Sermon 6, Job 1:13-19
This sermon makes me think of the perseverance of the saints and the repeated refrain that God will not burden us or test us with more than we can bear. For some this burden is greater than others dependent upon the individuals resilient abilities and hardiness. There is a link in the sermon to the use of the armor of God (Eph. 6:17) to help us.
Calvin makes the point that Job is not a solitary figure in regard to God’s use of suffering as a tool for improvement and points to both Abraham and David as other examples of those experiencing great hardship before glory. Calvin goes on to ask whether God spoke only to these three people or whether, rather, he speaks to the whole church? Calvin’s answer is that to avoid accusing God of lying we must conclude that “just as Job was helped by God, so will we be.”
Powerfully, Calvin’s says “We must know that he [God] is not seeking our perdition when he afflicts us, but that he is seeking our salvation.”
As with prior sermons the subject is heavily focused on spiritual warfare and, in the present case, how Satan will use different modes of attack one after each other as demonstrated by the sequence of attacks on Job; human attack, natural disaster (act of God?), human attack, and then natural disaster. First, Job’s possessions are taken, then Job’s family and that cycle repeats.
“There is also this point. Job did not lose his possessions and children in the same way. The devil’s tactic is to send him different trials.”
“…he [Job] could think, ‘How is this? Not only are men against me, but I have God fighting against me too’.”
“But, as I have said, he does not strengthen us in the same way, for some remain weak and others possess a much greater power. That is why the holy persons who were endowed with excellent gifts were much more tormented in their lives.”
“That is how God works in those who are the most outstanding so that we can see them as living examples and follow them. As a matter of fact, you cannot make the kind of great works in a small shop that’s you can in one that is large, well equipped and well ordered, where there is material and many workmen.”
“…we are pitiably delicate. If God sends us some adversity, we do not consider how he will spare us, but we feel our pain and do not wish to be consoled by discovering God’s goodness in the fact that he sustains us. How? A man is sick. He is so concerned about his sickness that he thinks of nothing else.”
“…let us think this way: ‘It is true this ill weighs heavily on me, but that is because I am so delicate.”
Calvin uses a torturous rack to illustrate the sequential and varied means by which the devil’s attacks increase little by little.
Calvin reminds us, through Job and also David, that we should be aware that “all this shall pass”, specifically meaning that we can go through very bountiful periods in our lives which may not last.