When Big God Uses Little People

Our God of the Bible is described as One with no beginning and no ending, the Alpha and Omega.
He is described as omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience, meaning that He has unlimited powers, He is universally present, and knows all things. Our God is the Author, Creator and Sustainer of all things. He made the heaven and the earth by His great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for Him (Jeremiah 32:17). He is indeed great!

As we read the bible from Genesis to Revelation, we witnessed God’s amazing stories from creation to redemption and finally to glorification. Throughout the whole events God always engage in people. God could have accomplished all things without involving any people at all. And guess what, Our God is big, very big. Yet He likes to use us, people, little people, very little people. All the people used by God were little, insignificant, obscure people. In fact none of them were great but full of imperfection.

Abraham was an idol worshipper and he was too old. Moses stuttered. Noah got drunk. Jacob was a schemer.. David's armor didn't fit. David was too young. David had an affair. Solomon was too rich and has too many wives. Naomi was a widow. Samson had long hair. Jonah ran from God. Gideon and Thomas both doubted. Jeremiah was depressed and suicidal. Elijah was burned out. Paul was a murderer. So was Moses and David. Hosea's wife was a prostitute. Joseph and Mary were nobody. John the Baptist had weird wardrobe and diet requirement. John Mark was a quitter. Martha was a worry soul. Paul had a thorn in the flesh. Timothy had ulcers. Peter was afraid of death. All the 12 disciples were little ordinary fishermen or tax collector or some unknown profession. The list goes on and on.

If Jesus Christ himself is lowly being a carpenter’s son, there is no reason for us to think that God will use special people. In fact, if we care to read through the genealogy of Jesus Christ, we will find among his ancestor, murderers, prostitutes and adulterers. All of them are just ordinary unknown little imperfect people. Yet they all accomplished God’s purpose in this earth. King David violated at least 60% of the 10 commandments. True, we all have areas of weakness and have experienced failure at some level, but God will still use every one who makes him or herself available to God. We must serve faithfully and ensure that using the gifts and talents he has given to each of us are not wasted.

Let just quickly sum up their accomplishments when they were used by God.

-Abraham- Idol worshiper became father of nation
-Moses – murderer, run away became the leader and led the Israelites out of Egypt
-David – Shepherd boy became most beloved king
-Esther – Gentile lady became Queen and save her people
-12 disciples are ordinary people who led and spread Christianity
-Apostle Paul, murderer and having a torn in the flesh became the most powerful writer who was used by God to give us so much truth

So what was the secret?

Let’s look at 2 little people.

1 Puah in Exodus 1. Puah was a midwife in Israel who was told by Pharaoh to kill all the baby boys because the Israelites were increasing in numbers. The Israelites is going to outnumber the Egyptians as they become mightier by domination in population.
In the latest news in December , 2009, I read that USA currently has 308 million people and by 2050, it will have close to 399 million people and by then, the white will no longer be the majority. With the lower birthrate and immigration, Hispanic, African and Asians will be slightly more than 50%. You see birthrate changes the demography of a nation or even a continent.
One of the plans of Islam is to dominate the world by populating the world, and that strategic plan is something that Pharaoh was very concerned about the Israelites.
A little more than 20% of the world's population today is Muslim. The growth rate of the Muslim population which averages 1.9 percent between the years 2000 and 2006 is far higher than the world's population at large, and that's 1.2 percent.

Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi, in a speech which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on April 10, 2006 said: "We have 50 million Muslims in Europe. There are signs that Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe - without swords, without guns, without conquests. The fifty million Muslims of Europe will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades."

- "Allah mobilizes the Muslim nation of Turkey, and adds it to the European Union."
- "That's another 50 million Muslims. There will be 100 million Muslims in Europe. Albania, which is a Muslim country, has already entered the E.U."
- "Bosnia, which is a Muslim country, has already entered the E.U. Fifty percent of its citizens are Muslims."
- "Europe is in a predicament, and so is America. They should agree to become Islamic in the course of time, or else declare war on the Muslims."
17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. Puah was willing to disobey Pharaoh because she feared God. When queried by Pharaoh, she told him that the Hebrews woman was so strong that before they arrived, the mother had already delivered. Yet we did not read about Puah being punished by Pharaoh. In fact we read 20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. That’s why the population continued to increase. You see when you are working for God, He protects you.

2. Obadiah in 1 Kings 18

We first read about Elijah in 1 Kings 17 where he announced to Ahab the wicked king of Israel that there will not be rain on the earth for 3 1/2 years. Now he is going back to announce that the rain is coming.
3 and Ahab had summoned Obadiah, who was in charge of his palace. (Obadiah was a devout believer in the LORD. 4 While Jezebel was killing off the LORD's prophets, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves, fifty in each, and had supplied them with food and water.)
Now let’s be clear about this little unknown person Obadiah. He is not to be confused with the prophet Obadiah as Obadiah is simply a very common name in Israel. He was an unknown who worked for Ahad. Yet this was the man used by God to further His kingdom.

But he feared God greatly. And while Jezebel, the wife of Ahab was busy killing people, he had hidden 100 prophets in two caves and fed them with food and water. Ahab was the most wicked king and yet Obadiah dared to hide behind him and the evil queen to save the prophets speaks volume about his faith in his God.

Verse 3 tells us that he is a devout believer in the Lord and verse 12 tells us that he had worshipped the Lord since his youth.

But because he was loyal and an excellent worker, Ahab trusted him. Now do you think Ahab would ever have done that had he known this man was hiding the prophets of the Lord? Absolutely not! So we have a man here who is a good citizen of the state, but he does what he knows is right even though his king does not. He serves the Lord God.

Today, even in the 21st century we still read about many committed Christians willingly defile the authority because of their faith. Go to persecution.com, Barnabas or Voice of Martyr web site, we read that from China to Africa to India, all over the world, many are willing to stand up for Christ even to the point of death.

Remember Corrie Ten Boon? She opposed this evil in her society and joined the underground movement in an attempt to hide Jews from the Germans and to smuggle them to safety. These kindly, law-abiding people broke every rule in the book to save the lives of the men, women and children being hunted by the Nazis. Their home became a hiding place, but the cost of their bravery was betrayal and ended up in the dreaded Ravensbruck concentration camp where her sister perished.

God used two little people unknown Puah and Obadiah to further his kingdom by protecting his people and his prophets. Notice the common denominators of these little people used by God:

1. They make themselves available and ready to spring into action
2. They feared God and not man
3. They have faith in God
4. As a result, they were courageous and responded to God’s calling and were used by God mightily.

What about us today? Are we ready to be used to further his kingdom by increasing the population of God’s people and preserving his people by sharing the gospel to all and to support his ministry.

Just like Obadiah, God can use our faith. We take courage that we too can in our work place, our community , our school, and in our little area of contacts be strong and stand up for our God and be used by Him.