The lessons for this quarter focus on God’s calling individuals to specific ministries according to His plans. Those called included John the Baptist, the Magi, Jesus’ parents, and (most of all) Jesus himself. The final unit focuses on women in the New Testament who were called to vocations of service to God’s people. The New Testament sees a broad calling of all people to salvation and a narrower calling of certain individuals to specific ministries in the church.

Calls Then

The lessons of this quarter begin by examining the ancestry of Jesus, which leads us to consider God’s calls in the Old Testament era. Eighteen hundred years before Jesus’ birth, Abraham was called by the Lord and told that all the peoples of the earth would be blessed through him (Genesis 12:3); this prophecy was fulfilled in his descendant Jesus. Nine hundred years before Jesus, David was called to be king and promised that his throne would be eternal (2 Samuel 7:16)—an heir of David would always reign as God’s king. This prophecy also was fulfilled in Jesus (Hebrews 1:3, 8). The calling of Jesus to save us from sin has the background of these ancestors and the effect of fulfilling their calls.

A very different calling of God came to the Magi of Matthew 2 (lesson 3) as God called them through a sign regarding a coming king. Their calling eventually led them to Bethlehem, where they lavished gifts on the young child and worshipped Him. The story illustrates God’s call on non-Jews to recognize Jesus as king—a call the Magi obediently answered.

Another surprising call came to a Samaritan woman who encountered Jesus at Jacob’s well (John 4; lesson 10). Her call came when she realized that Jesus was no ordinary man; she knew she needed to testify to her fellow Samaritans of the marvelous conversation she had just had.

Jesus’ own call and sense of purpose comes out clearly in our lesson regarding His visit to the synagogue in His hometown, Nazareth. He expressed His call by reading a passage from Isaiah 61. Jesus embodied three things from this text: that God’s Spirit was upon Him, that He had therefore been anointed by God, and that He had been appointed to preach good news (Luke 4:18). Jesus acknowledged this prophesied role as His calling by announcing that that Scripture was fulfilled in their hearing that very day (4:21). In all these lessons and others of this quarter, we find examples of people who accepted the challenges and privileges of their calls.

Calls Now

As we ponder how God calls people to ministries today, we can note means and methods in both Old and New Testaments. Some calls were startlingly direct (examples: Exodus 3:10; Acts 9:1–6). Other calls were via specifically directed actions of intermediaries (examples: 1 Samuel 9:15–17; 16:1–13; Acts 10:34–43). That leads to the question of how to recognize calls of God today, realizing that these examples involve very few individuals in the history of God’s people.

As a result, various “tests of calling” have been proposed. One source proposes that divine calls have three characteristics, nine attributes, and five aspects to recognize.

That’s all rather complicated! But one overarching feature of the calls in this quarter’s lessons should be kept in mind for application today: the calls were for people to join God’s plan; the calls were not for God to join theirs. And so it still must be.

Mark S. Krause, “Quarter at a Glance,” in The NIV Standard Lesson Commentary, 2020–2021, ed. Ronald L. Nickelson, Jane Ann Kenney, and Margaret K. Williams, vol. 27 (Colorado Springs, CO: Standard Publishing, 2020–2021), 115.