God Uses Sinners to Accomplish His Purposes

The only dependable personality in the Bible--OR in human life ever--is God.

Sometimes, people forget that ALL human beings are sinners. And this is certainly true of Moses. There are several clear instances in which Moses sins. As we journey through the Book of Exodus, VERY EARLY in the story of Moses, the Bible relates an instance of Moses' sin.

Study Exodus 2:11-15.

When Moses, as an adult, saw the forced labor of the Israelites under the burdens imposed on the Egyptians. One day, as Moses saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, Moses "looked this way and that, and seeing no one HE KILLED THE EGYPTIAN AND HID HIM IN THE SAND" (verse 12). The very next day, two of Moses' Hebrew friends accused Moses of killing the Egyptian (verses 13-14). Soon, Pharaoh found out what Moses had done, and sought to kill Moses (verse 15). Moses fled away from Egypt, and found his way to Midian.

Now, we can empathize with Moses. If we had been in this situation, we would have at least felt the same way Moses felt. The Egyptian whom Moses killed was sinning against the Hebrew also. But MURDER IS MURDER. Moses KILLED another human being. Is it right before God to kill another human being?

AND YET, in time, through a series of events and over time, God used Moses to guide the Israelites out of Egypt under God's guidance. Surely, we cannot justify a person murdering another person.

BUT--Remember the story of Paul. As a young religious Jewish PhD preacher raised in Tarsus and taught by the great Professor of his day, Gamaliel, Saul [later Paul] set forth to demolish the new sect in Judea called "The Way" [Christianity]. Saul [Paul] took care of the coats of the Jews that dragged Stephen out of Jerusalem and stoned them to death. "Saul [Paul] APPROVED of their killing him [Stephen]" (Acts 7:58; 8:1). Then Saul [Paul] ravaged house after house, dragging off men and women and committing them to prison (Acts 8:3). Paul was "still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord," went to the high priest in Jerusalem, and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus to bring Christians, men and women, bound to Jerusalem (Acts 9:1-2). SAUL WAS A SINNER. He persecuted Christians. He puts Christians in prison. He stood by as his fellow Jews murdered Christians.

YES--BY GOD'S GRACE, God changed Paul heart and life. BUT Paul NEVER forgot the sins he had committed. Read carefully his own remorses in 1 Corinthians 15:9; Ephesians 3:8; 1 Timothy 1:15.

It would be "wrong-headed" to conclude that a person should strive to commit huge sins--then God will use that person--like Moses or Paul. Contrariwise: All of us are sinners. This is the ONLY material he has to work. Let us not allow our sins bury us in our guilt. Instead, realize who we are--and let God, the only dependable personality, use us to accomplish his purposes.

John Willis