Crossings

I woke up this morning realising that I had seven good years, not for myself, but for that venerable institution in which I worked. Those seven years produced a sheaf of original papers and professional awards. And then, after that, the lean years came. The pattern was a familiar one, to those who read the signs.

And yet, not all pharaohs are Pharaoh; not all caesars are Caesar. In the Genesis account of Joseph's work for his Pharaoh, it is clear that Joseph was given a free hand to work on the basis of his prophetic interpretation of Pharaoh's dreams. The account shows positive consequences; seven years of surplus gains were banked and parlayed into a world-class lead. This lead was such that when the world was in famine, all countries came to Egypt to buy grain.

It is always tempting to draw lessons from the inverse story: for example, to say that if Joseph had not been given free reign, the Egyptians would have joined the rest of the world in world-class famine. But we must avoid such temptations because we do not know what would have happened, we are only given the account of what did happen. Drawing adverse conclusions from the imaginary inverse can create a sort of anti-universe in which everything is in reverse.

The lessons of history are reasonably clear though. There are indeed a few pivotal events which might seem earth-shaking to people of those times, but which in retrospect (and more so as the chronological distance increases) diminish in importance. There are also those which increase in significance as the big picture becomes clearer.

Take for example the dropping of atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On one hand, it has been fairly argued that Japan would have capitulated anyway, and that the lives saved by nuking two cities to hasten the war's end were insufficient compensation to the human race as a whole. On the other hand, it is clear that since 1945, nobody has dared use such weapons in anger; we have kept the nuclear peace for almost 63 years. What other lethal weapons has the human race had, itchy fingers and all, and yet refused to deploy for that long? Perhaps, in some unfathomable way, the unfortunate citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were sacrificed so that humanity would take a valuable step back from the brink.

Then again, too far a step back from the brink, and we might never make an important crossing. This was what happened to the first generation of Israel, just out from Egypt. They lost their nerve on the brink and subsequently failed to enter the Promised Land. Only the two pioneers Joshua and Caleb were alive to make the second attempt, decades later. Where there is insufficient vision, insufficient faith to see a larger future, the people perish. Selah.