Job 18

Removing Rocks

Shall the rock be removed out of its place? Job 18:4.

At first sight the answer to this question seems to be “No.” A rock is such a great strong thing; how can we move it out of its place?

Those of you who have built castles on the seashore know that sometimes your spade strikes on something that looks like a big stone. Perhaps it is just a big stone. You dig round about it till you have loosened it, and then, with a strong heave, out it comes. But sometimes the farther you dig the bigger the stone grows, and at last you come to the conclusion that it isn't a stone at all but a rock firmly rooted in the ground. So you give up trying to move it out of its place. You alter the shape of your castle to suit the rock, or you build it in another place. And if anyone asked you then, “Shall the rock be removed out of its place?” you would answer, “No, we have to move out of our place to suit the rock.”

But there is another answer to that question, “Shall the rock be removed out of its place?” “Yes.” “How?” Well sometimes a big earthquake moves rocks out of their place and flings them about as if they were pebbles, but that is not a very usual way. And sometimes men blast away huge boulders with gunpowder, but that is an artificial way. There is yet another way in which rocks are removed out of their place a very quiet and gentle way, but the most common way of all. It is the way of Jack Frost and Mother Rain.

The rain falls on the rocks, and it carries with it certain acids that eat into them and very, very slowly destroy them. Then Jack Frost comes along and finds the moisture in the crevices. Now he is rather an important fellow and requires a lot of room for himself, so when he freezes up the moisture he pushes and pushes to get elbow-room. This goes on year after year while the cracks in the rock grow wider and longer. At last a big boulder can hold on no longer. One day, after a severe frost, the thaw comes. There is a roar and a crash and the big boulder lies in pieces at the bottom of the cliff. The rock has been removed out of its place.

Now sometimes God puts rocks in our way through life to try what kind of men and women, what kind of boys and girls we are. These rocks are difficulties and hardships, and the way in which we meet them determines the kind of people we are.

Some people sit down in front of their rocks and never try to get past them at all. They moan that the rocks are far too strong for them and that they couldn't ever possibly move them out of their place, so what would be the use of trying. These are the cowardly people.

And some people walk right round their rocks so as to avoid them altogether. They leave others to struggle with them while they choose an easier way. And so they never grow any wiser or stronger, for the rocks were put there to make noble men and women of them. These are the lazy and selfish people.

But there are others who, like the frost and the rain, keep pegging away at their rocks. Bit by bit they get the better of them until they have entirely disappeared. Yet the strength and the firmness of them have entered into the character of those who have conquered them. These are the brave and patient people.

Now you have all got rocks in your way, great or small. I don't know what they are, but you know. Perhaps your special rock is a difficult lesson, perhaps it is a bad temper, perhaps it is a bit of hard work. That does not make much difference. The big question is, “Shall the rock be removed out of its place?” “Yes or no?” And the way in which you answer that question will show what kind of boy or girl you are going to be.