The Bread of Adversity.
xxx. 20, 21. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, &c.[1]
I. Difficulties supposed.
“The Bread of Adversity” was a proverbial expression among the Jews (1 Kings xxii. 27; Ps. lxxx. 5). The Lord gives: He who gave the cup of salvation gives the cup of affliction. He who gives the bread of life gives also the bread of adversity (Heb. xii. 6). Recollect that the Lord who gives you the bread of adversity gave His own Son no better fare, no richer diet.
II. Consolations promised.
“Yet shall not thy teachers be removed,” &c. He will compensate temporal troubles by spiritual blessings. Numbers have found that as tribulation abounded, consolation abounded by Christ (2 Cor. i. 5). Such consolations are threefold. 1. A free access to God’s throne. “He will be very gracious to thee at the voice of thy cry.” Prayer relieves distress. 2. A faithful administration of God’s word and ordinances. Religious instruction shall be continued, “thy teachers shall not be removed.” 3. A gracious direction of God’s providence.
III. Instructions suggested.
1. Guard against whatever may endanger Christian privileges. Neglect of prayer; absence of love; seductions of the world. 2. Recollect what is needful to give this promise full effect—the influence of the Spirit. Pray for and expect a baptism of the Holy Ghost. 3. Commend to others the consolations you receive. Visit the sick; remember the widow and the fatherless. In comforting others, your own bread of adversity shall be made sweet.—Samuel Thodey.
I. A calamity anticipated.
Affliction may be continuous and severe. Bread and water are the prominent things in the sustenance of life. Day by day reserved. Few, if any, are entirely exempt from affliction. Periods of difficulty and privation, when weeks and months of consuming anxiety are experienced. Losses which seriously incommode and cripple their business. Troubles in the family, sometimes from the conduct of those most loved. Bereavements which rend the heart. Sickness, accident, consuming disease, and excruciating pain wear life slowly away.
The godly are not exempted. The infected atmosphere may poison the saint as well as the sinner. If a good man falls over a precipice he will be killed. “The same hurricane may equally swamp the vessel which is filled with pirates and that which is filled by a band of devoted missionaries.” If a Christian neglect his business, or conduct it on unsound principles, he must expect insolvency. He may conduct it with perfect commercial wisdom and care and yet be overtaken by disasters from causes beyond his control.
But it does not happen by chance. There is no such thing as fate. We recognise the hand of the Lord. “Though the Lord give you the bread of affliction and the water of adversity.” In this truth is help for believers perplexed by the mystery of sorrow. It throws their thoughts on God. And they have such confidence in Him that is a resting-place. We do not know, we never can know, the evils He prevents. When He permits or sends trouble we may rest assured that there is a sufficient reason (Lam. iii. 33).
What are the reasons?[2] We may mistake their application, but they are such as these: 1. It is sometimes punitive. God has established a connection between sin and suffering. The former always works towards the latter. The chain of connection may be so subtle, and may extend so far back, that we cannot follow it. Yet such a chain there is. When affliction comes, it is useful to trace the chain, and ascertain, if we can, wherefore the Lord is contending with us. 2. It is sometimes corrective. He deals with us as men deal with their children (Heb. xii. 5–11). It is not that He may vent His anger, but recall them to their better selves. He means it as the refiner means the fire into which he casts the gold (Ps. cxix. 67). 3. It is sometimes auxiliary. The means to an end. The dark way into light. It is necessary to some advantage which could not be reached without it. Joseph’s slavery and imprisonment were the steps to his subsequent greatness. Jesus reached the crown by the cross. Perhaps you can illustrate from your own experience.
Meantime, here is
II. An antidote promised.
Their teachers had been removed. The prophets were persecuted (verses 9, 10). Jeremiah, Zedekiah, under Jezebel’s persecution. Obadiah had hid a hundred in caves. Persecution usually fastens on the teachers as most prominent. Thus Apostles. Thus the Nonconforming clergy in England. Thus the missionaries were driven from Madagascar. But the promise here in that they shall regain their liberty. And this will be not only a relief to themselves, but an antidote to the people’s calamities. It will secure: 1. Instruction. “Thy teachers.” Truth is the basis of everything in experience or practice. It is their business carefully to unfold and apply the truth.[3] 2. Consolation. Christian ordinances are consolatory. There are truths that bear on troubles. The views of the Divine character and of the course of Providence exhibited in the Gospel sustain and comfort. 3. Direction. There is danger of turning to right or left. So many allurements, from ignorance, misguidance, temptation. By the ministry you hear the voice which points out the way, invites steadfastness, warns against divergence.
God provides guidance in the journey to the better land. Value the ministry of the Word. Attend it. Follow its teaching.—J. Rawlinson.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The Authorised Version, upon which these outlines are founded, is supported by Mr. Cheyne, who translates: “And though the Lord give you bread in short measure and water in scant quantity,” &c. But Delitzsch, Kay, and Birks render the first clause: “And the Lord will give you bread in your adversity and water in your affliction.” Mr. Birks adds: “These words form part of a promise, not its limitation. Here they are assured that, although besieged, they will not be given over to famine. The path of duty will be made plain by God’s prophets, and speedy deliverance be given.”
[2] H. E. I., 56–115.
[3] The Christian Church requires a teaching ministry. Not only must the Gospel be proclaimed to the world, the Church must be trained into knowledge, experience, holiness, activity. Individual study of Scripture is largely useful. But regularly recurring religious services, of which careful instruction is a part, are universally necessary. Godly men must be released from secular business, trained, set apart to the study and ministry of the Word. The living voice of the preacher helps, guides, confirms, and gives greater practical influence to the private reading of Christians. Even under the old dispensation, large use was made of this method. There were schools of the prophets. A few were so eminent that they have left their words behind them. But there were many whose names have not survived their time. Jesus trained His disciples for their future work. After His Ascension, He gave various gifts to men for the work of the ministry. He continues them. While one could wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that He would put His Spirit upon them, so that they would work to the full extent of their ability for the world’s salvation, it remains true that the strength of the Church is an able, well-instructed, godly, and earnest ministry.
Among the blessings here promised to the ancient Church is the restoration of the silenced teachers to their work after its period of discipline.—Rawlinson.