Mountains to Molehills

3/13/25 Bible Thought (Luke 10)

Photo by samsommer on Unsplash

I’m sure we’ve all heard the warning about “Making a mountain out of a molehill.” If you’re like me, sometimes when something goes wrong, we can catastrophize it a little bit. A pastor-friend of mine recently defined it as, “A French-intellectual funk” which I thought was pretty funny. We take something small, and we make it huge. It might’ve been a small comment someone made, but it becomes a big deal to us. We overemphasis some things at the expense of others.

On a similar token, I wonder if sometimes we take things of paramount significance and we water them down a bit. We take something that truly is a mountain, and our response signifies that, at least to us, we view it as a molehill. Sometimes we can struggle to view things as they ought to be seen.

In Luke 10, the Lord Jesus sends His disciples out with a mission to preach and to heal the sick. In summary, their message was to be, “The kingdom of God has come near to you” (Lk. 10:9). God was putting His Sovereign reign on display as supernatural things took place. I’m sure it was a pretty amazing privilege to be a part of that group and to see what they saw!

They return, rejoicing, exclaiming, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” (Lk. 10:17). In this passage, the Lord Jesus commanded them to heal the sick, but the casting out of demons was an unexpected bonus for them! What an awesome time to be alive and to be following Jesus.

To this, the Lord Jesus responds,

“I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. ¹⁹ Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. ²⁰ Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Lk. 10:18-20).

Truthfully, the conquest of the kingdom of darkness by the Kingdom of God was an amazing thing. The disciples being given authority over all power of the enemy was an amazing thing. But what triumphs over all these supernatural things is to know that their names were written in heaven.

It’s more amazing for one to be delivered from the domain of darkness and to be transferred into the kingdom of God’s Beloved Son (see Col. 1:13) than to see the demons of darkness subjected to the disciples. It’s more amazing to see hell plundered and for those who were dead in their trespasses and sins to now be raised to new life in Christ (see Eph. 2:1-5).

Shortly after this encounter, the Lord Jesus continues and praises the Father for what He’d revealed to “little children” after hiding it from the wise and understanding (Lk. 10:21). He then concludes this section with a powerful declaration,

“Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! ²⁴ For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it” (Lk. 10:23-24).

Under the old covenant the people of Israel could find atonement for their sins through blood sacrifices put forth by faith, but they never had the whole picture. They knew of sacrifices that would cover sins but not take them away (see Heb. 10:4). Abraham didn’t know the name of Jesus. Isaac didn’t know of the true sacrificial lamb and the Father who would actually give His Son. Jacob hadn’t heard of the miracle of the resurrection.

None of the Old Testament saints knew the new covenant blessings that even the ordinary, everyday believer has today! Moses, the one who spoke to God face to face, even he didn’t have the whole picture! None of them did. Yet, those living under the new covenant do.

Jesus said to these disciples that the best reason to rejoice is that their names were written in heaven. These disciples knew Jesus. They would see Him give His life on Golgotha’s hill and later they would meet Him in His resurrected state before He ascended on high. They had a hope that no one on planet earth knew fully until Christ came.

What a blessed privilege we have today as believers. So many people would love to see more miracles, they would love to see demons cast out, they would love to see these signs of God’s activity that prove He’s there. God may at times work miracles, but the miracle He works all the time is taking sinners and making them saints. Let’s never take this mountain and make it a molehill. Truly, if we have this, we have reasons to rejoice each and every day, no matter what else comes our way. I thank God today that, “When the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there.”