Charles Spurgeon, “Reasons for Turning to the Lord“
Hosea 6:1, “Come, let us return to the Lord.
He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us;
And has injured us, but He will bind up our wounds.”
Notice first, that Hosea is convinced that his trials come from God. Ungodly men set down their troubles to chance; and sometimes to the devil. Frequently they lay their trials at the door of their fellow men, and grow quarrelsome, malicious, and revengeful. It is a happy day, when he knows in whose hand is the chastening rod. And he learns to trace his troubles to God. …
Often when believers are in trouble, they look at the secondary agent, and they spend their anger entirely there. If in the day of adversity they would consider, then they would perceive that afflictions do not spring out of the ground. Neither do troubles come by chance; but the hand of the Lord is in all these things. “When times are good, be happy. But when times are bad, consider: God has made the one, as well as the other.” (Ecclesiastes 7:14) Whichever way the trial came, it ultimately came from Him. If the trouble was caused by a triumphant enemy, deceitful friend, or came as a loss in business, a sickness of body; or wounded us through the arrows of death piercing the heart of our beloved. In each case, it was the Lord.
Learn that lesson.
God has… done it all. He has ordained our trials for chastening, and established them for correction. Let us not despise them by refusing to see His hand, or by angrily rebelling against Him.
Perhaps I am speaking to one who has been followed by a succession of troubles. Until he is now surrounded by a sea of affliction. You have scarcely escaped from one trouble, before you have plunged into another. It seems to you as if your “bad luck,” as you call it–were no more absent from you at any time, than your shadow. You have been sick again and again. Or have lost your best friend when you most needed him. You have lost your employment, and wherever you apply you get no favorable reply. Perhaps you are so sorely smitten, because the Lord has some great design of love to your soul.
May you look on the series of trials through which you have passed as being really sent to you–not by chance or haphazard–but sent from God Himself. And with a gracious intent–but this is His surgery of love. Hosea had learned to trace his troubles to God Himself. Notice that it is customary with God to smite His beloved people. According to His own words, “Those whom I love, I reprove and chasten.” (Revelation 3:19)
Oftentimes the Christian who endures heavy trials, receives such severe treatment because the Lord has a secret love to his soul.
These chastisements and heavy blows, which are compared in the text to tearing and smiting–often fall upon God’s own beloved people–just because they are His beloved, and He cannot in any better way display His love to them.
Look at the vine which bears fruit, and you shall see that every year at the proper season–the ruthless knife of the pruner cutting away the liveliest shoots, removing the hopeful branches, and leaving the poor vine a mere dry stick. Yes, the vine needs pruning–it belongs to the gardener’s choice plants, and he looks to it for rich clusters.
You who are tossed to and fro and are broken by sorrow, need not startle with dread because you are made to suffer, for the Lord lays heavy hands upon His own redeemed people, and reserves the ungodly for His wrath. The believer who sinks lowest in soul sorrow, may still bless God that he is not in the torments of Hell. At our worst, we are indulged with a fullness of mercy, compared with what our sins really deserve.
“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, and do not resent His rebuke; because the Lord disciplines those He loves.” Proverbs 3:11–12
“For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives.” Hebrews 12:6
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