“Though He slay me, yet willI trust in Him.” Job xiii. 15.
This is a sentiment which often occurs in Scripture, whether expressed inwords or implied in the conduct of good men. It is founded on the belief that God is our sole strength, our sole refuge; that if good is in any way in store for us, it lies with God; if it is attainable, it is attained by coming to God. Though we be in evil case even after coming to Him, we are sure to be in still worse, if we keep away. If He will but allow sinners such as we are to approach Him, for that is the only question, then it is our wisdom to approach Him at once in such way as He appoints or appears to approve. At all events, there is no one else we can go to; so that if He refuses to receive us, we are undone. And on the other hand, if He does receive us, then we must be ready to submit to His will, whatever it is towards us, pleasant or painful. Whether He punishes us or not, or how far pardons, or how far restores, or what gifts He bestows, rests with Him; and it is our part to take good or bad, as He gives it.
This is the general feeling which St. Peter seems to express in one way, when he cries out, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” It is the feeling under different circumstances and in a different tone, of the Prodigal Son, when he said, “I will arise, and go to my Father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants.” It shows itself under the form of peace and joy in the words of David: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me;” and it speaks in the text by the mouth of the heavily afflicted and sorely perplexed Job, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” Inquirers seeking the truth, prodigals repentant, saints rejoicing in the light, saints walking in darkness, all of them have one word on their lips, one creed in their hearts,—to “trust in the Lord for ever, for with the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.”
There is another case different from all of these, in which it is equally our duty and wisdom thus to stay ourselves upon God; that of our being actually under punishment for our sins. Job maintained his innocence, which his friends denied, as thinking his afflictions were a judgment upon some secret wickednesses now coming to light. He, on the other hand, being conscious of his integrity and sincerity in time past, could but wait in the darkness till God revealed why He chastised as a sinner, one who had been “perfect and upright, one that feared God and eschewed evil.” [Job i. 1.] But men may often be conscious that they have incurred God’s displeasure, and conscious that they are suffering it; and then their duty is still to trust in God, to acquiesce or rather to concur in his chastisements, as if they were a self-inflicted penance, and not the strokes of His rod. For God is our merciful Father, and when he afflicts His sons, yet it is not willingly; and though in one sense it is in judgment, yet in another and higher, it is in mercy. He provides that what is in itself an evil should become a good; and, while He does not supersede the original law of His just government, that suffering should follow sin, He overrules it to be a healing medicine as well as a punishment. Thus, “in wrath” He “remembers mercy.” This St. Paul decides, quoting the words of Solomon, “My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him; for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.” [Heb. xii. 5, 6.] You see he calls it a “chastisement” and a “rebuke,” but still it is in “love;” and it is our duty to take it as such, and to bless and praise Him under it.
And Scripture affords us some remarkable instances of persons glorifying, or called on to glorify God, when under His hand, some of which it may be well here to mention.
One which deserves especial notice is Joshua’s exhortation to Achan, who was about to be put to death for secreting a portion of the spoils of Jericho, and was thus dying apparently under the very rod, and (if any man ever), without encouragement to trust in God, or hope of profit in serving Him. “My son,” Joshua says to him, “give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto Him.” Thus he began; yet observe, his next words were as severe as if no duty, no consolation, were left to the offender,—despair only. He continues thus sternly, “Why hast thou troubled us? the Lord shall trouble thee this day.” “And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire,” him “and his sons and his daughters,” “after they had stoned them with stones.” [Josh. vii. 19, 24, 25.]
Another remarkable instance is given us in the history of Jonah; I mean, in his address to Almighty God out of the fish’s belly. It illustrates most appositely the case of a true, though erring servant of God, chastised, yet blessing God under the chastisement, and submitting himself even without any clear prospect how he was to escape from it.—“I cried,” he says, “by reason of my affliction unto the Lord, and He heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and Thou heardest my voice. For Thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas, and the floods compassed me about; all Thy billows and Thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of Thy sight; yet I will look again toward Thy Holy Temple … When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came in unto Thee, into Thine Holy Temple. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto Thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.” [Jonah ii. 2-4, 7-9.]