Do you hire someone who is already qualified for the job or do you hire someone that you can train to do the job which needs to be done? That is a quandary that often confronts companies and organizations. On the one hand it is good to hire someone who already has the knowledge and the skills to accomplish the task at hand. In this way all it takes is getting someone up to speed on the particular environment in which they will be working. This saves time and hopefully, money. On the other hand it may be good to hire someone who may not have the appropriate skill set, yet has the ability to develop the skills necessary for the task. In this way a company can insure that the new employee is doing things "the company way" and will not bring with them bad habits learned at a previous job. In addition this method allows for individuals to move from one part of a company to another and advance their careers and knowledge base along the way.
God, it would appear, has selected option two, when it comes to choosing those who are to be about serving God. We can see this throughout the scriptures. Let's begin with the great task with which God entrusts humanity; the restoration of creation. As we have seen over the past year or so in these articles, God's great desire is to have this wonderful creation become a place where human beings love God with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength while also loving their neighbors as themselves. Rather than God simply snapping God's fingers (so to speak) and instantly transforming the world, God has chosen to work through people in order to accomplish this task. We might suppose that God could have written a job description, asked for applicants and waited for qualified people to apply. God does not follow this course of action. Instead God chooses people whom God believes have the attributes necessary for the task and then gives them on the job training.
We can see this in all of the great figures of the Old Testament. Abram is just this rather well- to-do guy living in the Fertile Crescent. He has a wife, servants, livestock and all of the trappings of success (except offspring). God calls to Abram and invites him on a journey with only a promise that God will give him some land, some children and will use him to bless all the families of the earth. There is no job description about what exactly Abram is to do, other than allow God to direct him across the great expanse of land to a not yet specified destination. Next we have Moses. Moses is a Hebrew shepherd raised by Egyptians who is also a murderer and a fugitive from justice.. Nonetheless God calls him to a singular task…go back to Egypt and set God's people free. Needless to say there is nothing in Moses resume that would qualify him for such a task. In fact Moses spends a couple of chapters telling God why he is not qualified for the job…the major one being that he, Moses, is a very poor speaker. None of this matters to God and so God equips Moses with a spokesperson (Aaron), a magical staff and a mission. Moses will learn along the way.
This lack of preparation continues with individuals such as the judges (Sampson, etc.), the Kings and the prophets. None of these individuals went to school and obtained degrees in being Godly people. They were however all trained by God along the way. God insured that they had the necessary life experiences and spiritual interventions to accomplish the tasks that God set before them. This concept that God equips those whom God chooses sets the stage for understanding the Spiritual gifts of the New Testament. As we will discover next week the gifts of the Spirit are God's way of training and equipping those of us in the present to play our part in the recreation of God's world.
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