If we think our family is messed up, just look at Jesus’ family tree and the junk that was on His tree. Every other person in Jesus' family would have been considered dysfunctional if the decision was left up to us. Many of Jesus' relatives had some messed-up past, however, their past did not dictate how or where they would finish. Just look at Rahab. Lady of the day & night.
Despite being a harlot, Rahab found favor from God. God used Rahab mightily. Abraham pimps out his wife Sarai and made profits from it. ‘God recruits from the pit, not the pedestal”. “God is not looking for gold vessels or silver vessels. He is looking for willing vessels”. Never allow where you start to dictate where or how you will finish. What junk do you have on your family tree? I’m curious as to what whispers you’re hearing that are blocking you from allowing God to utilize you powerfully? Don’t give the adversary any more territory that Jesus has already won for them. God redefines those with a past. God redefines not only you but also me. What is our embarrassment? There is now no longer any condemnation for those who believe in Jesus.
You see many of us are sometimes embarrassed by our relatives, we think we have dysfunctional families, dysfunctional is defined as something that is flawed and doesn’t operate correctly or someone that deviates from normal and accepted social behavior. An example of something that would be described as dysfunctional is a family that fights all the time and that deviates from the accepted way a family is supposed to behave.
Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship [His own master work, a work of art], created in Christ Jesus [reborn from above – spiritually transformed, renewed, READY TO BE USED] for good works, which God prepared [for us] beforehand [taking paths which He set], so that we would walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us].” (AMP)
When David first arrived at King Saul’s palace, he was a simple, unknown shepherd boy. But he had an impressive résumé nonetheless! God, in essence, said, I saw you kill the bear and the lion; I was watching your courage, leadership, fighting ability, and strength when you didn’t even realize I had my eye on you; Solomon wrote, A man’s gift makes room for him and brings him before great men; (Proverbs 18:16). David’s ‘gift’ may have only been the ability to accurately swing a slingshot, but it opened the door to his future as Israel’s king! So even though what you have got does not seem like much, give it to God and watch what He can do with it! You say, But I’m not formally trained. But All God requires is that you show up, say yes, and make yourself available! When you give God what you have, He gives you what He’s got; and that alone makes your odds unbeatable! Regardless of where you come from, your family structure, gender, ethnicity, age, education, employment, handicaps, or even failures, you still have enough to accomplish great things!
Now, you need some ‘biblical’ examples instead, here are a few you should always revert to when you feel unqualified or unequipped: Jesus’ family tree is filled with the sorts of people you would expect to see on TMZ. If God were to take human flesh, you would expect him to take the flesh of a much different family.
Lessons from Rahab in Lineage of Jesus
It doesn’t matter what our history says to us or what our past carries; our past is the reason that Jesus was born. As a businesswoman, Rahab is depicted in the Bible as someone who selected her career to make a comfortable livelihood. It’s possible, though, that she was more like the ladies that my beloved buddy ministered to in the adult entertainment industry. Possibly, Rahab comes from a position of deep brokenness or adolescent traumatic experience. Perhaps her background has been a source of grief or abuse, and she has become entrapped by feelings of disdain and humiliation.
- Night after night, desperate decision after desperate choice had led her to a life, she had never imagined for herself.
- Condemnation?
- Shame?
- Are there too many errors, too much remorse, and it’s too late to make a difference?
- No matter how wonderful or bad our history has been, it will never be good enough to deserve God’s salvation or shocking enough to prohibit us from receiving it.
2. God uses those with a past.
Perhaps you can nod your head in agreement that God can save anybody who has a criminal record, but here’s where you get stuck: believing that God can also utilize everyone who has a criminal record. Allow Rahab’s narrative to persuade you. Rahab’s background was not a hindrance to God’s use of her. The first fight to win the Promised Land was won by God via Rahab, who not only saved the spies, but also saved her family in the process. God, on the other hand, had something much better in store for Rahab.
3. God redefines those with a past.
When Rahab is mentioned in the Bible, she is nearly always referred to as Rahab the harlot, with the exception of Matthew’s genealogy. Rahab, the mother of Boaz, is what Matthew refers to her as. Rahab was redefined by God, who transformed her from a fallen woman to a chosen woman, from a bad girl to a bride, from a mess to a mother, and from a prostitute to the progenitor of the Messiah. God redefines not only you but also me. What is our embarrassment? There is now no longer any condemnation for those who believe in Jesus.
