>African bishops attending a meeting at the Vatican have compared President Barack Obama to Joseph in Egypt. The following is an excerpt from a news report released by the Associated Press:
VATICAN CITY — African bishops attending a Vatican meeting are speaking about the election of Barack Obama in divine terms — putting them very much at odds with many of their U.S. counterparts.
Archbishop Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle of Accra, Ghana said Wednesday that there was “a divine plan behind” Obama’s election.
“It’s like the biblical story repeating itself,” he told reporters, citing the Old Testament figure Joseph, who after being sold into slavery in Egypt ends up becoming a top official.
“We believe God has his own plans. God directs history.”
Barack Obama has been compared to God, the Holy Spirit, and Christ, to the Pope, to the Messiah, and now to Joseph.
One of these days Barack Obama will be compared to Moses, the one who will lead the people to a land flowing with milk and honey.
UPDATE:
A reader has called my attention to a news report published by NPR, in which Obama, in an address in Selma, Alabama, in March 2007, compared himself to Joshua:
“The previous generation, the Moses generation, pointed the way,” he said to the audience, in which famous civil rights leaders like John Lewis listened from the front row. “They took us 90 percent of the way there. We still got that 10 percent in order to cross over to the other side. So the question, I guess, that I have today is: What’s called of us in this Joshua generation?”
Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary
Tags: Barack Obama, Joseph 
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Dr. Claude Mariottini - Professor of Old Testament 
>Actually, Obama has already been compared (even by his own words) to Joshua, the man who actually led the Israelites into the promised land:http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89598497Joshua was the man appointed to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land, and Obama has appropriated that mantle. He did so in an address in Selma, Alabama, in March 2007:"The previous generation, the Moses generation, pointed the way," he said to the audience, in which famous civil rights leaders like John Lewis listened from the front row. "They took us 90 percent of the way there. We still got that 10 percent in order to cross over to the other side. So the question, I guess, that I have today is: What's called of us in this Joshua generation?"Obama casts himself as that transition figure — one who can move the country into a land of unity and racial harmony, or at least less division. Obama hopes his message will appeal to religious people of all stripes, or at least, enough of them to win the White House.
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>Nate,Thank you for this information. I was not aware of this quote. I will add it to my list of biblical characters to whom Obama has been compared.I appreciate you calling my attention to this article.Claude Mariottini
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