first begotten of God lived in the earth plane in the person of Joseph, the biblical character renowned for wearing a coat of many colors. (In an intriguing sidebar to the history of the Adam soul’s sacred lineage, the Bible notes that after Joseph’s mother Rachel dies, she is buried near Bethlehem—the place where the same soul one day will reenter the earth as the infant Jesus.)
The Joseph story actually begins to gel decades prior to his mother Rachel giving birth to her first child. The roots of this particular lifetime for the Adam soul were germinated in the history of his father Jacob whose biblical exploits reveal a man slowly but steadily growing in spiritual awareness. Early on Jacob is known for having played a trick on his twin brother Esau in order to steal the birthright of his more earthbound sibling, which in turn forces Jacob to become a spiritual wanderer. That is until the night he dreams about a ladder reaching up to heaven, full of angels ascending and descending on its rungs. During the course of this extraordinary visionary experience in which he sees the “Lord God O Abraham,” Jacob receives divine assurance that his God is with him. “And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed.” (Gen. 28:13) Jacob’s heightened awareness has broken new ground and this enlightened state of being is the place he and his spiritual descendants will inhabit from that day forward.
As it was with Abraham, the God of Jacob reveals that one day the seeds of his spiritual understanding will cover the whole earth, blessing every nation. “And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” (Gen. 28:14) The divine impartation continues by assuring Jacob that wherever he goes, his God will accompany his footsteps. “And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.” (Gen. 28:15) When Jacob awakens from his sleep and realizes the significance of what has just occurred, he declares, “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.” (Gen. 28: 16)
Years later during a similar nighttime episode when he once more finds himself alone, Jacob will meet a mysterious stranger who suddenly sets upon him, wrestling with him until the dawn. His unearthly opponent ends up wounding Jacob’s thigh, but the injured man continues to hold on, refusing to let his adversary go until the stranger, a force he neither recognizes nor understands, blesses him. Once he has overcome his rival and won the struggle, Jacob, like the ever-loyal Abraham, also receives a new name. “And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” (Gen. 32:28) It must have been Jacob’s sincerity and dogged persistence in seeking to be blessed that created the vibrations, which eventually would attract the Adam soul to the earth again as a member of his immediate family. This time the first begotten soul will enter the planet as the cherished son of the patriarch Israel who had wrestled with his lower nature and come away victorious—a man so devoted to his God he establishes a nation of God-seekers in the earth.
Into Egypt
See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt. Gen. 41:41
Over the course of many years Jacob has a dozen sons, but Joseph, the second-to-last born of his beloved wife Rachel, is his favorite—treasured more than all of his other offspring. The Joseph narrative takes a tragic turn one day, however, when Jacob’s ten older sons, jealous of their younger sibling whom they mockingly refer to as the dreamer, plot to get rid of him and end up throwing Joseph into a desert pit without any water. The eldest son, Rueben, who had convinced his brothers not to kill the boy, has every intention of coming back to retrieve him. But before he is able to save his little brother, a passing group of merchants removes Joseph from the pit and sells him into slavery for twenty pieces of silver to a band of Ishmeelites bound for Egypt. Forced to return home without their sibling, the ten sons lie to Jacob by showing him animal blood they had smeared on Josephs’ cloak and claiming a wild creature had killed the child. The distraught father believes their tale and is heartsick grieving the loss of the precious son he will never see again. (Gen. 37)
But God appears to have great plans for the young captive. Despite the dire straits he finds himself in, the Bible indicates the Lord was with Joseph and caused him to prosper. It turns out to be true when through a series of remarkable twists and turns the lowly slave rises to unforeseen heights in a country wholly foreign to him. An officer named Potiphar, captain of Pharaoh’s guard, makes Joseph a servant in his home and soon after, recognizing the young man’s unusual aptitude and innate wisdom, promotes him to oversee the entire household. As the spiritual drama progresses, Potiphar’s wife begins to cast her eye on the handsome young overseer and soon makes a move to try to get him into her bed. But Joseph will not betray his master Potiphar in such a manner and spurns her overtures. Angry at his rejection, the woman subsequently accuses Joseph of making unwanted advances and, although he is innocent of the charges, causes him to be thrown into another pit. Yet God resides in that dungeon too and has prepared a way out for his servant. The divine plan is to use Joseph’s skill as the “dreamer” his brothers had ridiculed to raise him up to greatness a second time.
Pharaoh’s Court
As it so happened during this period, Pharaoh had experienced a series of disturbing dreams, which neither the priests nor the magicians of the court were able to interpret. After exhausting every possible avenue to try to solve the nighttime mystery, Pharaoh appears to be out of options until his chief butler tells him about Joseph who had successfully explained a dream for him and another prisoner, a baker, when the three of them were incarcerated together. Pharaoh proceeds to call Joseph before him to get his help. “And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret it: and I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it. And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, [It is] not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.” (Gen. 41:15-16) Joseph successfully deciphers the meaning of Pharaoh’s nightmares by recognizing them as omens signifying seven years of bountiful harvests followed by seven years of drought. But he takes no credit for himself. Impressed by his prisoner’s demeanor and interpretation of the prophetic imagery, Pharaoh asks, “Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?” (Gen. 41:38) He ends up making Joseph second-in-command to himself and placing the Hebrew in charge of Egypt’s preparations for the foretold periods of plenty and lack.
The history of Joseph’s estrangement from his own people concludes when the same ten brothers whose vengeful decision years earlier had caused him to be sold into slavery arrive in Egypt to purchase the only food available during those lean years. Joseph immediately recognizes his siblings but only after a series of tricks and complications does he finally reveal his true identity to them. His father eventually also learns that the boy taken from him so long ago, his beloved son Joseph, is still alive and rejoices. The saga comes to an auspicious end when the patriarch Israel along with all of his wives, children, and other members of his extended family travel to Egypt to take up residence there. The people of the one God will continue to reside in the land of the Pharaohs until the days recorded in the Book of Exodus when Moses will lead the Hebrews out of that country to their freedom in the Promised Land.
Soul of a Deliverer
In an interesting sidebar pairing the events surrounding Joseph in the court of ancient Egypt with the future incarnation of this same soul as Jesus, the Old Testament text states that Joseph was “ … thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh King of Egypt”
