insignificant – Moment to Moment (Bible blog)

It’s interesting to me that God chose Leah as the one through whom Jesus would ultimately be born.

Rachel was the “loved one.”

Leah was not.

Rachel was the beautiful one.

Leah was the homely one.

And yet God chose her instead of Rachel.

It reminds me of what Paul told the Corinthians.

Brothers and sisters, consider your calling: Not many were wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth.

Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world—what is viewed as nothing—to bring to nothing what is viewed as something… (1 Corinthians 1:26-28)

Why does God choose such people?

…so that no one may boast in his presence. (I Corinthians 1:29)

It is solely by God’s grace and Christ’s work that we are justified, sanctified, and redeemed. (I Corinthians 1:30)

And so, Paul concludes,

Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. (I Corinthians 1:31)

Ultimately, that’s what Leah did.

After her first three sons were born, you see her focusing on her wretched state, saying that she was afflicted, neglected, and unloved.

But after Judah was born, she turned her focus away from her wretched state, and instead turned her eyes to God, saying,

This time I will praise the Lord (Genesis 29:35)

I find it only fitting then that Judah’s line was the one through whom Jesus came.

You might think of yourself as insignificant. As despised. But you are exactly the kind of person that God likes to pour his grace upon.

You are in fact the kind of person Jesus identifies with. According to Isaiah,

He didn’t have an impressive form
or majesty that we should look at him,
no appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of suffering who knew what sickness was.

He was like someone people turned away from;
he was despised, and we didn’t value him.” (Isaiah 53:2-3)

But Jesus didn’t just come to identify with the despised and insignificant. He came to redeem them.

…he was pierced because of our rebellion,
crushed because of our iniquities;
punishment for our peace was on him,
and we are healed by his wounds. (Isaiah 53:5)

Christmas isn’t just for the happy, the loved, and the powerful.

Christmas is for people like Leah. It’s for people like you. It’s for people like me.

So with Leah, let us boast in the Lord, singing, “I will praise you Lord.”

The God of the “insignificant”

As a father, I really love my daughter, but I have to admit there are times when she can be annoying. Particularly when I’m trying to do something, sometimes important, sometimes not, and she desperately wants my attention.

It’s so easy to just give her only part of my attention. To say, “Yes, yes, yes” to what she’s saying and quickly brush her off and return to what I’m doing. Or if I’m feeling particularly impatient, to simply say, “Later. I’m busy now.”

And that’s exactly what the disciples did in this passage.

Mothers were coming with their babies (some of them undoubtedly crying) or with their young children (most of them who were undoubtedly noisy and making a ruckus), and the disciples quickly got fed up with it, saying, “Get out of here. Jesus doesn’t have time for all these…kids.”

Jesus’ response was quick and sharp. It says in Mark,

When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. (Mark 10:14a)

Indignant. The dictionary defines it as showing anger at something that is unfair or wrong. And that was the response of Jesus when he saw his disciples shoving the children away.

He rebuked his disciples saying,

Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. (Mark 10:14b)

What can we get from this? That we don’t dare treat our children, or anyone for that matter, as the disciples did in this story. As insignificant. As unimportant. As not worth our time.

Because when we do, Jesus becomes indignant. They are his special creation. They are people that he loved so much that he died for them.

And so are you. Maybe you feel insignificant. Cast off. Rejected. But when Jesus sees you treated that way, he gets indignant. He has compassion on you. He loves you. And he would never cast you aside as so many others have.

So come to him. Draw near, knowing that in his eyes you are significant. You are precious. And that more than anything else, he wants a relationship with you.