Chain and Cross V: Joseph

"Joseph was one of the 'Sent Ones, of the Qur'án, meaning a Manifestation of God." (From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, July 30, 1941, Compilations, Lights of Guidance, p. 496)

A spiritual traveler and seeker of a past time and distant place named Mulla Husayn encountered, as the fruit of his efforts, one named "The Bab", which we know in English as "The Door" or "The Gate". This enigmatic meeting produced, at Mulla Husayn's desire, a written commentary on scripture about Joseph of the Old Testament. This selection of Joseph as the subject was prescient to "He Whom God Shall Make Manifest", that is the One we know today as Baha'u'llah. The following stories from Genesis should provide insights into how the noble Joseph of so long ago tells us about the heralded Baha'u'llah of today.

"Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.

"Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.

"And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.

"And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.

"And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stript Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colours that was on him; And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it.

"Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt." (Genesis 37:2-11, 23-24, 28)

Here is a vivid foreshadowing of the first incarceration of Baha'u'llah. Long associated with the Babi movement, which had become the object of vilification for teachings the mullahs and others found challenging to the point of heresy, Baha'u'llah was implicated in an assassination attempt. Three overzealous Babi youth had attempted to kill the Shah of Iran, whom they blamed as the source of their persecutions. The response of the authorities, including the Shah, was retribution. Despite Baha'u'llah's stature and innocence, they hated Him and could not speak peaceably unto Him. Baha'u'llah was arrested and interred in, interestingly enough, a dungeon that had once been a cistern.

"By the righteousness of God! We were in no wise connected with that evil deed, and Our innocence was indisputably established by the tribunals. Nevertheless, they apprehended Us, and from Niyavaran, which was then the residence of His Majesty, conducted Us, on foot and in chains, with bared head and bare feet, to the dungeon of Tihran. A brutal man, accompanying Us on horseback, snatched off Our hat, whilst We were being hurried along by a troop of executioners and officials. We were consigned for four months to a place foul beyond comparison. As to the dungeon in which this Wronged One and others similarly wronged were confined, a dark and narrow pit were preferable. Upon Our arrival We were first conducted along a pitch-black corridor, from whence We descended three steep flights of stairs to the place of confinement assigned to Us. The dungeon was wrapped in thick darkness, and Our fellow prisoners numbered nearly a hundred and fifty souls: thieves, assassins and highwaymen. Though crowded, it had no other outlet than the passage by which We entered. No pen can depict that place, nor any tongue describe its loathsome smell. Most of these men had neither clothes nor bedding to lie on. God alone knoweth what befell Us in that most foul-smelling and gloomy place!" (Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 19)

After some months in this grim place, in which His life was constantly imperiled, Baha'u'llah was brought out. The ministers of the court and the Shah relegated Him to exile. In a month, He was forced into a winter journey to Baghdad.

Potiphar, a captain of the Pharaoh's guard bought Joseph from the Ishmeelites to serve in his household.

"And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him: and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand. And it came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that the LORD blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of the LORD was upon all that he had in the house, and in the field. And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand; and he knew not ought he had, save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was a goodly person, and well favoured.

"And it came to pass after these things, that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, 'Lie with me.' But he refused, and said unto his master's wife, 'Behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand; There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?' And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her.

"And it came to pass about this time, that Joseph went into the house to do his business; and there was none of the men of the house there within. And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out.

"And it came to pass, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, and was fled forth, That she called unto the men of her house, and spake unto them, saying, 'See, he hath brought in an Hebrew unto us to mock us; he came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice. And it came to pass, when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled, and got him out.' And she laid up his garment by her, until his lord came home.

"And she spake unto him according to these words, saying, 'The Hebrew servant, which thou hast brought unto us, came in unto me to mock me.And it came to pass, as I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled out.'

"And it came to pass, when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spake unto him, saying, 'After this manner did thy servant to me,' that his wrath was kindled.

"And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison." (Genesis 39:4-20)

Likewise was Baha'u'llah afflicted by the betrayals of His half brother and by the plottings of government officials with their own hidden agendas until He was exiled again from place to place. The climax of this period was His internment in what He named, "The Most Great Prison" in the ancient and fabled city of Akka, Palestine.

