God's Chastening

Yesterday, I was reading in the book of Job and these verses from chapter five stood out to me:

“I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause: Which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things without number: … Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.” (8-9; 17-18)

Verses 8-9 just resonated with me.  Most of the time, I am oblivious of God’s hand in my life, but there are moments when I’ve glimpsed it. Those glimpses make me want to seek God. So, while in some ways His doings are unsearchable (which I take to mean baffling or inscrutable), I’ve seen that they are marvelous and great.  There are some things in my life right now that are hard to understand.  I’ve sometimes asked, “Why do I have to go through this? Why isn’t it simpler?” But, I always feel strongly that all of this is a part of God’s curriculum—He is trying to teach me and help me become something better and essentially different than what I am now.  That idea, I feel, is reflected in verses 17-18.  God corrects us so that we can be happy.  Some of the experiences He gives us make us sore or wound us, but God is the great healer and He will always bind up and make whole.  I believe that the “wounds” God inflicts on us are like a surgeon’s incisions—they hurt, but are necessary for our healing. All of this reminded me of John Donne’s Holy Sonnet XIV:

Batter my heart, three-person'd God ; for you
As yet but knock ; breathe, shine, and seek to mend ;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy ;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.