GOD’S CHOSEN FOR HIS PURPOSE:
ALL ABOUT JESUS

1 Peter 2:9-10 ESV

But you are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people for his own possession,
that you may proclaim
the excellencies of him
who called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people,
but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.

God’s People:
Part One

In the history of this world
God has always
been calling and
gathering His people.

From Abram’s own nation
and his people
and their lifeless gods
God called Abraham.

Among the brothers of Israel
and their evil
and their confusion
God called Joseph.

Out of the river rescued
and raised Egypt’s
pampered Prince
God called Moses.

Out of pagan Moab
and as a widow
following a widow
God called Ruth.

Out of the fields as
a shepherd
the least and the youngest
God called David.

Never the obvious
nor the predictable
for His servants
God called His faithful.

God calls His children to become His servants, based upon an obedient, faith relationship with Him, trusting in His Word, His Power and His Loving plan of redemption. God does not call us because of who we are, but because of who He is. God calls us for His glory, and as we answer in obedience and faith, He develops eternal purpose and joy in our hearts. As we take a look at some of the called, this week and next, we will observe over and over again how great God is, and how beautifully He uses a wide variety of people to declare His glory. We will marvel at how God takes humble lives and uses those lives to illustrate His incredible power to redeem and overcome darkness with His triumphant light. We will rejoice with each of these saints when in the end there lives truly became ALL ABOUT HIM.

Genesis 12:1-3 ESV

Now the Lord said to Abram,
”Go from your county and your kindred
and your father’s house
to the land I will show you.
And I will make you a great nation,
and I will bless you
and make your name great,
so that you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and him who dishonors you I will curse,
and in you all the families
of the earth shall be blessed.”

God’s call always demands obedience step-by-step into new spaces and among new situations and new faces. For Abram this meant leaving his father and his people and the only land he had ever known, and setting out in a direction he had never explored. Abram faithfully did so for a lifetime of learning how God would strengthen and develop his character until the uncertain Abram became the faithful man, Abraham, who would become the father of Isaac, Jacob/Israel, and eventually the nation of Israel. Along the way Abram and his wife, Sarah, would often struggle as they faced doubts and tremendous challenges. Even after the long-delayed birth of their only son, Isaac, God tested Abraham by asking him to offer this only son as a sacrifice. Abraham obeyed, and God, Himself intervened, and provided the sacrifice, as He confirmed His blessing on Abraham and though him, all the people of the world. What a beautiful foreshadowing of God providing our perfect sacrifice in Jesus.

 

 

 

Genesis 50:19-21 ESV

But Joseph said to them,
“Do not fear, for am I in the place of God?
As for you, you meant evil against me,
but God meant it for good,
to bring it about that many people
should be kept alive, as they are today.

Early in his life, Joseph lived as a favorite of his father among many brothers. God favored him with visions which pointed to a glorious future, and infuriated his brothers. Given the opportunity, they got revenge and sold him into slavery, breaking their father’s heart by telling him Joseph had been killed by a wild animal. Sold to Potiphar, a powerful Egyptian soldier, Joseph served so faithfully, he earned a place in charge of his master’s household. Then, Potiphar’s wife failed in her scheme to undermine Joseph’s morality, and lied so that he was imprisoned. In prison Joseph remained faithful and became a blessing to all of those in prison. Though it seemed there was no hope for Joseph, God still had a glorious plan for this faithful man. He gifted Joseph with the understanding of dreams, and used that gift to lift him up to become  a savior to Egypt in a time of terrible famine. Then, God used Joseph’s faithfulness to save his father and his brothers—and the future Israel, and the future Messiah. Though the world brought much evil against Joseph, God brought overpowering grace. May we live by faith like Joseph did for people’s good and never for revenge. Like Abraham, Joseph’s life points to Jesus and His  even more perfect life.

 

Exodus 14:15-18 ESV
The LORD said to Moses,
”Why do you cry to me?
Tell the people of Israel to go forward.
Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand
over the sea and divide it,
that the people of Israel
may go through on dry ground.
And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians
so that they shall go in after them,
and I will get glory over Pharaoh
and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen.
And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD,
when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots and horsemen.”

