If something is broken, we generally discard it. However, God uses broken things to accomplish His purposes.
- God used broken pitchers (Judges 7). Gideon conquered the Midianites by putting their lamps within pitchers; at his direction, the soldiers broke their pitchers and revealed the light, which greatly confused the Midianites, and they were defeated. The light of truth is often hidden by error, and it is when the error is broken that the light is revealed.
- God used broken tablets of stone (Exodus 32). Aaron had erected the golden calf because Moses had been gone and the people thought they had been abandoned. When Moses came down off the mount and saw the golden calf, burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder. Next he put it in the water supply and made the people drink it (Exodus 32:20). We must get rid of the world from our lives. God used a broken alabaster box (Mark 14). “And she brake the box, and poured it on His head” (Mark 14:3). With this, the woman did what she could; we also must do what we can.
- God used the broken body of Jesus (Matthew 26). When He instituted the Lord’s Supper, Jesus took bread and blessed it. Paul later wrote, quoting the Lord, “Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you” (1 Corinthians 11:24).
- God used the broken heart of David (Psalm 51). We must have a broken heart over our sin. David said, “A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 51:17).
Yes, God uses broken things. Perhaps your life has been broken by sin, but unlike Humpty Dumpty and the king’s horses and men, God can put it back together again.
“He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3).
— House to House Heart to Heart