Job 5:6 Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust,neither doth trouble spring out of the ground;
Job 5:7 Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
As affliction proceeds neither from blind necessity, nor from casual
accident but from the hand of your Omniscient Governor and
Judge; so nothing can be more certain than that it is designed for
the accomplishment of some great and useful purpose!
Now the design of affliction is expressly revealed in the Word of
God.
He has condescended to explain the reasons of His dealings with
you - and it is alike your duty and your privilege to consider and to
concur in His declared design.
The general end of affliction, as it
is explained in God's Word, is the moral and spiritual improvement
of believers - in other words, their progressive sanctification, and
their preparation for glory.
Oh! how important must the right use of
affliction be, if it is intended to terminate in such a blessed result.
It
stands connected with our everlasting welfare with all that we can
enjoy on earth, and all that we hope for in Heaven.
But more particularly, the day of adversity is intended for our
INSTRUCTION.
The Lord's rod has a
voice which speaks to us lessons of heavenly wisdom.
Therefore, we are required "to
hear the rod, and Him who has
appointed it." (Micah 6:9.)
The rod and reproof give wisdom. (Proverbs 29:15.)
It presents to our minds many of the same great
truths which are declared in Scripture — but which we may have
overlooked, or failed rightly to understand until they were pressed
on our attention, and made the matter of our personal experience in
the day of trouble.
Thus, it teaches most impressively, that great Scriptural truth of
the
vanity of the world, and its insufficiency as the portion of
rational and immortal beings.
This is a truth which might almost be
regarded as self-evident; yet it is one which is very slowly and
reluctantly admitted by the young disciple, and which can only be
effectually impressed on his mind, and unfolded in all its extent,
by the experience of disappointment and sorrow.
In like manner, the day of adversity teaches us the great lesson of
our entire and constant dependence on God.
But a little while
before, we were rejoicing in the midst of prosperity - our health was
sound, our business prosperous, our families entire.
But the sudden
stroke has come which has smitten our bodies with disease, our
business with bankruptcy, or our families with death.
And that stroke has come from the Lord's hand!
Oh! in such circumstances, we are impressively taught that we are absolutely in God's power; that all that we have is at His sovereign disposal...
That we depend on Him, day by day, continually for our personal preservation, our worldly prosperity, our domestic comfort, for all, in short, that we desire or need on earth.
These are some of the lessons which adversity, when viewed as a
means of moral instruction, is fitted to to impress
with great practical power on our hearts.
When these lessons are duly considered; and, above all, when they are
submissively
embraced and acted on - the disciple will learn from his own
experience the value of affliction...
And admire the wisdom with which
God suits His lessons to the most urgent necessities of his soul.
~James Buchanan~
