BIBLE-INTERPRETATION-ADVERSITY
Were it not for tribulation
I should not understand the Scriptures (Psm. 119:67, 71).
Although we may be going to the
Scriptures to learn how to respond to our adversities, we find those
adversities in turn help us to understand the Scriptures. It is not that we
will learn from adversity something different than what we can learn from the
Scriptures. Rather, adversity enhances the teaching of God’s Word and makes it
more profitable to us. In some instances it clarifies our understanding or
causes us to see truths we had passed over before. At other times it will
transform “head knowledge” into “heart knowledge” as theological theory becomes
a reality to us.
Trusting God, 1988, p. 178.
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The Word, then, is the
storehouse of all instruction. Look not for any new diverse doctrine to be
taught thee by affliction, which is not in the Word. For, in truth, herein
stands our teaching by affliction, that it fits and prepares us for the Word,
by breaking and sub-dividing the stubbornness of our hearts, and making them
pliable, and capable of the impression of the Word.
Quoted by C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Baker,
1984, v. 4, p. 306.
There are things to see in
the Word of God that our eyes can only see through the lens of tears.
Feed My Sheep: A Passionate Plea for Preaching, Soli Deo
Gloria, 2002, p. 262.
There is no commentary that
opens up the Bible so much as sickness and sorrow.
The Gospel of John.