how this is done. He may think he has been anointed for this to save his family, acknowledging there is usually one in each family. What he dreams should concern us little. Let him be as he is made. What does he possess, driving us to be angry and perhaps to hatred? What more does he have but dreams and the coat I made for him? Did I not do as much for any of you? I treat him no differently from any of my sons, assigning him tedious hours safeguarding the sheep. Maybe this gives him too much time to think, dreaming visions to pass the time. If he is more attuned to God's wishes than any of you, so be it.
Dan: When we develop envy and hatred, they are difficult to wash away with words, tokens of regret, unable to find ones scattered in their thoughts, never wanting to seek the lost, leaving them unfound, as we mind our own business.
Jacob: It is time for someone to find sheep which are lost. Where are my sons? Are they also lost?
Joseph: Here I am. Send me. God prepares me to seek lost sheep.
Jacob: Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with those in the flock.
Joseph: Where should I look to find them?
Jacob: Begin looking in the abundant pastures before you enter the desert. You will meet someone whose mission is to seek the lost. Your venture will not be lengthy so you will need no provisions other than your cloak to protect you from the cold of darkness.
Joseph: Indeed I shelter my creaturely warmth, protecting it by truths of light, by love woven into my coat of many colors, sustaining me sufficiently, needing no other nourishment, trusting God to provide manna if necessary. My visions tell me to look to Him for everything, to never rely on any human truths.
Bystander: Leaving on his mission to find the lost, unaware of what will be found, striking out without any fear, trusting the Lord to guide his way, Joseph began to unwrap his circumstances, fulfilling jealousy's inherent promise to silently enrage all, sparing nothing for vengeance to attack.
Dan: I sense someone coming, seeking us with his unwelcome presence, renewing a hatred too easily fashioned, disrupting our leisurely imaginations, enraging us to struggle with vile thoughts, engaging us to gather our enmities and consider an action, nothing good but for settling our lasting hostility. Coming closer I recognize my partially witted half-brother, born to one who should have remained barren, who should have died before she could have pleased father with more than sharing his bed.
Reuben: Your vision is perceptive to see all that.
Dan: I dream, no, more than dream, conceiving a plan for killing him, realizing such would be easy, leaving a more difficult decision unresolved, concocting a believable lie to console father, but what lie can we trust, wondering if any lie can be trusted?
Simeon: I know ways to justify murder, having experienced killing others, escaping what is done, never having to face judgment, avoiding justice demanded by deserving retribution.
Levi: I join my brother Simeon, knowing someday we may be judged, prompting us to hide instruments of cruelty, securing them in darkness, preventing them from being revealed, silencing our conscience's voices, out of contemplation's reach, leaving nothing to encounter the light, nothing to dwell in our souls. Killing Joseph can surely destroy our hatred for him, but will remorse replace it, perhaps more dreaded, daunting our remaining days, provoking unending anxiety, waylaying any promise for peace?
Simeon: We can plan his death and trust good will come of it, remembering how we justified killing all the men of Shechem's domain, rewarding us with plunder, confiscating treasures of their efforts, convincing us to trust our wisdom, relying on our experience to escape a devious plan's knowing.
Dan: I will bite your heels to move this plan forward.
Reuben: Listen to me, father's firstborn, his might the beginning of my strength, bearing the excellency of his dignity and power, chastened by indiscretions so I would not excel, but I still cherish some wisdom, enough to judge your plan evil, as I counsel you now with words begging for something different. Let us not take his life.
Dan: If Joseph continues living, even though hidden somewhere remote, he will return to haunt us with visions, devising plans for nature to punish our lives. Death cannot allow him such actions.
Levi: Dan is right. Death eliminates all, preventing any retribution to punish us, assured as have been to suffer no reprisals for our destruction of Shechem's men. Destiny speaking to us now, revealing Joseph has little purpose, nothing beyond maintaining father's pleasure, ending when nature allows him no more, justifies his death to settle our enduring hatred for him.