For instance-
There’s Abraham, who tried to cut his son Isaac’s throat. Isaac survived to be the father of Jacob, an unscrupulous but entertaining character who won his position in Jesus’ family line by lying and cheating his blind, old father. Abraham tried to pimp out his wife Sarai PSA: Do not model your family by Abraham’s example. I am sure he was a nice guy, but still.
First off, as the story begins, God appears to Abraham (still named Abram at this point) and promises to make of him a “great nation”—read, “a ton of offspring”—and a nice patch of land to call his own, presently (and inconveniently) occupied by the Canaanites (Genesis 12:1-9).
Well, the ink is hardly dry on that story when a famine enters the land, thus forcing Abraham and his wife Sarah (still named Sarai) to hightail it to Egypt so they cannot starve. And if that sounds familiar to you, well done looking to Egypt for food during a famine anticipates how the book of Genesis ends, with Jacob and his sons moving to Egypt because of a famine.
Anyway, all this is fine and dandy, but the problems begin when, on the way to Egypt, Abraham realizes that Sarah is a “woman beautiful in appearance” (12:11), and so surmises that the Egyptians are going to kill him so they can take Sarah into Pharaoh’s harem.
Abraham’s solution is not to turn back—since dying of starvation is still on the table—but to suggest a ruse. Namely, that she presents herself as his sister, for what appears to be an utterly self-serving reason. . . and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’; then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared on your account.” (12:12-13)
In fact, he seems to make a profit in the deal. And for her sake he [Pharaoh] dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female slaves, female donkeys, and camels. (12:16) Way to go Abraham. Gutsy move. Seriously. Way to pimp out your wife. How about having some faith in God here? The same kind of faith you just showed when God called you out of your home in Haran to move to Canaan, and you simply up and left. Now, at the first sign of trouble (after all, what’s a little famine to the Almighty?), you press the panic button: Say you are my sister, so that it may go well with me.
When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was incredibly beautiful. When the officials of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; … (GEN 12:14-16A)
So far, everything is happening the way Abram predicted. When Pharaoh heard his officials tell him how beautiful Sarai was, she was taken into Pharaoh’s house. As her “brother,” Pharaoh dealt well with Abram. Just how did he deal well with her “brother”? …and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female slaves, female donkeys, and camels.
Foreshadowing the Exodus but the LORD afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. So, Pharaoh called Abram, and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife, take her, and be gone.”
And Pharaoh gave his men orders concerning him; and they set him on the way, with his wife and all that he had. GEN 12:17-20 NRS)
Sojourn in Egypt. When Abraham gets to the border with his wife, his nephew Lot, his people, and his possessions, the soldiers notice his wife. They say she is his sister (according to the plan). The guards report to Pharaoh, and he wants her as part of his harem. He tells them to follow plan A, take her to the palace and deal well with the brother. Plan B is to kill her husband, which they do not do because (in Pharaoh’s mind) she has no husband. Abimelech, King of Gerard: Another Unwitting John?
When Abraham sojourned in the territory of Gerar, Abimelech the king also took Sarah (Sarai and Abram’s names were changed in Genesis 17) into his household, because she was beautiful. This time, God speaks to the man who took Sarah from her “brother.” But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” (GEN 20:3 ESV)
Now it sounds like he has had sex with her, and God is about to avenge her husband. But here is what we read just a little later. After Abimelech protests that he is innocent because Abraham told him she was his sister, God says this: “Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart; furthermore, it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore, I did not let you touch her.” (GEN 20:6 NRS)
So, it says he took her, which would normally indicate they had sex. But it also says God kept Abimelech from sinning against me and did not let you touch her, which means they did not have sex. If you only look at the text about Abraham and Sarah in the land of Egypt, you will have to conclude Sarah slept with Pharaoh because he took her as his wife. That is usually what that means. But since we have this case where a man “took her” [as a wife] but never “touched her” (because God prevented him), it is possible this happened with Pharaoh as well. Gerar “In the Hands of an Angry God”
Like Pharaoh, God visited Abimelech and his people with a plague (20:17-18; cf. 12:17). They must have been wondering what was wrong. Finally, they knew. God tells him how to remedy the situation. “Now then, return the man’s wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all that are yours.” (GEN 20:7 NRS)
This is the only verse that specifically calls Abraham a prophet, but he has already been playing the role of a prophet in many ways. Of course, the king must restore the prophet’s wife to him. Abraham, as a prophet, will then pray and heal Abimelech and his household of their plague of childlessness that started when he took Sarah into his household. And this is the man and woman God chose to initiate God’s covenant with the Jews? The bloodline of the Messiah officially starts with them. That seems to be why God protects them. The Bible does say that God’s call and gifts are irrevocable, apparently even for such scoundrels. (Romans 11:29).
