SMALLNESS
I had in mind to speak about the need for us to appreciate what is small. It is the very condition into which our Lord came. He came not only into manhood’s condition but He came in the form of a Babe; what compression! That is what I would like to encourage our hearts about, dear brethren, that what is small does not mean that it is feeble; what is small does not mean that it is weak; but the acceptance of smallness makes room for us to prove the power of God. They were too big at Corinth, you know. Paul had difficulty in getting in at Corinth. They were too big; he said that; they had been reigning, 1 Cor 4: 8. I think there is a need for us to be small in our own eyes. One man in the Old Testament had a time when he was like that and God looked on him, and God had something in him, I believe; it says, “when thou wast little in thine eyes”, 1 Sam 15: 17. It is an attitude that we need to keep, of being small, and yet in that smallness we have in mind the whole scope of divine things.
The verse in Isaiah speaks of a residue or a remnant and we have been taught that a remnant has all the features of the whole, save in the quantity of it. So in those small conditions there are all the features of the assembly. Two in a place, gathering together, small outward conditions, yet there are all the features of the assembly. Let us have a right view of what is small. It is not that we are so small that we are careless; it is not that we have become small and things do not matter. So if it is only two or three in a place, they are together in the light of the whole, and what regulates the assembly of God would regulate a few together in smallness in a place.
I believe we need to be helped, as I have said; though it be a remnant it is a small piece of the whole with all the characteristics of the whole, the same quality. The quality is not any less because it is the end piece; the warmth, the substantiality of what is there is just the same. So may we be helped as we come together in smallness. There may be just two or three in a place, yet what is there has the characteristics of the assembly of God in that place; so they gather together to pray, they gather together for the Lord’s supper. As together, if we have this attitude, we have a sense that we are a part of the whole. The whole assembly is not there, the whole is not to be seen in two or three persons, but the characteristics of the whole are there in a few gathered together “unto my name”, Matt 18: 20. So let us not despise the smallness, or be discouraged by it either, because I think if there is the right attitude with us as we come together the Lord and the Spirit would quickly give us a touch that we belong to Christ, we are part of His heavenly bride.
In Isaiah I only wanted to touch on God’s sovereignty experienced in small conditions; it says, “Unless Jehovah of hosts had left us a very small residue”. We may even boast, you know, in smallness; maybe we could boast that we are among those who have stood for things; I do not think we shall get the Lord’s help on that line. It says, “Unless Jehovah of hosts ...”; He has been sovereign in the way He has helped us through. It is God’s own distinct operation that He has preserved a remnant that is left. What a company to be in, the remnant that is left! They are going to be awakened; how encouraging Isaiah is in the later chapters—“Arise, shine! for thy light is come” (Isa 60: 1)—what a word to the remnant! What a word to a few in a place—“Arise, shine! for thy light is come, and the glory of Jehovah is risen upon thee”. Well, God’s sovereignty enters into all that. As we fall back on what God has done in His own sovereign operations, ways that we could not trace, we see there are other persons who have been more faithful perhaps than ourselves, more devoted, and yet they may not be remembering the Lord today. Well, “Unless Jehovah of hosts had left us a very small residue, we should have been as Sodom, we should have been like unto Gomorrah”. But God in His own sovereign way has preserved us. May we appreciate His ways in sovereign mercy. Paul appreciated them, and as He appreciated them he said, “How unsearchable his judgments, and untraceable his ways!”, Rom 11: 55. Well, I think that is one thing that a sense of smallness would cause us to appreciate—God’s own ways in sovereign mercy.
Another thing that is connected with smallness is wisdom, as we would see in Proverbs. I think the Corinthians, as I said, were too big to be wise, they were wise in their own eyes. Solomon says there are four things little upon the earth and they are exceeding wise. This attitude that I have spoken of makes room for divine wisdom. If there are a few of us in a place in the light of the whole assembly, who else than Christ can we turn to for direction? Who else can give us help to work out right principles? Certainly not anyone that is near by us who is walking in a path of self-will, not even persons who may have helped us in former years. I think the sense of littleness would cause us to be cast on divine wisdom. It is one of the things that Christ has been made to us; “who has been made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption”, 1 Cor 1: 30. He has been “made to us”; that would be the small people; He has been made to us wisdom from God. Well, there is a need for wisdom among us, I think any right-minded person would feel that, and here Solomon sees some things little upon the earth and they are exceeding wise. Where did they learn it? There could not have been room in the systems of men for these things, the ants, the rock-badgers, the locusts, and the lizard; there could not have been room in the systems of men to educate these. They would be characteristic of persons, and yet they were exceeding wise.
