"Strange Choices"

Have you noticed how much we Americans enjoy choosing?

Pretty much wherever we go these days, we get to choose—and we love it! Need to buy toothpaste? Your grocery store offers no less than forty choices to choose from. Or salad dressing? 175 choices. Soup? 230 choices. Cereal? 275 choices. You and I make more choices in a day than our grandparents probably had to make in a month—maybe six months.

Which means that most of us have become very good at choosing. Faced with so many choices, we have become very shrewd and discerning. We want the longest lasting. We want the most efficient. We want the best looking. We want the least expensive. We want the nicest smelling. We have become experts at choosing.

In the Bible, we see God doing quite a bit of choosing, as well. He chose Abraham. He chose Moses. He chose David. He chose to send Jesus, His own Son, to save us all from our sins. He chose Peter and Paul to proclaim that Good News about Jesus to the world. In John 15, Jesus even talks about having chosen you! He said, "You did not choose me. I chose you."

And how good is God at choosing? How shrewd and discerning is He? One would expect God to be very good at choosing only those who are of the highest character, deepest faith, and strongest commitment. One could then assume that those who are chosen must be pretty good people and have reason to boast.

As it turns out, God has a rather strange way of choosing people. In 1 Corinthians, Paul writes, "Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things." In other words, when God goes about choosing, He looks for the least—the least qualified, the least likely. He looks for people who don’t seem to be very good choices.

Abraham, for example. Who was Abraham, before God chose him to be the father of God’s chosen people, Israel? Was he a righteous and faithful believer in God? Was he chosen because he was so spiritually qualified? No. When Abraham was called by God, he was a pagan unbeliever. Abraham worshiped false gods until the true God called him. But Abraham is the one God chose.

And Paul, for another example. Who was Paul, before God chose him? Was he a righteous and holy, faithful believer in God? Was he chosen because he was so spiritually qualified? No. When Paul was chosen by God, he was a sworn enemy of the followers of Jesus. He was a persecutor of Christians. He was exactly the wrong guy to choose to be a Christian preacher and missionary. But Paul is the one God chose.

These are strange choices that God makes. These people God chose don’t seem to be very qualified. But that’s the point, as far as God is concerned. God chose these people BECAUSE they are unqualified. So that when the plan succeeds, God gets the glory. Abraham can’t stand up and say, "Look at what I did," as God’s plan unfolds. It’s God who gets the glory. Same thing with Paul. Same thing with David. Same thing with Moses. Same thing with you and me.

Even Jesus, to the people watching Him die on a cross, did not look like God’s choice (Luke 23:35). Jesus did not appear to be qualified. And yet, through His suffering, death, and resurrection, God accomplished a spectacular victory over sin and death and Satan for you.

So, how is it that a person is chosen by God? How is it that someone is forgiven and saved? It’s not because you’re better, or better qualified. It’s not because you studied really hard and passed the test. It’s not because you practiced for weeks and then made first place. It’s not because you’re the most beautiful, or the longest lasting, or the most efficient, or even the nicest smelling. It’s because God doesn’t choose things the way we do. God likes to choose foolish and weak and lowly people so that when He accomplishes great things through you, everyone will know that it was God at work, not you. God gets the glory!

Through the Gospel, the Good News that Jesus died on the cross and rose again for you, God says to you that because of Jesus, you are chosen, you are forgiven, you are free!