SMALL AND GREAT

E.C.Burr

"And he spoke of the trees, from the cedartree that is on Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall". 1 Kings 4: 33

This is one of the verses in the Scriptures – of which there are many – in which a great range of things is covered in a very small compass. We have found that thought many times. The Word that was in the beginning with God and yet tabernacled among us: think of the range that is there. Think of the range of the form of od to the death of the cross. Mr Darby says more than once, referring to that range 'from the dust of death to the throne of God'. Think of the range of making purgation of sins and sitting down at the right hand of the greatness on high. Think of the range of the seventh month in the feasts where within five days you have to be able to compass afflicting your soul to the feast of booths and in the fiftieth year you have also to be able to encompass the feasts of the jubilee. A great range of things is called for.

Solomon here speaks of a very wide range. He spoke of the trees from the cedar to the hyssop. I think, beloved, that when Solomon spoke of the cedar he never forgot the hyssop, and when he spoke of the hyssop he never forgot the cedar. I think the Lord would encourage us in that and by that in the present day. The hyssop is something that is very small; we might say in some senses insignificant. At one point in the offerings it has to be cast into the fire. But if we think of it in relation to ourselves individually it represents ground that we all have to take, of being very small. It is a small thing, a small plant. It says "the hyssop that springs out of the wall". It seems almost as if it has just been able to find its home there. If we think of it, even in relation to what is collective and available to us in the present day, we are bound to take account of what is very small, very small. The diminution which we have suffered in the city, which affects us more recently with the departure to be with Christ of our beloved sister, underlines our smallness – in a city of some eight million people, perhaps a hundred seeking to walk together. It is very small. The question is interestingly raised in Amos twice, "How shall Jacob arise? for he is small", chap 7: 2,5. The Lord would impress us, I think, and allow us to be impressed with the sense of what is small in the present day. Things have become very small. In my own lifetime, in the area where there are now six breakings of bread there were twenty-six. Things have become very small. And we think around, and we think of smallness, we can think of localities where there is, as you might say, the minimum number of saints available for carrying on the service of God and assembly life at all, and yet even then there is a locality with no sisters and there are localities with no brothers. Things are very small. We know of other localities where if a brother is ill, or his wife is ill, or both are ill, the breaking of bread ceases. These things remind us that things are very small. I think the Lord would have us impressed with this, beloved, how small things are. Solomon says in the Proverbs that there are things that are little upon the earth, and he refers to the ants who gather their food in the summer, coneys who make their homes in the rock, locusts that go forth by bands and the spiders that are in the palaces of kings (see chap 30: 24-28, A.V.). These things will all have something to say to us but they relate to what is small.

But the impression I have in relation to this verse is that Solomon's thoughts were not limited by what was small. Solomon's thoughts ranged to the cedars of Lebanon. As we have often been reminded, they speak of the saints in their distinctiveness and their dignity, and their greatness, and they belong to a land that is spoken of by Moses as "that goodly mountain, and Lebanon", Deut 3: 25. That is the land to which the saints belong. It corresponds with the direction in which our beloved brother has been leading us, that there is a land where the saints are known in their dignity and their greatness, their availability for that house which was to be magnificent above every house. Think of that – the cedars of Lebanon that were to be brought down to find their place in the house that Solomon built, which was going to be exceedingly magnificent!

The Lord would have us, I believe, while accepting the smallness of things, never to lose sight of what is so d1stinct1vely great. Think of the beloved saints; think of them as we gather in the city, what they have co e through and the way they have endured in faithfulness, and the way, in spite of much infirmity, beloved saints continue to come on, and come on, and come on; and one thinks, as we gather at the Supper, that we see the saints there not in their feebleness according to the flesh or according to nature, but as we break bread together and the Lord comes in we have some impression of the saints in their dignity and their greatness. Let us, beloved, not lose sight of it. Let us, in remembering what the hyssop speaks of, and in taking that round, and consciously taking it, individually, consciously taking it in some sense collectively too (although what is collective can never neglect the greatest thoughts of God or of Christ in relation to the company), think also of the cedar-tree that is on Lebanon. What a distinctive place that is! It is not a place that is exempt from the operations of God in His ways. His voice can shake these cedars. It is not exempt from the handling of God, if I may use such an expression, but the saints there in their greatness and dignity and elevation – beloved, let us look at one another like that. Let us take account of what is distinctive in men and women according to the working of God, and according in some sense to His counsel, the place that these trees have. As far as I recall, there is no trace anywhere in Scripture of man having planted these trees; I think they would represent what has come to light as the result of the distinctive and sovereign operations of God and we find it as we look at the work of God in the beloved saints in the present day. We must take account of smallness; the smallness increases. It seems that all the time one hears of one and another being taken to be with Christ. Smallness also increased, sorrowfully, by independency in a local gathering, but smallness impresses itself on us. But Solomon also spoke of the cedar-tree that is on Lebanon. How great it is! How great the saints are! How great they are to God! One would covet to have God's view of every one of the beloved brethren. Would you not covet that too? Would His view of them be any different from your present view? Would you look at them differently if you had God's view of them? I trust not. I trust that we have some sense of what the saints are in this great and distinctive place that they have. Solomon is able to enlarge, his view enlarges very much. He spoke three thousand proverbs. Our beloved brother has drawn on them tonight for us, showing that the Spirit is in them and they are fresh for us. His songs were one thousand and five. I do not suppose there has ever been another man. who wrote a thousand and five songs, and we have one of them. These things show the expansiveness that is in the mind of Solomon, that can come down to the smallest scale and yet work in relation to such dimensions as this. "He spoke also of cattle, and of fowls; and of creeping things, and of fishes"; he spoke of the whole creation. Nothing was left out of his view; he had the whole creation in his mind. He could touch it all. Beloved he could come down to the hyssop that springs out of the wall, take account of it and value it, but as valuing it he also had the scope in his mind to enlarge into these great dimensions which are touched in these verses. I believe, beloved, as we are together and the Lord works among us, and we know His presence among us (as we do), He is constantly seeking to hold us in the higher level of what His own thoughts are. His thoughts about one and another, and our own thoughts about one another coincide, and we are finding, as we ourselves are able to enter into this range of things, that what is externally very small yet from another point of view has a grandeur and a dignity which needs to affect us, and affect us powerfully, so that we are not overcome by smallness but we have some sense in our on souls of what greatness according to God Is, and we see it in one another. We see it in the saints. We see it where there is seeking to maintain ground which is that of the assembly. We see it in those who seek to walk together in that way. Beloved, let us be sure, if the path of life is upwards, that our minds also are capable of turning from what is very small and insignificant (in one sense it must be insignificant} on the earth, to what is great and distinctive, and powerful and impressive, and Is going to be brought down (not with a view to its own destruction} to find its place in that magnificent house of God. Well, these will be very great things and the Lord would intend to have our minds lifted to the level on which He sees things. While we accept the smallness of things we would have our minds lifted too to the elevation on which we are according to God. May the Lord help us for His Name's sake.

LONDON

31 December 1985