We went to commercial right after Judah gave one seriously
passionate speech to let all the brothers return home and therefore save the
sanity of their dear beloved father. Now, having heard this, Joseph, overcome
with emotion, sends his Egyptian attendants from the room. He just couldn’t
take it anymore, and he confesses who he really is to his brothers. Greeted by
stunned silence, he reiterates his identity. This time he adds in the joyful
little reminder that they sold him into slavery. Oh, but don’t worry. He’s not
actually mad about it anymore. It was
all part of God’s plan for his brothers to be awful human beings… And as a
result, now his brothers will be rewarded by being able to bring the whole
family to the fatted calf that is Egypt in the midst of the famine. I want to
point out that Joseph makes all these promises to his brothers before checking
in with Pharaoh. Luckily, Pharaoh makes pretty much all of the same promises
without any apparent suggestions from the peanut gallery. The brothers depart
to gather everyone, and tell Jacob that Joseph is still alive. After the shock wears off, Jacob decides that
he just simply must go see Joseph
with his own two eyes.
So this is the first time that I’ve seen someone refer to
God having a plan for his life without it being explicitly spelled out by God
ahead of time. There’s a trust level that’s been built up at this point, and a
lot of assuming, and a desire for comfort in times that make absolutely no
sense. I get that. People need to know that there’s a reason for the crappy
things that happen in the world and to them. If they believe that it’s God’s
all encompassing plan for life, it would be comforting in the face of the
senseless things that happen in the world. Violence, war, sickness, being sold
into slavery by your brothers… I don’t know about all of that. I think
sometimes, shit just hits the fan. Human beings have free will, and while an
omniscient God would be able to account for the choices that the humans are
going to make, or the natural actions set in motion from the beginning of
everything, the way God’s plan is discussed most of the time makes it sound
like God was whispering in the ears of Joseph’s brothers to be awful to him. Or
that God plans for a small child to get cancer and die before even getting to
really live. So that… what? Another small child will get cured of the same
cancer a hundred years from now and becomes a president? I still don’t see how
that’s comforting.
<3 Agnostic in the Pews
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