for The soul of my dear wife. God swore To me, by doubling my dream, That all my brothers would esteem Me as a prince, and bow before Me to the ground. But even more: Not just eleven stars bow down, But also sun and moon. The crown Of Joseph would be honored by His father and (mark this, and try To understand) his mother, who Had died ten years before. How do You think God meant for Rachel to Bow down when she was dead? I knew From that day on that more was meant By my small dreams than the intent My brothers saw.

At thirty God Put in my hand the ruling rod Of Egypt. Pharaoh dreamed, like me, A doubled dream, fixed by decree. And Providence designed that I, In jail, should be remembered by A former prisoner, and brought Before the king. And there God wrought A wonder, and I saw the years To come, the cattle and the ears Of corn, some fat, some blighted by The heat. And for my work, the high And lofty king of Egypt gave To me a crown with which to save, All unbeknown to him and me, My rich and desperate family. Then nine years later all the dreams, Came true, except for this, it seems: My mother did not come. The moon Did not bow down. Does this impugn The prophecy?” He paused to see If Asenath were listening. “Could be,” She said, “that God meant Leah by The moon, not Rachel.”Good eye, Dear Asenath, except she died In Canaan. Just last week I spied The cave where Jacob buried her Before he came to Egypt. Were She then the moon, what would we see? The moon has not yet bowed to me.” “What do you make of that?” she said. “My mother will rise from the dead. And so will you, my love. And this Is warrant sure and solid bliss: No word of God will go unfilled. Death will not hinder what he's willed. The moon will yet bow down to me, Or One whose type I'm meant to be. I saved a people here with grain, Another comes to take their pain. I rule with borrowed royalty, Another comes with dignity That's all his own. The scepter will Belong to him, his kingdom fill The whole wide earth, and all that I Have been will point to him. And by A sovereign pow'r, he'll keep his vow: The sun and stars and moon will bow. God is not Father of the dead, But of the living, as he said.”

And as he looked into the eyes Of Asenath, she died. “So flies Away my love as peacefully As doves at dawn which I now see Once more: the rising sun to fill The cavern with a golden light, That brings a hopeful end to night, And keeps me through my prison stay, Awaiting God's appointed day. Farewell, sweet Asenath, good-bye; I hope that I have helped you die.”

Then Joseph turned and saw the face Of Judah streaked with tears. “Free grace, My older brother, melts the heart. Not I nor you deserves the part We play. To me belongs the need For signs. To you belongs the seed. I bear the scepter to portend; Your son will bear it without end. I gave the saints the staff of bread, But he will raise them from the dead. Come, Judah, let us cease from strife You sold me, but God gave me life. Come fill your cup up to the brim, But let us both bow down to him.

This is the light of candle four The end of death, the end of war.

Joseph, Part 4 - Revision history

Greetje: New page: {{info}}Less than a month had passed since theyReturned from Canaan where they layTheir father Jacob in the caveOf Machpelah, and made the graveOf Abraham complete. Three w...

Greetje: New page: {{info}}Less than a month had passed since they
Returned from Canaan where they lay
Their father Jacob in the cave
Of Machpelah, and made the grave
Of Abraham complete. Three w...