forward to begin their life’s missions. Unbeknownst to Joseph at that moment standing in front of Pharaoh as the newly appointed overseer of the entire kingdom, he is destined to become a savior to his people. Joseph ends up serving as the mediator and vehicle by which the Israelites—the followers of the one God—will gain access to the bread they need to stay alive during the grinding famine, just as Jesus the Christ will become the bread of life, feeding spiritually starving souls held captive in the arid landscape of a material world.
Other bits and pieces woven into the rich tapestry of the history of Joseph, whose ultimate destiny is to one day rise to the heights of a Christ, provide additional clues about this soul’s seminal role in fulfilling the promise of deliverance. The coat of many colors Joseph wears as a boy suggests the sign of the rainbow that Noah saw after the biblical flood receded, sealing the eternal covenant between God and man. And the statement made by Joseph in revealing his true identity to his kinsmen as the brother they had cast off before he was sold into slavery might well have been spoken by Jesus who will also be sold into captivity for a bagful of silver. “Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life,” states Joseph. (Gen. 45:5) The first begotten soul is assuring his siblings that it was the spirit of God working through those awful events which had raised up their deliverer.
Joseph’s tale represents the archetypal story of the beloved son lost to his father and held in bondage but whose deep rapport with the divine raises him up to unimaginable heights. And in the process becomes the catalyst for transformation and freedom. “So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt,” (Gen. 45:8) the overlord Joseph declares. So, too, will the crown of Christhood allow Jesus to rule over the furthest reaches of the material realm. Many other words spoken by Joseph in Egypt centuries before the advent of the Messiah take on a fresh and more profound meaning when contemplated in light of this particular soul’s intimate connection with the Master. “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.” (Gen. 50:20-21)
Joshua
But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Josh. 24:15
The Israelites had been enslaved in Egypt for generations when the Adam soul makes its next appearance by donning the mantle of another notable figure in Jewish history. But this time the gains made in helping humanity attain new levels of awareness and understanding are tempered by the spiritual ground lost through the brutal subjugation of others. The first begotten of God incarnates as the illustrious warrior named Joshua—he of Exodus fame who served as Moses’ closest aide and man-of-arms. Identified by Edgar Cayce as “ … the prophet, the mystic, the leader, the incarnation of the Prince of Peace,” (362-1) Joshua hails from the tribe of Ephraim, who was one of Joseph’s sons, and is famous for leading the Israelites into the Promised Land.
Not surprisingly, this exceptional individual is the only one of the Israelites allowed to accompany Moses to the top of Mount Sinai for forty days and forty nights after God has summoned the Jewish leader there. “And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them. And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua: and Moses went up into the mount of God.” (Exod. 24:12-13) Edgar Cayce remarks that prior to the two ascending the mountain, the Hebrews had “ … seen the Lord Jehovah descend into the mount … {and} seen the mount so electrified by the presence of the God of the people … that no living thing could remain {there} … save those two [Moses and Joshua] who had been cleansed by their pouring out of themselves to God, in the cleansing of their bodies, in the cleansing of their minds … ” (440-16) It is Joshua who stands nearby on that holy ground supporting the liberator Moses as he receives divine instruction to build an Ark of the Covenant and hears the word of God expressed as the principles of the Ten Commandments, which will be carved onto stone tablets and carried down the mountainside to the people below. The readings recognize Joshua as the medium through which Moses obtains the law, calling him “ … the interpreter through whom the message was given to Israel.” (3645-1)
The Bible provides several additional clues about the depth of the man Joshua’s devotion to his God and his soul’s unique mission in that particular lifetime. “And the Lord spake to Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant, Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle,” states the Book of Exodus, (Exod. 33:11) explaining how Joshua chose to tarry for a while in that consecrated space communing with the divine presence. Sometime later God will choose Joshua as the next leader of his people and direct Moses to enhance the authority of his aide by honoring him before the priest and entire congregation—a sign of the very special role this soul is going to play in the divine plan. Near the end of his life Moses will call Joshua before the community a second time to reaffirm his successor’s sacred charge. “Be strong and of a good courage: for thou must go with this people unto the land which the Lord hath sworn unto their fathers to give them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it.” (Deut. 31: 7) Upon completion of the Israelites’ escape from Egypt after wandering through the desert for forty years, it is Joshua who will open the way for the Hebrews to secure their inheritance of the Promised Land, a land for which they did not labor.
The Lord Will Do Wonders
Other details sprinkled throughout the Book of Joshua portray a man associated with a host of phenomena deemed miraculous. “Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the Lord will do wonders among you,” (Josh. 3:5) the Jewish warrior tells his people in words prefiguring his soul’s later incarnation as the Master Jesus who also lived from the standpoint of a divine presence that never would forsake or fail him. The Old Testament even describes a moment when Joshua purportedly spoke an order which halted the orbit of the sun and the moon. “Sun stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon,” (Josh. 10:12) he commands. The Old Testament account reports that with these words the sun stopped moving and the moon stayed in its place in the midst of the heavens until the Hebrews had avenged themselves upon their enemies. “And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man,” (Josh. 10:14) attests the biblical author in an extraordinary moment of understatement.
It was this same unyielding certitude about the presence and power of his God that caused Joshua to send forth the Ark of the Covenant to conquer Jericho. Carried among the armed troops and surrounded by an assembly of priests blowing on rams’ horns, the Ark circles the city seven times—until the people shout and its walls fall down, allowing the Israelites to take that stronghold. (Josh. 6:1-20) Repeatedly the biblical account describes Joshua’s army winning the day, vanquishing even the most formidable foes as the Hebrews capture city and field in an all-consuming quest to take their “rightful” place in the land pledged to the people of God.
And under Joshua’s extraordinary leadership—shaped and guided by his intimate relationship with the divine—the ragtag group of former slaves is ultimately triumphant. But there is a catch. The unmitigated violence by which the victory is won becomes a karmic debt demanding recompense someday—a squaring of the cosmic accounts in order to help the soul awaken to its error of violating the Law of One. It is only with the advent of the Master who institutes a new covenant in the earth—the Law of Endless Mercy—that karma will lose its grip on humanity. Still, generations later in a final act of willingness to live out the consequences of what he had sown, the Adam/Joshua/Jesus soul will accept personal responsibility for indulging in such cruelty by choosing to experience a savage crucifixion.
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