We may further learn from this subject,
1. What an excellent grace faith is —
[Faith beholds nothing but paternal love in the heaviest chastisements. Faith " brings meat out of the eater," and tastes sweetness in the bitterest cup. Faith looks to the end of things, and sees them, in a measure, as God sees them. It is the great and sovereign antidote to troubles of every kind. If Jacob had exercised faith as Abraham did, the trials of which he complained would scarcely have been felt at all. But God is pleased to try us on purpose that we may learn to trust in him. In this world " we are to walk by faith, and not by sight." Let us therefore cultivate continually this divine principle, which, while it honours God, tends exceed- ingly to the advancement of our own happiness.]
2. How blessed a state heaven will be —
[Here God has wisely and graciously hid futurity from our view. But when we are arrived at the heavenly mansions, we shall see all the merciful designs of God developed, and the wisdom of his dispensations clearly displayed. We shall then see that the trials of which we once complained, were not only salutary, but absolutely necessary for us ; and that, if they had been withheld from us, there would have been wanting a link
b Rom. iv. 18. with Heb. xi. 17—19.
in that chain, by which we were to be brought in safety to heaven. Who will there adopt the language of the text? Who will utter it in reference to any one trial of his life? Who will not rather say, " He hath done all things well?" Let us then look forward to that time, and not pass our judg- ment on present things, till we see and understand the design of God in them.]