A Story of God and All of Us - By Roma Downey Page 0,19

long rise to power. In his black wig and eyeliner, he is unrecognizable to his brothers.

They cower as Joseph studies their faces. He can do anything he wants to them right now: imprison them, enslave them, and even have them killed.

Yet Joseph's thoughts are always upon God. He shows his brothers the same love and mercy God has always shown him, particularly when times were so hard that hope barely flickered in his soul.

"Feed them," Joseph orders.

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His brothers are incredulous. This act of kindness goes beyond their wildest dreams. As soon as they are able, the brothers make their way out of the room. Outside, their donkeys are being loaded with heaping bags of grain to take home to Israel. Not once do they suspect that Joseph is their brother.

But Joseph is not done with them. His kindness comes with a price, for he wants to know whether or not his brothers have changed their ways and learned compassion for others. Joseph has contrived a test: hidden within one of those bags of grain is a silver goblet. Guards have been instructed to slice open the bag and reveal this cup and charge his brothers with theft.

This is where the test begins.

Everything goes according to plan. Simeon, Judah, Benjamin, and the others wait patiently as their donkeys are loaded with sacks of grain. A guard pretends to notice something suspicious when it comes time to leave, and slices open a bag to examine the strange bulge. When the silver cup falls onto the ground, Joseph's brothers are grabbed and immediately marched back to stand before Joseph.

The ten brothers kneel once again, this time even more terrified than before.

"I am told that this man is the guilty party," Joseph tells them, staring at Benjamin. He has carefully selected this youngest brother to blame, for he alone among his brothers was blameless when Joseph was sold into

slavery.

"Benjamin would never steal," Simeon begs.

"Silence!" barks Joseph. "Go home. All of you. But this one stays--as my slave."

The brothers all raise their faces, begging together. "No!" they cry out.

Please! We beg of you!"

Joseph surveys them with amusement. "We cannot leave him," protests Judah.

"It would kill our father!" agrees Simeon.

"I will be your slave instead," adds Judah. To which Simeon protests that he should be the one taken into slavery.

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"Silence!" Joseph commands once again. He struggles to remain composed. All the brothers fearfully press their faces to the floor. With a wave, Joseph dismisses all his guards. They leave. He stands alone, towering over his brothers.

"Bring our father here," he says in a hoarse whisper.

A mystified Simeon sneaks a look at Joseph, who has removed his Egyptian wig.

"Joseph?" asks a stunned Simeon. The others raise their eyes.

Joseph has longed so many years for this moment. "What you did to me was wrong," he tells his brothers. "But God made it right. He watched over me. I have saved many lives, thanks to Him."

The brothers do as they are told, returning home and bringing Jacob to Egypt so that he might be reunited with his son. The entire family is together again--all of Israel's children. But they are in the wrong place, and they know it. For while they now live in luxury, this is not the land that God promised Abraham.

Even worse, over the generations that will follow, the drought that Joseph

predicted means that thousands upon thousands are forced to leave. The people of Israel willfully travel to Egypt in source of food, then adopt this terrible new lifestyle just to stay alive. They build the great palaces and monuments of Egypt, working all day under the blazing desert sun. They are slaves of a great Pharaoh.

But they will be saved by a murderer, an outcast, and a man who will have the most extraordinary relationship of all with God.

This man's name is Moses.

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PART TWO

EXODUS

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Almost five hundred years have passed since Abraham died. The banks of the Nile River are drenched in blood. The descendants of Abraham are hundreds of miles from the Promised Land, and a generation from ever setting eyes upon it. They are slaves in the land of Egypt, but they are also a proud and hard people. As God promised, they have become as numerous as the stars in the skies--so numerous, in fact, that a new form of evil is visiting them: infanticide. The Egyptian Pharaoh has become fearful that his many Hebrew slaves will rise up and rebel against his authority. So he has sent his soldiers throughout the land--village