face in books....
today, or right now as a matter of fact, I am working on an exegetical paper for hermeneutics on Isaiah 13. I have to give the meaning and 3 implications, as well as significance to my own life....stuff like that. Its great fun. Anyways i have to use at least 2 commentaries from the last fifty years, I got those but i was wondering what my boy Calvin had to say on this passage. He brought up a good point right off the bat that I think we need to hear sometimes/often
Verse 1. "The oracle concerning Babylon"
From this chapter down to the twenty-fourth, the Prophet foretells what dreadful and shocking calamities awaited the Gentiles and those countries which were best known to the Jews, either on account of their being contiguous to them, or on account of the transactions of commerce and alliances; and he does so not without weighty reasons. When various changes are taking place, some think that God sports with the affairs of men, and others, as profane history sufficiently testifies; very few are aware that these things are appointed and regulated by the purpose of God. There is nothing of which it is more difficult to convince men than that they providence of God governs this world. Many indeed acknowledge in it words, but very fewhave it actually engraven on their heart. We tremble and shudder at the very smallest change, and we inquire into the causes, as if it depended on the decision of men. What then shall be done, when the whole world is thrown into commotion, and the face of affairs is so completely changed in various places, that it appears as if everything were going to ruin? It was therefore highly useful that Isaiah and other prophets should discourse about calamities of this nature, that all might understand that those calamaties did not take place but by the secret and wonderful purpose of God.
-Calvin.
I pray that we be more thankful for the great teachers God has blessed us with, and read more and more books. But I pray that we never neglect our greatest teacher, the Holy Spirit, and read more and more of God's word than we ever would any other book on the planet.
Verse 1. "The oracle concerning Babylon"
From this chapter down to the twenty-fourth, the Prophet foretells what dreadful and shocking calamities awaited the Gentiles and those countries which were best known to the Jews, either on account of their being contiguous to them, or on account of the transactions of commerce and alliances; and he does so not without weighty reasons. When various changes are taking place, some think that God sports with the affairs of men, and others, as profane history sufficiently testifies; very few are aware that these things are appointed and regulated by the purpose of God. There is nothing of which it is more difficult to convince men than that they providence of God governs this world. Many indeed acknowledge in it words, but very fewhave it actually engraven on their heart. We tremble and shudder at the very smallest change, and we inquire into the causes, as if it depended on the decision of men. What then shall be done, when the whole world is thrown into commotion, and the face of affairs is so completely changed in various places, that it appears as if everything were going to ruin? It was therefore highly useful that Isaiah and other prophets should discourse about calamities of this nature, that all might understand that those calamaties did not take place but by the secret and wonderful purpose of God.
-Calvin.
I pray that we be more thankful for the great teachers God has blessed us with, and read more and more books. But I pray that we never neglect our greatest teacher, the Holy Spirit, and read more and more of God's word than we ever would any other book on the planet.