The Undivided Man

Do you suppose God would ever call a man to be a lawyer or, perhaps, a governor? (And, no, I am not about to tell a lawyer joke.) There is a funny thing about Christian thinking when it comes to a divine calling. We tend to think of God's calling having solely to do with church work or ministry. But is that the right view of the matter?

There are two men in the Bible who cause me to think otherwise. They weren't called to be lawyers, but they were nonetheless called to a surprising vocation. Let me tell you their stories:

Once upon a time, there was a man named Jacob who had 12 sons—all born to him while out of country. The last was born of the wife that Jacob loved. He was named Joseph, which means added because he was added well beyond the expected family. And because he was the son of Jacob’s old age and of his most loved wife, he was a favorite son, and Jacob made him the famous coat of many colors.

When the lad was a mere 17 years old, he was bringing performance reports to his father that did nothing to endear him to his brothers. When his brothers saw the favoritism—and, beyond that, when they came to see him as a snitch—they hated him and couldn't bring themselves to speak to him with any civility. And then, something happened that could only make things worse. Joseph had a dream, and he had to poor judgment to tell it to his brothers. I say poor judgment, but it will turn out to be very important that he did tell the dream. We'll find this dream and what came from it in Genesis, chapter 37.