How God Uses The Unlikeliest of Men
The lesser things
“But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,”
1 Corinthians 1:27-28 ESV
God loves to use things, people, circumstances and situations that make no sense whatsoever to express the sheer superiority of His wisdom. When the bible says that the Kingdom of God is an upside down kingdom, it rings true in every facet and manner you can possibly consider, and in every facet and manner that you can’t.
In order to learn to engage with the realities of God and how He works, we must learn to expect the unexpected, expect to be confounded and look - like God does - for unlikely things in unlikely places.
One of the most unlikely places you will look for God to do unlikely things, is in you. Like Moses, for example, when God chooses you the first thing that will run through your head is, ‘Why you?’ and ‘How will you possibly be of any use to Him?’
You will have highlights playing in your head of all the ways you are insufficient and incapable. Yet, just like is in the nature of God, despite your certainty that He - the creator of all things - must be mistaken in His choice, He will reassure you, that He is by your side and nothing is impossible with Him.
God’s nature, is to pick the lesser thing and still do a greater work. The clearest example that expresses this, is the choice of humanity, when there are angels at His beck and call.
the unlikely men
Israel was a fruitful and successful nation, but not one with the usual structures that existed around them. Led not by men, but by God, with Judges who served as intermediaries. While under the oppression of the Philistines, of their own volition, they turned to Samuel and demanded a king of their own like the other nations. God gave them Saul the king they would choose, a man of stature and rank who looked like a king.
Saul would go on to rule over the nation of Israel, seeking not the things of God, but the approval of men. Ruling with pride and seeking to serve self more than others. Eventually, God rejected Saul and turned His attention to an ‘unlikely man’, David.
When Samuel gets to the house of Jesse and stand before his eldest son, Eliab, he sees a man with the stature and posture of Saul. certain he was the next king, Samuel lifts the horn of oil over his head, but nothing pours out. God warns him, “men look at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
In his place, God chose David, the forgotten son. The one Jesse did not deem consequential, if a king was going to come from his sons, it would definitely not be him. When all the men in the Israelite army refused to battle Goliath and David was the only one willing, still they wouldn’t choose him. When men rejected David God chose to lift and elevate him.
When God appeared to Jeremiah, reaffirming him that “long before he was born, [He] ordained him a prophet” (Jeremiah 1:5), Jeremiah’s response showed his standing in community. He said he was too young to be used, not one that men of much greater years and experience would listen to. Jeremiah considered himself an unlikely man, but God didn’t.
When Jesus is revealed as the Messiah, after being baptised by John the Baptist and recognised by the Holy Spirit, He begins to pick His disciples. A group of unlikely men. If we look at the circumstances of the day, one of the most unlikely of men was Matthew. Not respected in anyway by the rulers of the day and rejected by the entire of his community, possibly including his family, for taking on the work of a tax collector .
Matthew won’t just have been rejected by the Jews but largely hated, tax collectors were considered, the lowest of the low and yet, Jesus looked at this tax collector - with no friends or community, considered to be one who betrayed his own for selfish gain - and said to him, “Follow Me!”.
The less likely you seem, the more likely you are
You may look at the circumstances of your life, like Gideon, and decide that there is simply no ways] that God will choose to use you. Yet somehow, unlikely as you are, you’re reading this is no accident. Despite the circumstances of your life, your background, your upbringing, your qualifications, or your skillset, God has His eyes set on you for the most specific of works to evidence His ability to confound the wise with the foolish things of the world.