“For who has despised the day of small things? For these seven rejoice to see the plumb line
in the hand of Zerubbabel. They are the
eyes of the LORD, which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth.”
When God asks a question, most often it is meant to shake us
from our current perspective.
In this passage, Zerubbabel had laid the foundation for the
temple. It was a small beginning. Those who had seen the former temple surely
were discouraged by the knowledge that this new temple would be nothing like
the glorious temple built by Solomon. Yet
God says His seven eyes rejoiced. These
are His eyes that go to and fro throughout the whole earth. From God’s perspective, this small beginning
was a cause for rejoicing. Small things
are not something God despises.
God often uses small things to reach the world. God does not want us to despise any service
to Him, even if it appears to be small. Think
about it: our God is so great, whatever we do in service to Him is relatively
small. Have you begun a Bible study and
only one person shows up? Do not
despair. Teach as if Jesus were
critiquing your class, because He is. At
the beginning of our ministry we saw many souls come to know the saving grace
of Jesus Christ. Of late, it has been
few and far between. Do we stop telling
others about Jesus because the harvest is small? We have no idea what decision those people
may make after they have left our presence.
Have we failed if we see only one person come to Christ this year? Heavens no.
Ask yourself how important that one person is to God. Pretty important: Jesus died for that one person.
“Don’t despise the day of small things. You can only give away a tract in the street.
Don't say, "I won't do that." Souls have been saved by the
distribution of tracts and sermons. Scatter them, scatter them—they will be
good seed. You know not where they may fall. You can only write a letter to a
friend sometimes about Christ. Don't neglect to do it: write one tomorrow.
Remember a playmate of yours; you may take liberties with him about his soul
from your intimacy with him. Write to him about his state before God, and urge
him to seek the Saviour. Who knows?—a sermon may miss him, but a letter from
the well-known school companion will reach his heart. God accepts your little works if they are
done in faith in his dear Son. God will give success to your little works: God
will educate you by your little works to do greater works; and your little
works may call out others who shall do greater works by far than ever you shall
be able to accomplish.” (Charles
Spurgeon)
Our enemy wants us to despise the day of small things. When a smidgeon of doubt sneaks into the
believer, Satan is there to exploit that fracture in faith and tempt the
believer to feed and grow that doubt. He
wants us to see our faith, our love, our discernment, our courage, and our
service as pitiful and pointless. When a believer backslides into sin, Satan is
there to convince the believer that they are unworthy of the grace of God. He will tempt the believer to give up and
give in to even greater sin. If your
faith or your courage seems small, ask God to help you: “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24b)
In today’s world of violent hatred toward God’s truth and
His believers, it is difficult to see any big gains for Christ. It seems like the days of the Billy Graham
revivals are gone. Yet some precious people
are committing to Christ, one at a time, at the risk of losing their own
life. For that person, that one small decision
has tremendous consequences.
Does this change your perspective on the day of small
things?
“… in the day of small things there is a special excellence
that we ought not to despise. Besides, small as grace may be in the heart, it
is divine—it is a spark from the ever-blazing sun. He is a partaker of the
divine nature who has even a little living faith in Christ. And being divine,
it is immortal. Not all the devils in hell could quench the feeblest spark of
grace that ever dropped into the heart of man. So there is much reason why we
should not despise the day of small things.”
(Charles Spurgeon)
May you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ.
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