God's Greatness in Small Things
Job 36:26-27
Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.…


We lose God in His greatness, and it is well for us to be told that the great God can do small things, and that small things are often the illustrations of His greatness.

I. GOD ILLUSTRATES HIS GREATNESS IN DOING SMALL THINGS. Illustrate from the statesman, who can find time to contribute to the literature of his country; the great builder, who cares for minute ornament. Or from God's attention in creation to every detail. Or from the ritualism of the old dispensation, which included the elaborate and minute. It is to reduce God to our littleness, to suppose that He measures all things by our scale. He does not even measure time by our computation. Great and small are terms which have not the same meaning with God as with man. How can anything be great to Him but Himself? He regulates the ripples on the sea of human life, caused by trivial circumstances, as well as the lifting up of the floods, when the angry waves threaten us with shipwreck. God is great, and He is so great that He is gentle; there are no hands so strong, and none so tender. God does great things, but He does them silently. The greatest forces operate without bustle and noise. Gentleness is the perfection of strength.

II. CHRIST, THE MANIFESTED GOD, DOES ALL THINGS BEAUTIFULLY, SMALL AS WELL AS GREAT THINGS. He comes, as all the race come, by birth. "He grew in wisdom and stature." No one but a teacher, "in whom were hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," could have discoursed with such beautiful simplicity on the highest themes, The doctrine of providence tie brings down to the little things of daily life. What a Gospel He gives us in a few words. His conduct to childhood illustrates the singular beauty with which He did everything.

III. THE WAY TO GREATNESS IS TO DO SMALL THINGS. Men who have obtained greatness have begun with the beginning of things. Great men have always been men of detail — great works are done by careful attention to little things. To overlook the importance of small things, is to forget that these give birth to great things. Life, to a great extent, is made up of small things. It is with small things we build up character.

(H. J. Bevis.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.

WEB: Behold, God is great, and we don't know him. The number of his years is unsearchable.




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