Sermon 15, Job 4:7-11
I love the Kate Bush song "Running up that hill", featured on Stranger Things. The lyric "And if I only could, I'd make a deal with God..." is haunting.
In todays sermon Calvin continues to cover Eliphaz's opening response to Job. The theme of yesterday is continued and developed. From yesterday I clearly recall the notion that it is important to remember what God has promised us, but equally to remember what he hasn't promised us. In the present verses Eliphaz makes his world view very clear. Good things happen to good people, bad things happen to bad people, and the cause and effect is clear, and the cause and effect is fast acting.
For me, Calvin's sermon today has left me with two lines of thought upon which to reflect. I'll take the second one that Calvin presents first.
(A) Calvin wants to make sure I am aware that there is a difference between perishing and affliction. "But there is a great difference between perishing and being afflicted, for the purpose of afflictions is not always to bring men to destruction..." To be sure, the Scripture teaches that in the end justice is indeed served up, but Calvin says: "...if a man is afflicted after doing good, if he is persecuted when he asks for peace and harmony with all, we must not conclude that he belongs to that group which reap trouble and grief because they sowed it. Why not? Because we hear holy Scripture, which tells us to the contrary that God allows such in order to test his own." And to improve his own, I would add. So there are two sub-points (a) Eliphaz is in error regarding the speeds with which possible judgements follow good or bad acts. Perhaps the blessings or punishments are immediate, as Eliphaz seems to think, but perhaps they aren't? Perhaps good things happen to bad people up until final judgement in heaven? *Perhaps bad things happen to good people up until final judgement? Which leads to (b) we have no idea what God's plan is in most matters and we must have faith that God is working through us to achieve the best outcomes.
(B) Calvin preaches from todays Scripture "...we must not bargain with God thinking that he is somehow obligated to us to do as we please and that he must of necessity give us everything we have conceived in our brains." So, that's a hard "no" to the Kate Bush request. Calvin powerfully states "...let us not relate the fear and reverence we have for God to the expectation that he will do for us according to our pleasure." Calvinism: God has promised salvation to his elect through the grace afforded in the sacrifice of his only son, our Lord Jesus Christ. The promise is salvation and freedom from death, not a land cruise in this life. And this promise wasn't something that we achieved through our own swaps or bargaining chips, this was given solely by His grace at the expense of His son's death. I think the implications that this has on our prayers are fascinating and something I like to (but struggle) thinking about. What am I praying for? I mean, we have to be careful that asking for something (anything) is not like trying to get a freebie. Prayer is not "if I do this thing, can you reciprocate by doing this thing?" I recall C. S. Lewis, at least in a movie, saying something to the effect of "prayer doesn't change God it changes me". I love that. I'm going to think on that. So, why be obedient to God? For me, I am developing two answers to this question, both of which are problematic. First, our relationship with God should be like that of an idyllic Father/Child relationship. Ideally, the child doesn't do as they are told purely because if they do then they will get a candy. Rather, they do what they are told because they love their Dad. Their Dad has done a great deal for them, its the least they can do to be a good kid, its automatic. Second, we have no idea how to make ourselves happy. I follow Dr. Arthur Brooks on YouTube, he has a whole career based around happiness and self-help, so do many others. The existence of those endeavors kind of proves my point here, again, we don't know how to make ourselves truly happy. I think its very conceivable that being obedient to God is likely the actual path to happiness. As foreign and weird as it may sound to post-modern ears, but I think that might be true. I am going to think more about that also.
Calvin has the last word today: "But, as I have said, let us not imagine that God has to for us as we please. Rather let us be wise and place ourselves entirely at his disposition and yield completely to his gracious will."