Sermon 26, Job 6:24-30
Job says “Teach me and I will be silent.”
Calvin uses this one line to great advantage and I am paying attention!
Here are my reactionary thoughts.
I hope I never stop learning. I really do find it fun and grounding. Calvin’s opening line is “It is a great virtue to be teachable, that is, to yield to reason.”
I think mainly of new hobbies, interesting YouTube videos, ideas, these sermons etc. And I think those are valid and speak to a flexible teachable mind. But it is clear that Job, and therefore Calvin, is primarily speaking about instructions on how to understand God, how to behave, how to know God’s intentions for us etc. That is, also be teachable on the really big stuff. How do we do this?
Don’t be “willful”. Be “meek” and “allow him [God] to deal with us.” To use Calvin’s expression, let’s recall that we are basically “dumb animals” and left to our own devices we would ignore instruction, “we are guilty of thinking wrongly”. Calvin goes on to”…all our strong feelings are just so many noises which prevent us from listening to God and hearing what he says”.
Be “silent”. “Let us simply listen to what we are told.”
Pause. “…our Lord promises faithful believers a discriminating mind…”, “…we must not accept everything we are told without considering it carefully.”
Change. “…when we understand that the teaching is good, let us then and only then commit to it”. No arguments. And stick to it!
So, be meek, be silent, pause, and change.