Salvation is about who, not what we know

The gatekeeper asked again, "Who are you?"

I answered and he went back to his phone. I could tell the conversation wasn't going well.

It was time to drop a name. Up until then I had resisted, but it was obvious there had been a regime change and nobody knew me anymore.

Finally from the prison of my mouth came the name that could help. After another three minutes the gate finally went up.

My friend later remarked about my "gate problem." Seems that we have a " Pharaoh who knew not Joseph," Exodus 1:8.

You have heard it or said it yourself, "It is not what you know, but who you know."

This is usually in response to not being able to have some kind of access. Sometimes we say, "It is all politics."

I would like to have you mentally navigate with me this often negative verbiage, and maybe come up with a positive response.

Joseph was not politically connected any more than ice from the South Pole is connected to ice from the North Pole.

He had less money than the poor church mouse. He shared the wealth of prison mice in an Egyptian cable-free institute of incarceration, but Joseph knew God, and God knew that it is not what you know, but who you know.

Four times in the tumultuous chapter of Genesis 39 the Scripture says, "The Lord was with Joseph" (verses 2, 3, 21 and 23).

Joseph found favor, not because of his political connections, not because of his finances,but because God blessed his connections to the prison guard, the baker and cupbearer.

Remember the story of the pharaoh who had a Nile River nightmare? That Pharaoh looked for " such a one as this, a man in whom is the spirit of God. " Genesis 41:38.

Even leaders need to be well connected to bakers who know someone who can offer a cure for insomnia.

Not only did the prison dream interpreter do his job, he also provided the land management needed to navigate the famine.

Then in Exodus 1:8, you have another pharaoh who is clueless as to who Joseph was and how he saved Egypt from a famine.

Possibly 430 years have gone by, and Joseph is forgotten. Makes you wonder who is teaching history in the Royal Academy.

I only hope that there were some bricklaying Egyptian and Hebrew families who were still passing on Joseph's rags-to-riches story.

It is a shame when we forget our history, of those who have helped us as a nation, state, community and household. The point is we need some "who-you-knows."

There are times we need help moving the refrigerator, or a truck, chain saw, electrical insight or a plumber at the midnight hour. We also need to remember to pray for " those in authority over us," I Timothy 2:1-2.

We need to remember to pray for the ones we like and the ones that we don't.

It truly is "not what we know, but who we know," and we know the Lord and he, being omniscient, knows everybody.

Jim D. Duncan is pastor of Peninsula Christian Center and Matrix Church, on the Kenai Spur Highway. Sunday services are at 8:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 6 p.m.