A Story of God and All of Us - By Roma Downey Page 0,17

to kill him," vows Simeon.

"No," says Reuben, another of the brothers. "We must not spill our brother's blood."

No one knows what to do, but they also know they cannot stop what they have started. Joseph is dragged by the arms across the rocky ground, choking on dust and fearing the worst.

"Look!" cries Judah, yet another of the brothers.

Joseph peers into the distance, and instantly knows his fate. For he sees a line of pack animals and a single-file line of men roped together. This is a slave caravan, headed through Israel on its way to Egypt with a fresh cargo of men to sell.

Soon, an incredulous Joseph watches as a bag of coins is thrust into Simeon's hands. The slavers grab Joseph and slip a length of rope around his wrists and neck. Now dressed in nothing but a ragged loincloth, he

stumbles in the sand. But that rope around his throat soon yanks him forward.

Joseph's brothers feel no sadness as they watch their sibling being led into a life of slavery. What's done is done. Now they must find a way to conceal their vile act from their father.

Joseph's tattered robe lies on the cracked earth. Simeon and the other brothers drop the blood of a dead goat upon the robe until it is drenched.

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Then, adopting their most solemn and forlorn faces, the brothers approach their father with some very bad news.

Simeon pulls back the flap to Jacob's tent and presents the robe to his father.

"No...," Jacob says, a smile vanishing from his face. He puts his hand through one of the holes in the fabric. "A wild beast did this?"

Simeon shrugs helplessly. "It must have been. We didn't see what happened."

"Why?" Jacob yells to the heavens. "Why, O Lord?"

He buries his face in the robe. Benjamin, at ten years old the youngest of his sons, looks on helplessly. He has been sworn to silence and knows better than to cross his brothers. Jacob's face, now smeared in blood, is soon riven by tears. His son is gone. Forever.

Joseph is sold to a wealthy Egyptian family, and would appear to be ensured a life of ease. But when he resists the romantic advances of his owner's wife, she lies and tells her husband that it was Joseph who was being improper--not she. Joseph's life seems to go from bad to worse. He is cast out of the house and thrown into prison. Time passes, and he becomes gaunt and filthy from months in the squalid and barbaric conditions.

Yet Joseph is an optimistic and a warmhearted man, even in the toughest of times. He soon becomes friends with his cellmates, both of whom once worked in the royal palace--one as a cupbearer, the other as a baker.

Joseph has a gift for listening to God, prayerfully and intently. This allows him to interpret the meanings of dreams. During his time in prison, Joseph is not afraid to share this gift by deciphering the dreams of his two companions.

"And what does my dream mean?" the baker asks him one morning. The three men sit on the grubby cell floor, chains clanking whenever they try to move. "The one with the birds and the baskets?"

Joseph closes his eyes to concentrate. "You were carrying three baskets of bread?"

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"Yes! Then the birds attacked me and ate the bread!"

Joseph focuses. "In three days' time..." He lifts his head and looks hard at the baker. "You will be executed," Joseph informs him solemnly. And to the cupbearer, "You will be freed."

The execution comes to pass, just as Joseph predicts. The cupbearer is soon released from prison, leaving Joseph alone in his cell. He spends his days on his knees in prayer, trying to divine God's plan for his life. Man's relationship with God seems impossible to fathom, but Joseph feels as if God is watching over him.

Light floods into Jospeh's cell one day, as a jailer steps in to wash the filth from his body. Joseph's heart sinks, for he knows that being bathed can mean only one thing: an appointment to see the Pharaoh--which, of course, also means execution.

Soon Joseph's hands are bound behind his back. He is led out of the jail and into the Pharaoh's throne room. A foreigner, a prisoner, and a slave, Joseph knows that his life has no value to the Pharaoh. And yet he stands tall, placing his faith in God.

Pharaoh enters the room and sits on his throne. He nods and Joseph hears the clank of a sword being pulled