'But we are Josephs': An Imagery

Introduction Akin to the Spirit of God that hovered over the waters (Gen 1:2), and who now resides in us (2 Corinthians 1:22), we can do all things (Philippians 4:13). We are no products of a polygamous marriage, but we did have strange and vivid revelations at a time we had no clue. For example, our Jacobs told of when they had us in their laps while their Rachels were pregnant with their Benjamins (Genesis 35:16-18). But their Benjamins had the same fate as the first one that was conceived for David by Bathsheba (2 Samuel 12), because just we saw what no one else saw. It was said that we exclaimed, "See, it's gone!" And while Jacobs asked, "What's gone?", we stayed silent, and like the typical three-year-olds that we were, we started babbling about other things. Why on earth did Jacobs link this incident to Rachels having miscarriages in the evening of the same day? In our identity-exploration years, Rachels would taunt us albeit harmlessly, with responsibility for their loss – they made us look like Simon the sorcerer (Acts 8:9-24)!

We did not feel bad, because we understood the massive challenges they traversed while trying to shape 'terrible, stubborn' us! And Just before Christmas 2020, we reconnected with the headmaster’s son after over 40 years, via WhatsApp video. However, he sadly succumbed to the pandemic in the land of possibilities, where a Kamala can tomorrow be the most powerful political figure in the universe. During the chat, he recalled how we gave Rachels tough times as pre-teen Josephs. May God comfort those that bros J left behind in America.

Let us not be deceived by the dominant narratives being bandied about the motives behind the violent invasion of the 117th United States Congress at the US Capitol on Wednesday, January 6, 2021. The August 24, 1814 invasion by British troops was almost relived! It will be recalled that the US Capitol was then set on fire, just as Nebuzaradan set fire to the temple of the LORD, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem in 587/586 B.C.E (2 Kings 25).

The current political divide in the promised land is all about Kamala, with the calculus locating Biden as an individual that could share history with William Henry Harrison (1841), Zachary Taylor (1850), Warren G Harding (1921) and Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1945). Or even JFK (1963), Abraham Lincoln (1865), William McKinley (1901) and James Garfield (1881) - no thanks to QAnon, The Proud Boys, etc. Our hypothesis is, if someone who looked like Biden was his VP-elect, the one dubbed 'King Cyrus' (Isaiah 45) by the evangelicals, would have attended his rival’s inauguration ceremony.

But we love the promised land - it still flows with milk and honey! We also have links with Arimathea through our wealth (Philippians 4:19) and identification with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ (John 19:38-42). Did we visit Britain with the young Jesus? There are also speculations that we brought the Holy Grail to Glastonbury in Somerset and established the first Christian church there, post- Crucifixion of Christ Jesus! This is not in the Bible though - just legend! We were also the foster father of Jesus, though the 13 epistles of apostle Paul make no reference to us at all, nor does the Gospel of Mark. But the gospels of Matthew and Luke allude to us, while Matthew traces our lineage back to King David, whom ageless Lucifer our accuser, references to justify our rare lusts after Herodias’ daughters.

King Saul became jealous (1 Samuel 18) because of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s power in our life, and we self-exiled to Egypt, where Jezebels reigned supreme (1 Kings 16; 19; 21). And Judas’ daughters (Luke 22), who completely lost control and forgot how far they had come, aided the Jezebels; Interpellation consumed them. No surprise – ‘like father, like daughters.” Judas’ daughters forgot their rare, privileged positioning, having escaped a land where tens of thousands of children were abducted, millions of people herded into camps and thousands of people killed. And while the land currently envisions that by 2071 it will be a “first world country”, the flawed, utopic vision is exemplified by its tired rulers who mostly doze off and sleep during parliamentary sessions!

Mordecai’s daughters pleaded our case when suicide bombers and citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19) plotted our total annihilation, but they were threatened – “stay away!”. And Haman the vizier (Esther 3) led the crusade though the Persian kingdom had no beautiful Jewish bride. What was our sin? We saw a helpless and harassed people like sheep without a shepherd, and we had compassion on them (Matthew 9:36). We saw the necessity of understanding broader legal provisions on human rights, equality, discrimination and racism – that was our sin!

The insecurity of Haman and his cohort left them no choice but to harass, bully and intimidate. The machinery that got you in through the door primarily serves as the oppressors' tool to perpetuate dehumanization - it is not for you! And Cleopatras the manipulative and lying Bedouin queens, the ones who spoke in tongues, after succeeding the Jezebels, completed the Hill of Megiddo. We refused to bow down to king Nebuchadnezzar II’s Babylonian image and were thrown into a fiery furnace (Daniel 3). In frustration our beloved Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 9:6-13) shouted out to us when the world thought we had turned into ashes, “Josephs, I think you should stop resisting the classroom, where you truly belong. Why do you keep allowing these low life people to mess you about?” Wow, low life! Mephibosheth was our angel in the furnace with us through his inspirational words. We were not burned, we were not obliterated, but God brought us out of the flames and promoted us.

