Brothers Keeping: Joseph and Job by Tristam Joseph
your years waiting to discover joy.
Job: Do Joseph's brothers now also hear God's words, inscribing them on their hearts, recalling them often to live by, integrating all their deeds according to His will? Jacob's blessings in some ways appear to curse them rather than bless their seeds.
Joseph: God only knows how they could convict themselves of being blameless, their relatively acceptable virtue, not bad in belonging to most, possibly disclaimed by their conscience, but reasonable in claiming their deeds were controlled by creation's inherent nature.
Job: Would it be preferable to be convicted of blamelessness, being upright as I was, never being victimized as freedom's keeper of violence, nor being a righteous one demanding justice for everyone's trivial indiscretion, exacting vengeance for every broken decree, realizing blameless ones are satisfied to live with a self-willed determination to be godly, but never in perfect oneness with God, wanting to be somewhat godly if convenient, often to reflect images worshipped, sometimes idols fabricated of wood and stone, knowing they can never represent godliness, leaving it entirely up to the idolizers, reasoned by their judgment to certify purity, innocence, and guiltlessness, self-assurances for acceptance into a form of afterlife, trusted imaginings to justify their worthiness?
Bystander: Should righteousness ever be a goal for humans, trusting no can be righteous, thinking people will suffer few consequences of acceptable unrighteousness, realizing the righteous might be compelled to suffer deprivations, existing in a realm of nothingness? Have you ever taken leave of being moral for one moment, expecting it to never tarnish your blamelessness, as believing you can dismiss your spirituality briefly and maintain your uprightness, disregarding any goal to be righteous?
Joseph: We cannot accept existence in nothingness, realizing from the beginning it is not good for man to live alone, recalling God's testimony for all to believe, never tormenting people by isolation, voiding their relationships, secluding them completely, giving them solidarity as their only companion, unable to count meaningful moments, suffering them with life's cruelest form of punishment, such making one a victim of nothingness, seeing righteousness denies one the ability for relationships, indeed cruelty at its worst.
Bystander: Your separation from heathens, mandating you to destroy pagans, counseling you to never associate with blemished sinful ones, eliminates all others, all those never being righteous, so becoming righteous does deprive you of relationships with all others, forcing you to become a disciple of nothingness.
Job: Seeing these consequences of righteousness, hearing prophets condone uprightness, blamelessness cannot be so bad, maybe falling short of what God wants for us, but allowing us to exercise the free will he imputed in our creation, driving us to accumulate great worth. Moreover, I let no one set the standards for my blameless but establishing their limits I trusted no others to use their measure to determine mine.
Bystander: But did not your treasures come from something, requiring you to covet anything teasing your desires, hiding covetousness in a dark corner of your blamelessness, secreting it in a place reserved for sins of murder, adultery, fornication, and theft, concealing it with evils of envy and greed?
Job: My blamelessness convicted me, convincing me I was just like other people, assuring me my wealth here was a blessing for being upright, built by my virtue of being right with God.
Joseph: You comforted many, other upright ones, with your comments, giving little reason to strive for righteousness, attesting to its impossibility, but convictions of truth heard now for your words demand we must always confess, acknowledging no one can ever be righteous, but ones trusting themselves blameless think they have nothing for which to repent, seldom convincing them to confess, relying on sacrifice as a more comfortable way to cover their sins, if they ever must acknowledge any.
Bystander: Take care. What if sacrifice loses its appeal, diminishing its priority, facing indifference, seeing people refuse to give up their treasures, idols supporting their desires, abandoning their trusted scapegoats, resorting to wine to forget their unworthy deeds, confessing all with partaking of their cup, emptying their sorrows, consuming wrath, dispelling memories tormenting their souls.
Job: Then if my upright behavior had been enough, justifying no blame for my afflictions, treating my adversities as a chance of fate, should I have asked no one for explanations?
Bystander: Be careful in what you seek and who you ask, never knowing what can be expected, appealing for admonitions, freedom to be yourself or demands to be righteous. Righteousness demands tolerance for no one, for nothing, realizing all are blemished with sinfulness, never even tolerating blameless ones, considered tolerable and acceptable by most, whereas seekers of freedom also tolerate little, denying both righteous and upright one's virtues, unworthy in judging them to be intolerant.
Job: What should we be then? Righteous, blameless, or seekers of freedom? Do they all make way for the custodian of violence, never knowing whether comes the Grand Inquisitor or some henchman of evil?
Joseph: Do our desires open doors for such a person?
Bystander: People all make way for the keeper of violence, companion to seekers of freedom, knowing destructive weapons are needed to exact ultimate freedom, but those striking out for unbridled justice also claim its attention, testifying they can do nothing unarmed. With freedom intact no virtue can claim them, never letting any others keep its company, avoiding all completely, wanting to be in partnership with none, but righteous ones believe all others are chained to evil, never knowing righteousness' value, being rarely seen, attested by prophets to be impossible for humans, considered to be a hypothetical virtue, bothering all little, seldom calling for mercy, continuously inflicting judgment, never satisfied by violence unleashed for sacrifice, slaying some innocent life, dismissing any sanctity claimed for people's wants and desires, so people must rule for moderation, realizing ultimate freedom conflicts with absolute justice, unable to let the living live, compelling people to never accept violence for sinners seeking to confess and repent--searching vainly for righteousness--disrupting their endeavors, intruding, invading their composure with anxiety, confusing their reason, and mismanaging their common sense.