Where was their wisdom? Our wisdom is in falling back on the God who has sovereignly chosen us, as Jacob did on “the God that shepherded me all my life long”, Gen 48: 15. Jacob was some time coming to it but he became an exceedingly wise man. He could bless the greatest monarch of the time; he was a man who had journeyed on his own way at one time, but he became dependent, he had his name changed, and became exceeding wise. Paul is another; Paul proved wisdom; he learned it through being lowered through a wall in a basket. What a humiliating experience for a learned man of the world! But you see the learning of the world would not have saved him when the gates of the city were being watched day and night and they were ready to slay him; what saved him was “another way”.
I thought of that passage in Matthew, “take to thee the little child and his mother” (Matt 2: 13), as “another way”. As we embrace divine things there is a whole system of heavenly administration available that we might be exceeding wise. Herod was set for the destruction of the child Jesus; all the resources of the world were set against Christ; but there was “another way” as Joseph listened to wisdom. He was small enough to do as he was told; that was wisdom—the fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom—and he was small enough to do it. He might well have reasoned a lot of things in those early chapters in Matthew. I think Joseph represents to us a man who was small in his own eyes, and he was exceeding wise. Think of all the resources that Herod had being thwarted as they sought the child Jesus; there was “another way”; the magi departed “another way”, Matt 2: 12. Those men were exceeding wise, but small, little upon the earth. May that attitude mark us increasingly, that we make way for divine wisdom, divine resources.
As I have said, in Corinth it was hard, it took a long time; Paul said, “there is not a wise person among you, not even one” (1 Cor 6: 5); they were too big. There was a lot of man’s wisdom, and it comes in among us; it is very near to us; we are very apt to fall back on it; maybe if isolated from our brethren we are very apt to fall back on the wisdom of the world and bring disaster and sorrow and distress. But if we are small enough, dear brethren, in our own eyes the God who has redeemed us will see us through, and we shall come in for the resources of wisdom. It reminds us of Daniel; the wisdom of that man, who fed on pulse and water, was far greater than all the learning of the day; he was exceeding wise. He was content to be little, he was content not to have a name here but to draw his resources from someone else; he knew the companionship of the Son of God. “Go thy way until the end; and thou shalt ... stand in thy lot at the end of the days”, Dan 12: 13. There is a man who was little upon the earth and he was exceeding wise. He saw one king go and another come. God is going to see us through, dear brethren.
That is why I read in Hebrews that there is a line that He is seeing through; it says, “for he has prepared for them a city”. God is going to house His own work in His own environment, in His own arrangement. Well we may feel put out oft-times; we may feel that the small line is not gaining any ground; but God is going to see it through. These persons in this chapter—the apostle says time would fail to speak of them—God saw them through; He not only saw them through but He is going to house them; it says, “he has prepared for them a city”. What a city, it will be, dear brethren. Abraham will be there, all these persons in this chapter will be there. What a valuation God has of these persons, small upon the earth, despised among the nations; as they sought to be true to the God who had chosen them, they would be set at nought by men; but God has prepared for them a city. Oh may we appreciate the God who comforts us in these small circumstances; the God who comes down to these small details and exercises of our pathway; He has prepared for us a city. These small conditions are preparing us for the city, preparing us to learn wisdom, because in that city you are meant to function, you know; there will be no suburban dwellers in that city, every one in that city will be functioning as having learned divine wisdom and appreciated divine sovereignty.
May we grow in the appreciation of these things, so that, as we come to appreciate what God has done, in that day we shall fill out our place; “he has prepared for them a city”. In that city, as I said, each will function in his own formation, formation that is taking place now in small conditions; but may I say in closing that in the present small conditions there is to be a representation of the whole in its true character, for His Name’s sake.
EDINBURGH
30th December 1978