Difference between revisions of "Sermon for March 17th, 2019"

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Job 1:13-22

13 One day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the eldest brother’s house, 14 a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were feeding beside them, 15 and the Sabeans fell on them and carried them off, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; I alone have escaped to tell you.” 16 While he was still speaking, another came and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; I alone have escaped to tell you.” 17 While he was still speaking, another came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three columns, made a raid on the camels and carried them off, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; I alone have escaped to tell you.” 18 While he was still speaking, another came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house, 19 and suddenly a great wind came across the desert, struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; I alone have escaped to tell you.”

20 Then Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” 22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.

Two Preachers and a Trucker - Blessed

JOB: Well, bless your little heart. I remember the first time someone said those words to me. I reckon' it wasn't exactly a compliment. Bless your heart...you self-righteous jerk. As if the blessin' somehow made it more kind. People sure like to throw that word--blessed--around a lot. We're just so blessed. The Lord has really blessed me today. We'll even say it to a complete stranger when they sneeze. Bless you, because apparently you must need some kind of a blessin' after makin' that god-awful noise.

But here's the thing. Bein' blessed...is a double-edged sword. 'Cause when you're blessed, with money, with property, with success an' happiness, with beautiful, healthy children...you sometimes get to thinkin' that maybe you did something to deserve those blessings. That they belong to you. And when your blessings run out ('cause sometimes they do) you get to thinkin' that it ain't fair. That God ain't fair. That it would have been better if you'd never been blessed, never even born, at all. Bless your little, broken heart.

NEAL: The Book of Job, and the story of Job, is hard. Especially for those of us who look to the Bible for inspiration, for hope--and for easy, simplistic answers to difficult questions. That's why a lot of people skip over the next 40 chapters to get to the "happy ending" where Job gets everything back tenfold. But as a parent myself of three amazing, beautiful children, I've always had a problem with that. If God took away my children, but then said "Oh, don't worry. After you suffer a little, I'll just replace them with another three new ones," it wouldn't take away the pain of that loss. I read passages like this one, and honestly, I think, "What are you doing, God? How can you allow things like this to happen?"

CALVIN: My dear friend, Viret. I would have written to you long ago, had I not been aware that my letter could not reach you one moment sooner than if I delayed writing until your return. Greet all the bretheren, and your wife, to whom mine returns her thanks for so much friendly and pious consolation. She is unable to reply, except by me, and it would be very difficult for her to dictate a letter. The Lord has certainly inflicted a severe and bitter wound in the death of our infant son, Jacques. God gave me a son. God has taken my little boy. But he himself is a father, and knows what is good for his children. Again, Adieu, and may the Lord be with you. Yours, John Calvin.

• Let vs marke then, a disease wherewith all of vs are atteynted: that is to wit, that in time of pro∣speritie we can blisse God: but if he afflict vs, we change our minde, and thenceforth beginne to grudge agaynste him, forgetting all the prayse whiche wee had gyuen him so long as hee dealte with vs after oure desire. And so there bee many hypocrites whiche cannot bee knowen nor discouered vntill God sende them aduersitie.

• For wee see a greate number, who when God sendeth them all things at theyr pleasure, doo speake as sweete as sugre, as they say: and yee woulde maruell to heare howe that good God shall bee praysed: speciallie [ 10] when they finde theyr dishes full furnished, so as no∣thing is wanting, ô how well it lyketh them to confesse that God is good. But if hee beginne to handle them a∣ny thing roughly, that things fall not out to their con∣tentation, they take it sore to harte. If God proceede and plucke theyr fethers from them: then fall they yet to further outrage of murmuring, yea and they belke out blasphemyes agaynste him: and albeit that they vt∣ter them▪ not with their mouthe, yet is theyr harte full of poyson within, so as they chafe vpon the bytte, and re∣pine [ 20] at God for handling them otherwise than they lyke of. Ye see then that in tyme of prosperitie there are ynow that will blisse God: but that is but hypocrisie, I speake of such only as meane not to do it in deede.

• If we are not patient when God afflicts us, then all the service that we do for him will mean nothing.

• Without him we shoulde perishe a hundred thousande times a day, and therefore that he must be fayne to watch continually for our safetie. VVe see then (as I haue sayde) how it is requisite that men should acknowledge their lyfe to bee nothing, considering how it is so frayle as nothing can be more, & how it is subiect to an infinite number of deaths, in so much that they be thereby stirred vp to pray God to take them into his tuicion: and when they shall haue lyued one day, they muste acknowledge that they were mainteyned by God, and vnto him must they yeeld the prayse of all

• Sometimes it seems as though God favors someone, and that he made sport with us in the meanwhile as with a tennis ball.

• And here wee see wherefore the holye men that haue beene indued with excellent graces, haue also beene much more tormented in their life.