"And further We have said: 'More grievous became Our plight from day to day, nay, from hour to hour, until they took Us forth from Our prison and made Us, with glaring injustice, enter the Most Great Prison. And if anyone ask them: 'For what crime were they imprisoned?' they would answer and say: 'They, verily, sought to supplant the Faith with a new religion!' If that which is ancient be what ye prefer, wherefore, then, have ye discarded that which hath been set down in the Torah and the Evangel? Clear it up, O men! By My life! There is no place for you to flee to in this day. If this be My crime, then Muhammad, the Apostle of God, committed it before Me, and before Him He Who was the Spirit of God (Jesus Christ), and yet earlier He Who conversed with God (Moses). And if My sin be this, that I have exalted the Word of God and revealed His Cause, then indeed am I the greatest of sinners! Such a sin I will not barter for the kingdoms of earth and heaven.'" (Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 52)

"But the LORD was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it. The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because the LORD was with him, and that which he did, the LORD made it to prosper." (Genesis 39:21-23)

While the syntax of the translators of James, the English King, may be difficult to the modern reader, others have made this clear that Joseph earned such trust with the jailer that the jailer put Joseph in charge of the prisoners, although Joseph was a prisoner, himself.

One of the roles Joseph took on was as an interpreter of dreams. Two others of the officers of the Pharaoh's court were in prison. In time a special need arose. "And he asked Pharaoh's officers that were with him in the ward of his lord's house, saying, 'Wherefore look ye so sadly to day?' And they said unto him, 'We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it.' And Joseph said unto them, 'Do not interpretations belong to God? tell me them, I pray you.'" (Genesis 40:7-8)

Such was the success of Joseph as interpreter of dreams that, eventually, it came to the attention of the Pharaoh at a crucial time. "And it came to pass in the morning that [the Pharaoh's] spirit was troubled; and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men thereof: and Pharaoh told them his dream; but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh." (Genesis 41:8)

Their efforts were unsatisfactory, but the Pharaoh's butler, who had been one of the officers in prison with Joseph, remembered Joseph's abilities. "Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon: and he shaved himself, and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh. 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.'" (Genesis 41:14-16)

Joseph informed the Pharaoh that his dream foretold of a period of bounty and a period of famine, and that there was a great opportunity to use the one to prepare for the other. These were portentous events, and the Pharaoh responded to the gravity of the situation. Furthermore, "And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants. "And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, 'Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art: Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou.' And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, 'See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.' And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck; And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, 'I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.' And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnathpaaneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt." (Genesis 41:37-45)

Over time, Baha'u'llah's character became more broadly discerned, His writings became more widely dispersed. His uprightness became increasingly perceived. His spirit more widely felt albeit in ways undiscerned. There decidedly were setbacks, but over time, Baha'u'llah and His family were subjected to less and less restriction. After some few years He was permitted to move to a large home, sufficient for Him and His retinue, outside the prison city of Akka. In these times, much of what He had to say and write were, like Joseph, in the vein of observing the state of the world, and preparing for things to come.

"The All-Knowing Physician hath His finger on the pulse of mankind. He perceiveth the disease, and prescribeth, in His unerring wisdom, the remedy. Every age hath its own problem, and every soul its particular aspiration. The remedy the world needeth in its present-day afflictions can never be the same as that which a subsequent age may require. Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and center your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements.

"We can well perceive how the whole human race is encompassed with great, with incalculable afflictions. We see it languishing on its bed of sickness, sore-tried and disillusioned. They that are intoxicated by self-conceit have interposed themselves between it and the Divine and infallible Physician. Witness how they have entangled all men, themselves included, in the mesh of their devices. They can neither discover the cause of the disease, nor have they any knowledge of the remedy. They have conceived the straight to be crooked, and have imagined their friend an enemy." (Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 213)

Like Joseph advising the Pharoah in preparations for the famine to come, Baha'u'llah also advised the Kings of the major powers of His time what to do for the calamities of our own day. Indeed, His writings were not confined to the leaders but were composed for and sent out for all.

"He Who is your Lord, the All-Merciful, cherisheth in His heart the desire of beholding the entire human race as one soul and one body. Haste ye to win your share of God's good grace and mercy in this Day that eclipseth all other created Days. How great the felicity that awaiteth the man that forsaketh all he hath in a desire to obtain the things of God! Such a man, We testify, is among God's blessed ones." (Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 214)

"All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization. The Almighty beareth Me witness: To act like the beasts of the field is unworthy of man. Those virtues that befit his dignity are forbearance, mercy, compassion and loving-kindness towards all the peoples and kindreds of the earth. Say: O friends! Drink your fill from this crystal stream that floweth through the heavenly grace of Him Who is the Lord of Names. Let others partake of its waters in My name, that the leaders of men in every land may fully recognize the purpose for which the Eternal Truth hath been revealed, and the reason for which they themselves have been created." (Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 215)

