God Uses Cracked Pots Series

Gideon gathered an army of 32,000 soldiers, and God said, “That’s too many. If they win the battle, they’ll think that they did it by their own military strength instead of by my hand.” So Gideon said, “Any of you guys who are afraid to going into battle, head back home.” 22,000 left on the spot leaving Gideon 10,000. God said, “That’s still too many—they might think they are responsible for victory, let’s trim it down again.” So Gideon told the men to go to a stream and drink water. God said, “Every man who gets down and laps water on all fours like a dog, send him home. Keep only the ones who kneel and use their hand to drink.” 9700 of the soldiers lapped the water, leaving Gideon with only 300 soldiers. God said, “That’s a great number. This way, when you win against overpowering odds, everyone will know it was by my power.”

So at God’s direction, Gideon’s band waited until midnight and then quietly surrounded the camp of the Midianites. Each soldier was given an empty clay jar, a torch, and a trumpet. They placed the torch inside the clay jar. At a given signal, all the soldiers blew their trumpets and smashed their jars and shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!”

The Midianites awoke in a panic at the sound of the trumpets, breaking jars, and shouting. They were so confused that they started fighting one another. Those who weren’t killed fled into the night. If I had more time, I’d tell you that there are three elements required for victory: boldness; brokenness; and brightness. But for now, let’s notice that the light of the torches weren’t revealed until the clay jars were broken.

That’s what God wants to do—to let His light shine through us. And God delights to use broken, flawed, cracked pots, so that He and He alone will receive the glory. The Message translation of this passage says it well, “If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That's to prevent anyone from confusing God's incomparable power with us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7 The Message)

So if you’re a cracked pot, don’t despair. God delights to use cracked pots. On this table I have a plain pot that is cracked. I want to lower the lights inside this room to demonstrate that God can shine through the cracks and flaws of your life if you’ll just surrender yourself to Him.

J. Hudson Taylor was one of the first missionaries to the take the gospel to China. Although he suffered from extremely poor health, God used him. He was a weak man, but he was a plain, empty clay jar that God filled with the treasure of Jesus Christ. Taylor once wrote, “All of God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on Christ living in them.” Hudson Taylor was too humble to call himself a giant, but he understood the puzzling paradox that a mighty God can use broken, cracked, weak vessels.