God looks for ‘UNWORTHY’ PEOPLE to ACCOMPLISH His PURPOSES!
September
23 Bible Reading: Amos Chapters 7-9
God looks for ‘UNWORTHY’ PEOPLE to ACCOMPLISH His PURPOSES!
Then Amos answered, and said to
Amaziah: "I was no prophet, nor was I a son of a prophet, but I was a
sheepbreeder and a tender of sycamore fruit. Then the Lord took me as I
followed the flock, and the Lord said to me, 'Go, prophesy to My people Israel.'"
(Amos 7:14-15)
The above
passage clarifies that Amos was not a prophet by birth nor was he a prophet’s
son. In fact he lived in a village that was about five miles south of Bethlehem
called Tekoa in the land of Judah, and was a man of several trades, including being
a shepherd (1:1), a livestock breeder, and a dresser of sycamore-fig trees
(7:14). Amos was not part of the prophetic seminary to be labeled as a ‘son of a prophet’ (see 1 Sam. 19:24; 1
Kings 20:35; 2 Kings 2:3, 5, 7, 15). However, God had sovereignly called him to
the prophetic office, and had sent him to prophesy to the people of Israel (v.
15)!
It is not a
position that Amos had sought, but it was a sovereign act of God that took a
most unlikely person from a most unlikely place and gave him the highest
privilege, that is, to proclaim the message of God (vss. 14–15). Amos has made
it clear that he had neither desired nor sought the office of a prophet nor was
he worthy for this elevated ministerial position.
We see that God
often bypasses the so-called great people and chooses to call and bless the
humble and the weak. Yes, God can also use those who are gifted and who hold
high positions in this world, but He is not limited to them. Both Moses (Acts
7:22) and Paul (Acts 26:24) were well-educated, but at least seven of our
Lord’s disciples were common fishermen (John 21:1–3).
David was also
the unlikely person to be chosen as the king of Israel to replace the handsome
and tall King Saul. He was a young boy, a shepherd, the eighth and last son
from a family from the smallest tribe in the nation of Israel. In fact, Prophet
Samuel had assumed that one of his more able-bodied older brothers would be the
second king of Israel until God corrected Samuel with the following words: "For the Lord does not see as man sees;
for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."
(1 Sam 16:7)
When we look
at God’s pattern throughout the Bible, we learn that God makes a regular practice of using unlikely people to accomplish his
purposes. In fact God used the following unlikely people for His glory:
Abraham (who lied), Jacob (who schemed), Moses (who stuttered), Gideon and
Thomas (who doubted), Jeremiah (who was a tenderhearted youth) and Mary (who
was an unknown young virgin).
In recent
years, we see that R. A. Torrey was a brilliant man and a gifted evangelist,
but he worked closely with evangelist Dwight L. Moody, who had very little
education. However, God used both men in a remarkable way because both gave all
they had to the purposes of God. Let us understand that God is still looking for unworthy people to accomplish his purposes
so that no one steals the glory that is due to Him alone!
