KINGDOM APPRENTICES

It seems to me that God has always been looking for people who are willing to become apprentices in His Kingdom! In the scriptures we can read about Joshua, who is a good example of what God is looking for in an apprentice. He was apprenticed to Moses, who was a chosen vessel to lead God's people out of bondage in Egypt. Under the watchful eye of Moses Joshua learned valuable lessons that would benefit him as he led the Israelites across the Jordan, into their promised land. Some employer has rightly said, a good apprentice is "someone who wants to learn"! We should keep this in mind as we consider all that is involved in becoming a productive citizen in the Kingdom of God! Joshua lived in the shadow of Moses for some 40 years, an extremely long time to be an apprentice! Of course there was much to learn in order to be prepared for the task of leading this nation of rebels! By watching Moses, he learned many things that couldn't be learned from a book. He gained experience as a "spy" (Num 13:16), as a "warrior" (Ex 17:10), as a "faithful servant" (Ex 24:12-13), he learned how to be "humble" in the face of unjust criticism (Num 12:3), and he even learned from the display of Moses' temper (Num 20:7-12). So when it came his turn to become leader after the death of Moses, Joshua was fully equipped to take on this responsibility. (Josh 1:1-7)

One important aspect of becoming a good apprentice in any trade is to be apprenticed to a good employer, who will make sure you are exposed to all sorts of situations from which to gain experience. Some employers only use their apprentices as cheap labour, for example using them as a delivery boy, instead of putting them with an experienced tradesman so they can learn their trade. When we sign up as an apprentice in the Kingdom of God, we can be sure we have a good employer who will expose us to everything we need to become useful and mature citizens in His Kingdom! This accounts for Him allowing us to undergo certain trials or tests that may not seem fair to us at the time, but rest assured He knows what He is doing! These are lessons that we must learn, and He knows we could not learn them any other way! There's an old saying that "experience is the best teacher", and the lessons we learn the hard way are the ones we remember. So the next time you feel like you are going through a hard time, just remember that your heavenly Father knows best, and will not allow it to last longer than necessary (1 Cor 10:13).

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer