“ THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS”
Robert White
Isaiah 1: 9; Amos 7: 1-8; Zechariah 4: 8-10; 2 Timothy 4: 8
I am sure we have often noticed the expression in Zechariah as to “the day of small things”. I desire to say a few words about what might be appropriate to such a day, a day of small things. We are conscious that outwardly it is a day of small things. These are not the days of Pentecost, they are not the days of the apostle Paul, it is not even the time when things among those with whom we meet are as large as we have known them. Things have come down to what is small and the Lord would perhaps say something to us about that. I read these other references that speak about what is small in Isaiah and in Amos to touch upon them. We are entitled to use the prophetic scriptures even though they may not exactly refer to our time. Paul uses this verse in Isaiah to make a point in his epistle to the Romans, showing that the scripture can be used, if we are spiritual enough to use it in a right way.
Isaiah speaks of something that is very small, “Unless Jehovah of hosts had left us a very small residue”. There are things that are small and there are things that are very small. I suppose we could say that we know what is very small. But what rejoices the heart of the prophet at this time is that God in His mercy had intervened to leave something. If you read the rest of this section you will see that from verse 2 the prophet is reporting the word of Jehovah to him. God goes over a number of things, showing why he had to deal with the people in the way that He had. Isaiah lived in the time when the nation had separated into the two little states of Judah and Israel. It was a time when the invaders were starting to come in upon the land, when things were being steadily reduced, but Isaiah comes down to this, that in the sovereign mercy of God, something was left. I think that is something to give thanks for. If we look back on our own histories and on the history of the testimony we can give thanks for God’s sovereign mercy that something is left. How wonderful to think of that! It might be very small, “a very small residue”, but God in His sovereign mercy has left something and that is of His own doing. How blessed it is to have part in that in some little way. God has the right to reserve something, He has the right to do as He will and in His sovereign mercy He chose to leave, “a very small residue”. I know that there is no such thing, properly speaking, as a remnant of the assembly. Isaiah in this wonderful prophecy develops the thought of a remnant of Israel and what they will come into in a day to come, and brings out the features that mark remnant times. One of the things that the remnant according to Isaiah comes into is the blessed knowledge of Christ as Wonderful. How precious to think of that! Later on it says, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given … and his name is called Wonderful” (9: 6). The remnant are the first who recognise that. If we go on in remnant conditions with a very small residue, how blessed it is to be able to recognise the full provision that there is in the Lord Jesus Christ to sustain us. His name is called “Wonderful”. It has been said that they will be sustained in the knowledge of that in the day to come when the whole earth wonders after the beast, and they will say, “who is like unto the beast?”, Rev. 13: 4. The whole earth is taken up with the wonder of a man who will present himself as seeming to have the answer to everything, but the remnant of Israel, those in whom God works, will not be deluded by that. A wonderful Person has been made known to them as on their side; “his name is called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace”. How blessed to think that this Person is available to us now even in a day of smallness! God is great enough to take care of the numbers; if He wished He could bring in hosts. He is the God of measure, the God of hosts. But thank God for His sovereign mercy that He has left even a very small residue. How blessed to have some part in it and to prove that One who is Wonderful is able to sustain the saints in relation to every blessed thought of God.
I pass on to Amos who seems to have been for some time contemporary with Isaiah. Amos was a remarkable prophet; he came from Judah, but he prophesied to Israel and it would seem that he had a wide outlook, even though he was used to prophesy in a broken day when many difficulties were come in. Think of the terrors that were coming in on to the people of God in the days in which these prophets lived, the awful invasions resulting in the eventual carrying off of both Israel and Judah. How solemn these things were and the prophet spoke in the face of these things about the conditions that marked the people. Where we read, Amos is shown these visions. God shows him first these locusts, “behold, he formed locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth, and behold, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings”. It seems that God showed something to Amos in a way that was intended to bring out what the prophet’s feelings were as to what he saw; he says, “they had wholly eaten the grass of the land”. They had eaten up this latter growth, something that was beginning to spring up in life – I suppose there was some little evidence of recovery. God would be gracious to His people and there was some little evidence of a springing up of something in life. Perhaps we can see, in God’s mercy to us, a little of that in younger persons coming on. Amos in this vision sees something that is going to threaten this fresh growth, to eat it all up and destroy it all, “when they had wholly eaten the grass of the land, that I said, O Lord Jehovah, forgive, I beseech thee!”. How fine to think of the spirit of intercession that expresses itself in the prophet at this time! It is a vision, it did not actually happen. God presents this to Amos and it brings out from Amos this spirit of intercession. No doubt it is the spirit of Christ, expressed through the prophet in this way. Do we not need to be on our knees before God in the spirit of intercession that what may be springing up in spiritual life might be preserved? If there is a latter growth in any way may it be preserved, preserved from destruction, preserved from scattering, preserved that it might go on and give God pleasure. May there be a spirit of intercession with us, a spirit of prayer and a desire to be with God about these things that what is of Himself might be preserved from what Satan would do.