Just as the famine of Joseph's time was a long time in coming and a long time endured, so the plight of our day has been a generations time in the making and requires generations to resolve. Baha'u'llah's extensive writings expound at great length and variation upon these thoughts: "The Great Being saith: O ye children of men! The fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His Religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race, and to foster the spirit of love and fellowship amongst men. Suffer it not to become a source of dissension and discord, of hate and enmity. This is the straight Path, the fixed and immovable foundation. Whatsoever is raised on this foundation, the changes and chances of the world can never impair its strength, nor will the revolution of countless centuries undermine its structure. Our hope is that the world's religious leaders and the rulers thereof will unitedly arise for the reformation of this age and the rehabilitation of its fortunes. Let them, after meditating on its needs, take counsel together and, through anxious and full deliberation, administer to a diseased and sorely-afflicted world the remedy it requireth."(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, pp. 215-16)

In time, Jacob and his sons fell to suffering under the famine foreseen in the dream of the Pharaoh. When conditions had become critical, Jacob arranged for his sons to journey to Egypt to seek relief. This story goes on at length in Genesis, and the studious reader will find many corollaries between those events and the events of modern mankind in its disregard of and even oblivion to Baha'u'llah. What must impress the reader is the capacity of Joseph to look past the cruelty of His brothers and to deal with them in compassion. The culmination of Joseph's story begins in Genesis 45.

"Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren, 'I am Joseph; doth my father yet live?' And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence.

"And Joseph said unto his brethren, 'Come near to me, I pray you.' And they came near. And he said, 'I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 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.'

"'Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt: come down unto me, tarry not: And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast: And there will I nourish thee; for yet there are five years of famine; lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty. And, behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you.'

"'And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen; and ye shall haste and bring down my father hither.' And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck, and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck. Moreover he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them: and after that his brethren talked with him.

"And the fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brethren are come: and it pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, 'Say unto thy brethren, This do ye; lade your beasts, and go, get you unto the land of Canaan; And take your father and your households, and come unto me: and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land.

"'Now thou art commanded, this do ye; take you wagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father, and come. Also regard not your stuff; for the good of all the land of Egypt is your's.' And the children of Israel did so: and Joseph gave them wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way.

"To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, and five changes of raiment. And to his father he sent after this manner; ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten she asses laden with corn and bread and meat for his father by the way.

"So he sent his brethren away, and they departed: and he said unto them, See that ye fall not out by the way. And they went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father, And told him, saying, 'Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt.' And Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not.

"And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them: and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived: And Israel said, 'It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die.' And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac.

"And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, 'Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I.' And he said, 'I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation: I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.'

"And Jacob rose up from Beersheba: and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed with him: His sons, and his sons' sons with him, his daughters, and his sons' daughters, and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt." (Genesis 45:1-46:6)

Joseph's ascendancy could not be thwarted. In spite of twice being thrust out of sight into the earth, itself, Joseph emerged by the sovereignty of God to be a mercy to His people, indeed to lift them up, restore them and provide the means to prosperity. So it is with Baha'u'llah. Oppressed, imprisoned and exiled, He triumphed by His revelation, providing to the world all that Joseph provided to His people; mercy, restoration, the guidance to peace and prosperity.

Baha'u'llah's own words address the heart and soul of every individual who turns to His revelation; "O thou who art mentioned in this outspread roll and who, amidst the gloomy darkness that now prevaileth, hast been illumined by the splendours of the sacred Mount in the Sinai of divine Revelation! Cleanse thy heart from every blasphemous whispering and evil allusion thou hast heard in the past, that thou mayest inhale the sweet savours of eternity from the Joseph of faithfulness, gain admittance into the celestial Egypt, and perceive the fragrances of enlightenment from this resplendent and luminous Tablet, a Tablet wherein the Pen hath inscribed the ancient mysteries of the names of His Lord, the Exalted, the Most High. Perchance thou mayest be recorded in the holy Tablets among them that are well-assured." (Baha'u'llah, Gems of Divine Mysteries, pp. 23-24)

We would be open hearted and truly advised to consider Baha'u'llah's invitation to His guidance for us as all mankind are His people, now. "O My Brother! Until thou enter the Egypt of love, thou shalt never come to the Joseph of the Beauty of the Friend; and until, like Jacob, thou forsake thine outward eyes, thou shalt never open the eye of thine inward being; and until thou burn with the fire of love, thou shalt never commune with the Lover of Longing." (Baha'u'llah, The Seven Valleys, p. 9)