He Maketh Sore, and Bindeth Up: He Woundeth
God permits suffering to discipline us and make us more like Christ, but He also promises to bind up and heal our wounds.
F.B. Meyer emphasizes the dual nature of God's work in our lives, where He both wounds and heals. He encourages believers to recognize that pain and suffering are part of God's loving discipline, meant to strengthen our faith and trust in Him. Meyer reminds us that while we may experience sorrow, we should look forward with hope, as God is actively working to bind up our wounds and restore us. He draws parallels between natural healing processes and God's restorative work in our hearts, urging us to trust in His infinite love. Ultimately, we must ensure that we do not obstruct the flow of God's life within us.
Text
He maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth
and his hands make whole. Job v. 18.
HAS this been your experience lately? Have you been made sore by the heavy scourge of pain, and wounded by the nails of the cross? Do not look at second causes. Men may have been the instruments, but God is the Agent. The cup has been presented by a Judas, but the Father permitted it; and it is therefore the cup that the Father hath given you to drink. Shall you not drink it? How much He must love you, to dare to inflict this awful discipline, which makes your love and trust, that He values so infinitely, tremble in the scale! "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."
But do not look back on what you have suffered; look on and up! As surely as He has made sore, He will bind up; as soon as He has wounded, his hands will begin to make whole. Consider the reparative processes of nature. So soon as the unsightly ruin or chasm yawns, nature begins to weave her rich festoons, to cover it with moss and lichen; let the flesh be punctured or lacerated, the blood begins to poor out the protoplastic matter to be woven into a new fabric. So when the heart seems bleeding its life away, God is at work binding up and healing. Think of those dear and tender hands, that fashioned the heavens, and touched the eyeballs of the blind, as laid upon you to make you whole. Trust Him; He loves infinitely, and will suffer none that trust in Him to be desolate.
We must be careful, however, that nothing on our part shall hinder the life of the Son of God from flowing through us, as the sap of the vine through every branch.
Sermon Outline
- The Experience of Suffering
- The Purpose of Suffering
- The Promise of Healing
- The Importance of Trust
- We must trust God in the midst of suffering
- He loves us infinitely and will not abandon us
- The Father permits suffering for our growth
Key Quotes
“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.” — F.B. Meyer
“Think of those dear and tender hands, that fashioned the heavens, and touched the eyeballs of the blind, as laid upon you to make you whole.” — F.B. Meyer
“We must be careful, however, that nothing on our part shall hinder the life of the Son of God from flowing through us, as the sap of the vine through every branch.” — F.B. Meyer
Application Points
- We must trust God's love and promise to bind up and heal our wounds, even in the midst of suffering.
- We must be careful not to hinder the life of the Son of God from flowing through us, as the sap of the vine through every branch.
- We can trust that God will make us whole again, and that He loves us infinitely and will not abandon us.