LITTLE THINGS

J. Renton

Luke 12: 32; Exodus 8: 16–19; Numbers 23: 10; Judges 16: 22

These scriptures present little things. We were saying in the reading that we are living in a day of small things. We are not in the time of public glory as was manifest at Pentecost when there were obvious signs operating and no one could question the results of the power of God; nor are we living in the time of the pristine glory of the assembly answering to Paul’s ministry before the breakdown; nor are we even living in the time of the recovery when there was distinctive ministry which was recognised in Christendom; in fact we are living in a time when that ministry largely has been rejected and there has been great reduction in the number of those who answer to the truth. We are living in remnant conditions, in a day of small things publicly, yet in a day of great spiritual possibilities.

In the first scripture read the Lord refers to His disciples as a little flock, which suggests the feature of outward defencelessness. A little flock is defenceless; the protection of a flock depends on the shepherd. The Lord says here, “Fear not, little flock “. He said earlier,

“Consider the ravens … God feeds them” (Luke 12: 24). The context of the passage shows the Lord’s concern that His disciples should not be over-anxious about food and raiment—

material things. It is the over-anxiousness which the Lord is concerned about, lest they should be so anxious about these things that they should forget what we had last night as to what is

more important. Of course we are to be righteous; we have to see to our livelihoods; but that is not to be the first thing with us.

The Lord says here, “Fear not, little flock”. There they were, a few disciples, and the Lord was about to leave them. You will notice the mount of transfiguration is described in chapter 9 of the gospel of Luke and many chapters follow describing what took place in possibly only a very short time. In chapter 9 the time of the Lord’s receiving up was in view, and the Lord is fortifying His disciples in the following chapters in view of His absence. When the Lord was here He protected them; the little flock were safe when the Lord was here; but now He was going to leave them, and they would be suffering, outwardly defenceless against opposition and persecution. The Lord says, “Fear not, little flock, for it has been the good pleasure of your Father to give you the kingdom”. There is the kingdom, a whole order of things under God, in view of the support and the protection of this little flock. There is our Father who is in the heavens, the Lord of heaven and earth; everything is under His control, and the objects of His chief interest are the little flock down here. There is the Lord Jesus exalted, all power given to Him in heaven and on earth, and His chief interest is the little flock down here. There is the presence of the Holy Spirit; there is the fellowship of one another, all such provision is involved in the kingdom, a divinely ordered arrangement of things for the support and protection of these few defenceless sheep.

He goes on to say in Luke 12: 33, “Sell what ye possess and give alms; make to yourselves purses which do not grow old, a treasure which does not fail in the heavens, where thief does not draw near nor moth destroy. For where your treasure is,

there also will your heart be”. We are not to be over-occupied with things down here; as Paul says in Philippians, “our commonwealth has its existence in the heavens” (Philippians 3: 20).

The next move from heaven is what we ought to be expecting. The Lord Jesus is sitting with His Father in His throne; any moment He will rise from that seat and come for His own and everything here will be altered. We have a whole kingdom to support us; the gates of hades cannot prevail against this kingdom. The Lord would therefore as a true Shepherd comfort His little flock. We sometimes speak about the smallness of numbers available, but very few were available in Luke 12; the Lord gathered very few comparatively in His three-and-a-half years of service; He was not popular. We need to be preserved from desiring to be popular.

He gathered the little flock and He was the Shepherd; they were His chief interest down here.

Therefore there was an abundant answer to their defencelessness. This little flock were the flock of the One who was crucified. The Lord did not retaliate, He did not defend Himself, when reviled He reviled not again, when suffering He threatened not (1 Peter 2: 23). The little flock are to be like Him, prepared to suffer; their defence does not depend on their own actions, but the Shepherd who was crucified Himself will defend and support them.

Now in Exodus you have little things in testimony. The feature with these gnats is testimony.

The little flock is defenceless but cared for by divine protection, but the gnats suggest testimony. They are very little things, you can hardly see them. They are despised; I suppose in the creational order of things they would be of the least value, but they make their presence known, and felt, very much so. You could not deny their presence. That is like the believer in this world at the present time, it is the evidence of life. We were speaking about Paul in that hall of audience in the midst of all the pomp and the men of distinction. Luke uses language that would give us the atmosphere of that pompous company. Then they sent for Paul the prisoner; he would be like a gnat in that company; nobody would rise up when a prisoner came in; they would all rise up when Agrippa came in, but not when Paul came in. How would he look, I wonder? There he was; did he not make his presence felt; did he not embarrass all that company?

