Life, Truth, and Love for All

One of my favorite bible stories is the story of Joseph in the Old Testament. Joseph symbolizes unfaltering trust in God. Never once, during that story, during all his trials, did he not trust his Creator, infinite Mind, infinite Good. He was always about doing the right thing, and Joseph embodies the right, the pure, the loving, the unshakable will to follow Principle, and to trust God, Good.

Remember, Joseph was the youngest son of the 12 sons of Jacob, and he was envied by his older brothers because of his closeness to their father, and the things their father did for Joseph that were not done for the older brothers. The father made Joseph a beautiful coat of many colors, a coat that had to have been product of a lot of hard work. The brothers set up a plan, or rather, a plot to remove Joseph from their presence, and the presence of their father. The destroyed his coat one day, threw him into a pit of limestone, left him to be sold into slavery, and lied to their father and said that a wild beast devoured Joseph, and tore his coat of many colors.

Joseph never once took out revenge towards his brothers or had any sense of hate. Joseph was always loving, and kind. This will be seen later in the story when Joseph has the job of providing for, and feeding the people of the lands of Pharaoh, with food, particularly corn, during the seven years of famine that came about. Joseph’s father, who had no idea of Joseph’s position as the right hand man of Pharaoh, and the one in charge of the food supply, sent his sons to Egypt to purchase food, since the famine was impacting all the world around Egypt. Joseph loving supplied his brothers with corn, and filled their bags to overflowing, and also gave them their money back so that in reality, they received food for free. Joseph had the power to hurt his brothers and put them away for ever, but he loved them regardless of their animosity toward’s him, the loving Joseph.

This story is so filled with the abundance of Life, Truth and Love. Life expressed in that Joseph was not destroyed, the people were not destroyed during the horrible famine, and Joseph’s family were not harmed. Truth was expressed by the healing power of God’s lovingkindness, reflected in the care and affection shown by Joseph towards his brothers. He even cried after revealing him to them. They felt that divine Love that corrects every situation, and felt bad for what they did years ago to Joseph. They overcame their envy, their hate, and learned a lesson of love.

Mary Baker Eddy in her work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, gives the spiritual meaning of the bible character, Joseph. She says in the Glossary chapter, page 589, that Joseph, is “a higher sense of Truth rebuking mortal belief, or error, and showing the immortality and supremacy of Truth; pure affection blessing its enemies.”

Does that not fit the character Joseph. We too, can put on this Joseph thinking, being, character and express those qualities of affection, blessedness, truthfulness, and have a higher sense of Truth instead of a limiting human sense. Each bible character serves to lead us higher in our spiritual understanding. It is not so much the events of a story rather than the development of the main character in the story that is important.