Job 33:19-30

He is chastened also with pain upon his bed.

Sanctified affliction

Two Chapter s in the hook of human life are hard to understand--the prosperity of the wicked, and the afflictions of the righteous. The Book of Job is a luminous commentary on both. Carefully studied, these verses furnish a chain of reason which will make clear to reverent minds the source and meaning of earthly affliction.

I. The Lord Jehovah is a sovereign (verse 13). “He giveth not account of any of His matters.” It is from this point that the problem of human evil in all its forms must begin to be solved. And if our inquiries should end where they begin, with the absolute sovereignty of God, there would be no just ground of complaint. God has all power and right in His own universe. He is not bound to justify any single act of His to human reason. The first treatment of all affliction, is to give it welcome. It is the uttered will of God. It is to be taken without any reason, not because there is none, but because we have no right to be shown it. But while God is a sovereign, and does His pleasure, it is not His pleasure to afflict men willingly nor hastily, for--

II. He speaks again and again before He strikes (verses 14-18). These verses are a picture of the patience of God in His dealings with men. He will exhaust every form of warning and every tone of voice. When men in their waking hours are dull to the voices of God, then He invades their sleep.

III. Suffering under the government of God is often added to instruction and entreaty (verses 19-22). The discipline of suffering is not confined to any one part of man’s nature. It ranges freely through body, mind, and spirit. It appears in disordered nerves; in the failure of natural desires; or the very sources of health become choked and deranged; with many the joy of living is clouded with the shadow of an ever-present death. All this we recognise as the faithful picture of many a human life, and wonder at it. We call it a mystery; but the mystery ceases when we look at these things from the right angle of vision. Suffering under the government of God is a necessity of Divine benevolence. It is the last device of love. We have to learn that this world is not our real home. Nothing but suffering, in most lives, can work this healthful conviction. It is among the first laws of a successful life that the kingdom of Christ and its righteousness must stand before the kingdom of self and its pride. How do men learn this? The great mass of men are made perfect in this wisdom by means of suffering. They must be bitterly disappointed in their struggle after the lower things before they learn to put the first last and the last first. Failure is the keen knife that pierces their pride.

IV. Earthly afflictions cease when three results are attained when men understand their purpose (verse 23). When men turn to God with prayer (verse 26). And when they repent of their sins (verse 27). Understanding, prayer, penitence,--look at these conditions of relief for a moment. Affliction can do us no good till we bow to its meaning. The ends of all God’s acts are moral ends. As a result of affliction, how natural, as a condition of relief, how indispensable is prayer! The twin grace of prayer is penitence. Neither can survive the other. Neither can exist without the other. These three are the first fruits of sanctified trial. Only the doctrine of Divine providence, ruling the world for moral ends, has ever riven the dark clouds of human suffering, and drawn the blessing of their spring rain upon the hearts of men. (Sermons by Monday Club.)

The mission of sickness

I. The great incidency of human nature to sickness and bodily diseases. The best of men are not exempt from them. This incidency to sickness and bodily diseases is founded partly in the frame of our natures, partly the common accidents of life, but especially the great inlet to all calamity, namely, sin, and our fatal apostasy from God. Then what reasons we have for thankfulness, for every moment’s enjoyment or continuance of health. And as we should be thankful for health, we should be also submissive in sickness.

II. Sickness and bodily diseases have a great deal of instruction in them. It pleases God frequently to inflict them for this very end; that men might thereby be brought to the knowledge of themselves, and their duty towards Him. This may appear--

1. From a consideration of God, who has all along made it plain in the revelations of His Word, that He has that love and goodwill to mankind, He never afflicts them for affliction’s sake.

2. From a consideration of the calamity itself. By diseases and sickness we are taught the absolute vanity and uncertainty of this world, with all the comforts of it; the beauty of all vanisheth before us upon a sick bed. By sickness we gain an easier insight into our own guilt, and all the unreasonable provocations we have given the Almighty, throughout the whole course of our lives. Sometimes the sin is read in the very distemper itself.

III. What an allay to so great a calamity it is to have a messenger or interpreter. Some understand here the ministry of an angel. The value of such a messenger may be seen--

1. In our indisposedness to do anything oft good purpose for ourselves.

2. The great mistakes we are apt to fall into.

3. A mediator is of further advantage, to implore God on our behalf. Learn to live under a wise expectation of such a calamity. Let us not despise at such times the help of God’s ministers. (Nathanael Resbury, D. D.)

The right improvement of sickness and other distress

I. A case of distress supposed. The words lead our thoughts to a very common spectacle--that of a person suffering under pain and dangerous illness, and oppressed at the same time by much darkness and anxiety of mind. These things very frequently go together. “Without are fightings, within are fears.”

II. It will be well to call in a competent adviser. Let him that is grieved with sickness send for his proper spiritual counsellor.

III. The text suggests what, in general, such an adviser will have to do. He must show unto the afflicted person God’s righteousness. In proportion as he shall be able to do this, through Divine grace, he will prove “one of a thousand” to him who is in want of guidance and consolation.

IV. They declare the consequences, through the Divine mercy, if sound counsel be faithfully followed. If the patient has a docile, sincere and childlike disposition of mind, the truth delivered will be blessed to him, and the fruits will show it. (E. Bather, M. A.)