Obedience in Small Things

Obedience in Small Things

Collin Leong. June 1 2023

 You may be aware that the Jews were exiled in Babylon for 70 years, as they disobeyed God and worshipped pagan Gods. At the end of the 70 years, Cyrus, the King of Persia, conquered Babylon, and allowed the Jews to go back to Jerusalem to build the temple. The temple was destroyed by the Babylonians when they were exiled. 

Zerubbabel was the leader of those Jews who volunteered to go home to Jerusalem. (About 50,000 of them went home.)  The first thing they did was to build the altar so that they can offer burnt offering to God. The next thing they did was to build the foundation of the temple. When the foundation was completed, Ezra described the emotions of the Jews:

"And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the LORD, according to the directions of David king of Israel. (11) And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.” 

And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. (12) But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away."  (Ezra 3:10-13)

However, shortly after the foundation was laid, the building of the temple stopped due to objections of the Samaritans who are enemies of the Jews.  They even wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia and accusing the Jews will rebel against the government if they finish building the temple and the walls. King Artaxerxes sent a decree to stop them from the building work.

At the end of 16 years, Zechariah was one of the prophets that God sent to the Jews to encourage them to rebuild the temple again. God told Zechariah: 

"The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel." (Zech 4:9-10)

This was a word of prophecy saying that Zerubbabel who had laid the foundation will complete the building of the temple. 

I believe the phrase that says: "whoever has despised the day of small things" referred to the Jews who cried when the foundation was laid. These are the older Jews who had seen the first temple 70 years ago. They were sad that the temple they were building was so small compared to what King Solomon had done. Solomon's temple was at least twice as big as the second temple, and he used 3,000 tons (100,000 talents) of gold and 30,000 tons of silver (1,000,000 talents).

There are lessons we can learn from the delay of the temple building.

1. The first is Persecution from their neighbors, the Samaritans. They keep disrupting their work and then get the King to ban the work. 

As Christians, will we give up in serving God, if we are persecuted by our neigbours, by the government, or even by our parents? 

Remember Jesus warned us that we will be persecuted, as they had also persecuted him.  "Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also". (John 15:20)

What should we do when we are persecuted? Jesus said, "But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.  (Matt 5: 44-45)

2. The second is Distraction. After they were stopped from building the temple, they started to their work and business, and very soon they forget about the purpose of their return to Jerusalem.  

Haggai, another prophet that God sent to encourage the Jews, said to them: “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?" (Hag 1:4)

Working to feed ourselves is not wrong. However, we should not focus just on making ourselves rich and live in large houses. We should also give God some of our resources and serve him in small ways. 

3. The third is Time (or lack of time).  God told Haggai this:  “Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.”  (Hag 1:2)

This is also a common excuse for Christians. While they have time to build their houses, they do not have time to build God's kingdom. When they have time off from their work, they rather spend it on their hobbies and vacations. They wanted to wait until they retire to serve the Lord. 

God don't need every Christians to give 100% of time to Him. Time for ourselves and for family is important, but we should use whatever time of availability we have to serve God.

4. The fourth reason is Doubts. Remember the old Jews cried when they saw how small the foundation of the temple was? They were disappointed that their effort and resource were not as good as what Solomon did. Some of them think that God Himself may not be happy or satisfied as well, so why continue? 

When I compare myself to the great evangelists like Billy Graham and apologists like Ravi Zacharias or pastors such as Tim Keller, I also feel inadequate. I say to myself, what's the point of serving or telling others about the gospel? Let those who have the talent or gifted do the job. Some of us worked so hard but see no results. So we gave up. 

Summary

Do you know why we gave up due to all these reasons and excuses? It is because we tried to use our own strength, our own intelligence and our own skills to serve God. But God does not need our abilities. He just want our availability and willingness.

In Zechariah, God passed this message to Zerubbabel: "'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”’”  (Zech 4: 6-7)

It is through God's Spirit that we can level a problem or a task as big as a mountain. He can do what is impossible for us. But he wants us to be an instrument to play just a few notes. When we work together, playing our own small part, we can be an orchestra that is conducted by God Himself. 

Yes, Solomon's Temple with all its the gold and silver, cannot be matched in it's grandeur.  But it was the humble and small temple of Zerubbabel -  built by the strength of the Spirit - that had the honor of the visit by the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ.

The "small things" or the "small resources" or the "small sacrifices" or the "small time" we give to God, He can use them to draw people to Jesus Christ and to forgive them for their sins.  Small things matter to God.