The final consequences of the Divine chastisement.
He who in mercy afflicts, or in equal mercy takes up the evils and ills of life, and, using them as his own instruments, transmutes them into means of grace and blessing, will, after he has tried his servants by their exposure to the storms and pains of life, give them "a desired end." Sooner or later they see "the end of the Lord "—the end the Lord had in view. In these verses the happiest consequences are declared to follow those chastisements which the Lord bestowed during the process of suffering and exposure.
I. CONTENTMENT AND PEACE SHALL REIGN IN THE HOME. God quiets the hearts of his children, and though heavy trials assail them, he prepares rest and peace for them. In how many instances is this daily seen! The evil exhausts itself. God puts his hand upon it and arrests it. His exposed ones he leads back to safety and repose, and, as was fulfilled in Job's case, of which Eliphaz unconsciously predicts, he blesses them at last. Like worn veterans, they return at last to receive honour, acknowledgment, and rest. Precious are the final days of the truly tried; the life is matured, the character chastened and perfected, the experience of life is enlarged.
II. BLESSING SHALL ABIDE UPON THE OFFSPRING. "Thy seed shall be great … as the grass of the earth;" yea, even though half the sorrow were caused by that very seed. The Lord will lead the wanderers back, will punish and correct and reclaim. Many a one out of his stony griefs raises a Bethel. The testimony of godly fidelity on the part of the parent speaks in its silence to the offspring, and in the end produces its good results. Every godly man has the best ground for hoping that the blessing of the Lord will be also upon his offspring.
III. IN THE FULNESS OF AGE AND THE RIPENESS OF CHARACTER, LIFE SHALL CLOSE. So the tried one receives into himself, at last, the whole result of the Divine discipline. The history is complete, the work of the day finished, the journey ended, the character formed. All the history of life is written in the cultured, matured life; in the character gained; in the honour won. Faithful unto death, the struggling one receives the crown of life. In ripeness of judgment and attainment all the fruit of the patiently endured tribulation is found. The man is made. His pains, his perils, his watching and prayer, his diligence in duty and patience in suffering, all go to make up the perfected life which is his own to inherit. The exposed grain has grown through all dangers, has grown by all changes—in the heat and cold, the light and the darkness, the rain and the shine. "Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season." Let every one search this out, hear it and know it for his good.—R.G.