Joseph: Guardians of righteousness, ordained with jurisdictions to determine justice, also appearing as you say to be custodians of violence, mandate and execute orders, laws inscribed in stone, determining deployment of verdicts, following decrees of Molech, sacrificing life for many solutions, isolating others by torture with seclusion's torments, punishing them with hopelessness, contending with God's proclamation creating humans to never be alone.
Bystander: Beware of praying for righteousness, receiving results you could never tolerate, lasting epithets for others to remember. Blamelessness may not be all bad, tolerating indifference to shun intolerable extremes, avoiding unacceptable forms of justice, compelling one to judge no situations, but it comes with protection from violence, no disrupting actions for building relationships, complying with the purpose of God's design, relationships being the substance of everything, making everything from the void, preventing all from returning to nothingness.
Job: Thereby the Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, judged by my degree of blamelessness, according to the innocence of my hands in His sight, being merciful as I extended mercy, for an upright one shown to be upright, for a faithful one shown to be faithful, for a blameless one proven to be blameless, for a pure one showing himself pure, recognizing me as somewhat humble, but to the crooked He shows greater shrewdness, bringing low the prideful haughty. If this be so, I was truly made, but not in His image, a blameless one undeserving of His grace and mercy, accepting I was born to be sinful, discovering I must confess, acknowledging I fall short of His image, compelling me to live by relative virtues, willed by my choosing but not entirely of my making.
Joseph: Your confession concedes we must give up, surrendering pretense we are anything, giving up claims of being worth
y, falling short of God's consideration, seeing ourselves as the Lord sees us, exercising pride's awful nature, our heart's dearest treasure, held tightly, unable to surrender, realizing confession confiscates our greatest love, walking in the flesh, fulfilling my lusts, never accepting the light of truth, proving myself to be a child of darkness.
Bystander: Confession's hiding, concealed behind human pride, impaled on indecision's fence, shields truth claimed for people's reason, protecting human convictions from growing uncertainty, realizing they become untrustworthy suspects, conflicting with dubious certainty, begging for acceptance, but never knowing how long any dogma will survive, realizing human truths all exist with a half-life, waiting for some genius to reason something new. What should people tolerate until that happens? If everything possible could soon become a truth, why can't people reason to tolerate everything now? And who can suggest what tomorrow's truth will be? Perhaps confession should hide, protecting our blamelessness from becoming nothingness, convincing us to
Job: Do Joseph's brothers now also hear God's words, inscribing them on their hearts, recalling them often to live by, integrating all their deeds according to His will? Jacob's blessings in some ways appear to curse them rather than bless their seeds.
Joseph: God only knows how they could convict themselves of being blameless, their relatively acceptable virtue, not bad in belonging to most, possibly disclaimed by their conscience, but reasonable in claiming their deeds were controlled by creation's inherent nature.
Job: Would it be preferable to be convicted of blamelessness, being upright as I was, never being victimized as freedom's keeper of violence, nor being a righteous one demanding justice for everyone's trivial indiscretion, exacting vengeance for every broken decree, realizing blameless ones are satisfied to live with a self-willed determination to be godly, but never in perfect oneness with God, wanting to be somewhat godly if convenient, often to reflect images worshipped, sometimes idols fabricated of wood and stone, knowing they can never represent godliness, leaving it entirely up to the idolizers, reasoned by their judgment to certify purity, innocence, and guiltlessness, self-assurances for acceptance into a form of afterlife, trusted imaginings to justify their worthiness?
Bystander: Should righteousness ever be a goal for humans, trusting no can be righteous, thinking people will suffer few consequences of acceptable unrighteousness, realizing the righteous might be compelled to suffer deprivations, existing in a realm of nothingness? Have you ever taken leave of being moral for one moment, expecting it to never tarnish your blamelessness, as believing you can dismiss your spirituality briefly and maintain your uprightness, disregarding any goal to be righteous?
Joseph: We cannot accept existence in nothingness, realizing from the beginning it is not good for man to live alone, recalling God's testimony for all to believe, never tormenting people by isolation, voiding their relationships, secluding them completely, giving them solidarity as their only companion, unable to count meaningful moments, suffering them with life's cruelest form of punishment, such making one a victim of nothingness, seeing righteousness denies one the ability for relationships, indeed cruelty at its worst.
Bystander: Your separation from heathens, mandating you to destroy pagans, counseling you to never associate with blemished sinful ones, eliminates all others, all those never being righteous, so becoming righteous does deprive you of relationships with all others, forcing you to become a disciple of nothingness.
Job: Seeing these consequences of righteousness, hearing prophets condone uprightness, blamelessness cannot be so bad, maybe falling short of what God wants for us, but allowing us to exercise the free will he imputed in our creation, driving us to accumulate great worth. Moreover, I let no one set the standards for my blameless but establishing their limits I trusted no others to use their measure to determine mine.
