Having just returned from the country roads, quaint towns and compact cars in Ireland, I am forceably reminded that I am in the land of Bigger is Better. Not just highways and big cars and tall buildings, but super highways sixteen lanes across and SUVs and Hummers and skyscrapers so big they make perfect targets for terrorists. I’m reminded of Solomon’s words in describing his experiments to find the secret of life. After all, he was the original King of Big: “I made me great works; I builded me houses…I made me gardens and orchards…I got me servants and maidens…also I had great possessions of great and small cattle…I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts. So I was great….” (Eccl 2:4-9)—and he doesn’t even mention his 700 wives! So what is the beginning and end of the matter? “I made me great works…So I was great.” But that isn’t the last time he mentions “great” in the chapter. See the conclusion to his bold experiment, “This also is vanity and a great evil” (v. 21).
How different his father’s words as he stood one night under the stars. “When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?” (Ps. 8:3-4). What indeed, David. Man that cannot proportionately jump as high as a flea or carry as much as an ant. Man that can be killed by a mosquito or immobilized by a virus. Man who gives gold medals to people who can’t run half the speed of a cheetah or lift a fraction of the load of a horse. It is said that after a hectic day of world affairs at the White House, President Franklin Roosevelt asked to have his wheelchair rolled out under the vault of space. Gazing up into its majestic greatness, he said to his aide, “We can go to bed now; we’re small enough.”
And yet there is a kind of greatness to be known among the sons of men. The Truly Great King, who visited the little blue planet dressed in a carpenter’s work clothes, said: “Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them…But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your servant: and whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all” (Mk. 10:42-44). It was the path of greatness which He Himself modeled for us (see Phil. 2).
It has been our privilege to know such great men and women who, not seeking great things for themselves (Jer. 45:5), have sought instead “the kingdom of God, and His righteousness” (Mt. 6:33). Though seeming to be of that company described in Paul’s words—“not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble…the weak things of the world…and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen” (1 Cor 1:26-29)—yet such descriptions do not tell the whole story.
Such humble folk—yes, including those in your local fellowship—are members of heaven’s royal family, soon to be vice-regents of the whole universe. We have been made as rich as God can make us, “heirs of God” (Rom. 8:17), making Solomon (or Bill Gates) look like a charity case by comparison. These bodies, thought still in their “humiliation,” are the home-away-from-Home of the holy Trinity (1 Cor. 3:17). Our minds have been enlightened with truths greater than Einstein ever imagined, for we “have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16); we are the confidants of God. And every one of us has been equipped and empowered by the Spirit, using prayer, the Word of God, and dependence on Him, to do “greater works” than even the Lord Jesus did when He was here. I wouldn’t believe it unless He had said it. And He did say it! (Jn. 14:12). So how is it going? I hope this issue will encourage you in your ministry for the Lord.
Written by J. B. Nicholson Jr