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. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com. All rights reserved. Get this book!
Were it not for tribulation I should not understand the Scriptures (Psm. 119:67, 71).
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 (Daniel Dyke).
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.
