I know that thou can do all things; and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted (Job 42:2).
Not too many Christians, I suppose, have never prayed for God to use them to do His will/ work. While, of course, there is nothing at all wrong with such a prayer, I would like to grapple with what it means to take into consideration the fact that God will use us anyway, regardless of whether or not we want/ ask Him to; and how beginning from this premise helps us make better sense of the manifold wisdom and boundless sovereignty of God.
It is perhaps useful to begin the discussion by admitting the wisdom in the holy desire to be used by God, so long as the desire is sincere. I am moved by the Christlike radicality of those who dare to pray, “Lord, use me or kill me!” Such expression of availability, willingness and zeal to be used by God to accomplish His will was present in the life of Jesus. The writer of Hebrews tells us how when Christ came into the world, He said, “A body you prepared for me…I have come to do your will, O God” (10:6,7). We know that this was not empty rhetoric. Never was a man so sold out to do the will of God. So when we pray, “God use me”, we’re in good company, following in the footsteps of the Christ. Besides, what could we possibly do with our lives that God cannot do far greater? The least God can do with our lives is more meaningful than the best we can manage ourselves.
In other words, it is wrong to think of the prayer to be used by God as giving permission to God, without which He would be unable to do what He wants with us.
But I want to linger more on a point which is, in my opinion, rarely and insufficiently emphasized, namely that whether or not we desire to be used by God, God will use us one way or another—since, after all, the earth and all who live in it are the Lord’s (Ps. 24:1). In other words, it is wrong to think of the prayer to be used by God as giving permission to God, without which He would be unable to do what He wants with us. Can anyone stay God’s hand? Or say to him in defiance, “What have you done?” (Dan. 4:35)
The temptation to think that God only uses those who are yielded to Him, to my mind, springs from the fact that it is usually possible to see the hand of God actively at work in those who are committed to doing His will. Take Jesus, for example. Nicodemus, the teacher of the law, admitted that the works of Jesus testified that God was with him (John 3:2). We know of Stephen, too, and how when he spoke before the Sanhedrin his face shone like an angel (Acts 6:15). However, focusing too much on certain pre-determined markers of God using someone creates the illusion that other people who live in rebellion to God—or those who are just indifferent to the will of God—will end up having their own way, at least in this life, when in fact, the Lord has made everything for His own purposes, even the wicked for a day of disaster (Prov. 16:4). Not even Satan escapes being used by God. Put differently, God uses those yielded to Him for His purposes, just as He uses those living in rebellion against Him for His purposes.
Not even Satan escapes being used by God. Put differently, God uses those yielded to Him for His purposes, just as He uses those living in rebellion against Him for His purposes.
In fact, even those who decide to do God’s will are only responding to God’s workings in their hearts. We all are by default children of disobedience and objects of wrath (Eph. 2:3) and can never seek God on our own if God Himself does not help us. Jesus told us that no one has the ability to come to Him unless God the Father has drawn them (John 6:44). This is a recurrent theme in the Scriptures, testified to by the lives of the giants of our faith. For example, we do not read that Abraham woke up one day in search for God, but that the Lord told Abraham, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you” (Gen. 12:1). What about Moses? The man was living a fairly comfortable life in Midian when God ambushed him in the burning bush experience. In fact, from the dialogue on the mountain, we get the sense that Moses thought of his call as a serious interference; he seemed quite content to stay with the sheep. Paul also, although a great pillar of the Christian faith, started out as a persecutor of God’s church, and it was in the act of performing this persecution that God met Him. The point I’m belabouring here is that even when we think we’re doing the will of God and, thus, helping God achieve His purposes, we’re in reality only responding to God’s work within us. As such, the credit is still God’s.
The argument is that all peoples on earth are as dust in the eyes of God (Is. 40:15); as such, God uses everyone and every situation for His own purposes, even when it is not immediately apparent.
Just as God’s hand can be seen in the lives of those yielded to Him, God is also at work in the lives of those living in rebellion against Him. Thus, one cannot escape being used by God by living in rebellion or indifference. Is it not interesting, for example, that God called Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, “my servant”? (Jer. 43:10). It was this Nebuchadnezzar who invaded Jerusalem, and destroyed the temple that Solomon had used 7 years to build. This same Nebuchadnezzar removed all the treasures from the temple of the Lord and from the royal palace, and took away all the gold articles in the temple of the Lord. And yet, the Lord called Him, “my servant.” What about Cyrus, who was not necessarily a follower of God, but was inspired by God to give the edict to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem? Pharaoh, too, despite his resistance of the injunction from God to “Let my people go”, was in fact, only co-operating with God, for through his stubbornness, he helped God make a name for Himself. But for Pharaoh’s obstinacy, God would not have had to demonstrate His power through many of the miracles we see in Exodus. This is why the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth” (Rom. 9:17). We may thus even dare to think of Pharoah as an evangelist par excellence. The argument is that all peoples on earth are as dust in the eyes of God (Is. 40:15); as such, God uses everyone and every situation for His own purposes, even when it is not immediately apparent.
