What's Hashem doing in the darkness??

In this week's Parsha Vayeishev, there are many details that could point to an apparent randomness of events or events that could seem accidental.... but like the Purim story are actually interwoven in an intricate pattern of Divine Providence!
Yakov sends Yosef to check on his brothers acting on and bringing to fuition, information from Avraham Avinu that his family will be exiled,
the brothers cast Yosef into a pit and then sell him to Yishme'elim, and then totally broken from all of these events, the family starts to unravel somewhat, many of the members spending time either in mourning or Tshuvah or both in sackcloth and ashes.

The Chumash tells us that Yehuda goes down to live in another place and do business with an Adullami man. The going down could refer to his own sense of self worth or his estimation in his brother's opinion of him.

Yehuda marries, which we are told also in the Medrash is a choice of action that Hashem approves of, a starting over, a choice of having a new beginning! He has three sons, marries the eldest one to Tamar, when the eldest son dies Tamar is given to the second son and when he too dies, Yehuda holds back his third son from marrying Tamar.
The chumash tells us that after Yehuda's own wife dies, he goes on the road on some business trip, sees Tamar, does not recognize her as his daughter in law and thinking she is a harlot has relations with her.

The medrash tells us that a Malach  actually pushed Yehuda to notice and desire to have relations with Tamar, without this push he would never have noticed her at all!  Another medrash tells us that while all the family members were busy with their  mourning and regret;
"the tribes with the selling of Yosef, Yosef with his sackcloth and fasting , (because he was separated from his father's house) Reuben with his sackcloth and fasting, Yakov with his sackcloth and fasting, (mourning his son) , and Yehuda,  busy with selecting a wife, the Holy One blessed be He was busy with creating the light of Moshiach!" How so, the union of Yehuda and Tamar produces Peretz, the forefather of Moshiach!

When it seems that the most unlikely things are happening and it seems that Hashem has abandoned the scene, he is actually working in apparent darkness, a darkness that distracts the negative forces, so that He is free to bring  about redemption!

The medrash highlights a number of liaisons  connected to the seed of Moshiach that come into the world in suspect circumstances, Ruth's own heritage, the marriage of  Boaz and Ruth, David's own lineage and now Yehuda and Tamar. The Medrash highlights the idea of bringing something of holiness into the world through the backdoor, in an unexpected fashion....Concealment is a hallmark of the means by which G-d prepares the way for the arrival of Moshiach. The Gemorrah states in Sanhedrin, "Three things come into the world when one's attention is diverted, these are Moshiach,... etc". The Ramban mentions this method of confusing the Satan by reminding us of the action of throwing a goat off a cliff on Yom Kippur, the Ramban says we are tricking the Satan by leading him to believe we are making an offering to the forces of impurity and then distracted , the Satan refrains from prosecuting Israel in the heavenly court on Yom Kippur!

It seems that when darkness surrounds us, we may be led to believe Hashem has abandoned His post, but in fact he is working behind the scenes, orchestrating the next manifestation of Moshiach, the darkness is meant to be a distraction, so the forces of evil get thrown off...a false sense of strength and victory should not be seen as true strength... Hashem is pulling strings and orchestrating our redemption although right now it definitely seems like it's happening behind the scenes.... may we have revealed good very soon with the ultimate revelation of Moshiach!
May it be soon!