Reuben: Knowing no one can be judged to die without having testimony from some witness, which of us has evidence to justify Joseph's death?
Bystander: When anyone chooses to be the first witness, freezing their testimony, they are trapped into being the first one to cast a stone, indicting them as a murderer, painted with lasting evil, so one must decide wisely whom to judge, becoming a brother's keeper to begin the assignment of his death. Or one could hide a brother's secrets, telling them to no one, never being the snitch, maintaining the honor most highly trusted among evil ones, aligning it with the world's ways, but Joseph directed by God, obediently reports his brother's breaking the Lord's laws, preserving His promise, assuring his inheritance in the Lord.
Reuben: I plead to never take his life. There can be another way. Shed no blood, cast him into this pit found here in the wilderness, trusting it is here for our purpose, never for any other, but lay no hand to take his life. If mandated for your satisfaction, strip him of all garments, removing the robe of his virtues to bring you peace and remove your animosity, seeing him shamed in nakedness, humbled as at birth, uncovered for all to see.
Bystander: Reuben knows. With Joseph's death, retribution will seal you, miring you in an inescapable morass, impounded in persisting remorse, committing your memory to lasting regret, hounding you more than any anxiety for Joseph's return, any resurrection of him from a desert of no return, tormenting you with visions of what he might do, but confession and repentance could clear your conscience, hardly likely after murder allowing no escape. As for me, include me out, counting me to be no accomplice in shedding his blood.
Levi: A good idea. This pit, darkened to hide his visions, silencing His appearance, removing him from our enmity, gives fate time to make its decision.
Joseph: For what reason does God reward me this way, directing my father to care for his flock, asking for someone to find the lost sheep, hearing me volunteer, saying here I am, only to have my only worldly identity stolen, sending me naked into a darkened womb, never knowing if it is for me to be reborn, to enter some different existence. Is my errand, sending me on a worthy deed, now nothing but a filthy rag, leaving me defrocked, naked, removing my sin's emblem of wearing this coat of splendor, trusting its iniquity was fashioned by my brother's hatred? Worshipping idols of pride, hidden in their secret gardens, they tell me to come no closer, defiling them, believing they are holier than others. But have I ever been a stench, bearing an acrid smell clinging to my soul? In silence their idols face them with convictions to curse my visions. The Lord comforts me now, consoling me to put away my anger and forget the evil of this day, assuring me His thoughts are greater than ours, for He takes the symbols of our identity to work His plans. I will keep my heart pure, knowing it cannot be for nothing, maintaining my innocence for some reason, unworthy for the world, waiting patiently, trusting in God's plan for me.
Bystander: (aside) Did Reuben have some plan for Joseph's rescue, returning him to his father? Such an action would never resolve the problem of the brothers' hatred. Good luck in reminding them to be their brother's keeper.
Joseph: Coming to look for ones lost, rejoicing on finding wanderers lost in life's wilderness, knowing my father's joy in this accomplishment, fulfilling my gift to restore the broken, I resent nothing of my eagerness to please, but my brothers never wish to see me, hating all I represent, wishing me to vanish, destroying me if necessary, removing me, the source
of their hatred, causing light to depart from my eyes, leaving me in darkness, relying on only imagination for thoughts, battling all evil sneaking into my mind.
Dan: Use this pit fortune provides, a tomb for his keeping while waiting our decision, having no light to lead his thoughts, no living water to continue his being, satisfying Reuben to preserve his life, testing chance to end his life in thirst, trusting his time would last no more than three days.
Reuben: I may have lost favor as the firstborn from my misdeed, so listen to Judah whom you are destined to praise, hear his wisdom, you who are the father's children, remembering through the ages as ones destined to bow down to him. Hear Judah, destined to carry seed for kings and be bowed down to, likened in ways for Joseph's dreams. I leave you for a moment, finding some isolation, freeing me from the tempest of your words.
Judah: Wisdom conferred with blessings, designating me as firstborn, asks what profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood. Will God come asking where is Joseph, knowing his blood soaks His holy soil? My