The Bible is filled with stories from which we can learn valuable lessons, as well as showing us how important it is for us to learn from our own life’s lessons. It’s hard to think of a biblical story where this axiom is more the case than the story of Joseph, who was sent by God to precede his family in going down to Egypt. But sometimes it takes a while for those important lessons to sink in and be learned.
For example, it took Joseph a while to learn the lesson that God is all-powerful and in control of the circumstances of our lives. The sages claim that Joseph spent an additional two years in Egypt’s prison because he wavered in his trust in God. Instead, Joseph had initially put his trust in pharaoh’s cupbearer by asking him to remember Joseph to the pharaoh, once he was released. He even went so far as to say “… then you would get me out of this building” (Genesis 40:14). Instead, Joseph should have trusted that it was God who would eventually use the cupbearer as a messenger to pharaoh to effect Joseph’s release.
Because of this lapse in trusting God in all things (or circumstances), and despite Joseph’s greatness in his faith/belief in God (faith/belief and trust are not the same thing), the sages determined that Joseph had to deal with the consequences of two more years in prison, so that he could learn his lesson!
We also see that it was important to Joseph that he find out whether his brothers had learned their lesson about having sold him into slavery in Egypt. That’s why Joseph behaved toward his brothers as he did, to ensure that they brought the last of Jacob’s sons (Benjamin) down to Egypt and set up a situation wherein this last son also faced potential slavery in Egypt, unless all of the brothers (or one of them) intervened on Benjamin’s behalf. Finally, when Joseph is convinced of their sincerity in having repented of their treatment of him, he reveals himself to them.
There’s a parallel today in terms of brotherly hostilities between the descendants of Ishmael (Arabs) and Isaac, the descendants of Esau/Edom (Saudi Arabia?) and Jacob. When are the Arab peoples going to learn that the Palestinians can’t force (through violence) the return of all land given to the Jews by the British, under the Mandate for Palestine, because this will only turn world opinion against the Palestinians … just as world opinion has also turned against bin Laden and his terror organization al-Qaida.
And what of the Israelis? Have they learned from their lessons – e.g., that Arafat cannot be trusted to fulfill his empty promises? The Palestinan Authority’s arrests of Hamas terrorists is nothing more than putting these thugs under a form of “protective custody” with no interrogations of them to help anticipate and then prevent terrorist attacks. The extremists involved in the Emanuel bus attack were on a list of those the PA should have arrested. Another preventable atrocity … not prevented! Arafat’s inaction may be calculated to provoke a full-scale war.
Very few have been fooled by the empty rhetoric and ineffective actions! But innocent people have continued to be slaughtered and maimed while the world looked on! What lessons are we, the onlookers in the bleachers, being taught? Have we become like the Romans – i.e., transfixed in watching the gladiators – and accepting of all this Middle Eastern bloodletting?
Ultimately, it all goes back to having trust (not just belief/faith) in God! We must accept that everything is in the hands of Heaven. The Palestinians have been sold a “bill of goods” that they can defeat the Israelis (and the West) through terrorism. Palestinians are also being brainwashed into a “cult of death” – with martyrs’ posters everywhere letting the Palestinian population know that this is also what their leaders expect of them, because there’s nothing else for them to live for anyway. God will not allow this abomination to continue much longer!
The people in the administered territories are on the brink of their own “self-destruction” (or civil war). As the Israelis get smarter and learn the lesson that they can’t change Palestinian culture to embrace life and peace, they may also decide that the only solution to Palestinian self-destructive behavior is to separate totally from them and close off all borders. This will at least save the lives of the Israelis who choose both life and peace.
Palestinians offering their children as “martyrs” (i.e., self-sacrifice) are reminiscent of an ancient culture who offered their children to the god Molech, called in the Bible an “abomination” (Jeremiah 32:35). Civil societies cannot comprehend these “cult of martyrdom” atrocities. But, hopefully, Jews and Christians celebrating Hanukkah (which is mentioned in the New Testament at John 10:22) will be trusting in God for a victory of light (and life) over darkness (and destruction).
