Jottings

by J. Miller | Category: Jottings | Dec 1963

For some few weeks off, and on, my mind has been turning over Scripture references to things and persons that are small, little and least. Among the early references to things that are small are two to the manna. It was a small round thing. It was small; the Hebrew word comes from a word which means "to crush". It was round like scales, not globular, but flat. Mr. Darby says "Some translate 'scaly'." Something small or thin, "something peeled off, i.e like a scale" (Gesenius). It is also described "small as the hoar frost on the ground" (Exodus 16.14). Such is one of the pen pictures drawn for us of the types of the incarnate Son of God. In John 6 we have the contrast drawn between the manna the bread from heaven, for the people of Israel in their pilgrimage through the' wilderness, and the Lord, the B read of God. It was given to them when they had eaten all the unleavened bread they had brought with them when they left Egypt, and it ceased after they crossed the Jordan and ate of the old corn of the land.

How great is the contrast between the manna and the Lord who said,

"I am the Bread of Life. Your fathers did eat the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the Bread which cometh down out of heaven that a man may eat thereof, and not die" (John 6.48-50).

The eating of Christ is by faith. "He that believeth hath eternal life" (verse 47). "He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood bath eternal life" (verse 54). Faith is the mouth of' the soul as the mouth is the mouth of the body Israel ate by the mouth and died, the believer eats by faith and shall live for ever (verse 51).

When the Lord came from heaven, how small He was when He appeared

a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, a Child, the Son of a Virgin! This is the Bread for all who journey from time into eternity, from this world to the world to come. He became too small for the great, the wise and the rich ones of the earth. Had He come to raise the proud to higher levels of pride they no doubt would have been gracious enough to welcome Him, but to do as the Israelites had to do, to bow down with their faces to the earth to get the manna, they were not prepared to bow before a Babe - as the wise men from the East did when they came to find the King of the Jews, the Messiah of Israel. Herod commonly called "the great," great in wickedness like some other world-rulers, amongst his last acts before he died, ordered the killing of all male children in Bethlehem and its borders. Indeed, before his death he condemned to death Antipater (whose mother was Doris) his eldest son, who was executed five days before his father's death. Previous to that he had killed his two other sons Alexander and Aristobulus, and their mother Mariamne. Would he come and bow down before Jesus, God's Son? No, indeed, the angelic message said, "Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him" (Matthew 2. 18). Wretched man! he cared for no life but his own.

God's voice to Elijah in Horeb is described as "a still small voice" (1 Kings 19.12). Previous to this a strong wind rent the mountains, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind an earthquake but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire, and after the fire "a still small voice". R.V. margin gives "a sound of gentle stillness "or as rendered by another "a soft gentle voice". What did the voice say? It was but a question: "What doest thou here Elijah?" Why had he crossed all the sandy wastes of the desert to come to Horeb? For forty days and nights he went in the strength of the angel-provided food. He had come to plead with God against Israel. Horeb was the mount where God had entered into a covenant with His people. Would He break His covenant? Elijah pleaded his zeal for Jehovah the God of the covenant, and that he alone is left. But God said he had seven thousand who had not bowed to Bual nor kissed him. Well Elijah knew the Speaker by His voice. Do we betimes hear the still small voice? When did we last hear it?

We have made reference to certain small things in another paper and to their importance. Before me lies open a dictionary issued a number of years ago, and the explanation it gives to the word "Atom", is "a minute, indivisible particle of matter". It was a description of the word "atom" then. It was believed and taught in the schools of science in years past, but it is now just so much ancient history. It was believed in past years, that man in digging into things material had reached the nadir and ultimate in his restless pursuit of knowledge of the material universe. The atom was the end of all diverse substances. In man's knowledge and experience it is not so now. The atom has been split and from within its minute size there can issue almost infinite sources of power by the ingenious skills which men have devised. If such powers are unleashed from things which cannot be observed by the naked eye, what sources of spiritual power have been placed by God in things that are small?

In the days of Amos, when the land was going to be eaten up by locusts and to be devoured by fire, the prophet pleads with God for His careless, disobedient people, with the voice of pity, "0 Lord GOD, cease, I beseech thee: how shall Jacob stand? for he is small. The LORD repented concerning this: This also shall not be, saith the LORD" (Amos 7.5, 6). Twice the prophet pleaded, and twice the LORD said almost the same words. God alone could make Israel to stand and preserve them from all dangers. We find God saying,

"The LORD did not set His love upon you, nor chose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all peoples" (Deuteronomy 7.7).

But listen to what He said about their strength, "Five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall chase ten thousand" (Leviticus 26.8). What was their source of strength? It was the God of Israel. But what was their source of weakness? It was this: their sin provoked God to anger:

"How should one chase a thousand,

And two put ten thousand to flight,

Except their Rock hod sold them,

And the LORD had delivered them up?" (Deuteronomy 32.80).

Gideon and Samson are two of the Judges who did after what was the intention of God, even to put armies of aliens to flight. Lonely Samson, large-hearted and loving, sought the love of his own people, but he received harsh treatment. All they did with him was to bind him and hand him over to their enemies the Philistines. It was like the echo of a far cry later heard in Gabbatha, "We have no king but Caesar". They joined hands with their enemies the Romans to put the Lord to death. There was no muscular strength in evidence in Samson. That unworthy woman, Delilah, could not discern wherein his great strength lay. She knew not of his Nazirite separation and the power of God's Spirit which came upon him. His cry of triumph was,

"With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps,

With the jawbone of an ass have I smitten a thousand men"

(Judges 15. 16).

In the case of Gideon he said to the angel who appeared to hin' as he was beating out wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites, "My family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house" (Judges 6.15). This man who saw himself so insignificant was to learn that it was not by might nor by power, but by His Spirit that God carries on His work (Zechariah 4.6). "The Spirit of the LORD came upon (or "clothed itself with", R.V.M.) Gideon". (Judges 6.84). Gideon blew a trumpet and at length thirty-two thousand came. But the LORD said that they were too many. The fearful and trembling had to return and Gideon was left with ten thousand. They were still too many for the LORD to work with, and these were tested at the water. Only three hundred passed the test. The LORD said, "By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand" (Judges 7.7).

Such were they who "from weakness were made strong, waxed mighty in war, turned to flight armies of aliens" (Hebrews ii. 34).

Paul said of the power of Christ, "When I am weak, then am I strong"

(2 Corinthians 12. 9, 10).

J. Miller | Dec 1963
Jottings