God must have a great sense of humor to love those the world rejects enough to choose them as His vessels. If you look at many of the characters from the Bible from the perspective of the world, it can be profoundly humorous or at least ironic. God often confounds man by choosing unlikely vessels to work through and unpredictable ways to work. He can take the biggest messes-people, situations, and circumstances-and with His touch, breathe life and purpose into them. Here are 5 more examples.
1-2. The Women in Jesus' Genealogy: Rahab and Bathsheba
From Jesus, God's own son sent to save the world, we see that God's ways are not man's ways. If man were CEO of the world and in charge of saving it, would he really choose for his supernatural son to be a descendant in the lineage of a prostitute (Rahab) and adulterous woman (Bathsheba)? These aren't exactly qualities highlighted on resumes, even in today's politically correct, non-judgmental society. So why go out of the way to include these women in the Matthew genealogical account when Jewish women weren't even typically recorded? My thought is that it shows God's character; He loves all people. Bathsheba was beautiful and quite a stumbling block for King David whose worst mistakes seemed to stem from his distractibility around her, but God loved her enough to include her in His son's genealogy. Rahab was a prostitute who hid spies. Again, not much there to put on a resume and have the phone ringing with jobs awaiting you, yet God commends her not only in the genealogy, but also in the Hebrews “Hall of Faith Fame” (Chapter 11).
3. Moses the Murderer
Here's a guy with a lot of obstacles to holding a job. First, he has a speech problem and consistently seems to struggle with self-esteem as he would rather God find someone else to do the job. Maybe his self-image problems stem from the fact he was abandoned at birth and left in a reed basket in a foreign land? But his poor self-image and speech problems are nothing compared to what happens in Exodus 2 when he murders an oppressive Egyptian. Now he has problems since the Pharaoh wants to murder Moses. Then God Himself wants to kill Moses whose interracial wife quickly got around to circumcising their son, saving Moses from that close call. All this must have been in God's plan because God trusted Moses enough to use him to free His oppressed children, the Israelites, from the Egyptians and to present the Ten Commandments to the Israelites. Moses put his trust in God and got to see spectacular miracles of provision (manna) and grandeur (parting the Red Sea) as he led the Israelites. He even got to initiate the long tradition of the Passover to commemorate how God had delivered them (Exodus 13:3, 9).
4. Jacob the Schemer
Jacob is known for being a liar and schemer, as the Robin Williams movie called Jacob the Liar alludes. Jacob is the guy who cheated his older brother Esau out of his birthright by deceiving his father. He is the one who is believed to have wrestled with God all night long trying to get a blessing. His name is then changed to Israel because he struggled with God and with men and then overcame. Jacob came out limping, but also worshiping. He seemed to be the type to strive in hardship all his life, yet God used him. He had a dream in which he envisioned a ladder stretching to heaven. Many allusions to Jacob's Ladder (this dream) exist in culture today. Even though Jacob's dark side was that he struggled and schemed too much, he also built pillars. In the place he had the dream, he renamed the city Bethel, meaning “House of God,” which was later a location of the Holy Temple. When Jacob came to the end of himself, he had reason to worship and open a gateway between heaven and earth.
5. Joseph the Braggart
What happens when that schemer (Jacob) has kids? Life with 10 half brothers, 1 real brother, and at least 1 sister can be trying, I would imagine. This extended family would be perfect candidates for The Dr. Phil Show today. Can you imagine Dr. Phil challenging Jacob about spending more time with each of the children he chose to bring into the world? I'm sure Dr. Phil would manage to put some verbs into both Jacob and Joseph's sentences to get them set straight.
God's methods, though, were a little different than Dr. Phil's. Joseph was a gifted and favored young man who was favored by Jacob. Not only did his father grace him with a showy coat (which created a brassy strike against him), but Joseph also had profound dreams that he was foolish enough to brag about to his already jealous brothers. One day Joseph is living the “high life”-being favored by God and Jacob-and the next he finds himself fighting for his life at the bottom of a pit. He had been pushed in by his very own brothers and left for dead. Of course they stripped him of his coat as well, so all of his dignity and pride were gone, yet Joseph learned to become a slave-to live an un-glorified, undignified life of hard work. He was unfairly accused and imprisoned and had to wait many, many years for God to come through, but eventually, Joseph's reputation was restored. While it may sound like a harsh “life sentence” of hardship for a very young man whose sin was only naive boasting, God always had an ironic plan and purpose. Joseph would get the privilege of becoming the vessel through which his immediate family was reunited and his homeland was healed of drought. In addition, he was so skilled that he was favored by the Pharaoh and got to spend much of his testing period working in that wealthy environment (unlike his brothers).
What Satan Means for Harm, God Turns to Good
Even though that was centuries ago, God has not changed. We may be feeling dysfunctional ourselves-empty like Rahab, angry and insignificant like Moses, controlling like Jacob, or betrayed by close ones like Joseph-but we can rest in God's everlasting ability to take our worst characteristics and circumstances and create beauty from the ashes.
