Messianic Rabbi: You Don’t Have to Be Perfect to Be Chosen

Read Time: 4 Minutes 22 Seconds

While watching television, a commercial came on that was advertising for people to join the foster care program. The tagline used in the commercial was “You don’t have to be perfect to be a perfect parent.”

Like many people, I had seen the commercial many times and, except for thinking it was an effective advertisement, I had not thought too much more about it.

Recently, I have been ministering to many people concerning major crises in their lives, which have caused them to question their calling to serve G-D and, in some cases, even question their worth as a child of G-D. It was during these discussions and prayer times that I remembered the tagline above.

Whenever I find myself being drawn deep into thought about something like I was about this tagline, I try to get to a quiet place so that I can pray and dig into the Bible, with hopes that the Holy Spirit would reveal to me what I am missing, so that I can better meet the needs of those who are coming to me for answers.

The more I thought about the commercial’s tagline, the more relevant it became how those to whom I was talking were feeling about not only their self-worth, but also their value, especially in relationship to G-D and His kingdom. As I thought about their problems, which were caused by their personal failures, my attention was brought to an event we read about in the Bible in Luke 2:41-46: 

“Now His parents were going every year to Jerusalem for the Passover feast.

“When He became 12 years old, they were going up according to festival custom. As they headed home after completing the days, the boy Yeshua remained in Jerusalem, but His parents didn’t know. Supposing He was in the caravan, they went a day’s journey, then began looking for Him among relatives and friends. When they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for Him. After three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the center of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.”

All my life as a believer, when I read the above narrative, I always focus on how amazing it was that Yeshua was in the Temple teaching and being about His Father’s business. I never once thought about the fact that his parents lost their 13-year-old child for more than three days.

Just think about that for a moment. Of all of the people throughout history that G-D could have chosen to raise Yeshua (Jesus), G-D chose Joseph and Miriam. Yet, these two parents chosen personally by G-D left Jerusalem without their 13 year old son and could not find him for more than three days.

If my wife and I had traveled with our son to Jerusalem and traveled a whole day towards our house before noticing that our son wasn’t with us, and then it took us three more days to find him, some of our friends would begin to question our parenting skills. The Bible includes this event in the telling of the story of Yeshua and his earthly parents. I believe that this story, as well as others, were included for the exact same reason that the foster care program chose “You don’t have to be perfect to be a perfect parent” as their tagline.

G-D wanted people to know that they don’t have to be perfect to be the perfect person to do something in His kingdom. Just think about some other imperfect people who were the perfect people to be used by G-D. G-D chose Samson to deliver Israel from the Philistines, yet he fell into the lustful spell of Delilah. G-D chose David to be king, yet he was a murderer, and what he did to Bathsheba would today be considered sex trafficking and rape.

G-D chose Jonah to preach to Nineveh, and Jonah ran the other way as far as he could. G-D chose Elijah as prophet, and he ran away and hid from Jezebel. G-D chose Aaron as High Priest of Israel, and Aaron made the golden calf.

The above are only a few of the many examples we find of G-D choosing imperfect people that were also the perfect people to serve in His kingdom. So, if as you read this, you are feeling like a failure and are questioning the calling of G-D in your life, please don’t let your not being perfect cause you question your calling.

Throughout the Bible, we see over and over G-D saying, “You don’t have to be perfect to be chosen.”

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Eric Tokajer is the author of “Overcoming Fearlessness,” “What If Everything You Were Taught About the Ten Commandments Was Wrong?,” “With Me in Paradise,” “Transient Singularity,” “OY! How Did I Get Here?: Thirty-One Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before Entering Ministry,” “#ManWisdom: With Eric Tokajer,” “Jesus Is to Christianity as Pasta Is to Italians” and “Galatians in Context.”