An Unlikely Harvester

"AN UNLIKELY HARVESTER"

INTRODUCTION

As she walked over and looked out the window, she saw the sun high in the sky and she knew it was near the sixth hour (12 noon).

It was going to be another hot day and there wasn’t even a small breeze to break the heat.

She knew that this was not the best time to go to the well to draw water, the heat made the trip down the dusty road very difficult almost unbearable. She would have much rather gone in the morning when the sun was down and the air was cool and the birds were still out serenading with their songs.

But she didn’t have that choice. You see that’s when the other women in the town went to draw their water. And she couldn’t face the stares, the whispering and the cold shoulders anymore. They either treated her as though she was the scum of the earth, shouting cruel things or they just looked right through her.

She had been at one time a beautiful woman, golden brown hair and deep blue eyes. But the years had not been kind to her, aging her beyond her years and leaving deep scares within her soul. She had struggled through 5 unsuccessful marriages and was now living with a man. "How did my life get so messed up, this is not how I dreamed things would be" she said herself each night ,as she cried herself to sleep.

She felt so alone, even though she lived in a city and was surrounded by many people she felt all alone, it was like she wasn’t even there, no one noticed, no cared and no one really reached out to her. Often she wondered what was the use of going on, is this all my life will ever be?

And as she left her small house that morning she carried with her a much heavier load, than just that water jar.

But if she only knew what was going to happened to her that day she would have been smiling and singing, she may have skipped or perhaps even ran, all the way to that well.

Because before the sun went down that day, her life would be changed forever. And when she laid her head on her pillow this night it would not be tears of pain that soaked her pillow, but rather tears of Joy, As she relived the events at the well, when she meet Jesus, Her Lord and Savior.

So when she finally drifted off to sleep that night, it was the image of her with the people of the town, with their eyes not full of hatred or judgment of her, but rather full of joy and excitement as she told them about Jesus. It was this image that closed her eyes that night.

Not many would have picked her, and said, "Yes she is the one, she’s the one that will bring her town to Jesus." From our human standpoint she was more than an unlikely harvester.

You know to me that is one of the most exciting things about God, how he so often uses the unlikely to accomplish his will and get his work done.

When Moses, barely 3 months old was placed in that tiny basket barely escaping death, He was not from a human standpoint at the time the one most likely to deliver his people.

What about David, even his own father didn’t think that he could possibly be a King after all he was just a shepherd boy. But when God looked at David, He didn’t see a shepherd boy,,but rather he saw a man after my own heart, And He told Samuel, this one, He will be my King.

I don’t think many would have picked Gideon to be the one to deliver the Nation of Israel from the Midianites, after all he even said himself, "BUT LORD, HOW CAN I SAVE ISRAEL? MY CLAN IS THE WEAKEST IN MANASSEH, AND I AM THE LEAST IN MY FAMILY." And did you know that when God called Him he was hiding in the cellar grinding wheat so the Midianites wouldn’t find him. But God, look at Gideon, at this unlikely leader and said "YOU ARE MY MIGHTY WARRIOR." AND GIDOEN WITH THE POWER OF GOD BEHIND HIM DEFEAT 135,000 MEN WITH 300 MEN.

And what about Saul of Tarsus, I am confident that the early church did not hold weekly meetings to discuss how they could convert Saul, because they felt that he just had so much potential for Jesus Christ -- They were afraid of Him and even after his conversion many were afraid for quit sometime.

Listen to what God says in I Samuel 16:7, this truth still needs to be learned today, "I DO NOT LOOK AT THE THINGS MAN LOOKS AT. MAN LOOKS AT THE OUTWARD APPEARANCE, BUT I LOOK AT THE HEART!"