Who Has Despised the Day of Small Things

Zechariah 4:10a For who hath despised the day of small things?

The tone of the verse is that it is not a good thing to think lightly of small things.  The world has a saying, “the devil is in the details”.  Being detail-oriented is a good thing to place on a resume.

The Bible is full of what would be considered “little things”, despised in the world, that made or broke a person’s future.

• Adam and Eve and one act of disobedience led to the Fall of mankind and the curse on the world
• Esau gave up the family blessing for a dish of stew
• David was considered the least of his brothers, not important enough to invite to the dinner with the prophet Samuel
• David took something small, a stone that was used to kill Goliath
• David had a one night stand with Bathsheba that resulted in murder, a dead baby, and family trouble from that time on
• Moses getting tired of the complaining around him; Moses ended up striking the rock instead of speaking to the rock; it cost him entering the promised land
• A little boy had a modest lunch … five loaves and two fishes that were blessed by Jesus and used to feed a multitude
• The widow who threw in two mites (a tiny amount of money) into the offering was commended by Jesus

In a world that focuses on the big stage, the glamor, the glitter, the branding, the big stuff, all these small events would be considered inconsequential.

But God focuses on the little things.  And if there are little details that God wants taken care of, it is important to look at them in the same manner that God does … little things can be big things in God’s eyes.

No matter how little a thing is, when the Holy Spirit leads you to do it, then it is a big thing in God’s eyes. And you don’t know where a little thing will lead.

I was recently involved in a gathering where one of the individuals was saying how the Lord had been talking to him to help a neighbor by sharpening a garden tool. This person didn’t want to bother, didn’t want to sharpen the tool, and put it off. Finally, he obeyed and did what he was led to do. That led the neighbor he helped to start bringing other neighbors by and the dynamics of it evolved into a ministry out of the garage. But it started with a small thing of sharpening a tool. It seemed very natural, “not spiritual”,  and unimportant but God knew where it would lead.

Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

One of those things, and this will be a recurring theme until the election, is to vote.  A vote may seem like a small thing.  But in a world that can steal votes, it takes a landslide to bring a candidate to winning where in an honest world of voting, which currently does not exist, it might not take that kind of over-the-top effort.  But to overcome the lying and cheating, it takes all hands on deck to vote.