The gnats were not withdrawn and there is no warning given as to them. In other signs Moses was told to warn Pharaoh, but here they just appeared, and in other plagues things were withdrawn, but not here; they continued. In previous plagues the sorcerers imitated; but they were not able to imitate life. The testimony here is to life, of no account in men’s reckoning but in powerful testimony which cannot be gainsaid. It says that “Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff, and smote the dust of the earth, and there arose gnats on man and on beast”. What beginnings!—dust; it is really life out of death; it is in principle resurrection life. That is what the believer has; just as our Saviour is in life out of death, so the believer is quickened with Him, that is, made to live in His life, and that kind of life is to be in testimony down here. It is not pompous, nor presumptuous; it is outwardly insignificant, yet there is powerful testimony, little things, but powerful in life. It says, “And the scribes did so with their sorceries, to bring forth gnats; but they could not ... Then the scribes said to Pharaoh. This is the finger of God!” The finger of God suggests that the believer is in testimony in life down here.

Now in the book of Numbers Balaam is speaking; he was a man in whom there was no work of God, and yet under God’s control he said some wonderful things. He says, “Who can count the dust of Jacob?”; it is not exactly the glory of Jacob, it is the dust of Jacob. It no doubt would refer to the death of Jacob. I believe it would have some bearing as to the death of Christ. Who can count the dust of Jacob? Who can reckon the great results from the death of Christ? Think of the humiliating circumstances publicly in which Jesus died; hung upon a cross, men jeering at Him; there was not the slightest public evidence of God supporting Him. During the first three hours of the Lord’s suffering, from the third to the sixth hour, in daylight, ignominy was hurled at Him. It was public humiliation of the worst kind; it was the worst that men could do, with Satan behind them. They said, “He trusted upon God; let him save him now if he will have him”, Matthew 27: 43. It was public humiliation of the worst kind, and there was no public evidence of God supporting Him, but think of the results of the dust of Jacob, the great results of the death of Christ! There was never anything so humiliating as that which Jesus suffered—but what great results! “Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let my soul die the death of the righteous”. Balaam did not die thus, but Jesus died the death of the righteous. Who can reckon the great results from it? “In his humiliation”, the prophet said, “his judgment has been taken away”, Acts 8: 33. We will be strengthened in the conditions of humiliation and reproach in which we are as we think of the humiliating circumstances in which Jesus was found. This should encourage us.

Now in the last scripture, in Judges, we have Samson, also in humiliating circumstances. How did he come into these circumstances? Who was the cause of it? He was the cause.

Samson’s own failure was the reason for his being found in such humiliating circumstances. This has a bearing on ourselves. Much that we suffer in humiliation is not the reproach of the Christ, but reproach which we have brought upon ourselves because of certain departure from the truth, certain extremes which marked us which we have faced and judged, yet some governmental result remains, just as with Samson here. There were two men in the Old Testament who suffered for their own sins; one was David and the other was Samson, and it is a comfort to read the histories of these men because they have a bearing on our own time. Delilah tempted Samson and the amazing thing was he knew he was being tempted, he knew what her object was, and yet he succumbed, he disclosed the secret he had with God. He thought, “I will go out as at other times before, and disengage myself. And he knew not that Jehovah had departed from him” (Judges 16: 20). What a sad situation! The Philistines seized him, put out his eyes, brought him down to Gazah and bound him with fetters of bronze, and he had to grind in the prison-house. “But”, it says, “the hair of his head began to grow”; it is life in humiliating circumstances; it is life in smallness. Previously Samson could speak about the seven locks of his head; he cannot speak here about the seven locks of his head; “But the hair of his head began to grow”, and this is the kind of day we are in. There is not much to make an impact on Christendom, but there is to be reality and revival and a little power. Samson in the end slew more Philistines than in all his life.

That is all I have to say. Do not let us bemoan too much the littleness of things; let us realize what God can do with little things. The little flock so precious to Him, persons who are true to the principles of the assembly, are of special interest to heaven. Let us continue in the testimony in life and let us not be discouraged by outward circumstances, or by fewness of numbers. Let us be real and maintain what is true to the Lord Jesus until He come, for His name’s sake.

Address at Gothenberg, Sweden
9 August 1980