"When you’re famous enough
for fools to want your old socks"
(Or "The God of the insignificant")
Job 8:7 "Though your beginning was insignificant, yet your end will increase greatly." (NAS)
Browsing through the business section of the Sunday Times of 12/12/99, I came across an article that caught my attention. It spoke about a sale that was conducted in Los Angeles not too long ago in which the surplus household goods of Barbara Streisand were put up for auction. The article went on to discuss the obsession some people have with wanting to own a piece of the lives of the rich and famous. Of how someone will be willing to pay thousands of dollars to buy a toaster that happened to belong to a celebrity. Of being willing to buy on of John Lennon’s old socks.
Can you imagine buying one of John Lennon’s old socks? What would you want to do with the sock? Leave it lying casually around the house, hoping someone would notice the old sock gracing the back of your couch and matter-of-factly inquire, "By the way, whose sock is this?" Or maybe you’d want to frame the sock and hang it next to Eric Clapton’s guitar, or Elton John’s sunglasses or Michael Jackson’s face mask or Rod Stewart’s throat lozenges.
Can you imagine being famous enough for people to want to buy your old socks? I can assure you, no one would want to buy my new socks, never mind my old socks! I suppose it could be rather cool to have a pair of Dr Kumalo’s boots on the wall unit, or Mike Tyson’s gloves, or Tiger Woods’ number 5 iron, or Lucas Radebe’s jersey! But someone’s old socks!? Even if it is John Lennon’s!
What is it that makes people want to be identified with the rich and the famous, the bold and the beautiful, the young and the restless? What fuels the desire to want to move from Northpine to Northcliffe, Bishop Lavis to Bishop’s Court, Blue Downs to Bloubergstrand, Belhar to Bellaire, Cloetesville to Constantia, Soweto to Sandton? Why do people appear to have this incessant drive to be lifted from their seemingly mundane surroundings into the realm of perceived glamour, glitz and grandeur?
Do you want to know what I think? Well, even if you don’t want to know, I’m still going to share it with you! I believe it’s because people consider their lives to be without meaning, of no benefit to society, not making any worthwhile contribution to their community, insignificant. I believe it is this thinking that causes people to go, in the words of a song from the 60’s, "round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel, never ending or beginning on a ever spinning wheel, like a ball that keeps revolving, turning silently in space, like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind."
Well, I have news for you! God is a God of the seemingly meaningless; a God of the insignificant! Witness a God working through the insignificance of little boy in a floating basket who grows up to use an insignificant rod to confound the wisdom of the greatest nation on earth at that time! Witness the power of God using the insignificant son of Jesse, with an insignificant shepherd boy’s accessory to destroy the champion of the Godless Philistine nation. Observe as God utilizes the insignificant 300 warriors of Gideon’s army against the might of the 35 000 Midianites. An insignificant jawbone of an insignificant animal -- a donkey -- in the hand of a young man born to a peasant family becomes a powerful tool of retribution when consumed by the power and Spirit of God.
The life of an Edomite, south-east of the Dead Sea, in the middle of somewhere, on the road to nowhere -- insignificant in the play and counter-play on the stage of the development of ancient kingdoms and civilizations -- becomes a powerful testimony to what can happen to someone who, putting self aside, allows himself to be directed by the Word and Spirit of God. In fact, this Edomite, Job, insignificant though he might have seemed to be, featured in a conversation between God and Satan, where God presents his name as an epitome of faithfulness.
Let us take a look at Job, the insignificant Edomite, for a few minutes:
Initially a prosperous man, Job had 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and a large household, consisting of seven sons and three daughters. He was also "blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil"
Satan suggested to God that Job would remain righteous as long as it was financially profitable for him to do so. Then the Lord permitted Satan to try Job’s faith in God. Blow after blow fell upon Job: his children, his servants, and his livestock were taken from him and he was left penniless. Nevertheless, "In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong"
Satan continued his assault by sneering, "Touch his bone and his flesh, and he will surely curse You to Your face!"
Job’s faith eventually triumphed over all adversity, and he was finally restored to more than his former prosperity. He had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters. He died at the ripe old age of 140 years
Job is a model of spiritual integrity-- a person who held fast to his faith, without understanding the reason behind his suffering. He serves as a continuing witness to the possibility of authentic faith in God in the most troubling of circumstances.
Let’s take a closer look at one verse contained in this saga. Job 8:7. Bildad the Shuhite, one of Job’s four friends who come to visit him, makes this profound statement -- 8:7 "Though your beginning was insignificant, yet your end will increase greatly." (NAS)
Job found himself in a situation none of us would envy -- no possessions, no position, no family, no future. As insignificant as anyone could ever dread being. Yet Bildad, with inspired insight, is able to prophesy "Though your beginning was insignificant” -- though you might curse the day you were born, though you might have lost everything, though your wife might have turned her back on you, though the friends who have come to visit you blame your sin for the predicament you find yourself in – “your end will increase greatly!”
Why was Bildad able to say this? What was it about Job and the God that Job served that gave Bildad the confidence to make this prediction? Was there anything at the beginning of the story of Job to give any indication as to what was to come? No!
And yet, as we see Job responding to the devastating news of the tragedies that were coming thick and fast, we hear him saying: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised. In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.” (Job 1:21,22) True, in chapters 3, 6 & 7, Job pours out his heart and cries out to God, seeking for a reason as to why this has happened to him. But Bildad, with spiritual insight, is able to declare: “Though your beginning was insignificant, your end will increase greatly.”
Today you might be feeling insignificant, you might feel worthless, you might feel the need to move to greener pastures in the hope that you will feel better about yourself. You might feel you’re in a dark tunnel with no end in sight. No one seems to care. There appears to be no end to the hurt and pain that you are feeling. No one understands!
Well I have news for you -- God loves you. God made you in His image. You are His child. In spite of what might be happening in your life; despite the fact that you might feel that no one cares, that your problem is unimportant to others, that it is insignificant, remember, God has always valued what the world might consider insignificant. God has a future for you that is literally out of this world. Listen to the prophet Jeremiah: “For I know I the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jer 29:11
And how is all this made possible? Because of an insignificant Baby born in an insignificant stable in an insignificant little town to an insignificant peasant teen-ager. Visited by insignificant shepherds, the first to hear of His birth, He grew up in an insignificant town, doing manual labour that could be considered to be insignificant. Walking the dusty streets of Palestine with a motley group of followers, He proclaimed the good news of relief to the poor, liberty to the captives, comfort to those that mourn, freedom to those who were in prison, forgiveness to the sinners and acceptance of the outcast.
He showed us that only in Him do our lives find true meaning. Only in Him does the meaningless assume significance; the senseless, value; the emptiness, fulfillment. Not in old socks, or discarded toasters or in Michael Jackson’s white glove or a sweaty soccer jersey. Not in a SLK or a PhD. Neither in Gucci’s nor Calvin Klein. Not in Brittany Spears or Brad Pitt. But in an insignificant little Baby, now as an adult, dying on a cross. Suspended between heaven and earth because of His love for you. Because of His desire to save you, because of His promise to you -- "Though your beginning was insignificant, yet your ending will increase greatly." Listen as the God of the insignificant speaks to you today: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
This is the great ending God is planning for you. Not 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. Not seven sons and three daughters, but a greater ending than even Job enjoyed. Eternal life in a home prepared for you by Jesus Himself. In a home where the insignificant find true significance as sons and daughters of God gathered around the Father’s white throne.
