Who the Team Captain Chooses

I remember how much I hated when the team captains took turns choosing who would be on their team.  The P.E. teacher would have the team captains stand in two different places as they took turns choosing who would be on their team.  It was always the same.  The biggest, fastest, and strongest were chosen first.  Personal friends and the popular kids were also chosen first.  After the desirables were chosen came the leftovers, which included the awkward misfits and those who were not physically coordinated.

This is a pattern that is not limited to kids on the field.  In the adult world, those who are most able, devoted, and popular are usually chosen first.   In contrast, the Bible tells us that this is not how God operates.

After the defeat of Pharaoh, the crossing of the sea, and the trip in the wilderness, the people got tired of the leadership of those whom God had chosen, namely Moses and Aaron.  

“Now Korah the son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men. And they rose up before Moses, with a number of the people of Israel, 250 chiefs of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men. They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron” (Num 16:1-3).

They then accused Moses and Aaron of taking them away from Egypt (seemingly forgetting that they were abused slaves there) and of appointing themselves as prince over the people.    Humble Moses’ first response to their rebellion was to fall flat on his face.  Moses was acutely aware of the presence of Yahweh and knew the danger they were in due to their rebellion.

God’s response was to open the ground up to swallow up the rebels along with all they had.  God then reaffirmed his choice of Aaron as high priest by having his staff miraculously grow ripe almonds overnight.  As a reminder to future generations, God instructed them to put Aaron’s rod in the Tabernacle.  

What a contrast between the rebels who were “chosen” by the people and Moses and Aaron, who were chosen by God.  The text says that the people’s choice were “well-known men.”  I can imagine that they were popular, dynamic, perhaps good-looking, and had all of the desirable human characteristics.  The single biggest problem is that they were not God’s choice.

God does not choose on the basis of skill, ability, age, looks, or any of thing things we would place as of first importance.  God chose the younger brother Jacob instead of Esau.  God chose young Joseph to save his brothers in Egypt.  God chose the aged Moses to lead his people.  God chose the young shepherd boy, David to be King over all his older brothers.  God chose Jeremiah who was a youth and did not know how to speak well.  God chose Israel, the least of the nations, because of the oath he swore to their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Dt 7:6-8).  

God often chooses the least of these.  God did not choose a prominent family in Jerusalem to be the parents of the Messiah, but chose Joseph and Mary in far away Nazareth.  Jesus did not choose students from the most the rich or prominent students from the leading rabbinical schools.  Instead, he chose twelve ordinary men to be his envoys.  This is what the church continued to look like.  Paul points this out in 1 Corinthians:

“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Cor 1:26-29).

The church’s values reflects this.  All people are valued equally in the church:

“The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.  If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (1 Cor 12:21-26).

The team captains of the world often value people for their utility.  Not so with our Lord Jesus, the ultimate team captain.  We are all valued because of God’s promise he made to our spiritual ancestor, Abraham (Gal 3:6-9).  God promised to bless all nations through Abraham’s descendant (Gen 22:18), which is Christ (Gal 3:16).   God does not choose us based on our ability, utility, popularity, or any other “ility.”  God values us because he chose to value us in Christ.

This does not make sense to outsiders.  In fact, this was a source of scathing criticism by outsiders.  Roman leaders and philosophers used to mock the church, claiming that they are eager to accept women, slaves, and children, which were people that had no social status in the ancient world.  They didn’t understand that a person’s worth in the eyes of God had nothing to do with status or ability.  What mattered was not a person’s ability, but the ability of our God.  This is why this group of nobodies laid down their lives not in some glorious battle, but daily through serving the sick, dying, hungry, and outcasts.  Some were baffled how these nobodies, who often ministered to other nobodies, could have a message that captivated and converted kings and servants alike.  

It IS the Lambie!

Some of us were on a roll quoting lines from the comedy movie, “The Quest for the Holy Grail.”  In one scene, Tim the Enchanter leads King Arthur and his knights to the cave of a terrible and vile monster.  Tim had terrified them by warning, “Death awaits you all with nasty, big, pointy teeth!”  The men arrived to find the area in front of the cave littered with bones and broken armor.  “There he is!” Tim announced. “Where? Behind the Rabbit?” Arthur asked.  “It IS the rabbit!” answered Tim.  At this point, a sense of relief and ridicule came from Arthur and his men.  Even though Tim pointed out, “Look at the bones!” they were no longer convinced. When Arthur ordered one of his men to get the rabbit, it suddenly lunged and killed him along with two more of Arthur’s men before they ran away.

The scene brings to mind another scene that is neither comedic nor ridiculous.  In Revelation chapter 5, John saw God on his throne holding a scroll that no one was worthy to open except the Lion of the Tribe of Judah who had conquered.  John looked at the Lion, but “saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain…” (Rev 5:6).  There are several words in Greek that can for “lamb.”  The one in this verse is interesting.  “Arnion,” is a diminutive form of “aren.”  The “ion” at the end of a Greek word makes it diminutive.  An example of an English diminutive is “let,” as used in words like piglet, eyelet, droplet, booklet, starlet, or kitchenette.  Other examples are duckling, gosling, cigarette, diskette, doggie, kitty, and so forth.  The Greek word “arnion” could be rendered as “lambling,” “lambette,” or “lambie.”

I have been reflecting on what “lambie” communicates.  This is not just a lamb that John sees, but a little lamb.  It seems mild and harmless on the surface.  However, the text refers to the “lambie” as the “Lion of the Tribe of Judah,” which communicates agility, power, and strength.  This lambie was slain, but is now standing, never to taste of death again.  At one point, when the commanders and kings of the earth were trying to hide from judgment, they cried out to the rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them “from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the lambie, for the great day of their wrath has come” (Rev 6:16-17).  In Revelation 19, the lambie appears as the fiery eyed warrior riding on a white horse as King of Kings and Lord of Lords wearing a robe with blood, wielding a sword from his mouth to strike the nations and has the armies of Heaven following him!

This “lambie” reminds me of the nature of God’s power.  It is often perceived as weakness, especially by those who do not have eyes to see and ears to hear.  With hearts that see, we know that “he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God” (2 Cor 13:4). We understand that “power is perfected in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9).  We recognize that “the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses” (2 Cor 10:4).  God has demonstrated this through people like Gideon (Jud 7:1-22), Young David (1 Sam 17:44-51), Jehoshaphat (2 Chr 20:20-25), and others.  I am reminded of something Jimmy Allen, one of my instructors, used to say.  “One man with God always makes a majority.”  

The power of God is not behind the lambie, it IS the lambie!