Thought for Today
Genesis 11:31 Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram's wife, and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan; but when they came to Haran, they settled there.
Judges 4:4 At that time Deborah, a prophetess, wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel.
Mark 6:3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him.
Acts 7:58 Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
Our grandson is home from college for the week. He came over for dinner Tuesday evening and we had a delightful meal and a most interesting conversation (Yes! I am bragging, but notice how wonderfully subtle I am being). We talked about a wide range of topics; and, it is obvious that he is carefully and deliberately exploring how he feels about the important issues of today and of life itself. He is preparing himself to enter into the adult world.
Since then, I have been reflecting once again on a favored adage we often quoted to each other in seminary, “God does not call the equipped; God equips the called.” I’m not sure exactly what God is equipping our grandson to do; I am sure that God’s hand is in the concepts and ideas to which he is being exposed to in college.
As I pondered on all of this, I thought about the prominent figures we encounter in the Bible. There is no particular significance in my choice of the individuals in the scriptures above beyond the fact that they are all significant figures in the Bible and in our faith . . . although my including Jesus in the list does weaken that disclaimer. I tried to choose renowned figures in both testaments. I carefully included both men and women, because God does choose to call both.
Think for a minute about the qualifications for each of those figures. What qualified Abram to become Abraham, the father of a nation and the anchor for Judaism and Christianity? We know nothing about his education or professional training. Evidently, Abram was a successful nomadic pastoralist who amassed large flocks. We know that Abram knew God and obeyed God’s command to ‘go west.’ We know that the main characteristic repeatedly mentioned in the Bible about Abraham was his faithfulness. In the end, we can see that every event, every story about him reveals God’s careful process of equipping Abram to become Abraham.
We know even less about Deborah, the judge. She was the wife of Lappidoth. She was judging Israel. We do know that she became the one who ordered Barak, the commanding general of Israel’s army to attack and defeat Sisera, the commander of the army of King Jabin of Canaan at the Wadi Kishon. And, we know that Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite ultimately killed Sisera with a tent peg. Where did Deborah get her strategic and tactical battle training? Did Barak attend some military academy? How did Jael summon the courage to deceive and ultimately slay Sisera? Throughout all of their lives, God was carefully equipping each of them for the task God ultimately gave each.
We do know more about the education and training of Saul of Tarsus. He describes himself as “Acts 23:6 I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees.” He also said, "Acts 22:3 ‘I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, educated strictly according to our ancestral law, being zealous for God’“ Yet, everything that preceded the Road-to-Damascus was evidence of God’s equipping Saul of Tarsus to become Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles.
Did God equip Jesus? We don’t normally think of it in that way. But we do know the birth narratives in Luke and Matthew. We know that Jesus was born into the family of Joseph and Mary deliberately. Carpentry may not be the most conventional concept of being equipped for Messiahship, but God the Father did send Jesus, the Son. Christendom is evidence of Jesus’ being equipped for God’s calling .
Look at your own life. What is God calling for you to do? How has God already equipped you? How is God equipping you now?
Stay safe, listen to God, trust God,
Pastor Ray