A Story of God and All of Us Young Reade - By Roma Downey Page 0,7

different dream. Seven full heads of wheat, glowing in the sun--

then quickly eaten by seven rotten ones, thin and scorched by the wind." He drinks thoughtfully. "Can your God explain that?"

Joseph is silent, lost in prayer. He waits patiently for the voice of God. Just as Pharaoh is about to lose all patience, Joseph speaks, his gaze still directed at the stone floor. "The cows and grain are all the same," he says.

"What do you mean?"

"There will be seven years of plenty. But then seven years of famine. You must store food in preparation for that day."

"There will be no famine," the Pharaoh says imperiously. "The Nile always feeds our crops. Every year, without fail."

"You don't understand: there will be famine," Joseph explains.

"You contradict the Pharaoh?"

Joseph speaks carefully, knowing that his next words could be his last. "You contradict your dream."

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"Go on."

"Store grain. Store a portion of the harvest when it is plentiful. Otherwise

your people will starve. This is the meaning of your dream."

Pharaoh rises and steps down from his throne. "I am impressed by your conviction. You are set free, but on one condition."

"What is that, Pharaoh?"

"You will be in charge of telling the people to store their harvest."

Joseph's prophecy is proved correct. Thanks to the power given him by the Pharaoh, Joseph is able to force farmers throughout Egypt to store their crops.

For Joseph, this dramatic change of fortune is divine providence. He will forever remember it as a message that there is always hope, even in the darkest moments. Thanks to his success, he assimilates into Egyptian society and becomes one of its most powerful men. A signet ring is placed upon his finger. Eyeliner decorates his eyes, preventing the sun's strong rays from burning them. He wears a black, straight-haired wig, and his chin is always smoothly shaved.

Thanks to Joseph, Pharaoh's wealth increases

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massively--though at the expense of many Egyptians, who are forced to sell their land to survive the famine. And it is not just Egypt that suffers through the seven-year drought. The people of neighboring nations feel the pain as their crops wither and die. Thousands upon thousands of foreigners flood into Egypt, which has become legendary for its well-stocked granaries.

Among them are Joseph's brothers, sent there by Jacob to purchase grain.

To do anything less would mean the end of their lineage, for they would all starve in Israel.

So it is that Joseph sees his brothers in a crowd as he makes his way by chariot through a busy city street one day. He immediately orders that they be sent to his palace. Joseph has never talked about the painful method in which his brothers changed his life, but he has also never forgotten. Now he has the ability to change their lives--for better or worse--as they once changed his.

Joseph's brothers are led into a formal drawing room by armed guards.

Joseph enters the room with all the regal grace he has learned during his 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. Yet Joseph's thoughts are always upon God. He shows

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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.

His brothers are shocked. 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 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. When the brothers are ready to leave, a guard pretends to notice something suspicious and slices open a bag to examine the strange bulge. The silver cup falls onto the ground. Joseph's brothers are grabbed and immediately marched back to stand before him.

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They kneel once again, this