Bystander: But did not your treasures come from something, requiring you to covet anything teasing your desires, hiding covetousness in a dark corner of your blamelessness, secreting it in a place reserved for sins of murder, adultery, fornication, and theft, concealing it with evils of envy and greed?
Job: My blamelessness convicted me, convincing me I was just like other people, assuring me my wealth here was a blessing for being upright, built by my virtue of being right with God.
Joseph: You comforted many, other upright ones, with your comments, giving little reason to strive for righteousness, attesting to its impossibility, but convictions of truth heard now for your words demand we must always confess, acknowledging no one can ever be righteous, but ones trusting themselves blameless think they have nothing for which to repent, seldom convincing them to confess, relying on sacrifice as a more comfortable way to cover their sins, if they ever must acknowledge any.
Bystander: Take care. What if sacrifice loses its appeal, diminishing its priority, facing indifference, seeing people refuse to give up their treasures, idols supporting their desires, abandoning their trusted scapegoats, resorting to wine to forget their unworthy deeds, confessing all with partaking of their cup, emptying their sorrows, consuming wrath, dispelling memories tormenting their souls.
Job: Then if my upright behavior had been enough, justifying no blame for my afflictions, treating my adversities as a chance of fate, should I have asked no one for explanations?
Bystander: Be careful in what you seek and who you ask, never knowing what can be expected, appealing for admonitions, freedom to be yourself or demands to be righteous. Righteousness demands tolerance for no one, for nothing, realizing all are blemished with sinfulness, never even tolerating blameless ones, considered tolerable and acceptable by most, whereas seekers of freedom also tolerate little, denying both righteous and upright one's virtues, unworthy in judging them to be intolerant.
Job: What should we be then? Righteous, blameless, or seekers of freedom? Do they all make way for the custodian of violence, never knowing whether comes the Grand Inquisitor or some henchman of evil?
Joseph: Do our desires open doors for such a person?
Bystander: People all make way for the keeper of violence, companion to seekers of freedom, knowing destructive weapons are needed to exact ultimate freedom, but those striking out for unbridled justice also claim its attention, testifying they can do nothing unarmed. With freedom intact no virtue can claim them, never letting any others keep its company, avoiding all completely, wanting to be in partnership with none, but righteous ones believe all others are chained to evil, never knowing righteousness' value, being rarely seen, attested by prophets to be impossible for humans, considered to be a hypothetical virtue, bothering all little, seldom calling for mercy, continuously inflicting judgment, never satisfied by violence unleashed for sacrifice, slaying some innocent life, dismissing any sanctity claimed for people's wants and desires, so people must rule for moderation, realizing ultimate freedom conflicts with absolute justice, unable to let the living live, compelling people to never accept violence for sinners seeking to confess and repent--searching vainly for righteousness--disrupting their endeavors, intruding, invading their composure with anxiety, confusing their reason, and mismanaging their common sense.
Joseph: Guardians of righteousness, ordained with jurisdictions to determine justice, also appearing as you say to be custodians of violence, mandate and execute orders, laws inscribed in stone, determining deployment of verdicts, following decrees of Molech, sacrificing life for many solutions, isolating others by torture with seclusion's torments, punishing them with hopelessness, contending with God's proclamation creating humans to never be alone.
Bystander: Beware of praying for righteousness, receiving results you could never tolerate, lasting epithets for others to remember. Blamelessness may not be all bad, tolerating indifference to shun intolerable extremes, avoiding unacceptable forms of justice, compelling one to judge no situations, but it comes with protection from violence, no disrupting actions for building relationships, complying with the purpose of God's design, relationships being the substance of everything, making everything from the void, preventing all from returning to nothingness.
Job: Thereby the Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, judged by my degree of blamelessness, according to the innocence of my hands in His sight, being merciful as I extended mercy, for an upright one shown to be upright, for a faithful one shown to be faithful, for a blameless one proven to be blameless, for a pure one showing himself pure, recognizing me as somewhat humble, but to the crooked He shows greater shrewdness, bringing low the prideful haughty. If this be so, I was truly made, but not in His image, a blameless one undeserving of His grace and mercy, accepting I was born to be sinful, discovering I must confess, acknowledging I fall short of His image, compelling me to live by relative virtues, willed by my choosing but not entirely of my making.
Joseph: Your confession concedes we must give up, surrendering pretense we are anything, giving up claims of being worth
Bystander: Confession's hiding, concealed behind human pride, impaled on indecision's fence, shields truth claimed for people's reason, protecting human convictions from growing uncertainty, realizing they become untrustworthy suspects, conflicting with dubious certainty, begging for acceptance, but never knowing how long any dogma will survive, realizing human truths all exist with a half-life, waiting for some genius to reason something new. What should people tolerate until that happens? If everything possible could soon become a truth, why can't people reason to tolerate everything now? And who can suggest what tomorrow's truth will be? Perhaps confession should hide, protecting our blamelessness from becoming nothingness, convincing us to