The Eccentric God 3

Allow me to get us to another aspect of God’s eccentricities; and that is the kind of people He uses, and the kind of people He chooses to work with contrary to what we think should happen.

In the first post I mentioned Jacob, the meaning of whose name is conman.

Incidentally, when you look at Jesus’ line, you will see a smattering of many such characters.

How does God include Tamar in that lineage.

You see, not only was she from a heathen nation, she even had the audacity of tricking her father-in-law to sleep with her by pretending to be a harlot.

Or Rahab the harlot. Why does God not at least sanitise her profession to make her a little bit acceptable? And to imagine she was a harlot in condemned Jericho!

Some theologians argue that harlot may also mean housekeeper or lodging owner.

If that were the case, what was her argument when her king came looking for the two spies? How do people lodge during the day and leave before dark?

Only her profession could have sold the lie she gave the king.

Why did Jesus first reveal Himself to Mary Magdalene after His resurrection, a woman who had had seven demons?

I have read some who say that she had been a harlot before coming to Christ. That that is where she picked the demons from.

Why did He chase the crowd who had come to stone the woman who had been caught in the act of adultery?

Most times after Jesus healed, He told the recipients of His miracles to not tell anyone.

Why then did He tell the character who had the legion of demons a to go and tell his hood what Christ had done for him?

What am I saying?

Jesus does not follow any rule book to do anything He wills. God does not follow anybody’s protocol when choosing who to work with.

He has rules. He has commandments.

But like Jesus said when arguing about Sabbath, they are His servants, not His prison.

The fact that He could use harlots does not mean He condones harlotry. Far from it.

It simply means that He still loves them and any of them that will open their heart to Him will be used, of course after being transformed.

Grace is what I am talking about.

As Paul argued in Romans and Galatians, the law was meant to drive us to Christ and not bind us to itself. It was a schoolmaster to lead us to grace.

That is the same reason that it was the ones who were outside who easily received John the Baptist and Christ.

For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him. (Matthew 21:32)

They knew that they needed grace as opposed to the spiritual right who were content in keeping the commandments.

That is what we see with the abominable characters God used, and continues to use.

Incidentally that is where wealth also falls under.

It is not very easy to submit to God, or anybody else, if you have no lack. How do you pray for your daily bread when your barn is full to overflowing?

God is waiting to use me and you.

However, He is the sole determinant of when and how to use us if we surrender to Him. He determines whether He will even use us.

That is why many ministers become frustrated when God chooses to use someone they had trashed all along. That is why some ministers become God’s enemies when He all of a sudden elevates someone they had buried to uselessness and makes them glaring lights of the Gospel.

That drug addict is not beyond reach. That serial divorcee is not useless as we see in John 4. That bastard still belongs to God, though they are ordered never to come close to the sanctuary even to the tenth generation.

Or do you not remember Jephthah?

That is why you see a verse like this

Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. For thus saith the LORD unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. (Isaiah 56: 3 – 5)

We have Daniel and Nehemiah as examples of this. And Ruth, whose tribe was excluded from Israel like the bastard (Deuteronomy 23: 1 – 3)

Will we allow God to use whoever He wills?

Allow me to add this in conclusion.

God does not use somebody because of who that person is. He is bound to the person who is surrendered to Him.

It directly means that this person will walk according to His revelation. He will use the person who has surrendered his whole life completely to be used of Him.

God will not use a harlot because she is a harlot. God will not use a drug addict because they enjoy those drugs. God will not use the thief because of his thieving.

God will follow His standards in using them.

He must transform them to use them. They must surrender their everything, even their lives, to Him for Him to use them.

God converts before He can use. Though He can still use before doing so.

But it gives Him glory when the vessel He is using has gone through His transformation.

That is why Christ sent the character who had the legion back to his hood.

The standard for knowing the person God uses is His word.

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? (Matthew 7: 15, 16)

And the only fruit worth looking for is a transformed life. It is a progressively growing spiritual life.

The rest is drama.

An unrepentant person is not being used of God, however effective he looks. A proud person also cannot be used by God for the simple reason that he is competing for recognition with God.

God will use abominable characters. But He does it after transforming them or in the process of transforming them.

Surrender is the non negotiable here.

Allow me to put my favourite and most scary verses here. Incidentally they follow the verses I have just quoted about fruit (vv. 15 – 20)

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7: 21 – 23)