Job 34:29 When he gives quietness, who then can make trouble? and when he hides his face, who then can behold him?… I. First, then, the eye of faith beholds the all-sufficiency of Jehovah, and our entire dependence upon Him, as she marks His EFFECTUAL WORKING. "When He giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? This unanswerable question may be illustrated by the Lord's works in nature. The world was once a tumultuous chaos: fire and wind and vapour strove with one another. Who was there that could bring that heaving, foaming, boiling, raging mass into quietude and order? Only let the great Preserver of men relax the command of quiet, and there are fierce forces in the interior of the earth sufficient to bring it back to its primeval chaos in an hour; but while His fiat is for peace, we fear no crash of matter and no wreck of worlds. Seed time and harvest, summer and winter, cold and heat, do not cease. Passing on to the age of man, we see the Lord in the day of His wrath pulling up the sluices of the great deep, and at the same moment bidding the clouds of heaven discharge themselves, so that the whole world became once again a colossal ruin. The covenant bow was seen in the cloud, the token that the Lord had given quietness to the earth, and that none again should be able to disturb her. Further down in history the Red Sea asks of us the same question, "When He giveth quietness, who then can make trouble?" Glancing far on in history, and passing by a thousand cases which are all to the point, we only mention one more, namely, that of Sennacherib and his host. God put a hook into the enemy's nose, and thrust a bridle between his jaws, and sent him back with shame to the place from whence he came. "When He giveth quietness, who then can make trouble?" 1. We shall reflect upon this truth as it applies, first, to God's people. If your gracious Lord shall give you quietness of mind, who then can cause you trouble? We have found it sweet to be afflicted when we have enjoyed the presence of God in it, so that we have counted it all joy when we have fallen into divers temptations; because, in our hour of extremity and peril, the Saviour has been unspeakably the more precious. When the Lord giveth quietness, slander cannot give us trouble. Ay, and at such times you may add to outward troubles and to the slanders of the wicked man, all the temptations of the devil; but if the Lord giveth quietness, though there were as many devils to attack us as there are stones in the pavement of the streets of London, we would walk over all their heads in unabated confidence. Even inbred sin, which is the worst of ills, will cause the Christian no trouble when the light of Jehovah's countenance is clearly seen. 2. I thank God that my text is equally true of the seeking sinner. If the Lord shall be pleased to give thee, poor troubled heart, quietness this day in Christ, none can make trouble in thy soul. What a mercy it is for you that God can give you peace and quietness! "Ah," say you, "but there is His law, that dreadful law of ten commands; I have broken that a thousand times." But if the Saviour lead thee to the cross, He will show thee that He fulfilled the law on thy behalf; that thou art not thyself under the law any longer, but under grace. "Yes, yes," say you, "well, I thank God for that, but my conscience, my conscience will never let me be in quietness." Oh! but my Master knows how to talk with thy conscience. He can say to it, "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins." And let me say, dear friend, if the Lord gives you quietness while the law and conscience will be at peace with you, so will that Book of God be. Some of you, whenever you turn the Bible over, can find nothing but threatenings in it. Oh! but if you can only come to Jesus and rest in Him, then the page shall glisten with blessings, and glow with benedictions. 3. Now this text, which thus belongs to the saint and to the seeking sinner, I think is equally true, on the larger scale, to the Christian Church. I, shall leave this first point when I have briefly drawn three lessons from it. "When the Lord giveth quietness, who then can make trouble?" The first lesson is, those who have peace should this morning adore and bless God for it. Secondly, be hopeful, ye who are seeking peace, whether for others or for yourselves. Lastly, give up all other peace but that which the Lord giveth to every believer. If you have a quietness which God has not created, implore the Lord to break it. II. The all-sufficiency of God is seen, secondly, IN HIS SOVEREIGN WITHDRAWALS. God does sometimes hide His face from His people, and then, as His saints well know, nothing can enable them to behold Him or to be happy. III. THIS IS TRUE OF A NATION as well as of any one Church and of any one man. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? and when he hideth his face, who then can behold him? whether it be done against a nation, or against a man only: |
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