Moses was miraculously saved from death while still an infant, his mother placed him in a basket in the Nile. Then he was found and raised in the  midst of the power and splendor of the household of Pharaoh’s own daughter. And yet in his heart he knew he was a Hebrew, those people who were treated as despised slaves by the Egyptians. In a fit of anger he killed an Egyptian overseer, and fled for his life into the dessert. After spending forty years as a shepherd, God miraculously called him through the burning bush, to return to Egypt and free his people. Moses obeyed, God worked mighty miracles, and the children of Israel were freed, then delivered as the sea was parted. In the process of establishing the nation of Israel God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, provided miraculously for the Israelites in the wilderness, and eventually, even after their disobedience, led them through Joshua, Moses’s God-chosen successor, into the Promised Land. In the life of Moses we see how God calls His own to obedience and faith, even in the face of opposition and unfaithfulness, among those we live and serve. In his own way, Moses serves as a good, but imperfect precursor of Jesus’ perfect obedience.

 

 

Ruth 1:15-18 ESV

And she said, “See, your sister-in-law
has gone back to her people
and her gods;
return after your sister-in-law.”
But Ruth said,
”Do not urge me to leave you
or to return from following you.
For where you go I will go,
and where you lodge I will lodge.
Your people shall be my people,
and your God my God.
Where you die I will die,
and there I will be buried.
May the Lord do so to me and more
also if anything but death parts me from you.”

Ruth of Moab enjoyed a good life with her Jewish husband and his family. They had fled Israel during a time of famine. Then her father-in-law, her husband and his brother all died. Now the women were left with nothing. Naomi decided to head home to Bethlehem, advising her daughters-in-law to go back to their own families. Ruth refused, but professed a love for Naomi and her people and her God. In doing so, she was fulfilling God’s call on her life. She labored hard in the fields outside Bethlehem to provide for Naomi and herself. She was chosen by God to become the grandmother of David, Israel’s great King, and to become an ancestor of God’s great Messiah, Jesus, the King of Kings. God still calls us and puts us in times and places and among people so that we, too, can be gloriously used by Him as He continues to bless this world with redemption miracles among every people.

 

I Samuel 17:43-47 ESV

And the Philistine said to David,
“Am I a god that you come to me with sticks?”
And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
The Philistine said to David,
”Come to me, and I will give your flesh
to the birds of the air
and to the beasts of the field.”
Then David said to the Philistine,
”You come to me with a sword
and a spear and a javelin,
but I come to you
in the name of the Lord of hosts,
the God of the armies of Israel,
whom you have defied.
This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand,
and I will strike you down and cut off your head.
And I will give the dead bodies
of the host of the Philistines
this day to the birds of the air
and to the beasts of the earth,
that all the earth may know
that there is a God in Israel,
and that all this assembly may know
that the Lord saves not with sword and spear.
For the battle is the Lord’s,
and he will give you into our hand.”

God calls his people, not because they are mighty and great, but because in their humility and obedience and faith, He intends to establish His glory through them. Like David, we do not have so much to offer God, but He has everything to offer us—the joy we find in obeying Him when He accomplishes mighty feats in spite of our weakness, and because of His strength. In this world, every one of us as His people will face our own Goliaths, but like David, we do not need to be afraid, as long as we put our trust in our great God. In Him, mighty giants will fall one-after-one as God’s eternal Kingdom is established. David, like Jesus, faced mighty opposition to himself and his service for God. Throughout our ups and our downs, our successes and our failures, God will accomplish His purpose, as we continue seeking Him and His Way and His Glory above our own. In reality, without Him, there is no glory, but in Him, there is deep, deep abiding joy in always serving Him and in always pointing people to Him.

And so, we see God’s power and His glory and His love, all calling to those who will answer Him in faith and obedience. We see in Abraham, in Joseph, in Moses, in Ruth and in David such people. We see in their lives God accomplishing mighty miracles which reveal His glory in this world where He really is the only answer to all the turmoil we face. We also are called to follow God, and as we do, He will accomplish His Purpose for us and through us. What an honor to be called by our great God! What an opportunity to turn and follow Him! What joy He has for us as we like these, His faithful people, answer His Call and follow Him. Like Jesus, our Savior, we can be used in His timeless plan to offer redemption to all of human kind. And so, life really can be and should be, ALL ABOUT JESUS.

LOOK FOR MORE BIBLE “HEROES” NEXT WEEK.