Shaken out of Carelessness

11 APRIL

Many days and years shall ye be troubled, ye careless women: for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come. Isaiah 32:10

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Job 5:1-11

The prophet warns against the slothfulness of the Jews by declaring that those who fail to listen to his calm instruction shall be dragged forth with trembling and alarm.

The Jews are excessively anxious abut earthly blessings and perishing food, so Isaiah addresses this fear by threatening a scarcity of wine and wheat. If the people were more thoroughly purified from groveling desires, the prophet might have threatened what Jeremiah deplores in Lamentations: that the sacrifices and festivals have ceased and that the holy assemblies are discontinued (Lam. 1:7).

But, because the Jews of Isaiah's time are sunk in their pleasures and have not labored to know the value of spiritual blessings, the prophet accommodates himself to their ignorance and addresses their bellies rather than their understanding. He speaks of the desolation of the fields, which would be the necessary consequence of their carelessness, for abundance and plenty commonly give rise to ease and indifference. "The Lord will therefore deprive you of all food and shake off your slothfulness, and take away all ground of confidence," he says.

We are here reminded that we ought not to sleep in the midst of prosperity nor imagine that we might expect uninterrupted prosperity in the world. Rather, we ought to use the gifts of God with moderation, if we do not wish to be suddenly aroused and be overwhelmed when we are off our guard. We will then feel heavier distress because we did not look for a change of our affairs.

John Calvin 

FOR MEDITATION:

When life is good and our material wants are supplied, even to excess, we easily become careless and wasteful. What's worse, we can become indifferent to the Creator and Provider of all things, who can turn plenty into want, Isaiah says. When have you experienced a time of want after a time of prosperity? How did that affect your relationship with the Lord?

365 Days With Calvin

Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke

Seeing God's Hand

18 January

And shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the and which He sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildest not... then beware lest thou forget the LORD. Deuteronomy 6:10, 12

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Psalm 78: 52-64

Wealth and prosperity may blind men’s minds so that they do not sufficiently attend to modesty and moderation but rather grow wanton in their lusts and intoxicate themselves with pleasures. So God prescribes against this error. Moses admonishes us to beware lest we forget God when we have been liberally and luxuriously treated by Him because he knows that it is common for abundance to lead to arrogance.

Moses does this, first, by showing how base and unworthy our ingratitude would be if God loaded us with many excellent benefits and we then cast away the recollection of Him. His goodness was inestimable in giving people cities built by hands of others and in transferring to them whatever others had prepared by their great labor and industry. So their impiety was even more detestable in neglecting Him when He daily set Himself before them in this abundant store of blessing.

Let us learn from this passage that we are invited by God’s liberality to honor Him, and that whenever He deals kindly with us, He places His victory before our eyes. On the other hand, we should remember that what ought to be seen as vehicles to lift up our minds on high are, by our own fault, covered into obstacles, and that therefore we ought to be more on guard against them.

John Calvin

FOR MEDITATION: It is logical that great blessings from God’s hand would motivate us to praise Him all the more. Sadly, however, we often take these blessings for granted and no longer recognize our dependence on Him for everything. What blessings do you often take for granted?

365 Days With Calvin

Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke