Sermon 29, Job 7:17-21
Job asks a question that I have also been thinking about since I started reading the Book. “What is man that you magnify him so, that you care for him?”
Really. At some point the question has to be asked, why does God care about us? He doesn’t need us. He could easily just destroy us all and start over, or do something else entirely. Calvin actually speaks to this in the previous sermon and what he says is so good I’m going to quote it again:
“…let us know that we bring nothing to God that would make him be gracious to us, but at the same time he seeks something in us. He will find nothing and will reject us. I have no idea what could induce him to love us.” (S28, p332).
Today, Calvin addresses the matter of why God punishes us once more and its relevant. The context this time is because Job has seemingly bought up that it appears petty for the magnificent creator of all heaven and earth to be beefing with pitiable worms. So Calvin tells us that God doesn’t punish for vengeance, instead he punishes for two reasons:
“One is that we are obliged to have him as our judge, like it or not, if we scorn him. The other is that he does not want us to perish and corrects us in order to take us to himself, urging us in that way to repent.”
So not vengeance, rather it’s because:
- God is God. He is our judge. He will judge us, that’s how this works. Deal with that.
- He loves us. Calvin doesn’t know why. I don’t know why. But he does. And, given point 1 above, we should be grateful He does anything to help us.
I take from this two obvious things. First,!God’s statements aren’t negotiable. If scripture describes God one way, that’s how He is. He doesn’t change later or according to circumstances. That’s why, I’m learning, His promises are so meaningful. Once made, never ever broken. Ever.
Second, and this is a theme that has been drawn out over several sermons now, we should be grateful that God doesn’t leave us alone. The humble life, in which one is hyper aware of their shortcomings, is a great thing.