by Jake Frost
From my book: A Craftsman at Play in Creation
Great Joseph, he, the mighty one,
Who stood astride the Nile,
Hovered just this side of death
And spoke before its trial
“Promise me before I die
My bones shall not remain
Within this land of servitude
Where once I gathered grain,”
“Grain that made the Pharoah strong
As with bread he forged a chain
Which I can see one day shall bind
Those who fled the drought of rain,”
“Yet still the grain that I preserved
God ordained for Jacob’s sons
For from Abraham through Israel
His covenant still runs,”
“My father Jacob saw in dreams
And poured out on the stone
And wrestled with an angel when
Awaiting Esau all alone,”
“The many-colored cloak he gave
To his son who dreamed as he
That dipped in blood broke his heart
When into slavery,”
“For shekels of silver that sone was sold
By brothers who cast him in the pit
But God ordained that son one day
In authority to sit,”
“For God through trial fitted him
Like an arrow to the string
To do His will when came the time
His grace to Jacob’s sons to bring,”
“For well does Noah’s Archer know
The bow and draw its string with might
And by His hand the arrow guides
Even as it speeds in flight,”
“His is the bow of many hues,
As was the coat that I once wore,
And He works through dreams and lowly things,
In which men put little store.”
“I have seen His bow span the sky,
And I have known in life His grace,
And now I go to journey on,
At last to see His face,”
“I have also seen the day will come
When forth from this land of toil
God will lead out Israel
Bearing Egypt’s spoil,”
“Bear also away my bones that day,
To where in my vision gleams,
The land which since my bondage day,
I have seen always in my dreams,”
“Across the Jordan let them go,
To where the Oaks of Mamre stand,
With my fathers there at last to rest,
Within The Promised Land.”
