Read Judges 7:1-22

If you have been in church for any amount of time, you are probably familiar with this story. It is a wonderful example of God giving victory in spite of the odds. Imagine if you were leading this small band of men against a large army of invading soldiers. When you put together a large group of men to fight (a large group, yet still vastly outnumbered), and God says this isn’t a fair fight. Most of us would think, “Yes, it’s not a fair fight; the enemy is much larger than we are.” However, God says, “Wait, No, not like that. Our army is too big, it wouldn’t be a fair fight for the enemy. Get rid of most of our men.” Whenever you think the odds are stacked against you, just remember that it’s not a fair fight when God is on your side. God could bring victory even if the odds were vastly worse.

The main focus of this short study is not on God giving victory despite the odds. I just gave that extra bit of encouragement because you never know who needs it. I want to focus now on the pitcher that Gideon’s men had. The pitchers were in almost any other situation useless in their current state. A vessel, a pot, or a pitcher is useless when it is empty, the only time that a vessel is worth anything is when it is filled with something. The value and usefulness of a vessel are not determined by the vessel itself but rather by what is contained within the vessel. It is much the same for us as Christians: We are just a useless vessel, but when filled with the Holy Spirit we have value, we have use. I now want to turn our thoughts back to the pitchers keeping this in mind.

The pitchers were basically useless in battle, or so most would think. Their only use in this battle was to be broken. These pitchers were filled with a light, but kept the light contained inside, and blocked out the light from shining forth. The most useful thing for those pitchers to do was to be broken so that the light within could shine out. The pitchers had to be broken so that the thing contained within could be used. As Christians, we are useless on our own. Our greatest value, our greatest use is because of the Light that is within us. This Light is Christ, and sometimes we need to be broken so that the light of Christ can shine through us. There are things in our life that do nothing but hinder and block the Light of Christ from shining out through us. Those things must be broken and removed from us so that the light of Christ will not be hindered. We are just a useless, dirty, broken vessel that Christ, the Potter, has cleansed and fixed to be used for His Glory, and sometimes He needs to remove some rough spots to allow us to be used to the fullest. Sometimes we need to be broken to be used more for Christ so that His Light through us may be shared with the world.

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