FAITHFULNESS IN A DAY OF SMALL THINGS
Judges 6: 11; 1 Chronicles 11: 12–14
In our considerations we have touched, beside other things, the matter of food. The question of food is a very important one among the people of God; it is of great moment in our natural lives and much more so in our spiritual lives. It is vital for us to have the right kind of food.
We know that the world, in our surroundings here, offers us—especially the young—various kinds of food, but they are a kind of food which is not good for anything.
In the scriptures read we have two men who, in very difficult and testing circumstances, concerned themselves about food for the Lord’s people. We see Gideon who was occupied in threshing wheat which he would secure from the foes of God’s people, the Midianites, and the second man, one of the mighty men of David, defending a plot of ground where barley was, from the Philistines. They were individuals, and each of them stood faithfully in his own place. We see how the Spirit of God
acknowledged and esteemed that. It was faithfulness which was proved in small circumstances.
Maybe it was quite a small piece of land which was secured from the Philistines by Eleazar, but he did what he could in his place, the place which was entrusted to him. I think each one of us in our own small circumstances has such a little plot of ground sown with barley. Barley is a type of Christ as risen and sitting on the right hand of God for us—how great a truth which is entrusted to us! He delivered that little plot from the Philistines, who are great enemies of the spiritual progress and welfare of God’s people. They are people who have all in their heads and nothing in their hearts; that is why David had to cut off the head of Goliath the Philistine, that very big man. That is a very significant and important figure for us. The Philistine is a foe who ever thrusts hard at us; we are never in ourselves absolutely safe from him. He is ever near and ever attacking us. So I have been very much impressed by this simple man who stood so faithfully in his place.
It was similar with Gideon. He threshed wheat and I would think that is a further truth. Wheat is Christ together with His saints for the joy and pleasure of God, and before Him. Gideon was, too, standing faithfully in his own place and was concerned about protecting that precious kind of food from another mighty and obstinate foe of the saints. To each one such a matter is entrusted in our various places. The world around us is getting ever worse, and the foes increase about us. So we have this important task before us in our localities and our immediate surroundings—to maintain the food supply, to feed on it, and to give it to others. It is very remarkable how this faithfulness in small matters is so wonderfully and encouragingly appreciated by the Holy Spirit. The
Lord said to the faithful bondman, “Thou wast faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things”, Matthew 25: 21. In this day, in one sense, no great things are before us in the Lord’s work; it is a day of small things; what is being required from each of us is to be faithful in small things.
May the Lord graciously bless this word and encourage us to be found faithful, like these two faithful men, in our very small and lowly circumstances on this earth.
P.
Word in meeting for ministry in Eastern Europe
13 November 1981