Jacob’s name, deceiver does seem to characterize much of Jacob’s life. But he was also Israel, one to whom God made promises to which He remained faithful. God appeared to Jacob, and Jacob believed in God’s promises. Despite Jacob’s faults, God chose him to be the leader of a great nation that still bears his name today.
The name Jacob; means deceiver. Jacob was crafty, tricky, and skilled in the ways of lying and manipulation. He was the kind of person who had big dreams and ambitions and was always looking for an angle. He wanted a blessing. True to his name, Jacob grew up as a conniver, deceiver, and cheat, and he eventually supplanted his brother’s position as heir to the birthright. After Jacob’s struggle with the Lord at Peniel, the Lord gave Jacob a new name: Israel. And God gave the reason: “Because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome” (Genesis 32:28).
Jacob got cheated himself when he ‘got to know’ the wrong girl by mistake and became the father of Judah. Judah made the same mistake with his own daughter-in-law, Tamar. Tamar had cheated him by disguising herself as a prostitute. I am telling you: these are not the sort of people you would invite for Christmas.
What does your past whisper to you? Maybe these whispers haunt you from choices you made years ago. Maybe those choices were yesterday.
Perhaps Rahab came from a place of deep brokenness or childhood trauma. Maybe her past was one of pain or abuse that left her trapped by disrespect and shame. Maybe Rahab had been rejected or abandoned and made a desperate choice to meet her growling stomach. Night after night, choice after desperate choice had become a life she never intended.
What whispers did Rahab hear? Condemnation? Fear? Shame? Worthlessness? Too many mistakes, too much regret, and too late for change? The good news is that no choice we ever make, no scars ever inflicted, no drink taken, or words flung, or body misused can keep us from the saving grace of Jesus. Our past is never good enough to earn God’s salvation nor shocking enough to keep us from it.
2. God uses those with a past. Maybe you can nod and amen that God can save anyone with a past but here is where you get stuck: believing that God can use anyone with a past as well.
Let Rahab’s story convince you. God used Rahab mightily despite her past. In the first battle to conquer the Promised Land, God used Rahab to not only save the spies, but save her family. But God had even more for Rahab. God used Rahab to shape the character, faith, and godliness of a son named Boaz, who would one day rescue a young Moabite widow.
I wonder what whispers might be keeping you from letting God use you mightily. What is the enemy bringing up from years ago or even last week to taunt that you are disqualified. Do not give the enemy ground that Jesus has already taken. Jesus’ own lineage shows how God powerfully uses us despite our past.
3. God redefines those with a past. God redefined Rahab — from a fallen woman to a chosen woman, from a bad girl to a bride, from a mess to a mother and from prostitute to progenitor of the Messiah.
God redefines you and me as well. Our shame? There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus… (Romans 8:1) Our sin? If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:19)
Our hopelessness? Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. (1 Peter 1:3)
Our chains? Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:34-36)
David was a power-hungry peeping-tom, who spied on Bathsheba bathing on a rooftop one evening. David arranged for her husband, Uriah, to be murdered. David and Bathsheba went to become the parents of Solomon, the next name in the family tree of Emmanuel, God-with-us.
Of course, the family tree ultimately winds its way to Joseph. Joseph, who, Matthew makes no bones to hide, was not the father of Jesus at all. He was just the fiancé of the boy’s mother- Mary, the teenage girl with a child on the way and no ring on her finger. Matthew does not tell us about shepherds filled with good news. Matthew does not bother with imperial politics or mangers filled with straw or inns with no vacancies.
Instead, Matthew tells us the story by first telling us about the messy and the embarrassing and the sordid and the complicated and the disappointing and the unfaithful parts of Jesus’ family. And then, having said all that, Matthew tells us this baby is Emmanuel, God-with-us, God-for-us, as one of us, in the flesh.
Regardless of your past, you too can have a great future ahead of you. Even if you dropped out of high school, didn’t go to college; can’t find a job; battled with addictions and habits; lived in the projects; or come from a broken home. and even have a criminal record! You are still a vessel that God can use!
What Junk Do You Have on Your Family Tree? All of us can relate to this question in one way or another because some of us have come from families that were just a mess. Aren’t you glad that God is not like people? People will find one flaw or one crack and discard you and your entire life. But not God! He does not make any attempts to replace you or use something or someone else because of the junk on your family tree. No, He uses the SAME old you to make you a better you! God does not throw us away when we mess up, after all, Jesus was a carpenter!
