(Isaiah 43: 16-21) 

 Renowned economist E.F. Schumacher wrote a book called Small is Beautiful:  Economics As If People Mattered some time ago.  This is a book that criticizes the modern attitude of people, who always seek ‘bigger, more, farther, faster, and greater’ life.

 Schumacher argues that seeking unconditional development and betterment, through placing blind faith in science, technology and civilization, should not be the sole purpose of life.  Rather, Schumacher points out, one needs the means and wherewithal to return to nature and see the small, beautiful things that are often overlooked.

 It is true.  Modern people who seek bigger and more things need to look back and reflect on this over-reliance and dependence on technology and civilization that can threaten human life.  They must turn their eyes toward smaller things.

 Modern people, on average, like bigger things.  When asked where one came from, most people are ashamed to admit that they came from a small, nameless country towns.  They rather hail themselves from a bigger city.  The same applies for occupation.  People take greater pride in the fact that they work for a large corporation that everyone has heard about.

 And the same applies for school.  We tend to take greater pride in having attended a school with several thousand students, rather than attending a small school in the countryside that has but a few students.  And the same applies even to churches.  Not many people look for small church that has few members and a small building.  A bustling church with many members and a large building tend to attract people’s attention.

 Sometimes, bigger is better.  Sometimes, bigger looks better.  But that is not always the case.  There are times when smaller is much better than bigger.  And there are times when smaller certainly looks much more beautiful than bigger.

 We must not forget the fact that God holds smaller things more precious than bigger things.  God is the One who makes bigger things smaller and smaller things bigger.  When seeking and desiring bigger things, people can lose sight of God and only look at and depend on what lies in front of their eyes.  But smaller things possess less power; therefore, partiality towards smaller things eventually makes us rely on God.

 Let’s think about this.  Who rescued the Israelites from Egypt?  Was it not a baby boy named Moses, who lay on a box of straws to keep alive?  God made this baby boy, who could have just as easily died, grow up to be a man who took on the pharaoh of Egypt, defeated him, and crossed the Red Sea as if it was dry land.

 God saved Israel by sending Samuel when Israel faced certain political and religious crisis.  Samuel’s mother, Hannah, was a sterile woman, originally unable to give birth.  God opened up the dry womb of Hannah and enabled her to bear the future leader of Israel.

 How about Jesus?  The Messiah, who would go on to save the entire human race from sin and death, was born to a late teen Maria.  Son of God sank to the lowest and smallest depths to enter into a human womb.  And He was born in, of all places, a stable!  He was born in a stable full of livestock odor and noise!

 Moses was able to defeat the pharaoh and carry out the exodus through a dried-out wooden staff.  It was not through some powerful, most advanced weapon or armor.  Lad David beat the giant Goliath not by using some great weapon.  In one strike of a small stone, he beat and fell Goliath.

 Gideon and his 300 warriors repelled the mighty Median army not without using some powerful and sleek weapon.  They defeated the mighty army by using a trumpet and a torchlight hidden in a jug.  How about the harlot, Rahab?  When Jericho was decimated, how did Rahab and her entire family saved?  Was it not because of the scarlet cord hanging from her window, which she used to lower down the two spies?  (Joshua 2: 15-21)

 That is not all.  Jesus turned mere water into grape wine.  And He performed the miracle of feeding the mass of 5,000 with two fishes and five loaves of bread that a small child had brought for lunch.

Jesus was always with the small people, the lowly people.  He befriended tax collectors and prostitutes.  Rather than 99 sheep, he treasured the one lost sheep.  It was Jesus who gave a party of joy upon finding one lost coin.  When the prodigal son returned, it was He who welcomed him barefooted and gave a feast!

  There are endless anecdotes and example that show God treasures small, obscure things.  Nowhere in the Bible is it mentioned that God ignored smaller things!  In His eyes, small things are always beautiful!  Obscure, lowly things are much more precious!

 Also known as the second epistle of Isaiah, chapters 40 through 55 continue to stress the salvation, recovery, and hope of the people of Judah.  Today’s scripture is a word of oracle from God to the people of Israel, delivered through Prophet Isaiah.  It is a word of promise that the captured people of Judah would eventually be returned to Jerusalem from Babylon. 

 In 587 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded Jerusalem for the third time and succeeded in capturing the city (2 Kings 24: 18 – 25: 30; 2 Chronicles 36: 11-21; Jeremiah 37-39).  The spiritual symbol of the people of Judah, the temple of Israel, was completely laid to ruins by the Babylonians.

 At this time, King Nebuchadnezzar killed the sons of King Zedekiah in front of Zedekiah.  Moreover, he blinded King Zedekiah by gouging out his eyes, shackled him in chains and took him captive to Babylon.  During this time, only the most destitute people remained in Jerusalem; most of the nobility and people were taken to Babylon as prisoners.  Thus began the famous era of Babylon captivity.  The Israelites spent some 70 years in the land of their archenemy, Babylon, as slaves and servants.

 In today’s scripture, God promises these Israelites, who are held captive in Babylon, that they will return to their homeland.  He is giving them a hope of return to Jerusalem.

