By Martin Thompson Ntem
Pedigree doesn’t make a man what he is. Ever wondered what you would have done if you were Gideon of the Old Testament and God had reduced your army? This was a man who was already disadvantaged by leading an army of 32,000 against 135,000 Midianites.
”And the Lord said unto Gideon. The people that are with you there are too many for me to give Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunts themselves against me, saying, My own hands hath saved me”
God said that number was too much for him, He then asked that it be reduced. Twelve Thousand (12,000) people willingly went home bringing the number to ten thousand (10,000). God still said that was too much for him to use to defeat the 135,000 people.
My goodness! The number was further reduced to 300 and even that was divided into three separate groups.
What happened? They won! It was not about the size of the army. It’s not always about how prepared you are. You need to prepare but pedigree doesn’t make a man what he is. Sometimes we feel we have lost it all until God appears.
The next time you pray, pray for the ‘foolishness’ of God for it is wiser than the wisdom of men.
Do you remember where Christ was born? Yea, I mean Jesus the savior of the world. Disgusting you know! But that is God’s choice. In all of the places in the world, God chose a manger! It’s not logic, it’s God!
I like the way Dr. Mensah Otabil puts it “Sometimes God does it anyway not because you are smart but because he just wants to show off.”
The works and decisions of God sometimes baffle humans beyond reasoning. He uses people that ordinarily the world would expect him, God, to have known better and not use. He uses people in ways that seem impossible to achieve great feats.
I don’t know of you but I have benefitted a lot from this world that I don’t deserve and I am grateful to God and all helpers. I was written off. I couldn’t speak well. I couldn’t address a class not to talk of leading a group. I never saw myself making it to the university not alone becoming a student leader or a member of the Governing Council of a University. I never knew I would one day lecture. I was just a lucky beneficiary of Grace and as such, nothing I get.
He takes men from the crowd to use. He uses men and women who have been written off by the world. It’s not logic it’s God!
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the weak things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring naught things that are; that no flesh should glory in his presence. – 1 Corinthians 1: 26 -29
God can bypass a million people and pick you. Yes, he picked Solomon whose mother and father were ex adulterers even when other legal wives were still alive. What of Esther who was chosen in the place of a Vashti or even RAHAB a foreigner and prostitute who was admitted into the commonwealth of Israel.
God chose Jacob (a liar) and He rejected Esau, a hardworking hairy young man. What of David, the last born chosen to become the “First Born”?
Aside, the personal determination of some individuals to venture beyond their comfort zones, the divine mercy of God which cannot be explained also plays an important role in their success stories. He turns the odd issues into glorious stories. It will look stupid to people but that’s for the Glory of the Lord.
Brethren, let’s be careful what we criticized today; the powerless, the socially disadvantaged, the poor, and the barren.
Don’t compare yourself to others because your case may be different. There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only a widow in Zarephath, in the land of Sidon.
Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman, a foreigner.