As Christians, we often desire to be used by God for His purposes. Many of us sing it, pray about it and even long for it. Yet, I believe not many of us understand the implications of being used for the purposes of God. We do not understand what being ‘chosen’, being ‘set apart’, being devoted to the Lord entails. The bible is filled with examples of people that were set apart for the Lord, or devoted to the Lord. Starting from the people of Israel who were chosen by God to be a Holy nation, to us who have put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So what exactly does it mean to be set apart? What does it mean to be used for the purposes of God? Is it something we should be seeking to do as Christians or is it only for a few people? While I may not be able to answer these questions, I trust that the Holy Spirit will reveal the answers to you as you keep seeking Him. However, today, I would like to look with you at examples of people in the bible that were set apart, the implications of that for their lives and the lives of others around them, as well as the reasons for their distinction. I will look at the people of Israel, the lives of the prophets, and finally the Son of God.
First, let us start with the people of Israel. God in His immense kindness chose the people of Israel to be “holy to the LORD their God, and he chose them from all the nations of the earth to be His own special treasure” (Deuteronomy 7:6, 14:2). This is not because Israel was particularly special, in fact, this nation was birth from a gentile, Abram who did not know the Lord but whom the Lord called and set apart to be a father to many nations (Genesis 12:1-2). Moreover, the bible is very clear that Israel did not deserve this attention or special treatment. Indeed in Deuteronomy we read “the Lord did not set His love on you (Israel) nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all people but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers…” (Deuteronomy 7:7-8). The love of God and the covenant God made with Abraham their father made God choose Israel. As God’s holy nation, Israel was to be different, therefore God laid out several rules and instructions that they were to follow (read Leviticus). These rules and instructions were covering all the areas of their lives, from eating, drinking, social life to worship. These instructions would not make much sense to the Israelites or to us who read them now but that is not the point, they were made to be followed. The main reason of these rules and instructions was because Israel was set apart and so needed to act accordingly. When you are set apart you are different, you are taken from the mass and put in a separate category; there is a division, a separation between the ‘set apart’ and the rest. Being set apart was to be evident to all hence Israel’s way of life was different. I wonder what it was like for a foreigner to visit Israel during those times or even just to observe them. The Israelites must have been a very odd people in the eyes of the world. However, that did not matter because they were God’s very own. Because of their status and identity, the Israelites could not just do as they pleased, they could not follow the ways of the other nations, they could not be like others.
Second, when we look at the lives of prophets we see that they too were set apart, they were chosen by God to be used for His purposes. There is not one prophet mentioned in the bible that was not very much set apart from the people. Many of them would be told to act in ways that were questionable to the masses. For example, God asked one prophet to not eat or drink or take the same road he came in on his way back (1 King 13:9), to another he said to marry a prostitute (Hosea 1:2), still to another he said to not marry or have children or even mourn the dead (Jeremiah 16:2, Ezekiel 24:16). The point is clear, prophets did not have an easy life. Following God and being chosen by God came with a price, the price of selflessness. It is evident from the lives of the prophets that their lives were not their own. God would say do this, and theirs was just to execute. Prophets were outcasts, not loved and not liked by the world because they were too different and their message was always unpleasant. Many of the behaviours of the prophets in the bible would be considered unbiblical today, many Christians would not think these prophets were acting in obedience to the Lord simply because in our modern world, everything has to make sense to our minds. But God does not ask us to rationalize His commandments, He does not ask us to question Him when He gives us instructions, He is a King and we are His subjects. Ours is to obey. I was struck by the fact that when God gives you an instruction He does not care about how you will be dealing with your fellow humans, that part is left to you. For example, God told Jeremiah to get some of the elders of the people and some senior priests and together meet him at a certain place (Jeremiah 19:1-2). This is a simple instruction but the part about convincing the elders and priests to come with him to where God wanted was not a given. Or take for instance, Hosea who is told to go take Homer the prostitute for a wife. He would have to do the convincing part, he would have to endure the scorn and shame that it brings for a man of his standing to align with the ‘lower and sinful’ class. That part is not something God deals with, I would even go as far as to say it is none of His business. What interests Him is that you execute His instructions. When you are chosen by God, when you allow Him to use you for His purposes, your life is no longer yours, He dictates it and uses it according to His purposes. You become a vessel in the Potter’s hands.
The final example of someone being set apart is the Son of God, Jesus Christ. From birth, Christ was set apart. He is the only one being born of a virgin through the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:30-35). This is an entirely different class of ‘being set apart’. God told Jeremiah that he set him apart from birth, and appointed him prophets to the nations but the way Jesus was conceived in the womb was exceptionally extraordinary. As the chosen one, Jesus showed us what it means to be set apart. He lived his life entirely for the will of the Father. Jesus was always concerned to do the will of the Father, to please Him and that he did even when he knew crucifixion was part of it. Jesus’ way of life showed in the manner he interacted with others. He was a friend of sinners, he was a rebel by the standards of his time (i.e. healing on the Sabbath, speaking to a Samaritan woman, eating with sinners, etc.), he too was not loved by the world, as a matter of fact, the world killed him. He was not understood by the world (John 1:5) including his own family, his miracles were not enough to convince the mass and his suffering was off-putting to many. Yet, this was the Son of God who took away the sins of the world. Jesus warned us that we should not seek to be loved by the world because we are not of the world. Moreover, the world did not love him so it is only natural that it hates us (John 15:18-20).
As followers of Christ, we too are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation as Peter tells us (1 Peter 2:9). This means we are not like the rest, we live, think, and act differently from the world because we no longer live for ourselves but for Christ (Galatians 2:20). So, yes it is a noble cause to want to be used by the Lord but it comes with a huge responsibility of relinquishing everything unto God. We might not like what it brings (solitude, mockery, shame, hardship, misunderstandings, etc.) but we must press on and hold fast to the word of God. The bible tells us that we are from a different kingdom – the kingdom of Light and we ought to start living like children of that new Kingdom. I pray we abide in Christ, I pray we learn to pay close attention to his words so that we can obey his instructions irrespective of what it looks like in our world. We are children of the Light, we speak truth, we fight for justice, we bring light into a dark world because that is who we are. May the Lord help us to love what He loves more than anything. Amen!
A Word Aptly Spoken 