Why would He throw away what He possesses the ability to fix?! You are never so irreparably damaged that God cannot repair you! And no matter what ‘labels’ people put on you (even the ones that are true), cannot hinder you from still being a work-in-progress workmanship of God’s! No matter who you used to be; no matter what you used to do; God Still Wants to Use Even You! Will You Let Him?!
So, if he can use Moses, with a stutter to still declare the 10 commandments, and a no-named servant girl to bless a highly named general, surely, he can use you just the same, no matter what you do for a living! You do not have to be a preacher to share the good news of the gospel, you can be a bus driver! Just imagine how many people a bus driver meets every day!? What about a janitor or teacher at a school? They meet hundreds of people (young and old, and of every ethnicity) daily! Imagine if they talked about Jesus! Not to mention a cashier! And they do not even have to turn into the early church evangelist on the job either.
In other words, it does not matter what your occupation is (or lack thereof), God can use you if you are available to be used! He does not ask for perfect vessels, just clean ones! 2 Timothy 2:20, “Now in a large house there are not only vessels and objects of gold and silver, but also vessels and objects of wood and of earthenware, and some are for honorable (noble, good) use and some for dishonorable (ignoble, common).” (AMP) God will use a gold or silver vessel just like He will use a wood or earthenware one. The importance is on the vessel being available and clean! So, He’ll use you if you’re a dog walker or a police officer; a CEO or a chef; a firefighter or a mechanic; a senator or the fry cook at Applebee’s; a professor or a high school dropout; young or old. educated or uneducated; wealthy or poor; from the white house or the poor house! God has no favorites! He will use any clean vessel! 2 Timothy 2:21, “Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things [which are dishonorable – disobedient, sinful], he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified [set apart for a special purpose and], useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.” (AMP) No matter what you do for a living, as a clean vessel, you can still work for the Lord! God Can Use, Even You!
Whatever your gifts, talents, skillsets, or abilities, God wants to use them. And that does not mean you have to be a part of the five-fold ministry! People who are orderly God can use; people who are good thinkers and strategists, God can use; people who can sow; stitch; teach, bake; do laundry; work at the bank; restock the shelves at the supermarket, can all be used by God. All you must do is know what your skill set is, and then home in on perfecting it through practicing it. Truth is, we spend so much time trying to get people into a black robe and into the pulpit, that we’re no longer preparing the next generation to put on a black robe and get into the government where they can change this world for the better! Yes, the church has need of you; but so, does this world. We are not citizens of it, but while we are strangers passing through, let us use our gifts and talents to leave it better than we found it. And that means telling God, ‘Use me and my gifts and talents, wherever and however, you see fit!’ Let everything you do reflect that you represent Jesus in everything you do! God Desires to Use, Even You!
Who did God choose to be the mother of Jesus? A famous actress? A celebrity? A great athlete? A famous politician? Nope, the mother of Jesus (Mary) was a peasant girl! Please understand greatness is not attached to Wealth, it is attached to Willingness! “Then Mary said, Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord; let it be done to me according to what you have said…” (Luke 1:38 AMP). God is not looking for great achievements, just availability! Are you willing to let God use you?
The very next time you doubt whether you have enough to do a work for God or dare to underestimate yourself, your worth, and value, just remember this: Jacob was a Moses who had a speech impediment. Exodus 4:10. But Moses pleaded with the LORD, “O Lord, I’m not particularly good with words. I never have been, and I am not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.” Jacob was a Master of Deception; Gideon was a Self-Doubter; David was a Premeditated Sinner: Solomon was an Unwise Lover; Paul Was an Adversary: Elijah was Suicidal; Noah was Drunk; Abraham was Old. Jeremiah was Young; Timothy had Ulcers; Job Went Bankrupt With Boils. The Disciples Fell Asleep During Intercession; Isaiah Preached Naked. Leah wasn’t exactly a Beauty Queen; Naomi Lost All the Men in Her Life. John the Baptist was Beheaded at a Birthday Party, The Samaritan Woman Had Too Many of Other Folks Men; Saul was Tall; Zacchaeus was small; Samson was a Womanizer; Rahab was a Prostitute; Jonah was a Prejudiced Prophet: Peter had a temper and Lazarus was Dead and yet God used each of them greatly! So why can’t He use even you? Believe it or not, YOU HAVE ENOUGH! YOU ARE ENOUGH! AND GOD DESIRES TO USE, EVEN YOU!
Blessings
J.P. Olson
www.thewordwithjpolson.com
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