“Men that see not God in an affliction are easily cast into a feverish fit, they will quickly be in a flame, and when their passions are up, and their hearts on fire, they will begin to be saucy, and make no bones of telling God to his teeth, that they do well to be angry (Jonah 4:8-9). Such as will not acknowledge God to be the author of all their afflictions, will be ready enough to fall in with that mad principle of the Manichees, who maintained the devil to be the author of all calamities; as if there could be any evil of affliction in the city, and the Lord have no hand in it (Amos 3:6). Such as can see the ordering hand of God in all their afflictions, will, with David, lay their hands upon their mouths, when the rod of God is upon their backs (2 Sam. 16:11-12). If God’s hand be not seen in the affliction, the heart will do nothing but fret and rage under afflictions.”
Thomas Brooks, A Mute Christian Under the Rod, (Grand Rapids: Sovereign Grace, 1971), p. 19.
God, the Author of Affliction
jeffwiesner.com 