God And the Basket Cases

Have you ever heard the term "basket case?" I have sometimes in reference to someone who is beside themselves with some situation, such as the loss of a loved one. I've heard it said, "They are a basket case." I never really knew what that meant. So thankfully for Google, I looked it up. It turns out that the phrase, "basket case" was coined during WWI, " indicating a soldier missing both his arms and legs, who needed to be literally carried around in a "basket." Today it indicates a state of helplessness similar to the metaphoric removal of the appendages, most frequently in the context of mental health or aptitude. From <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/basket_case>

There are a few basket cases in the Bible that I think to us in our times of feeling not so much discouraged, but helpless speak to me at least in a powerful way.

Moses was a basket case because he was born in a time where everything was against him. He had three strikes against him

1.) He was born during a generation that had forgotten Joseph - Exodus 1:8 Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph… Joseph had been a tremendous leader in the Egyptian's history, but this was a new day, the "children of Israel are more mightier than we" Pharaoh said, he went on to make them servants and afflict them with their burdens (Exodus 1:11) Ex. 1:13-14 And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour (cruelty); and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field….But the more they afflicted them the more they multiplied. 2.) He was Hebrew - Moses was born in a Hebrew home, born to servants, slaves who were treated cruelly and without mercy. 3. He was a boy. Exodus 1:22 (KJV)

22 And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.

Exodus 2:2-3 (KJV)

2 And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.

3 And when she could no longer hide him,(she couldn't do anything else) she took for him an ark (basket) of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.

God used Moses' basket case to show purpose - he could get around all of the defenselessness of a baby, beyond the helplessness of Dad & Mom, beyond the laws of Pharaoh, and could bring the outcast, right into the kings palace, trained by the best, protected by highly trained and skilled guards, fed at the kings table, adopted by the princess herself.

Little Boys Lunch - John 6:5-15 Verse 9 says there was a lad or a boy, who had brought his lunch, no doubt in a basket. Now to Philip this was nothing a little boy's lunch, but to Jesus, that was all he needed. A basket with five barley loaves and two small fish - now these barley loaves I doubt where the size of a loaf of bread but were probably more like a piece of flat bread or pita bread. Barley bread was a cheaper bread he was probably from a poor family. Just enough for a small boy's lunch.

Phil recognizes the helplessness of the situation when he says, 200 pennyworth (or 200 day's wages) would not be enough to feed so many Andrew feels very similar here are Five loaves and two fish but what are they among so many? It is amazing to watch Jesus take that little basket and turn it into 12 baskets. Jesus took a small basket of provisions for one and provided for thousands. Saul had been "breathing out threatening's and cruelty" had been persecuting, jailing and possibly even killing some of those early followers of Jesus. When he was converted and began preaching and teaching Christ, it didn't go over very well with his old friends and acquaintances. They put a price on his head, and began watching the gate to assassinate him. But God had other plans for Paul. He was to, as God told Ananias in Acts 9:15-16 (KJV)

"15 But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: 16 For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. "

Here was a man who had just been trying to destroy the Church - and God says no don't kill him I'm going to use him to build my church. Paul did not have the resources, or the people to defend him, so they put him in a basket and let him down over the wall. (That is a huge amount of trust, on both sides - Paul had to trust those people letting him down, and they had to trust Paul to be who he said he was.) [Maybe talk about Paul meeting with families of those he had imprisoned or killed, the forgiveness he had to give to himself - maybe share Johnnie and Tommy's story of how God gave them their Dad back,]

I don't know what your basket case is today - but God has a reason for having you in the basket, having you where you are defenseless, or helpless, or seemingly useless. Can I tell you what part of that reason is - it is because God wants glory in this situation. Never underestimate what God can do with a basket case. God specializes in Basket cases.

Paul shares after he has prayed to be delivered from a thorn in his side or another basket case, that the Lord told him, " 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (KJV) 9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness."

Paul declares after that, " Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. " What Paul is trying to say -

When I am shown as weak -God is shown as strong When I am shown as lacking - he is shown as provider When I am shown as inapt, disabled, or infirmed, He shows himself as more than able, all sufficient, powerful God. And I love the precious promise Jesus gives his disciples John 16:33 (KJV) 33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. I like to think of the rest of this verse as a sandwich promise

In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.