No Experience Required, Week 4 Day 1, Exodus 1, 3, 4, 22

No Experience Required, Week 4 Day 1, Exodus 1, 3, 4, 22

God has some pretty strange recruiting habits.  I wonder what the ad for the job would have looked like for Moses’ job.

Wanted: Leader and Deliverer for a Nation, No experience necessary.  Must be born to the people he will deliver, but have lived with their masters as a prince since the age of 3 month.  No leadership experience is required.  Need not be an accomplished speaker.   Felony conviction for murder is a plus.  If interested, please apply at the burning but not consumed bush.

God clearly does not recruit like people do.  I often heard people use the phrase, “God doesn’t call the qualified.  God qualifies the called.”  I have to admit that kind of bugs me because I don’t think that it’s entirely accurate.  There are qualifications for serving God.   But I think those qualifications are radically different from the qualifications from what the world looks for.  Maybe the ad for Moses’ job would look more like this.

Wanted: Leader and Deliverer for a Nation.  Must be willing to follow directions.  Must be willing to face mistakes of the past.  Will train a willing candidate.

The qualifications for being used by God are completely different from what the world requirements.

And Moses still isn’t a perfect candidate.  He gets through the initial job interview at the burning bush.  He does pretty well with his orientation in performing signs and wonders but then he fails the oral test.  Thinks he has a speech problem.   And even with that, God doesn’t reject Moses.  God gives him an assistant.

Candidate must be willing to listen to God, willing to face your past, willing to follow God’s direction.

That doesn’t mean that God won’t use the gifts and talents that He’s given us.  It’s just that those gifts and talents aren’t what qualify us.

What qualifies is that God calls us and we answer that call.

God, thanks for calling me.  I’m no Moses but I figure that You’ve got things for me to do, places for me to go, people for me to meet, even things for me to say.  I figure You’ll use the gifts and talents that You’ve given me.  The rest, well, I’m willing to study, I’m willing to learn, and I’m willing to even accept a few surprises along the way.  Amen

Leonard