Afflictions Sanctified
Albert H. Currier. Job 5:17-18 Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects: therefore despise not you the chastening of the Almighty:… All affliction is not for correction. Note some of the benefits remarked upon by Eliphaz. 1. Restoration. "He maketh sore, and bindeth up," etc. When brought to repentance, by God's correction, the sinner is tenderly nursed back to health. 2. Assurance of God's unwearied kindness. God does not grow tired of the work of rescue. His loving kindness is signally displayed in His deliverance of the trusting soul from the greatest and most tremendous calamities. The best earthly friend has limitations to his power to help. 3. A relation of amity between the soul and the powers that have injured it. The transgressor of God's laws is chastised, but the man who puts himself in harmony with God's will, and yields submission to His laws, finds all nature tributary to his welfare. 4. Deliverance from anxiety over small and common ills of life. Such are hard to bear. As the heart is, so is the man. Tranquillity of heart comes in answer to prayer, or as a fruit of the Spirit, which God gives to comfort and strengthen His afflicted ones. Faulty as human nature is and needing correction, the chastisement which God administers to accomplish it is indispensable to the highest type of character. (Albert H. Currier.) Parallel Verses KJV: Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: WEB: "Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.