Besides promising to prevent afflictions which would undo us, and to be with us to protect us from ruin in those afflictions which we do face, the Lord also promises to use our afflictions for our eternal good. This is because we undergo trials, not as an enemy of God, but as a child of God by virtue of our saving relationship to Christ. To those without Christ, earth’s trials are foretastes of their coming judgment; but to all who are in Christ, earth’s trials are remedial and mediated by God’s eternal grace and love.
God promises wise and tender correction
Because of our tendency, like sheep, to wander off and stray from the path, one of the primary purposes of affliction is correction or restraint––either to restore us to a right path or to hedge the path in so that we don’t wander from it. Hebrews 12:6 says, “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” That by itself is a comfort because, as the passage goes on to say, “If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons” (v.8). Or as Edward Leigh so memorably put it, “He that escapes his affliction, may suspect his adoption.” And so we can have comfort in the affliction itself that our Father is reproving us because He loves us. He’s correcting us because we’re His.
But there’s an even greater comfort in that His correction will be in great wisdom and with much tenderness. While we, as earthly parents, correct our children as seems best to us (Heb. 12:10) to bring about their obedience, our wise Father knows the best means to use, the right measure to use, and the necessary duration of a trial, all in order that we might share His holiness and enjoy the peaceful fruit of His righteousness (Heb. 12:10-11). In Jeremiah 46:28 the Lord comforts His people that their affliction won’t make an end of them but will be apportioned “in just measure.” He’s promising that their afflictions will be catered, as it were, by His wisdom and love to perfectly meet their spiritual need. What Paul says of temptation in 1 Corinthians 10:13 could also be said of afflictions, “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” So we can comfort ourselves in the midst of trial that our all-wise God knows what’s best for us and is wisely doing just that.
Similarly, whenever the Lord must use afflictions to correct us, He promises to temper our trials with His great compassion and tenderness (Lam. 3:31-32). He won’t execute His burning anger upon us (Hos. 11:9), but instead likens Himself to a compassionate father aware of our frailty. Psalm 103:13-14 says, “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.” And in Hosea 2:14-15 the Lord promises to speak tenderly to us in our afflictions, “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.” The wilderness of our afflictions is a place where God plans to meet us, not to speak roughly to us out of anger, but to speak tenderly to us out of love. In other words, when need be, He wisely afflicts us because He knows we tend to listen better in a valley of adversity than on a mountain of prosperity. Moreover, when He must correct our sin, He’ll be impatient over our misery (Judg. 10:16) and will not keep His anger forever (Jer. 3:12), because He delights in showing us His steadfast love (Mic. 7:18). What a cause for joy and gratitude this is in our trials!
The next time you’re under the hand of God’s fatherly discipline, give thanks that His promises assure you of His wisdom in choosing just the right rod, in knowing just how heavy to make it, and in knowing just how long we need to be under it. And give thanks that, at every step of the way, His promises assure you of His mercy, of His tenderness, and of His love. Afflictions are best borne by patient and trusting submission under the hand of our heavenly Father from whom they wisely and lovingly come–and there’s no better help to such a disposition than our God’s promises. ––Check back tomorrow for Part 7.
**This post is an excerpt from my book written with Joel Beeke, Living by God’s Promises.
