The Matthew 28:19 Project

Have you ever noticed, while reading the Bible, how often God uses people who do not believe in Him or worship Him to accomplish His purposes? I especially noticed in the Old Testament that God frequently used nonbelievers to carry out His will when His followers refused to obey His commands. For example, God used King Nebuchadnezzar to punish the Israelites because they failed to follow His instructions. “Therefore, the Lord Almighty says this: ‘Because you have not listened to my words, I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin” (Jeremiah 25:8-9). Jeremiah told the Israelites that they would be taken captive, but he also said that if they stayed in Israel, they would be blessed. However, if they went to Egypt, they would become captives and slaves and would not be blessed. Those who stayed were blessed, but those who went were not.

King Nebuchadnezzar is not the only one. Throughout the Old Testament, whenever Israel or Judah turned away from God, the Lord often used kings—both pagan and Israelite—to accomplish His purposes. There were many occasions when the king of either Israel or Judah was not walking with God or even believed in God, yet he was more obedient to God than His believers. He is sneaky because the nonbelieving king didn’t even realize he was carrying out God’s will!

Let’s consider the Pharaoh. Moses repeatedly asked him to release his people, but each time Pharaoh refused. So, in Exodus 9:16, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. It was through Pharaoh’s stubbornness that God displayed His power to the entire world and delivered the Israelites from Egypt. “I have raised you for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” God demonstrated His power through the plagues, leading Pharaoh to allow Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Pharaoh didn’t believe in God, but God used him to fulfill the exodus of His people.

It wasn’t just a Pharaoh that God used to execute His plan. He used a Persian king, who didn’t even worship Him, to free Israel from captivity.  The prophet Isaiah said the Lord called Cyrus, “his anointed…whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut…” (Isaiah 45:1). God used King Cyrus to free Israel from Babylonian captivity.

How about Balak, who hired Balaam to curse the Israelites? Balaam was not a believer in God, and yet God used Balaam to bless Israel instead. “’I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot change it” (Numbers 23:20).

God used King Hoshea to carry out His punishment against Israel because of their idol worship. “In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. … All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods” (2 Kings 17:6-7). God used the Assyrian empire to punish Israel for its disobedience, even though the Assyrians had no allegiance to God.

And perhaps my favorite story about God using unlikely people to carry out his will is the story of Jonah. Jonah completely disobeyed God, yet God used him anyway. In Jonah, we read that the “word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.’ But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish…” (Jonah 1:1-3). The people of Nineveh were not worshippers of God. God used Jonah to deliver a message they needed to hear—to repent. “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened” (Jonah 3:10).

The key point is this: God’s purposes cannot be stopped. If we refuse to obey Him, He will still carry out His plan, even through unlikely or disobedient people. Today, God might be using someone unexpected — even someone outside of faith — to fulfill His will. The same God who directed history then is still working now, and nothing can prevent His plan.