Zambia Hunt

All through history God has chosen and used nobodies, because their unusual dependence on Him made possible the unique display of His power and grace. He chose and used somebodies only when they renounced dependence on their natural abilities and resources. – Oswald Chambers (Hughes, R. K., & Chapell, B. (2000). 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus: to guard the deposit (pp. 176–177). Crossway Books.)

Paul tells us that God delights to use the foolish, weak and despised to carry His mission and build His church. The reason that God chooses nobodies is that the glory for the work that is accomplished points to Christ alone. So beyond the capacities of those who are involved are the outcomes being produced, that anyone inquiring will quickly conclude that there is someone else who is accomplishing the work – there is no other explanation (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).

Gideon in the Old Testament is an example of the principle under discussion. God set about to deliver His people from the cruel domination of the Midianites. He called a young man who was from a simple, unknown background, a young man with little or no experience to bring to the task, and certainly no military experience. His entire young life, he had lived under a foreign power. God came to Gideon as he was threshing wheat in a winepress. This is not the traditional place to thresh wheat, but he was using the press because it was sunk into the ground, and may not be as likely to attract the attention of the Midianites, whom he feared would confiscate the wheat (Judges 6).

The entire story of God’s actions with Gideon points to the fact that what God was about to do had nothing to do with Gideon – in other words, Gideon’s experience, competence, and knowledge brought absolutely nothing to the equation. Even when Gideon was finally convinced that God wanted to deliver Israel by his hand, and the Israelites reported for duty, God gave a test in which only 1% passed. With those 300 men, led by Gideon, God delivered the Midianites into the hands of Israel, and they were freed from oppression. (Judges 7:1-22)

When God told Gideon to send home those who failed the “water” test, He explained that He would use the 300 so that when the victory was secured, no person could claim or think that they had accomplished the deliverance through their own power and in their own strength. Even the battle tactics God told Gideon to use would appear ludicrous to any veteran military leader. Take a candle, a clay pot, and a trumpet, and surround the camp of Midian, and on cue, break the clay pot, exposing the light of the candle, then blow the trumpet and shout, “The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon.” That was it.

Moses is another example. Moses started out thinking he was a somebody! He had been adopted into the palace of Pharaoh by his own daughter. He received the best that Egypt had to offer in material things, position, and training. When God began to stir his heart around 40 years old to understand that He would lead his people Israel out of bondage in Egypt, Moses took matters into his own hands, and with his strength, he slew an Egyptian guard he saw beating a Hebrew, and hid the dead body in the sand. The body of the dead Egyptian did not stay buried for long, and Moses was on the run. His next 40 years were spent in the wilderness tending sheep. Everything was stripped from Moses, and in that time, he came face to face with his own inability. When God came to him as he was out in the field with the flock to call him to lead his people out of Egypt, Moses replied that he was unable to do such a large task, he could not speak, he had no influence, no one would listen to him. He was a man without a place, with no power and no position of influence. Moses eventually obeyed and went in God’s name to deliver the people, but he never lost sight of his own inability and inadequacies. God would testify of Moses that there was not another man like him in the earth, one who was Meek!

God knows how to prepare the nobodies that He will call and use. We attempt the impossible for God, not because we believe we can do the impossible from any source within ourselves, but because we are convinced that God can. God delights to do amazing things that bring Him glory and praise. There are times that God calls nobodies to die, and in that untimely death, He brings glory unto Himself. Paul’s cry was that in life or in death, by whatever means, only that he was able to glorify God through his life. Oh that God would give us a host of men in the church in Africa who see the impossibility of the task, but are willing to attempt the impossible with absolute confidence that God can do what He chooses – and often He chooses to show us “great and mighty things” which we cannot begin to fathom.

Small-minded, self-focused men will huddle in the shallows where the water is only waist deep so that if a storm arises, they can quickly run to safety. God wants us out in the deep, with our trust in the mighty power and omniscient wisdom of the One who deserves the worship of all nations. I long for God to do the impossible and use me or discard me according to whatever suits His larger purpose.

Can my soul embrace the attention and the accolades as well as embrace being unknown and forgotten? Do I recognize my absolute inability to do anything that will be of lasting value for eternity? Do I recognize with eyes of faith that God is at work, bringing His purposes to pass, and those purposes include men?