The Day of Small Things
Zechariah 4:10 For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. “These seven are the eyes of the LORD, which range through the whole earth.”
SEVEN EYES, SEVEN LAMPS, AND SEVEN SPIRITS
Zechariah 4:2 says, “And he said to me, What do you see? And I said, I see that there is a lamp-stand all of gold, with its bowl on top of it and its seven lamps upon it.” Chapter three says that “upon one stone are seven eyes” (v. 9). Chapter four says that upon the lamp-stand are seven lamps.
verse 10 of chapter four says, “For who has despised the day of small things? For these seven….”
The seven lamps in chapter four are, without a doubt, the seven eyes of God.
Therefore, this implies that the seven eyes of Jehovah are upon the stone. Who is the stone? The stone is Jehovah! The stone is Jesus, and the name Jesus means “Jehovah the Saviour.”
Zechariah 4:4 says, “And I answered and spoke to the angel who spoke with me, saying, What are these, sir?” What is the significance of the one lamp-stand with seven lamps? Verses 5 and 6 say, “And the angel who spoke with me answered and said to me, Do you not know what these are? And I said, No, sir. And he answered and spoke to me, saying, This is the word of Jehovah to Zerubbabel, saying,
Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says Jehovah of hosts.
This clearly indicates that the one lamp-stand with seven lamps is “My Spirit.” In other words, the lamp-stand with seven lamps is the Spirit of God.
God as telling Zechariah that The Temple ***would*** be completed, not by human might or power, but by the power of God! The present work may have looked weak and insignificant, but God was in it!
God was using a small nation to build a small temple but if God does it, its no small thing!
Who Despised The Work of the Lord?
First of all, we need to recognize that those who despised the Lord’s work did not realize that it ***was*** the Lord’s work!
That is so characteristic of man. We like to equate bigness with blessing. But that’s just not the way it works!
God uses small things
Why? Because the smallest of faith can do great works for the Lord:
Luke 17:5-6 *And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. 6*And the Lord said,* *If ye had faith* ***as a grain of mustard seed**, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.*
Don’t get sidetracked by how things may appear. Look at what God can do with them!
Sometimes God is simply not in the big things. Sometimes we will only find him in the small things!
There are always those who ridicule. “They are ***just*** a small church”! At the end of it all, those who have been ministered to, and those lives that have been touched will rejoice! God has done a great thing through this small thing!
How about a king being born in a manger amid the stench and filth of animals? That seems like a pretty small thing too.
Don’t you dare despise it.
Here are some examples:
Don’t despise the small things of prayer, by means of which God changes people’s hearts.
Don’t despise the small things of service in the local church, by which God is glorified and people encouraged.
Don’t despise the small things of working in the seemingly insignificant place like the church nursery, by which you reflect Christ like love and compassion.
Don’t despise the small things like daily bible reading, by which your heart is transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Don’t despise the small things of daily obedience and sacrifice through which your heart is trained and molded after the Savior.
Don’t despise the small things of putting sin to death, by which you are responding to the victory Christ has won for you.
Don’t despise the small things like honoring your parents, by them you demonstrate that there is a God who is bigger than you, whose authority you value.
Don’t despise the small things like working hard at your job or school everyday, in these things you show that there is something more profound, more powerful, more worthy than the fluctuating value of the dollar.
Don’t despise the small things like speaking of Christ to others, by which unbelievers may come to trust and treasure Jesus.
Don’t despise the small things of corporate worship, the singing of songs and preaching of the word, through which there is an announcement of the kingdom and conquest of our Lord Jesus! And there is a growing, a swelling group of constituents in his kingdom!!
Don’t despise the small things like little church plants, it is by such things that God depopulates hell through the preaching of the Gospel!
Don’t despise the day of small things, but rejoice! Rejoice!
Spurgeon said, "It is a very great folly to despise “the day of small things,” for it is usually God’s way to begin his great works with small things." The stream commences with but a gentle rivulet, but it flows on till it becomes a brook, and anon a river, — perhaps a mighty Amazon, ere its course is run.
God delights in taking the insignificant and making something out of it. Down through history we can see the pattern:
Moses' rod that delivered a nation from Egypt (Exodus 4:1-9),
The jawbone of an ass that in Samson's hand killed a thousand Philistines (Judges 15:14-16),
Five smooth stones that felled the giant Goliath (1 Samuel 17),
The handful of meal and a jar of oil that sustained a widow through years of famine (2 Kings 4:1-7),
Five barley loaves and a couple fish that fed a multitude (Matthew 14:13-21), and
The mustard seed Jesus said would become a great tree for birds to find shelter (Matthew 13:31-32).
Do you despise your failures? Don't. Surrender them to the God who delights in taking human weakness and showing His strength. Take another look at your discarded dreams, this time through God's eyes:
"Not by might, not by power, but my Spirit says the Lord Almighty" (Zechariah 4:6)