By Pastor Larry Frazier
The movie “Oppenheimer” showed that the microscopically small atom can release enormous power. God allows man to have knowledge of such power that can either be used constructively and destructively. However, the knowledge of atomic power was not from man’s discovery. God says, “He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things.” (Daniel 2:21-22). The atom is only one of the small things empowered by God that He uses according to His purpose.
David, a young boy who attended sheep, went to fight a physically larger, trained warrior named Goliath (1 Samuel 17). That incident would have ended tragically for David if God had not been in the picture. David had the fortitude to oppose a formidable enemy of God’s people despite overwhelming odds against him.
Frederick Douglass is credited with saying, “One and God make a majority.” Indeed, that was the case, because David’s one small rock from his sling felled the giant Goliath. God’s mighty little rock brought victory. In the thirteenth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, we read where Jesus compares the growth of God’s kingdom initially to a small mustard seed which eventually grows to be the largest of the garden plants. Jesus was predicting the spreading of Christianity throughout the world. Going further, some find it hard to believe that Jesus fed more than five thousand people by multiplying five loaves and two fish (Matthew 14:15-21). The writer of Psalm 135:6 says, “The Lord does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth.”
An excellent example of something small and powerful is the tongue. Somebody once said that all parts of the human body get tired eventually except the tongue. In chapter three of his epistle, the Apostle James wrote, “Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder …so also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet…also the tongue is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body.
The Apostle Paul tells how God handles the tongue. “Let your conversation be always full of GRACE…so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Colossians 4:6). Grace is God’s gift that we receive through faith in Jesus Christ. The fallen human nature desires power and position rather than humility toward God. Paul reminds us, “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him” (1 Corinthians 1:27-29).
So, ultimately we see that the greatest example of God’s power in small things is the Babe of Bethlehem, Jesus Christ. The Prophet Micah foretold of Jesus’ coming from humble lineage, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times (5:2). “And Jesus [the Savior] grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52).