Then he goes on to speak about the fire, “the Lord Jehovah called to contend by fire; and it devoured the great deep, and ate up the inheritance”. I suppose it would speak of something that would destroy entirely what is of God. Who was thinking about the inheritance at this point? Who was thinking of God’s portion? It was evidently on Amos’s soul. Who thinks now of what is for God? God’s inheritance was His people, Israel and Judah. They had been divided through selfishness and wilfulness; now the enemy was breaking in upon them, and Amos sees in the vision the whole inheritance eaten up by fire. Think of such a thing, everything that is of God being destroyed! Satan is against what is of God in this world, he would seek to destroy every evidence of it, every trace of it. What is in our hearts as we think of our brethren? I am not just thinking of those with whom we walk, I am thinking of our brethren in Christ and the work of God in them and what the Spirit of God is doing in them. There is that which is against that. May we be moved, as Amos was, “O Lord Jehovah, cease, I beseech thee! How shall Jacob arise? for he is small”. He felt the smallness, but he had the inheritance in view. May there be this spirit with us that is able to take account of what is for God and may we be before Him in earnest prayer that it may be preserved. God is going to have His inheritance in His saints, there is no power on earth or in heaven that can defeat Him in that purpose of His, but how He would wish us to be with Him in spirit and in exercise and in prayer in relation to what is His at the present time!
Then he sees something else; “the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumb-line, with a plumb-line in his hand”. After what he has said about Jacob being small, he sees the Lord in this way. I suppose that it conveys the impression that even though he had to confess that Jacob was small, divine principles had not changed; God stood on a wall with the plumb-line in His hand. How important that is, that even in the day of small things, divine principles do not change, what is of God does not change. We have been speaking about the assembly and the principles that are to govern assembly administration in our localities and these do not change in a day of small things.
We might say that such and such will be good enough for the time that we are in, but that is not what Amos sees in this vision. God’s thoughts do not weaken or change because we may be in days in which things are small, and I think that Amos was left with an impression of that, “Behold, I will set a plumb-line in the midst of my people Israel”. We know that things are small in our localities, we go on with a faithful few for whom we are very thankful, but even in these circumstances divine principles are to have their own weight with us, so that what is done is in accordance with the truth of God as it has been revealed to us.
I pass on to Zechariah. In this wonderful vision, it says, “And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep” (v.1). These are post-captivity times. Zechariah was one of those who came back with this little remnant that returned to Jerusalem and engaged in the building of the temple, the reconstruction of that which has been destroyed. They were not the times of David or of Solomon – these were remnant times, difficult times, but it was a time for building. Zechariah was one of the prophets who helped the builders, along with Haggai. The foundation of the temple had been laid, and then the work had stopped, discouragement had come in. It might have seemed to have been outward pressures that had stopped the building work, but if you read the prophet Haggai he does not speak to the people about outward pressures, but he speaks to them about their own state of soul, about the energy that was needed to carry on and complete that which had been started. There were those there who despised the day of small things. There was a spirit of discouragement operating and so Zechariah gets this vision. And what a vision it was – you might have thought that the thing to do would have been to show Zechariah a picture of the temple completed since only the foundation had been laid, but he does not get that, what he gets is this wonderful vision of a lampstand all of gold. It is a wonderful, perfectly functioning system for the maintenance of light. It seems to me that perhaps God was seeking to convey to Zechariah and to the people at this time an impression of what their work was all for. What were they labouring for? Was it just to work at something because it seemed to be the thing to do? But God says, as it were, ‘I have in mind to shed divine light upon this scene, I have in mind to bring in the light of Christ, the light of the Holy Spirit’s operations, I have in mind to set my Name and the knowledge of Myself here’. Think of the assembly of God in Corinth that we were speaking of: God intended to set the knowledge of Himself in that place. That is what our gatherings are for, it is that the knowledge of God might shine out, that God might be known. I do not seek to enter into the details of this wonderful vision, but clearly it points us to the presence of and operation here of the blessed Holy Spirit of God. How encouraging it is to realise that the Holy Spirit of God is here, He remains, He is with us – “Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, saith Jehovah of hosts”. Think of the activities of the Holy Spirit of God throughout this whole dispensation! We might say in the day of small things the Holy Spirit is content to go on with us. We could say too that the Lord Jesus is content to go on with us, “For where two or three are gathered together to my name, there am I in the midst of them”, Matt. 18: 20. The Lord will go on with us in the day of small things.
