I see your point on chapter 9, scripture is not a static history or a theological study rather it’s a dynamic tool for increasing our relationship with God and dealing with every day realities. I like Paul’s symbol of a dagger as many of the issues in everyday life are up close and personal. Like your reference to the Lord dealing with the devil in Matthew, chapter 4, the dagger is the one component of our Christian armor which can be used to effectively protect our relationship with God. It’s interesting that in Matthew, chapter 3, we see God the Father’s validation of Jesus Christ as His son and then, right after that in chapter 4, the devil pops up to both challenge and pervert that truth. Perhaps in our Christian lives this also happens, God will validate our relationship with Him and almost right after that the devil pops up, in one way or another, to challenge our faith. It’s my experience that, in this situation, rhema (short passages from scripture) are helpful. I read chapter 10, book 1 of the institutes, last night; it seems more or less a summary that all creation and the scriptures reflect the person, nature and attributes of God. Calvin uses, as one point of focus, the Hebrew first name for God: Elohim. He consciously works at not recording too many quotes from scripture, however I like the one he uses from Jeremiah, chapter 9, verse 24: “ I am the Lord who exercises loving-kindness, judgement and righteousness in the earth”. Calvin manages to get in a lot of other attributes of God into this dialog however I like that one. In this chapter, Calvin is now looking forward to book 2 of the institutes which he terms “Knowledge of God the Redeemer” though we’re only a little past half-way through this first book which Calvin terms: “Knowledge of God the Creator”.