English Standard Version
Imagine you're a kid, and you're picking kickball teams. You pick the strongest and fastest first, right? You want to win, so you figure out who the best athletes are, and those are the ones being picked first. The weakest kids get picked last, because they have the least chance of helping the team win.
When God is picking the remnant, those who will be built into a strong nation, who does he pick? The Lord gathers up the lame. God collects those who have been driven away. The Lord will reign over a kingdom comprised of the weak.
From the world's perspective, this doesn't make any sense, but God doesn't work the same way the world does. We fully realize the strength of God when we accept our own weaknesses. We can't earn our way back to God through whatever strength we have, but when we look to God's strength, we realize that it doesn't matter how strong or weak we may be. The strongest champion in the world is on the same level as the weakest beggar in the world -- this is the beauty of the Gospel. None can brag about themselves or their own achievements or their brilliance or cunning or wisdom -- the Gospel is the great leveller, and we'd be wise to remember that we aren't any better than anyone else on this planet when it comes to earning God's love. We're all weak, but God is building a kingdom rooted in God's strength.
May this knowledge help us be more compassionate and gracious towards those who are weak in the eyes of the world. May we see the treasures in one another. Look in the eyes of one another, from the powerful to the individual begging for money by the offramp on the freeway, and see the humanity in every eye, and remember that God's Kingdom will gather the weak.
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