Yes, God Can Use Even You and Me

We are without excuse when God calls us to do his work:

One of the most comforting truths about being a follower of Christ is that God does not consider nor rely upon our great abilities or talents or intelligence or good looks or charm or humour or whatever. Yes, some of these qualities can be of use (certainly a bit of intelligence is a good thing for example), but when God called us, it was not because he thought we were the greatest folks around.

We see this truth clearly spelled out in the case of God’s calling of Israel. I just read Deuteronomy again recently, and there we see at least three main passages where God tells the people that he did NOT call them because they were greater or more numerous than others. Check out Deuteronomy 7:6-8; 8:17-20; and 9:4-7.

Several old quotes come to mind in this regard. One is this: “God has a tendency of picking a nobody, to become a somebody, in front of everybody, without asking anybody.” Another classic is this: “When God put a calling on your life, He already factored in your stupidity. Most comforting thing I’ve ever heard.”

I don’t know about you, but knowing that God’s calling is not based on how terrific and qualified I am is a real relief. It is all of grace, and he gets all the glory as a result. Indeed, another old Christian quote springs to mind here: “God does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called.”

All these biblical truths are something I need to constantly keep in mind. So often I feel totally unfit for the work of the Lord. So often I feel that if I were God, I would be the last one to be called. At the very least, God must have had a sense of humour in calling me.

Gideon (and Moses)

I say all this because others feel the same way – even notable biblical characters. We all know about Gideon, and the mighty exploits he did for the Lord. We read about this mighty man of God in Judges 6-8. But recall what he told the angel of the Lord when he appeared to him in Judges 6:15: “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”

Thankfully in the very next verse we read what the Lord said to him in reply, “But I will be with you…” Yes Gideon was still hesitant and wanted some signs from God first. But the fact that God is with those that he calls is all that any of us will ever need. ‘Of course you are not qualified for the job Bill, and on your own you will fail miserably and repeatedly. BUT, I will be with you!’

That is the sort of thing we all need to hear and bear in mind. I sure do. The good news is, God is with us, and even though we are weak and faithless and wayward and doubtful, his presence means we can indeed do great things for him.

But a few more steps were needed to get Gideon fully onside. In addition to making cheap excuses, at first Gideon was angry with God. But he made a meal for his visitor and soon enough came to see just who it is he was dealing with. In all this it is interesting to compare his divine calling with that of Moses.

In his NIVAC commentary K. Lawson Younger says this:

While the theophany is especially reminiscent of the call of Moses (Ex. 3:7-10), Gideon is no Moses. Like Moses, there is a problem with the will. But in the case of Gideon, there are additional problems of perception (of the presence of the Lord and the reason for Israel’s distress) and faith (Gideon will have a much harder time with trust in Yahweh than Moses, as the narrative will show). Indeed, the contrast of characterizations introduced in 6:11-24 between Yahweh’s patience and Gideon’s impetuosity form the background to Gideon’s compensatory ruthlessness portrayed toward those who, like himself, doubted his ability to capture Yahweh’s opponents (cf. 8:5-9, 13-17).

 

Significantly, Gideon’s commission comes not by the prophet (contrast Barak), nor by any human agency, but by Yahweh himself through a theophany. Yahweh and Gideon will be in almost constant dialogue with one another in the sequence of events leading up to the battle (6:25, 36, 39; 7:2, 4, 7, 9). This will prove ironic in light of the final outcome of the Gideon cycle.

Barry Webb in his PTW commentary offers these comments about how Gideon responded to his visitor once he understood who he was:

How foolish all his anger seems now, and how dangerous. If only he could retract his outburst about everything being God’s fault (v. 13). But it’s too late for that now. All he can do is blurt out his fear, like a condemned man. And then somehow Gideon hears the God he fears, who is still strangely present, speak his pardon: “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die” (v. 23). Now God is everything and Gideon is nothing—except a profoundly grateful human being. In the midst of war and devastation, anger, frustration, self-doubt, and the threatening future—which is still there—he has peace. So he builds an altar and calls it Yahweh Shalom, “the LORD Is Peace” (v. 24). It’s his first act of faith, a kind of concrete testimony to what he has learned from his encounter with God: God himself is his peace.

And in his NICOT commentary Webb writes more about his encounter:

But the superior person in this case will not take No for an answer! The promised “presence” of God, in the sense of divine enablement, makes all pleas of inadequacy irrelevant (v. 16). The statement, “Surely I will be with you” is exactly the same as was spoken to Moses in Exodus 3:12, where it was soon followed by the self-disclosure of Yahweh as the great I AM (Exod. 3:14). Here it is an unsubtle way of forcing into Gideon’s consciousness the awareness that he is having an encounter with God himself, and is being given a commission he cannot refuse.

The double lesson to be learned here is this: When God calls someone, he promises to be with them and equip them. So we have no excuses to not heed the call. And when he does put a calling on someone’s life, the way NOT to respond is to try to say ‘no’. That is never a wise path to follow – simply consider the first half of Jonah’s career!

As I say so often, if God can call someone like me and use me a little bit for his purposes, then he can call and use anyone.

Postscript

As I was typing this piece, a friend sent me a live link to the funeral service of the Melbourne pro-life champion Margaret Tighe. Watching that tied in nicely with what I was writing. In a photo tribute we were reminded that the 94-year-old had been arrested for her tireless work, her office had been firebombed, and she had received plenty of flak over the years. But she kept the course and did the work God had called her to.

We all must do the same. Yes, we might feel unqualified, weak, fragile and unable. But God is with us, and that is enough.

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