“The Lord usually calls the lowly rather than the mighty to act for Him.” – footnote for Judges 6:15, from Zondervan’s New American Standard Study Bible.

Three examples: Gideon, Jacob, and Saul.

Gideon: “O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.” (Judg. 6:15) God uses Gideon to defeat Midian, thereby delivering Israel.

Jacob (the younger son of Isaac): “And the older shall receive the younger.” (Gen 25:23) NASB footnote: “God’s people are the product not of natural or worldly development but of (God’s) sovereign intervention in the affairs of men.” Jacob, grandson of Abraham, is used by God to father the 12 heads of the tribes of Israel. NASB note: “God’s blessing on mankind” [ the “covenant promises (originally) made to Abraham” ] “would be fulfilled in and through Jacob and his offspring.”

Saul: “Am I not a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin?” (1 Sam 9:21) God grants Israel’s request for a king through Saul, who delivers them from the Ammonites.

NASB footnote for 1 Sam 2:4-5, 8 “God often works contrary to natural expectations and brings about surprising reversals.” God “raises the poor”. He opens the wombs of the aged. The strongest person is of no strength compared to God, who gives strength to the weak. What man of wealth possesses more than God? – in that light, what man of wealth even possesses anything, relative to God’s possession of everything? The whole universe is a teaching tool, God’s classroom.

2D. God Used Different Personalities and Styles

Inspiration can also include God’s use of different personalities—with their own literary styles and idiosyncrasies—to record His word. One need only compare the powerful style of Isaiah with the mournful tone of Jeremiah in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, Luke manifests a marked medical interest, while James is distinctly practical, Paul is theological and polemical, and John writes with simplicity. God has communicated through a multiplicity of human personalities, each having unique literary characteristics.

The traditional biblical authors include a lawgiver (Moses), a general (Joshua), prophets (Samuel, Isaiah, et al.), kings (David and Solomon), a musician (Asaph), a herdsman (Amos), a prince and statesman (Daniel), a priest (Ezra), a tax collector (Matthew), a physician (Luke), a scholar (Paul), and fishermen (Peter and John). God used the variety of occupations and circumstances represented by biblical writers, as well as their unique personal interests and character traits, to reflect His timeless truths.

– p. 339 “The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict” (Nelson, 1999) by Josh McDowell.

Against the elitism of Gnosticism:

God loves those who are incapable of understanding (we are all ignorant relative to Him — even those who received direct revelation)… to Him, they (the ignorant) are not hopeless. Gnosis is like the food group you should avoid, ‘cause it leads to heart disease and what-not, except gnosis leads to spiritual disease. It is all the unhealthy additives that work against health, though they may taste good (like the fruit on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil). There are healthy alternatives that also taste good, so why ingest what will only muck up your system?

All you need to know (be aware of) in order to be saved is God’s plan of salvation. Anything over and above that is going “too far” and putting words in God’s mouth — misrepresenting God.