Job 5:17-18 Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects: therefore despise not you the chastening of the Almighty:… I. THE LORD CORRECTS HIS PEOPLE. By "correct" understand "rebuke." It is a rebuke that He sendeth, and that to detect our sins. Forget not that those whom He corrects are His children. If you ask why He chastens them, it is because they are but children. Do not imagine that because God thus dealeth with His children, He does not deal with them in apparent severity. Look at the instance of Job. But though there may be an appearance of severity, it is always in tenderness. It is but "in measure." Remember this, whatever God may take away from His child, He never takes away Himself. II. AN EXHORTATION. "Despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty." By the term "Almighty" we are to understand "God all-sufficient." All-sufficient in everything, power, tenderness, sympathy, all we want. The word "despise" is used in the sense of loathing, a feeling of disgust at the chastening of the Almighty. God makes the ingredients of the cup sometimes very bitter. We may despise the chastening by forgetting whose chastening it is. We despise it when we slight it. III. THE CONSOLATION. The same God that gives the wound, can alone bind it up. This truth we should be learning every day. (J. H. Evans.) Parallel Verses KJV: Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: |
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