Nowhere is this clearer than in the life of Joseph, the dreamer. Is the silence of heaven in the midst of the injustices Joseph endured not intriguing? Betrayal by his own brothers, sale into slavery, exile, unfair imprisonment, etc. Although Joseph’s brothers were to blame, does heaven—at first glance—not seem the major culprit by its shocking silence? If God wanted to save Joseph the unfair torment, there were a plethora of options. For example, God could have added to Joseph’s ability to dream and interpret dreams prudence, in which case he would not have gone about touting his dreams to his brothers, and his brothers would not have hated him so much to plot evil against him. Or God could have revealed in a dream to Joseph how his brothers were plotting against him. God could have whispered to Potiphar—just as he did with Abimelech in the case of Abraham’s wife, Sarah—that the young man Joseph was innocent. And God could have prevented Pharaoh’s winedresser from forgetting—for a whole 2 years—to mention Joseph and his innocence before Pharaoh. The options for God were endless.
In the minds of Joseph’s brothers, they were thwarting the dreams of Joseph. “Let’s see what will become of his dreams now,” said they to one another. They seemed to have been doing everything to frustrate the will of God concerning Joseph. And yet, the very events that were supposed to cut Joseph’s dreams short not only fulfilled the dreams, but fulfilled two other grander purposes of God. First of all, God had made a covenant with a certain gentleman then called Abram, the great grandfather of Joseph and his brothers, whom none of the brothers had met. God had told this Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own” (Gen. 15:13). God had not said exactly how the descendants of Israel would end up as strangers in this country. The morning that Joseph went to meet his brothers seemed like a normal day, but in acting on their hatred against their brother, Joseph’s brothers were setting into motion the trend of events that would lead to the fulfilling of a promise God had made to Abram some 400 years before!
The second grander scheme the brothers of Joseph collaborated with God to accomplish was to paint a perfect picture of His Messiah. God is a storyteller. And since He’s most pleased with His Son, He has been painting pictures, telling stories about His Son, long before Christ was actually born. The story of Joseph and his brothers tells one of the most profound stories about the life and death of Christ. The similitude is just thrilling. The most significant is perhaps, how God used the work of evil people against a righteous person as the means of their own salvation.
A huge question arises: did God plan for Joseph’s brothers to do all they did to their brother in order to launch Joseph to his destiny; or did God make use of what is purely evil to achieve His purpose? I really can’t tell. It’s probably wiser to leave it for the theologians. My response, however, would be that the answer to this question is really inconsequential. The baseline is that God will always have His way, even with those who appear to be rebelling against His purposes. This is why David, speaking through the Spirit, is amused by those who rose against Jesus. “Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?” he asked. “The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.” And how does God respond to such enterprise? “The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them” (Ps. 2:1–4).
When God does or does not do something, it is not because He has no other option. It is because that is what He has chosen to do/not do at that particular time.
This brings me, as it always does, to the boundless sovereignty and the manifold wisdom of God, which I wish to reflect on in succession. It is not lost on me that to say “boundless sovereignty” is exercise in pleonasm, for if sovereignty is bound, then it wouldn’t be sovereignty at all, would it? But I deliberately emphasize the sovereignty of God as boundless because sometimes the teaching on God’s sovereignty caricatures the power of God, giving the impression that in certain situations God cannot have His way unless He has been granted permission by human beings! For example, some well-meaning people, to explain the importance of prayer, teach that God has given the earth realm to man and as such God cannot exercise His will on earth without human beings’ permission. But did God seek Jonah’s permission before allowing a fish to swallow him? Did God consult Job before striking a deal with Satan concerning Job? When God does or does not do something, it is not because He has no other option. It is because that is what He has chosen to do/not do at that particular time. To teach otherwise is an affront to the sovereignty of God. Christ was born because that was God’s chosen medium. He might as well have dropped from the skies if God so willed. God could have taken the Israelites from Egypt to the promised land without confronting Pharaoh. He could have teleported them, even, if He wanted to, rather than use the wilderness route. As for God, He does all that He pleases (Job 23:13).
And God’s sovereignty moves hand in hand with His wisdom. Paul explains that He is the only wise God (Rom. 16:27); that His ways are past searching and His paths beyond tracing (Rom. 11:33). When we think we grasp the ways of God, we’ve only handled the tip of the iceberg. That Paul is effusive in his description of God’s wisdom is something significant, for Paul himself—if we judge at least by the quality of his letters—was no fool. Therefore, his assessment of God’s wisdom is trustworthy. Even when it seems like God’s opponents are winning, it is only because like a master chess player, God allows them to win a few points in order that He can ultimately say, “Checkmate!” Job puts this in different words when he says that God catches the wise in their craftiness (Job 5:13). At His most foolish, God is wiser than the aggregate of human wisdom.
The real question, therefore, is whether we will willingly allow ourselves to be used by God to accomplish His will, and be rewarded for it; or whether we will resist God’s will but accomplish it anyway, and be punished for it?
Let me conclude by flogging a dead horse. God will use us. He has every right to, as sovereign ruler of the universe. The difference is that the position we take in relation to God’s purposes—i.e., whether we obey God, resist Him, or are just indifferent—will determine whether we will be rewarded or punished for collaborating with God to accomplish His purpose. It’s really a catch-22 situation. The real question, therefore, is whether we will willingly allow ourselves to be used by God to accomplish His will, and be rewarded for it; or whether we will resist God’s will but accomplish it anyway, and be punished for it?