Who Hath Despised the Day of Small Things?

Zechariah 4:10  •  5 min. read  •  grade level: 8
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J. Armet
The World's Great Things
In the world this is the day of great things. In matters of warfare men were once satisfied to number their armies in thousands, but now thousands are despised—nations must have their millions. In matters of finance, where once fortunes were rated in columns of five figures, now some have fortunes of ten figures or eleven figures, to single inheritances. The fabled Croesus would be only a small capitalist in today's rating. In rural life where once the patient husbandman tilled his dozen acres, now great machines upturn miles of earth that yield millions of bushels of grain from single farms. In matters of education, universities, colleges, seminaries and lesser institutes multiply without end, and multitudes pursue their eager search for knowledge and degrees. Metropolises thrive where cities once stood; great cities have replaced villages. Bands of steel rails and super highways encircle the continents, and pulsations of power throb in every industrial center. In short—the world has ceased to care for the small or the insignificant.
The Effect on Christendom
If this were all, the Christian need not be concerned, for why should he care for the poor world's boastings or accomplishments? He knows its end—that it is doomed to judgment. He realizes, too, that he is not of it-that he belongs to another world.
But this is not all. The world is not alone in its boasting. Professing Christians have become infected with this same vaunting spirit, with the sad result that they glory in their shame. (Phil. 3:1919Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.) (Philippians 3:19).) The resulting condition is that no Christian activity is recognized as possessing any merit unless it can be flourished before the world as worthy of comparison with the world's great achievements. So the lust for great memberships, "Five-year Programs," "Men and Millions" movements, and "Evangelization of the World in this Generation" are phrases mouthed with pride by professed Christians on every side. Evangelists who cannot number their converts by hundreds and thousands are not wanted. Evangelism has become capitalized, and numbers are made the measure of success in God's work.
God's Little Things
The Christian should not use the world's ways to do God's work. Will he then be dismayed that he can do so little? God forbid! Apply the sharp sword of God's Word to these inflated bubbles of man's pride and see how much abides the test. What do I read in God's Word of all these modern schemes in connection with the work of God? The Word speaks of a narrow way and the few there be that find it, and of a little flock to whom the Father gives the kingdom. It is those who have a little strength who meet the Lord's commendation (Rev. 3:88I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. (Revelation 3:8)). "Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities." Luke 19:1717And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. (Luke 19:17). Wood, hay and stubble appear huge before the fire (1 Cor. 3:1212Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; (1 Corinthians 3:12)), while gold, silver and precious stones seem small. God's reward is after, not before the fire. There is no reward for ashes.
God's Examples
If I take, for example, the prophets, the Lord and the apostles, what do I learn of their activity for God? I see Jonathan and his armor-bearer, with God, accomplishing more in one night than Israel with their hosts in forty days of human endeavor (1 Sam. 14:1-161Now it came to pass upon a day, that Jonathan the son of Saul said unto the young man that bare his armor, Come, and let us go over to the Philistines' garrison, that is on the other side. But he told not his father. 2And Saul tarried in the uttermost part of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree which is in Migron: and the people that were with him were about six hundred men; 3And Ahiah, the son of Ahitub, I-chabod's brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the Lord's priest in Shiloh, wearing an ephod. And the people knew not that Jonathan was gone. 4And between the passages, by which Jonathan sought to go over unto the Philistines' garrison, there was a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp rock on the other side: and the name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh. 5The forefront of the one was situate northward over against Michmash, and the other southward over against Gibeah. 6And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armor, Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised: it may be that the Lord will work for us: for there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few. 7And his armorbearer said unto him, Do all that is in thine heart: turn thee; behold, I am with thee according to thy heart. 8Then said Jonathan, Behold, we will pass over unto these men, and we will discover ourselves unto them. 9If they say thus unto us, Tarry until we come to you; then we will stand still in our place, and will not go up unto them. 10But if they say thus, Come up unto us; then we will go up: for the Lord hath delivered them into our hand: and this shall be a sign unto us. 11And both of them discovered themselves unto the garrison of the Philistines: and the Philistines said, Behold, the Hebrews come forth out of the holes where they had hid themselves. 12And the men of the garrison answered Jonathan and his armorbearer, and said, Come up to us, and we will show you a thing. And Jonathan said unto his armorbearer, Come up after me: for the Lord hath delivered them into the hand of Israel. 13And Jonathan climbed up upon his hands and upon his feet, and his armorbearer after him: and they fell before Jonathan; and his armorbearer slew after him. 14And that first slaughter, which Jonathan and his armorbearer made, was about twenty men, within as it were an half acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plow. 15And there was trembling in the host, in the field, and among all the people: the garrison, and the spoilers, they also trembled, and the earth quaked: so it was a very great trembling. 16And the watchmen of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked; and, behold, the multitude melted away, and they went on beating down one another. (1 Samuel 14:1‑16)), and David with God's help using his sling to defeat Goliath. The Lord Himself was content to linger at Sychar's well that He might quench the soul-thirst of one poor outcast woman, or to sacrifice His hours of sleep to enlighten one honest Pharisee. He was content to spend a day with a despised tax collector, or to be satisfied at the close of His life's ministry to have a mere one hundred and twenty waiting for His promise at Jerusalem (Acts 1:1515And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,) (Acts 1:15)).
Philip could leave his work in Samaria to minister Christ to a lone man in the desert. Peter could walk a matter of 25 miles to preach the gospel to one family (Acts 10). The great Apostle Paul could minister to a handful of women at the seaside, or declare the way of salvation to a solitary sinner at midnight. At the close of Paul's life, many of the little assemblies which were the result of his life's work could be comfortably housed in private homes, and yet he never apologized for his lack of numbers. (Rom. 16:55Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my wellbeloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ. (Romans 16:5); 1 Cor. 16:1919The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house. (1 Corinthians 16:19); Col. 4:1515Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house. (Colossians 4:15); Philem. 1:22And to our beloved Apphia, and Archippus our fellowsoldier, and to the church in thy house: (Philemon 2).)
Your Day of Small Things
Now as Christians, in the light of Scripture, shall you and I despise the day of small things? No! Let us obey the word of Jeremiah, when he said, "Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not." Jer. 45:55And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord: but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest. (Jeremiah 45:5). God counts it no little thing to be faithful to His Word, and to do His will in a day when His Word is deliberately ignored and flatly disobeyed for the sake of great numbers and religious show.
Count it well worth your while to speak of Jesus to that fellow classmate or your co-worker. Give a little gospel tract to your grocery clerk, the salesman at the door, your seat-mate on the bus. Prize highly your little class in the Sunday school. It is better to lead one soul as a lost sinner to the feet of Jesus to receive salvation than to deceive a thousand into an empty profession. How much better it is to have our blessed Lord's "well done" for a little done right than His censure and the world's applause for great things which His Word unsparingly condemns. (Rev. 3:15-1815I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. 17Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: 18I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. (Revelation 3:15‑18).)