“And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; and his hands shall finish it”; there is a work that is going on and it is going to be completed. It is the hands of Christ, but it is in the hands too of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is operating in view of the completion of that which is in the Divine mind to complete. The work will be completed. This is to encourage us and to help us; “and thou shalt know that Jehovah of hosts hath sent me unto you. For who hath despised the day of small things?” Have you been discouraged by smallness? I see hundreds going to the chapels and churches where we live, and we gather with a few to remember the Lord Jesus.
It is truly a day of small things. I may say, why are there not more? Why can there not even be six more, ten more, twenty more? Why not even one more? But yet the Lord helps us to go on and not despise the day of small things. The Holy Spirit is here, He is operating in persons. It says here, “Yea, they shall rejoice – even those seven – they shall see the plummet in the hand of Zeubbabel”. It refers to the eyes of Jehovah; they run through the whole earth to take account of what is going on. Perhaps it includes in our day persons in whom the Spirit of God is operating who are able to observe and evaluate what is taking place. The Spirit of God has not become incarnate, but He has come to indwell us as believers, and He has come to remain with us. He has come freighted with every thought of God, with the divine intent of carrying all through to completion. The Holy Spirit is with us and He maintains us in spiritual life, spiritual vitality and there is that which He promotes in the way of spiritual ministry. Those who are with God recognise that, value it and give it its place, they cling to it, they do not despise it.
You might say that our little gatherings are of no account – they are of no account in the eyes of this world, that is true – but is there something there that is proceeding that is of spiritual value, according to the mind of God. Spiritual persons will recognise that, they will seek to support it. Zerubbabel must have been encouraged to continue; we know now that the work was revived and continued and the temple was completed. God had said of Zerubbabel, “he shall bring forth the head stone with shoutings: Grace, grace unto it”? Divine Persons have committed themselves in this dispensation to operate on the principle of grace: grace will have its full result in bringing to a completion what they intend to complete. But will we be in it with them? Are we exercised to be vitally in these things? What is the Spirit of God engaged in? What is He working at? What is of value in the divine mind? We do not just meet for the sake of meeting, we do not just go on for the sake of going on: let us have before us this great view of what God is securing for His pleasure that He might be known in grace. What a vision Zechariah was given that he might be encouraged himself and bring encouragement to others! May we be helped to be an encouragement to one another on this line as having vision to see what the Spirit of God is engaged with in these days. They may be days of small things, but they are days of great spiritual value, I am assured. We do not measure that by numbers, but by what we might call spiritual weight; “and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel: these are the eyes of Jehovah”. The plummet was in the hand of a spiritual man. He is a type of Christ, no doubt, but I think he is a type too of a spiritual person who is able to set on something that is according to the mind, pleasure and will of God. May we be encouraged by these things.
I read at the end of Timothy to say this, that it will not always be a day of small things. There is a day of great things coming, a day of glory. Paul speaks of that day in this section that we read. Who knew a day of small things like this apostle; in this very chapter he speaks about standing alone. There is none of us who have had to stand all alone yet, but he said, “at my first defence no man stood with me, but all deserted me. May it not be imputed to them. But the Lord stood with me, and gave me power” (vv 16,17). Who knew smallness like the apostle Paul, standing alone, not only standing alone, but deserted? Think of the experience of being deserted! It is one thing to stand alone because you are the only one available, it is another thing if others have deserted you. Paul says, “all deserted me”. What an experience – but the Lord stood with him. The Lord had taken him up and committed Himself to him and the Lord would not fail to stand by His apostle. He says, “and gave me power, that through me the proclamation might be fully made”. Not only that the proclamation might be made but that it might be made through Paul. The Lord had taken him up and supported him as He would support every one of us as we seek to go on in the line of His will. This great and glorious day is coming, and we will all have part in it! “Henceforth the cross of righteousness is laid up for me, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will render to me in that day; but not only to me, but also to all who loved his appearing”. What a day is coming, the day of the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ! He is going to appear in His glory, He is going to appear in triumph, He is going to appear here in the scene where He has been rejected. Think of the appearing of Jesus! What a thought to thrill our hearts, what a thought that we will be with Him when He appears! It will not be a day of small things then, it will be a day of great things, the day of the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. How blessed to think that we will be a part of this, every one of us who loves Him and loves His appearing! It is a challenge – do I love the thought of the appearing of our Lord Jesus? All that pertains to man’s glory will be set aside and the blessed Saviour will be seen in His own distinctiveness. There will be none to rival Him, none to resist Him. May we be helped to think of these things for our encouragement and for His Name’s sake.
GRIMSBY
12 June 2004