Thought for the Day 23/02/21 God's plan and Dodgy Blokes

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Reading through the list of people Jesus had in His family background this morning sent a bit of a thrill down the little hairs on the back of my neck.

It's a proper rogues gallery there in His ancestral line!

It's pretty much the royal line of the Kings of Judah, so not only has it got that slightly nasty piece of work, Jacob, in there back in the days before the monarchy, it's got the likes of Rehoboam ("You have done more evil than all who lived before you" - 1 Kings 14:9), Jehoram ("When Jehoram established himself firmly over his father’s kingdom, he put all his brothers to the sword along with some of the officials of Israel" - 2 Chronicles 21:4) and 'Black Manasseh' as the old then there's hymn describes him ("Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end – besides the sin that he had caused Judah to commit, so that they did evil in the eyes of the Lord" - 2 Kings 21:15-17). Thart guy's life makes quite a read!

Now that's just a taster of the dodgy men in the Lord's family tree ... and then there were the women! Rahab the harlot from Joshua 2, 'Uriah's wife' (that is Bathsheba who seduced David ... so much more could be said) and Ruth (all that business under a blanket with Boaz).

Nose turners a-plenty!

The big surprise is, there was plenty there in Christ's background that the religious could turn their noses up at, and it all gets rolled out at the very start of this very Jewish Gospel of Matthew.

The 'religious' should know better than to sneer.

After all, it was a dodgy bloke that returned Israel after Exile, and set them up with their Temple and their holy city back in their land again, when their persistent sin had been punished to turn their hearts back to God.

It was Cyrus (the Great) King of Persia.

Cyrus became a vassal King of Persia still subject to the Medes in 600 BC, but by the time he died in 530 BC Cyrus the Great's dominions composed the largest empire the world had ever seen to that point. Cyrus is a cult figure amongst modern Iranians, with his tomb serving as a spot of reverence for millions of people.

And God could use a man like that 

... NO worshipper of God but far from it ... 

to fulfil His great plans for His people.

So Isaiah the prophet prophecies in advance

"I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness:

    I will make all his ways straight.
He will rebuild my city
    and set my exiles free,
but not for a price or reward,
    says the Lord Almighty.’"

                                          Isaiah 45:13

Even mighty Cyrus is just a pawn in God's game-plan!

But Cyrus was no worshipper of the Lord, no gratitude is due to that man for the way that he fulfilled God's purposes: as God said through the prophet Isaiah:

"I am the Lord, and there is no other;

    apart from me there is no God.
I will strengthen you,
    though you have not acknowledged me,
6 so that from the rising of the sun
    to the place of its setting
people may know there is none besides me.
    I am the Lord, and there is no other."

                                                 Isaiah 45:5-6

God's rescued people owed nothing to Cyrus himself, because it was GOD Who used Cyrus to be their rescuer.

The Point

God is Almighty and the Creator. All people are His, so He can use dodgy people to accomplish His purposes without ever once staining His hands ... nor ours when we're the immediate beneficiaries.

God is our patron and protector. The human instruments whose agenda we haven't signed up to, but that God used to deliver His people, don't bring guilty associations on any of us - so long as we keep on in God's ways.

So here's the thing we really shouldn't be inhibited by our past or by the associations God has formed to get us to where we are ... so long as OUR actions were not sinful and don't incur the displeasure of God.

When GOD uses dodgy people, that's fine. They are His as their Creator and He doesn't dirty His hands with the holy purposes that He turns their hearts to do. So NEITHER does that create guilty associations for His people, or created a debt of gratitude to anyone but Himself.

The Takeaway

The Lord takes people from all sorts of backgrounds and all sorts of circumstances and delivers them - us - into the glorious liberty of His blessings and (ultimately) Glory.

Don't let your past associations limit or disable you - commit your way to the Lord today, and whatever means He chooses to use to do so, HE is the One Who raises you up.

Heads up.

Walk on!

God uses dodgy people to His own ends and greater Glory.

Walk on in the path He's carved out for you.