WHAT IS LITTLE

N. J. Henry

Matthew 2: 1, 2, 9–12; Revelation 3: 7, 8

I would like to speak about what is little. It is not an easy subject to take up because it is not natural to us to desire what is little. You remember that Satan fell because he desired to be more than he was. He desired a place that did not belong to him and that place is always upward, and he succeeded through his fall by inculcating into man not only his character but his culture and thinking, so that man desired to be more than what he was as ordained by God. So the woman, in looking at the forbidden tree, found it was to be desired. That has affected every one of the race. It affects every area of the race including what is ecclesiastical; even in Laodicea it sought to use what the Lord had not given it because the Lord says, “I counsel thee to buy of me”, Revelation 3: 18.

Laodicea evidently had something that the Lord knew had not come from Him, so that there is always this aspiring in the human heart to move out of the place that God would have all of us in. This is sobering because as you look within your own heart you may find discontent and lust and much else. It flows out of simply not accepting the place that the divine mind would have for us. It is sobering that when we look within we find the seeds of what was really in the devil; that is what is natural to us. I am speaking of what we are as after Adam. It is in every heart. What is in us is what was found in the devil himself and continues.

Now the One who suffered for that, was the One who in His grace vicariously took something on that never belonged to Him. He never sought a change from the place that He took according to the will of God. He suffered for these very feelings that were in us but were absent from Himself. The Lord Jesus was perfect. He was unique in not being marked by the aspiring desire of every other person. I have started in Matthew’s gospel because what Matthew stresses is the little Child. In Luke it is the Babe, but in Matthew it is the little Child.

It is remarkable that Matthew takes it up because he refers to a system of greatness among men that proceeds outside of God. For instance in Matthew 21 when the Lord comes into Jerusalem the whole city was moved but they did not seem to know the reason. They said, “Who is this?” (Matthew 21: 10). The great people of the earth would come to Jerusalem. Here was another Person but He was introduced there as meek, “Behold thy King cometh to thee, meek” (Matthew 21: 5). Here is a different kind of Person approaching Jerusalem. Finally He is going to lay claim to the city, it will be the city of the great King; it will be God’s city, Jerusalem.

In the meantime what is introduced here in Matthew 2 is the little Child. How precious to find that these men come as affected by this star. They must have been persons who studied the heavens; they knew there was something different. A star appeared that had not been there before and it did not continue. It appeared in the east, they saw it and they must have come to it that it was His star. They make their way and the star does not appear again until they leave Jerusalem. You find that in divine grace light will come to your soul and you are left to answer to it. So these men make their way to the city, to Jerusalem, and after their talk with Herod the king who is the head of this whole system in the city, “having heard the king went their way; and lo, the star, which they had seen in the east, went before them until it came and stood over the place where the little child was”. What identification, a heavenly body, a star in the heavens introduced for that one reason to draw attention to the little Child. How blessed. That is how Christ is introduced in this gospel, the assembly gospel, and it is in that character of what is little. It is needed, beloved brethren, because Jerusalem is a great system of things and it is proceeding without Christ.

Look at the eunuch in Acts 8; he came to Jerusalem and he left; he had the scriptures but he had nothing in his heart. He was reading Isaiah 53 but he had to admit, “concerning whom does the prophet say this? of himself or of some other?” (Acts 8: 34). He had not been told that it was some other that Isaiah was speaking about. In fact it has been said that Isaiah 53 sets out

that the character of Christ is not what the remnant would expect. It says, “when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him” (Isaiah 53: 2). He is not the Christ that they would expect, what is presented to the remnant. Nevertheless this is what this man was reading; it is a good start to read the scriptures. He was coming from Jerusalem, the way down to Gaza, and this man Philip was sent and the eunuch says, ‘Was he speaking of himself or of some other?’ Then “Philip, opening his mouth and beginning from that scripture, announced the glad tidings of Jesus to him” (Acts 8: 35). It was what was little in character that was being presented. How attractive the Lord Jesus was! We need in our minds to be saturated with littleness; as long as we are here we will need in a right sense to keep lowly. We need to obtain that character because we handle great things.

So the magi rejoiced greatly when they saw the star. Having come into the house they see the little Child with Mary His mother. How did these men know? What instinct was given them of God to recognise that what they had come for was presented in that little Child? How attractive! It says, “having come into the house they saw the little child with Mary his mother, and falling down did him homage”. Is not that wonderful, “they ... did him homage”? Is anybody’s heart here today going out in that service of homage? He is not fashioned like the big men of this world. His was a body prepared—the spirit of holy contentment marked His course. That was the life of Christ! He did not exalt Himself. We often say that in Philippians 2 He waited to be exalted, “Wherefore also God highly exalted him” (verse 9). He would wait His time but He would never ever exalt Himself. How different a Man He is from what was here; He was different from every other man. The magi had some feeling as to what was appropriate to the Person of Jesus, “And having opened their treasures, they offered to him gifts, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh”. How appropriate that was to give to Christ. There are certain things Christendom tries to offer which are inappropriate to Christ. I know we are in the midst of Christendom, but morally that should not be the attitude of true hearts. The magi offered what was appropriate to Christ, gold, frankincense and myrrh; a large apprehension of what is due to that Person is suggested in this precious offering that these men had. What light came into their souls! Jerusalem did not give them that light, nor did Herod; they must have received it in their simple relations with God. The star was pointing something out, so that they would offer what was appropriate to the little Child. ...

In Philadelphia it is a little power, and I think in some sense a little power in Philadelphia means she is in keeping and appropriate to the place she is given. It is very beautiful not to try and go out of our orbit; Christ never did. We should learn that we should keep within the will of God and keep within our orbit. This One who speaks in Revelation 3 as to Philadelphia is the One who has feet like fine brass and whose eyes are as a flame of fire. He is moving judicially and He says, “because thou hast a little power”. It was appropriate, it was sufficient power to maintain the place that God would have us in. I feel the need of that in the day we are in, beloved brethren; we need to be content with the place we have and not aspire to anything great. We need to go on as Paul says, “going along with the lowly” (Romans 12: 16); go on with those who are lowly in heart and suitable. Little power means that you have sufficient for the time you are in. He says to Philadelphia in His opening remark, “These things saith the holy, the true; he that has the key of David, he who opens and no one shall shut, and shuts and no one shall open”. What control He has, there is unquestionable control in this Person and He says to the Philadelphian assembly, “behold, I have set before thee an opened door, which no one can shut, because thou hast a little power, and, hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name”. What an approval from this Person who has the right to judge.

The only judgment worth having is the judgment of this One, with His feet like brass shining. It is shining! It is our privilege in the day we are in to keep His word and not deny His name. It is a great privilege and we have the power for it, a little power … Philadelphia is the only assembly that is referred to as having power; it is never referred to in the rest. Ephesus had fallen from their first love, love for Christ, vertical love and horizontal love. They had fallen from it. They had not the power to maintain it although they were maintaining a right position outwardly, they were dealing with evil but we need more than that; we need to have the spirit of the little child amongst us because we are handling the greatest things of God. The truth of God has come into the treasury of men, that is where it is put, and it says angels desire to look into it; therefore we need to keep lowly. I just feel the need of it in my own heart; keep lowly, keep little in your mind and heart, so that the precious things increase in our apprehension and in our hearts. May it be so, for His name’s sake.

Part of address at Aberdeen, Scotland
15 May 2004