 Among all the nations in this world, perhaps none is so mysterious and perseverant as Israel.  Israel is a very small country, about the size of the North Choongchung Province in Korea.  God chose the people of this small nation to become His people!  In looking at Israel’s history, we can see just how God chooses small things to lay shame on much bigger things.

 Israel, as a nation, faced numerous threats of extinction throughout history as they suffered countless number of attacks and invasions from neighboring powers.  In 70 AD, as the Second Temple of Jerusalem fell at Roman feet, Israel ceased to exist as a nation and its people scattered throughout the world as refugees, or diaspora for the next 2,000 years.

 During the Nazi Holocaust in World War II, Adolf Hitler of Germany (1889-1945) killed over 6 million Jews.  About 1/3 of the world’s total Jewish population perished during the war.

When we look at history of Israel, we can see how God continuously weaves His history through small and obscure things.  As stated in Isaiah 42: 3, just as God did not break bruised reed, nor extinguish smoking flax, He did not let Israel become extinct.

 Under this context, today’s scripture clearly declares that powerful empires, such as Babylon, will eventually kneel before the power of God.  The day will come when the people of Judah will eventually return to their stolen nation, their homeland burned to ashes!

 Today’s scripture is comparing this return of captives to exodus.  Let us take a look at verses 16 and 17 together.  “Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea and a path through the mighty waters, who brings forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power (they shall lie down together, they shall not rise; they are extinguished, they are quenched like a wick).” 

 Here, God is reminding us of exodus, when He rescued the Israelites from Egypt.  This is to highlight the fact that God, in the future, will surely rescue the Israelites from the brutal oppression of the Babylonians.  So when the captives return to Jerusalem from Israel, this will be the second exodus!

 But this second exodus will be much grander than the first exodus.  That is why God says, in verse 18, “Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old.”  Telling the people of Israel to forget about the Red Sea crossing and the first exodus out of Egypt is not because it was an insignificant event.

 God is telling them to forge the things of old because even though the first exodus was a significant event, the second exodus out of Babylon to Jerusalem, after concluding 70 years of captivity, will be a much grandeur event.  So God says in verse 19, “Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth.”  This is a promise of His surprising work, the second exodus to Jerusalem!

 Then what surprising work does God perform?  Let us read aloud verses 19 through 22 together.  “Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it?  I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.  The beast of the field will honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen.  This people I have formed for Myself, they shall declare My praise.”

 As God lays road in the wilderness that people cannot live in, as He makes rivers in middle of the desert, He will do something new for the history of Israel.  There will be a day when even the speechless creatures will honor Him!  In the end, God will give the water that He has created in the middle of the desert to His chosen people, the people of Israel, to drink.  And all will sing in the glory of God!

 These words truly illustrate just how much God loves the people of Israel.  God does not abandon the people of Israel, who are like flickering flame in the wind.  He will protect to the end the worm-like people of Israel.

 When compared to powerful nations, the Jewish nation is small and obscure; yet, God does not abandon this nation.  Rather, He uses this small nation to do great things!

 Small is beautiful.  Small people are beautiful.  Small nations are beautiful.  Small churches are beautiful.  Today’s mega-churches, the big churches, all started out as small churches with few members gathering together to form a congregation.​

 When our church started here some 27 years ago, we started with 13 members.  No one knows just how big this church will grow in the future, but we must never forget our past.  We must remember the start, when few people gathered together in difficult conditions to worship God, and always maintain our humility while recollecting those days.  It’s because God can also make big things small.  Through small things, God also lays shame on bigger things.

 I want to tell you an inspirational story in concluding my sermon this morning.  This is a true story that took place in one of the churches in Philadelphia.  The number of children attending this church’s Sunday school program increased dramatically, and one of the girls felt left out.  The classroom was too small, and when the number of students increased, the Sunday school teachers and other children could not pay much attention to her.

 It was then that this girl started collecting pennies.  She did so out of hope that with the money she saved, the church could build a bigger classroom for the Sunday school.  Unfortunately, two years after this girl started collecting and saving pennies, she suddenly died.  During those 2 years, people did not pay much attention to this girl.

 Her family members, while organizing her belongings, found her wallet that contained 57 pennies and a small note.  The note said that the girl saved pennies to help in building a bigger Sunday school classroom.  This note was immediately passed to Russell Conwell, the pastor of this church.

 The pastor, during following Sunday’s sermon, mentioned the girl and her note and told the congregation that they should expand the Sunday school classroom.  This girl’s story deeply moved many member of this congregation.  One of the members, a real estate broker, was especially moved and donated his land to the church.  In return, he demanded 57 pennies—making it seem like the girl purchased the land for the church.

 This beautiful story, through news media, spread throughout the greater Philadelphia area.  As a result, countless numbers of people participated in the fund raising drive, and a large church building was constructed.  This church now has a worship sanctuary that could seat 3,300 people and dozens of classrooms for Sunday school. 

 More importantly, this inspirational story of the girl eventually led to the creation of Temple University and the Good Samaritan Hospital.  In one of the rooms of the university, hangs the picture of the girl who collected 57 pennies for her church.

 God looks at small things as beautiful.  Believe in the fact that God does great things through the smallest of things!  Amen.