Don’t Miss the Big Picture

We’ve been told not to miss the forest for the trees, by which we mean sometimes we are looking for some big picture item like a forest and we can’t see it because of the trees in our way. There is a place for details and a place for the big picture. Of course, all the details in life should add up to a big picture. There are millions of bricks, yet only one building that comes from those bricks. Many times, people have so many bricks in their life that are building some sort of worldview where either they just see a pile of bricks or they see the big picture. We can easily drown in the details of our own lives or details we find in the Bible. It can result in chaos.

God has the big picture. Leaders who have accomplished great things are people who generally have a big picture. They may have a grasp of some set of details, but they know what to make of those details. President Reagan famously said when asked what his policy on the Cold War would be, “We win. They lose.” I give that statement without context. You may be for it or against it, but the point is the big picture is certainly important, knowing where you are going in summation of all the details of life. Let me encourage you today, don’t miss the big picture.

In Zechariah God gives a vision of what will be, and there is a fair amount of history and a lot of detail. It can be overwhelming. If you read all the details, or bricks if you will, they construct one big picture, one big building. I believe that to be found in Zechariah 14:9 which says, “And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.” Don’t miss the big picture.

Now a big picture is made up of a couple of things. First, there is the scope. “The LORD shall be king over all the earth.” When you find the word LORD in all caps, it is speaking of the self-existent, eternally-existent Jehovah God of all creation. Zechariah 12:1 speaks of the LORD of Israel, which He is. He is also the Lord “which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.” He is the Creator. Later He is called the “LORD of hosts their God.” So, you have the scope. He is the God, the “king over all the earth.”

In Zechariah 14 there are a lot of details. Verse 1 says, “Behold, the day of the Lord cometh.” Verse 4 says, “And his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives.” Verse 8 says, “Living waters shall go out from Jerusalem.” Verse 11 says, “Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.” Verse 12 says, “The LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem.” There are a lot of details here speaking of the future, Armageddon, the Millennium, and other things, but the big picture is the scope is that the Lord is king over all the earth. This is the third time in the book of Zechariah where it speaks of the Lord as the Lord, not just of Israel, but of all the earth. So, don’t miss the big picture in all the details, concerns, plans, and worries of your life or all the details in the Bible.

Second, there is the time element. Sometimes we miss things because of the time element. The Bible says, “In that day shall there be one LORD.” “In that day” is referenced many times in Zechariah. It is the day of the Lord, the time that will come. There is a lot to it. Zechariah 14:1 says, “Behold, the day of the LORD cometh.” When my daughter was just a child, she said, “Daddy, why does the Bible say that life is so short when it seems so long?” That is a perspective of time that a child would have. On the other hand, I had a conversation with my father-in-law about the apparent brevity of life, how quickly time passes. Which is it, short or long? It is a matter of perspective. God is the only one who has a completely absolute and objective perspective on time. Sometimes we miss the big picture because of time. It is too long or large a frame.

Finally, all of this culminates in simplicity. “In that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.” That is not politically correct right now. We live in a pluralistic society. I thank God for the freedoms we have to be right or wrong, but nonetheless Deuteronomy 6:4 gives a very important command for the Jewish nation, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.” Most cultures across time and the globe have been polytheistic, having many gods. You might say that we don’t have many gods in America or even one God, but I would disagree. We have a lot of gods in this country, certainly gods of gold and iron. Philippians 2:9-11 says, “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him [Jesus], and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

There is coming a day when there will be but one God and that will be recognized. That time has not pragmatically come at this time. We live in a world where people are drowning in details, the small and trivial. They are focusing on bricks and missing the building that is to be made out of the bricks. Time and scope are elements in the big picture, and God will rule over all the earth as king in that day, one Lord and one name.

Today, ask God to help you not to miss the big picture, to have hope, not based on the small things you can see now, but on the big picture that it constructs over time, and ask God to help you to be a glimmer of hope, truth, and help to the people all around whom God has created and for whom Christ died.