Eliphaz to Job: 5. The blessedness of chastening.
I. CHASTENING—ITS NATURE.
1. Its subject. Man, as a fallen being; for, though affliction cannot always be connected with particular transgressions as their immediate punishment, it is still true that man's sinfulness is the fundamental reason of his being subjected to correction.
2. Its Author. God. A thought full of comfort to the chastened; since, God being just, their correction will never be allowed to exceed their deserts; being merciful, it will never be administered with undue severity; being wise, it will never be inflicted without an adequate design; and being powerful, it will never fail, where piously accepted, to accomplish its end.
3. Its instrument. Calamity, trouble, affliction, such as Job had experienced, and such as men undergo on earth. Those who suffer may derive consolation from the thought that the rod which smites them is not in the devil's hand (except by Divine permission) or in the hand of blind, unfeeling fate, but in the hand of a loving and sympathetic God.
4. Its purpose. Man's reformation. It is doubtful if any of the sufferings of this life are purely punitive and judicial, while there is reason to believe that all are corrective and remedial in their design. According to Eliphaz, they are meant to chastise man for his iniquity, to bring him to repentance, and to reduce him to obedient submission under God (cf. Job 33:17, Job 33:19; Psalms 94:12, Psalms 94:13; Proverbs 3:11; Hebrews 12:7-11).
II. CHASTENING—ITS IMPROVEMENT.
1. The wrong use of affliction. To despise it. Men do so when they
2. The right use of affliction. To receive it
III. CHASTENING—ITS CONSOLATION.
1. Divine healing.
2. Divine protection. Generally, from whatever troubles may assail, from six, ay, from seven, i.e. from all possibilities of trouble; then particularly from:
3. Divine blessing.
Learn:
1. "Happy are we if we receive chastening; for then God dealeth with us as sons."
2. "No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but rather grievous; nevertheless afterwards it bringeth forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness."
3. The soonest way to escape from chastening is to "hear the rod and him who hath appointed it."
4. It is better to be chastened as God's children than condemned as God's enemies.
5. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but God delivereth him out of them all."
6. The best alliance against the ills of life is the friendship of the living God.
7. If God be for his people, nothing can be really against them.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON