Genesis 37: A Genealogy Record That Put Down Just One Name

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You'll find more and see more than I can ever articulate. Welcome to chapter by chapter and today's chapter is Genesis 37, a genealogy record that put down just one name. Genesis 37 opens up the same way as Genesis 36, but that is about as similar as they are, just the words on a page. What comes next is so different and the future is so different. The genealogy of Esau is birth from rebellion and the flesh. The genealogy of Jacob starts from a miracle child that God intervened in a barren womb. Genesis 36 verse 1 opens up like this. Now these are the records of the generations of Esau. Genesis 37 too opens up like this. These are the records of the generations of Jacob and then what comes next begins to bring distance between these two records. It's just one name. It simply starts with Joseph. Esau's genealogy lists dozens and dozens of names looking for a bright spot in this dark family line. Jacob's record of his generation starts with one name and goes no further because his story is God breathed. Joseph's story has captivated so many people. It is a genealogy record that put down just one name and that name is Joseph. Joseph is 17 years old and has a dream that he would change the world. The problem is that he is 5,000 miles away from the place it would happen and Joseph is 13 years away from a taking place. He would rescue the Jewish race and save the world from a global famine. Joseph, though, has to get to Egypt, the epicenter of the world and a world power from which it will happen. There will be a host of events, some seemingly tragic and harmful but all part of the divine plan for Joseph's destiny. In the seemingly random events, the one that I love is a story tucked away in this chapter. Joseph meets a mystery man. I always remember someone saying these words, "You may be one relationship away from changing the course of your destiny." The Bible says in Genesis 37-12 these words, "Then his brothers went to pasture their father's flock and check them. Israel said to Joseph, 'Are not your brothers pastoring the flock and check them? Come and I will send you to them.' And he said to him, 'I will go.' Then he said to him, 'Go now and see about the welfare of your brothers and the welfare of the flock and bring word back to me.' So he sent them to the valley of Hebrew and he came to check them. A man found him and behold, he was wandering. This is Joseph in the field and the man asked him, 'What are you looking for?' They said, 'I'm looking for my brothers. Please tell me where they are pastoring the flock.' Then the man said, 'They have moved from here and I heard them say, 'Let us go to Dothan.' Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan. That random conversation changed Joseph's life. Joseph thought he was just asking for directions for an errand, but he was about to get directions towards his destiny. People don't ask for directions anymore because we have GPSs on phones, so we don't interact with people. I wonder if the loss of that interaction has lost us some critical detours in the plan of God. I've learned here in New York City to treat people with respect and honor. They may have some GPS coordinates for you. They may be one of the six degrees of separation of who you are supposed to meet. Remember that experiment that all of us are six relationships away from an actor called Kevin Bacon? Joseph's Kevin Bacon was Farrow. The man in the field would get Joseph to his brothers, would get him to the Midianite Traders, to Potterfors house, to Farrow's employees, and eventually to Farrow's Court. Joseph's encounter reminds us to take all encounters with people seriously and not random. There are no random events or encounters in the Kingdom of God and the people of God. I was reading an article that said, "In a 75-year lifespan, we interact with three unique people a day." That translates to 88,000 encounters with people in our entire life. Keep in mind, they may get you to Dothan. Joseph's dad said, "Check on the welfare of your brothers and bring back a report to me." The brothers were already angry with Joseph from the dreams and the multicolored coat that dad gave to him. Joseph goes to check him where they were supposed to be but no sign of them. Joseph was wandering in a field looking for them and the Bible says a man found them. No name of a man he just notices a 17-year-old looking for something or someone. The man engaged first and said, "What are you looking for?" When he was told, "My brothers," he said to Joseph, "They've moved to Dothan." That's 15 miles away from where Joseph is. That redirection would be the beginning of Joseph's destiny. A random conversation in a field with an unnamed man about brothers who were not where they were supposed to be. The random man did not know Joseph would be thrown into a pit, sold into slavery, and brought to the palace that he needed to be in. Joseph was to be in Egypt to fulfill his destiny, but he would need to stop in Dothan in order to get there. I'm reading a book called Hinge Moments. The author tells this Dothan story. Listen to it. In a quiet hospital room in North Carolina, an eager young doctor with a bright future, evaluates his elderly patient with not much future left at all. She has terminal heart condition, inoperable, and all he can do is treat her symptoms and pain as a two of them wait for her time to run out. As the physician visits the dying woman during his daily rounds, they gradually get to know one another. During one particularly poignant conversation, he learns that the woman is a deeply religious Christian. He is a confident atheist. He assumes that as her condition deteriorates, her faith will do the same as she realizes her God is not coming to the rescue. Yet with every passing day, his patient's faith seems to grow stronger, even as her body weakens. Having been exposed years earlier to the writings of Heisenberg and Jorok and Einstein, the doctor finds his patients' religious beliefs antiquated, but charming. But then he is taken aback by her forthright inquiry. Doctor, I've been telling you what I believe, but what do you believe? He is one of the best trained scientists of his generation. By his own reckoning, there is no one who better understands the systems and laws that keep nature running, but he is deeply unsettled by the way the dying woman sleeps peacefully in our hospital bed while he lies awake each night haunted by her question. How can she be so confident of a view of the world and her place in it? Shouldn't she a death's doorstep be the sleepless one? He becomes convinced that his inability to answer a question or find consolation in his view of the mechanical universe is intellectually acceptable. In search of a fresh perspective, he visits a local minister who hands him a book by Oxford Don Seas Lewis, which he reads cover to cover. Over the next years, the young physician reads voraciously about Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, examining the data about their roots and their claims, seeking to find one that would help him satisfactorily answer the dying woman's question. Ultimately, while hiking in Oregon's Cascade Mountains, he comes to the conclusion that the claims of Christianity best explain what he sees around him. He begins to embrace the faith of his former patient who had begun a kind of cascade within him with her one honest question. His radical internal shift doesn't change much on the outside. He still loves his work as a scientist and doesn't intend to redirect his efforts into religious service. His sense of meaning and purpose, however, has refocused entirely. Indeed, this faith decision will become the fulcrum for a career that would eventually reach the apex of scientific renown in public service. This is the story of Dr. Francis Collins, one of our generations leading scientific authorities. Not only did he go from that North Carolina residency program to lead the five research teams that matched out the human genome, the most significant scientific discovery of our lifetime, but he also held one of the longest director ships in history of the National Institute of Health, appointed to the role first by President Obama and then reappointed by President Trump. His faith decision became a significant turning point, one that not only shaped his life, but by virtue of his leadership roles in the decades since that lives of many others. Each of us has given a finite number of these hinge moments in our life. In total, they may represent only a few hundred minutes out of our total lives of 70 or 80 years, but they have an outsized impact on the other 37 million minutes of our time on earth. Sounds like Dr. Francis Collins was in doath in that day. Thank you for joining chapter by chapter. Every chapter from the greatest book, the Bible, the Word of God, seven minutes It's a day, seven days a week. We'll see you tomorrow.