Well, there are such things in this world as small victories—and the wise know to take ‘em when they can get ‘em. One of those small victories was the Tennessee Bill 1. I could have called it a minor victory and got extra points for being clever with the puns and stuff, but I chose to stick with small victories. And it’s a victory because in Tennessee confused children will no longer be subject to chemical castration, hormone manipulation, or genital mutilation.
Now, I think that preventing the castration and mutilation of children to be a victory. I call that a win every day of the week. It’s rather tragic that we have to take that as a victory, but here we are. But as they say a “W” is a “W”.
But it’s a small victory because this was a State Bill and not a national ban on the castration and mutilation of children. And it’s a small victory because the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association think that we most certainly should be mutilating and castrating kids.
Now, frankly, I take ANYTHING the AMA or the AAP say with so many grains of salt that my electrolytes are out of balance. However, they are still a voice that has influence in our culture. Why? Well, for one because they’re living on borrowed time. The AMA and AAP in the past had won goodwill and so they are holding on to that legacy of respect. Moreover in our society we have come to the not at all self-evident conclusion that anyone who is a doctor is, by necessity, wise and moral and to be listened to.
But as I’ve talked about before, putting on a lab coat doesn’t make you moral. Having MD or PhD attached to your name doesn’t make you wise.
Now, in our secular-pagan society, anything done under the Aegis of Science is therefore good and true and nevermind the fact that good and true are ethical and metaphysical characteristics that Science literally cannot weigh in on because the scientific method is inductive and naturalistic and things like goodness and truth are metaphysical and require transcendent revelation and deductive logic. Nevermind all that, a guy in a lab coat said a thing, let’s all do the thing, because…reasons.
Moreover, it’s a small victory because, again, we’ve come to a pretty pass if this is what can be considered a victory at all!
But hey, a W is a W.
And this reminds me of one of my favorite passages of the Bible and one that I know I’ve talked about a lot over the years:
Zechariah 4:1-10 say this:
1 Then the angel who was speaking with me returned and woke me, as a man is awakened from his sleep.
2 “What do you see?” he asked.
“I see a solid gold lampstand,” I replied, “with a bowl at the top and seven lamps on it, with seven spouts to the lamps. 3 There are also two olive trees beside it, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on its left.”
4 “What are these, my lord?” I asked the angel who was speaking with me.
5 “Do you not know what they are?” replied the angel.
“No, my lord,” I answered.
6 So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of Hosts. 7 What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain. Then he will bring forth the capstone accompanied by shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’ ”
8 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 9 “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will complete it. Then you will know that the LORD of Hosts has sent me to you. 10 For who has despised the day of small things? But these seven eyes of the LORD, which scan the whole earth, will rejoice when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.” (BBT)
You see, brothers and sisters, when Zerubbabel was governor of Judea there was a lot of opposition to building the Temple. And this opposition didn’t just come from the outsiders, but from the insiders. There were Jews who didn’t want to rebuild the temple.
In Ezra 4 we read:
1 When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, 2 they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, “Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.”
3 But Zerubbabel, Joshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, “You have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us.”
4 Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building. 5 They bribed officials to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia.
6 At the beginning of the reign of Xerxes, they lodged an accusation against the people of Judah and Jerusalem. (NIV)
And in Haggai 1 we read:
1 In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest:
2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.’”
3 Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”
5 Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 6 You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”
7 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 8 Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord. 9 “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. 10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 11 I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.” (NIV)
Notice that in this passage we see not only that there was external opposition but internal opposition. People didn’t want to build the Temple because it would be expensive and hard. It’s too hard, was their theological argument. Which, as a theologian I can tell you is not a very good theological argument.
And I can PROVE to you that it wasn’t a very good theological argument. You know how I can prove it? Because God said he gave them drought and crop failure because of their refusal to build the Temple.
But the people listen. They do build it. Haggai continues:
12 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord. (NIV)
So they listened and built the Temple, and God speaks again to the people through Haggai in chapter 2:
1 on the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: 2 “Speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, to Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people. Ask them, 3 ‘Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing? 4 But now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ declares the Lord. ‘Be strong, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the Lord Almighty. 5 ‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’
6 “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. 7 I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty. 8 ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty. 9 ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty.” (NIV)
Brothers and sisters, friends, God was telling the Israelites not to despise small victories. The Israelites who returned from exile were a small, demoralized, and struggling band of believers. They were surrounded by enemies. Their glorious kingdom was a shadow of its former self. But God told them not to despair—if they wanted to worship Him He would grant them the victories needed to worship Him. The victories may’ve been small, but who despises the day of small things?
Friends, do you despise the day of small victories? Do you look at the culture and look at your empty church and then look at a small victory like this and look down your nose at it? Don’t despise it. A W is a W. When God grants us victory we need to celebrate, we need to rejoice. We need to eat the fat and drink the sweet and rejoice for the joy of the Lord is our strength! We need to rejoice because today, for a little while anyways, kids in Tennessee are safer than they were, primarily because godly people changed society and politics. They didn’t do it by power, nor by might, but by God’s Spirit.
So don’t despise small victories. Don’t reject incrementalism. Take the little wins and run with ‘em. Because what the wordlings know that too often Christians don’t is that a lot of small victories add up to big victories. Let’s be wise. Let’s be grateful to God. Let’s OBEY the Scriptures and rejoice! Don’t despise the day of small things. Rejoice and be glad. And pray for more victories along the way!