Every once in a while I’ll be flipping through the channels and come across one of those strong man competitions. You know the ones, where huge hulks of men lift, pick up, drag and pull other huge, heavy hulky things. It’s rather comical how strong these guys are. I saw one pull a semi-truck 25 yards, one dead-lift over a 1,000lbs and one pick up a 550lb stone and put it on a table. It’s one thing to be strong but these guys are strong. But what would you think if I told you that you could possibly be too strong? What? Strength is good right? So how could too much possibly be a bad thing?
We see strength as just that in our world today, a major asset. But you know, there’s many kinds of strength besides just physical strength. There’s emotional strength, there’s psychological strength, there’s mental strength and then there’s one of the biggest…the strength of our will power. I think we see all as a major benefit and I think we even greatly admire those that are strong in all areas. Usually it’s even these "strong" people that seem to easily accel in life. Their strong will, psychological stamina and determined singular-focused grit carry them through thick and thin to see them attain their objective. That’s all fine and dandy for the world, but I want to move into a different arena. The one where God deals with man. Specifically, how does Almighty God see an almighty strongman?
It’s beyond ironic to see the men and women God uses throughout scripture. God continually chooses to use men and women that are ordinary, broken, regular, unconfident and well, even weak. And in an even bigger dose of irony, it’s amazing to see who God pits these men and women against. Stalwarts of power. Kings, Pharaohs, religious tyrants and political dynamos. God uses the weak to deal with the strong. This confuses my nominal intellect. I think that in order to guarantee a victory, you should pit the super strong against the super weak. I was a high school football referee for many years and I’ve seen these match ups. Super strong, uber talented teams that end up playing a team that is barely able to put 11 guys on the field. I’ve seen games go 72-0. It’s painful to watch, but the victory is certain and absolute to say the least. But that’s not how God works. He chooses to do just the opposite. In fact, if you haven’t noticed, it seems God’s ways are always completely opposite of the world’s ways.
In fact, God flat out tells us this as a fact in His Holy Word. God chooses to use the weak to defeat the strong.
“Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” 1 Cor. 1:26-29
So, I have a simple question for you. If God clearly chooses to use the weak to shame the strong, then how does He use the strong men and women of this world today? Or can He at all?
How does God use someone that is super talented and pridefully knows it? How can God use someone that is greatly gifted in an area and takes great personal pride in their gift? How does God use those that are highly capable in all they do, and rely solely on themselves? How does God use one that has such a strong will that they seek their own way in all they do? How can God use someone that knows what they want, and they utilize their strength to ensure they get it? How can God use someone that is highly dominant and controls others to achieve their goals? How can God use the strong, the proud, the prideful and the strong-willed? He won’t.
Sadly, the problem in our world today is that most of us are too strong for God to use. Many of us are too capable. Some are too talented and too gifted. We are too independent, too self-reliant and too confident in oursleves. We are too prideful, too arrogant and too egotistical. We are too set in what we want and too set in achieving what we want. We are a society and a world where many rest in their own strength and solely depend upon that strength to satisfy their desires. A world of strongmen and strongwomen that are useless to God.
Think about little Moses in that basket floating down the Nile. Small, helpless, powerless, weak. He grew to be a murderer, a lowly shepherd and a stutterer. He was uncertain, unconfident and uneasy. But he also grew to confront the strongest man on the planet at the time, the mighty Pharaoh, Ramses II of Egypt. Through the power of God, Moses in his utter weakness, shamed Ramses and his kingdom with 10 crippling plagues. God uses the weak, not the strong.
Think about Elijah. He was driven into the remote wilderness by the murderous threats of the evil queen Jezebel. He ended up in a cave, alone, hungry, tired and doubting the very call of God on his life. A man that was physically weak, emotionally weak, and spiritually weak. And it was in this weakness that God spoke to him in a small, gentle whisper. And what God spoke to Him in that gentle whisper was that He could use Elijah in his weakness. Elijah went to the very throne room of Ahab and Jezebel and boldly announced that it would not rain on the land for three years. God uses the humble, not the proud.
Today in judges chapter 6 we see yet another glorious example of God using a weak, scared, humble man to advance His kingdom. As the story opens, we find Gideon threshing wheat not in the open sight of a hill-top threshing floor, but in a deep valley near a wine press. You see, the Israelites had once again sinned against God and had done what was evil in His eyes. As a result, they had been given into the hands of the nomadic tribe the Midianites. Gideon was afraid of being seen by the enemy, so he was hiding as he tried to get some food. Not what our society today would call a strong, bold, brave man. Not a man society today would choose as a leader.
God calls on Gideon to do His work and the ensuing conversations would make us embarrassed of Gideon today. He severely doubts that God can use a man like him. He asks God for not just one miracle but three to prove that God is serious about using a lowly, scared, weak man like himself. God informs him of what he must do, and Gideon even argues with God about His seemingly poor and inappropriate choice of war-time servants.
“And he said to him, “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.”
Even Gideon agrees that God is making what seems to be a big mistake. Gideon says, “Really? Me? But I’m from the weakest of all 12 tribes and even beyond that, I’m the weakest in my entire family!” “God are you sure you got the right guy?” "There's a ton of stronger, smarter, braver men out there for you to pick from!" But God had the right guy. He had the right heart for the job.
Gideon goes on to do great things for God as we will see in the next two chapters. God plucks a simple, weak, and even downright cowardly man from his life and does amazing things through him. Only God in His infinite power can use the weak to shame the strong and powerful.
Friends, today the message from God is clear. The world might say the best thing in life is to be powerful, strong, and independent...but God sharply disagrees. If you want to be used by God you must be humble, simple, modest, and meek. To receive the call of God your heart must be steeped in humility, weakness, brokenness, and openness. You see, just as a horse must be broken before it can be ridden and used for a greater purpose, God needs a life that is meek and broken before His authority. God needs a heart that readily and easily kneels before its king, ready and willing to do whatever is asked of it. Then and only then, can God use that life.
May you cultivate a heart today that can be used greatly by the Lord.
“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6
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