15/11/2020
God Uses the Weak
Jamie Charles November 15, 2020
Have you ever watched those guys who risk their lives to cut down giant trees? It’s a very dangerous business, and they must use excessive care and power to get that massive structure to fall just as they want it to. Huge trucks, cables, and chainsaws work in tandem to tip the tree in the right direction. Cutting down a tree is impressive.
But, do you know what would be more impressive? Cutting down one of those giants with a butter knife. In a way, the more powerful your tools, the less credit you get for the job. Did the man cut down the tree, or did the chainsaw? Of course, the butter knife illustration is ridiculous, but what about a simple crosscut saw? Or, an axe? The lumber jack with an axe exerts much more power than the man pushing buttons in the motorized tree cutter.
What does God use to accomplish His purposes? In Creation He used just His voice. To destroy the Syrian army in a night He used a single angel. He’s used a worldwide flood, a national plague, giant hailstones, and a donkey. But, what does God say is His instrument of choice? What object is His primary tool to accomplish His plan here on earth?
Psalm 8 gives the answer to this question. The chorus of the Psalm is very familiar, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” So, how does God show His majesty in the earth? He certainly does display His glory through the heavenly bodies of light. He has also created some awesome creatures who show off His power on earth. But neither of these themes form the answer. God shows off His majesty by using weak things to confound the mighty. God uses tiny infants to “still the enemy and the avenger” (Ps. 8:2). In this series of blog posts, we will unpack this mind-blowing concept as it is explained in this Psalm and seek to trace the themes throughout the Bible.
But for now, I just want to meditate on the truth that God chooses to use the weak. What an encouragement for us! He considers humanity to be weak. He “knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust” (Ps. 103:14). Yet, God created humanity to fulfill a special role in His plan. The Fall didn’t prompt Him to revoke that plan, but only deepened the magnitude of mankind’s unworthiness. We may be weak, sinful beings, and that’s the point! If God can redeem us and then use us to accomplish His purpose, He gets all the glory.
In the book of I Corinthians, Paul needed to address some major issues in the church in Corinth. They had a long way to go! But the way he begins the book is so comforting and reassuring. He emphasizes the fact that these people are saints—they have been chosen by God, redeemed by Him, and He claims them.
How could Paul be certain of God’s work in this little church with such big problems? Why didn’t God just give up on them? Because God uses the weak to shame the strong. These few people whom He has redeemed have nothing in themselves to boast about, so the fact that God can redeem them and transform them more and more into His image magnifies His grace. He gets the glory for using weak, foolish instruments. “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (I Cor. 1:27-29).
God brings glory to Himself by doing great things with small tools. His “small tool” of choice is humanity. In the following blog posts, we will dig a little deeper into what exactly God intends for humanity to accomplish. But, let’s just take comfort in the fact that God wants to use us, not in spite of our weakness, but because of our weakness. He assures us as He assured Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (II Cor. 12:9).
