People In The Bible God Used For His Purpose (The Patriarchs)

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

We thank God He has called us to join in His glorious work in His creation. The Bible is full of people God used for His purpose. God’s ultimate purpose for us is that we will love Him with all our heart, mind, and soul. We also know that we will live in a broken world with a broken human nature, far from the perfect world God created in the beginning. The enemy tempted Adam and Eve and caused The Fall to happen, and the trajectory of our lives has changed. But, God is very faithful and merciful and sent His son Jesus Christ to reconcile us back to Himself. Because of Jesus Christ, we can have a relationship with God. 

In today’s post, we will talk about ordinary people God used for His purpose. But, we should also be clear that God is still using people who respond to His calling for His work and purposes in the world. 

Let us begin, and our first group of people will be the patriarchs of the Jewish nation, Israel. The patriarchs are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: The patriarchs were to start the Jewish nation Israel. God called Abraham, who at the time was called Abram. 

(Genesis 12:1-3 NIV) The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

2 “I will make you into a great nation,

    and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

    and you will be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you,

    and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on earth

    will be blessed through you.”

God called Abraham to leave his home country to a land God will show him, and through Abraham’s faith and obedience, a sequence of events began. God requires that we obey Him, and we demonstrate faith if we want to walk and work with Him. 

(Genesis 15:6 NIV) Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

God began giving Abraham Promises and making covenants with him for what was to come in the future. God’s purpose was to make a nation and have a people He can call His own, but He needed to do that through a human being, so He chose to create His Hebrew/Jewish nation through Abraham. 

Here is what God told Abraham – (Promises & Covenants) 

(Genesis 15:1-4 NIV) After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:

“Do not be afraid, Abram.

    I am your shield,[a]

    your very great reward.[b]”

2 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit[c] my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”

4 Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.”

(Genesis 15:13-16 NIV) Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”

(Genesis 15:18-21 NIV) On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”

God is not a man who should lie; the promises that He spoke to Abraham, even though it took a while, those promises came to pass. In our wisdom, we think that God’s promises take time, but in actuality, God works in times and seasons. So when the timing came for the promised son to be birthed, it happened. 

In Genesis 21, we read about the birth of Isaac. In Genesis 24, we read about the marriage between Isaac and Rebekah. In Genesis 25:21, we read about Isaac praying on behalf of his wife Rebekah, God answering his prayer, and the twins Jacob and Esau being born. Fast forward to Genesis 27, we read about the two sons of Isaac, Jacob and Esau, and the exchange of birthrights – The blessing going from Esau to Jacob. God’s hand was in this exchange. 

In the remaining chapters of Genesis, we read about the lives of Jacob and how he lived with his uncle, got married, gave birth to sons, and how those sons became known as the 12 tribes of Israel. Also, we read about God’s words coming true in later years when Jacob and his sons went to Egypt because of the famine and how they will become enslaved in a country not their own. 

We can see how God orchestrated and used people to serve His purpose. When God calls you for a specific task or assignment, know that the work that God gives you will come with covenants and promises. He will not force you to take up the job, but if out of obedience you do say yes to God, and work for Him, know that the rewards are beyond this world. 

This blog post is going to be in series; please check out subsequent posts after this one to read about other biblical people whom God used for His purpose.