Job 5:17 Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects: therefore despise not you the chastening of the Almighty: I. THERE IS A HAPPINESS IN CHASTISEMENT. The sentence looks paradoxical. No chastisement can be pleasant while it is being endured, or it would cease to be chastisement. Where, then, does its happiness reside? 1. Chastisement is a proof of God's care. "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth" (Hebrews 12:6). Therefore to be chastised is to receive a token of God's love. Now, surely we ought to be willing to bear a good deal of suffering if we can only obtain so valuable a token as this. If God did not chastise us he would not be treating us as true sons (Hebrews 12:8). Our very immunity would thus be a proof of God's desertion of us - a most miserable and hopeless condition. 2. Chastisement is designed to effect purification. It may not lead to this end, and it will not do so unless we co-operate submissively and penitently. Eliphaz saw as much, and therefore, although he was applying these truths in an irritatingly, mistaken way, he, rightly enough from his standpoint, urged Job to seek God's mercy in penitence that he might thus benefit by his chastisement. To be purged from sin is better than to be made rich, comfortable, externally happy. It is true blessedness, though at first experienced amid tears of sorrow. 3. Chastisement leads to joy. Afterwards it brings forth the "peaceable fruit of righteousness." We count a man happy who is on the road to a great good. He may enjoy it already by anticipation. At all events, he is to be congratulated on his destiny, as one congratulates the heir of great estates. The Christian may be congratulated if he can say with St. Paul, "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18). II. IT IS THEREFORE BOTH WRONG AND FOOLISH TO DESPISE CHASTISEMENT. It is wrong, because we ought to submit with humility to whatever comes from the hand of God; and it is foolish, because contempt will destroy the efficacy of chastisement, which needs to be felt if it is to be effective, and which blesses us through our humility and contrition. A proud and haughty bearing under chastisement defeats the ends of the gracious ordinance. We see here how diametrically opposite the enlightened Hebrew view of suffering is to that of the Stoic. Both views regarded pain as not the evil thing that most men took it to be; both demanded patience and courage from the sufferer. But Stoicism inculcated contempt for suffering. Thus it engendered Pharisaic pride. The scriptural idea - in the Old Testament as well as the New - is rather to lead us to attach more importance to suffering than the thoughtless give to it, not that we may magnify the sensations of distress, but that we may let the trouble have its full work in our souls. 1. We may despise the chastisement when we make light of it. 2. The contempt may be shown by denying its meaning or use. 3. It may also be experienced by rebelling against chastisement. In this last case we do not regard the trouble as slight. But we do not reverence the holy purpose with which it is sent. Our wild resistance shows contempt for the character of our affliction. Christ is the model Sufferer, who deserved no chastisement, and yet who was "led as a lamb to the slaughter," and was thus made perfect through sufferings (Hebrews 2:10). - W.F.A. Parallel Verses KJV: Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: |
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