They took our Ark into captivity and refused to release it to us. However, they failed to realize that we no longer needed to be the Obed-Edoms (1 Chronicles 13:13–14) because Christ has already superseded their idol. They made it look like without their god, we were doomed, but in God we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28) - and He who is in us is greater than they (1 John 4:4). God eventually threw them into confusion (Joshua 10:10) and as a doomed entity, they wanted to pull us down with them. They flagrantly breached Deuteronomy 24:15, Malachi 3:5 as well as 1 Timothy 5:18. But we chose the route of 1 Corinthians 6:7, to the disappointment of some. We finally heeded Exodus 14:14, and God has continued to be God! And the saints never cease petitioning in the Prayer Room (Acts 1:12 -26; Acts 6:1-5; Acts 4:23-37) to this Day, as our battle is not that which the human eyes can see (Ephesians 6:12). We certainly do not wage wage war as the world does (2 Corinthians 10:3).

Some individuals in our sanctuary, the ones our Lord Jesus Christ healed in the territory of Gadara (Luke 8:26-39) would throw shades and scoff at us figuratively! They forgot that Psalm 105:15, reiterated by 1 Chronicles 16:22, existed in the Bible. And they did not know when they eventually uttered the following words, “Your God is truly powerful”. Wow! Does that not resonate with Daniel 6:26? When we were in the furnace there were many Temanites, Shuhites, Naamathites and even buzites (Job 4-23) giving all sorts of counsel – most of them sadistic and ridiculous!

The ones King David spoke about in Psalm 36:2 had a dangerous narcissistic demeanor, and we finally challenged them – the Diotrepheses (3 John 1:9). Our young Timothys, we love you and will never look down on you (1 Timothy 4:12). However, remember apostle Paul’s admonition to you in 1 Timothy 5:1-2.

We are like the Corinthian sanctuary – imperfect we all are! To the bitter, legalistic and now hopefully, ‘repentant pharisees’, remember Genesis 12:10-20, 20:1-18, 27:1-40; Joshua 9;1Samuel 21:13; and Mark 12:16-17. These are all summed up in Matthew 7:1-6 and Ecclesiastes 7:16. We fear though that these individuals may not have Abigails (1 Samuel 25) for spouses but Saphiras (Acts 5:1-11), who do not even know what grace means! The sanctuary also parades people with meek dispositions but haughty spirits, who say things that the itching ears of their mentors want to hear. We should not make assumptions that are not generalizable – it all boils down to asking God for wisdom (James 1:5), not being too quick to speak and slow to listen (James 1:19). If we were in the absolute wrong and you applied Galatians 2:11-21, then there would be some justification. But we reflected on Matthew 18:6 and did not allow the sun to go down (Ephesians 4:26).

So, God has given us a thorn in our flesh to remind us that his grace is sufficient for us (2 Corinthians 12). Not having our physical ark now serves as a constant reminder of the need to stay humble, as God’s business is to exalt us (Luke 1:52). We stay humble in a milieu where the colour of our skin is automatically associated with low IQs and attitudes betray implicit biases! Every day we see so much ethnocentrism and egocentricity, and little wonder that biological explanations that attempt to legitimize inequality translate to ‘essentialism’. Essentialism refers to the tendency to ascribe our behaviour to ‘essences’ of fixed qualities. Structures of discrimination and oppression are sustained by essentialist tendencies to ascribe our behaviour to ‘essences’ of fixed characteristics (Leviticus 19:33-34). It is disappointing too that the sanctuary has ready excuses for the perpetuation of Xenocentrism!

You listen as they agonize over basic epistemology, which your well-mentored 'wise one', would impart to them with ease. But you are ignored because of the colour of your skin – yet, your shared knowledge is referenced in academic publications . Their university either is not ranked at all by the Times Higher Education WUR or it sits in the 1001+ category. Meanwhile the 'alien' university you graduated from 35 years ago, is currently ranked 401–500th by the same global body, and you are now a member of a Research cohort resident in a prestigious academic institution ranked 91st in the world! But they would not even allow you to explore and extrapolate when it is inevitable that you are grouped. They carry 'high' grade certificates that are incongruent with their outlooks. Who are we to speak, when we look different!

Conclusion

You may find this piece hard to understand, especially if you are not well-versed in Scriptures (2 Peter 3:16). It has been written in the spirit of 2 Timothy 4: 1-5 and through promptings by 2 Peter 1:21. Like the obscure and extravagant imagery of the apocalyptic book of Revelation - the last book of the New Testament – this piece is not didactic and not necessarily historical (Matthew 11:15). We are the three fairly reported Josephs in the Bible!

Although the reader may find the piece bizarre, fortunately it provides several clues through referenced Bible passages. Also, if viewed with the lens of symbolic interpretivism (Morgan, 1989), it does refer to actual people and events with a focus on the ongoing struggle between good and evil. Finally, in terms of prophecy, the Bible is replete with evidence, and we shall close out with the last four verses of the Holy Book thus:

Revelation 22

18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book.

19 And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

20 He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.