Afflictions and Adversities: Dispensation of God

And the LORD said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Or who makes the mute or the deaf, the sighted or the blind? Is it not I, the LORD?

See, I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the LORD my God has commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land that you are about to enter and possess. …

If, however, you do not obey the LORD your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: …

See now that I am He; there is no God besides Me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My hand.

“Do not call me Naomi,” she replied. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has dealt quite bitterly with me.

I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? After all, the LORD has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me.”

The LORD brings death and gives life; He brings down to Sheol and raises up.

The LORD sends poverty and wealth; He humbles and He exalts.

But the king replied, “What have I to do with you, O sons of Zeruiah? If he curses me because the LORD told him, ‘Curse David,’ who can ask, ‘Why did you do this?’”

While Elisha was still speaking with them, the messenger came down to him. And the king said, “This calamity is from the LORD. Why should I wait for the LORD any longer?”

And the LORD afflicted the king with leprosy until the day he died, so that he lived in a separate house while his son Jotham had charge of the palace and governed the people of the land.

…the LORD appeared to him at night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. …

…saying: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.”

For distress does not spring from the dust, and trouble does not sprout from the ground.

Blessed indeed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.

For He wounds, but He also binds; He strikes, but His hands also heal.

For the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my spirit drinks in their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.

If He takes away, who can stop Him? Who dares to ask Him, ‘What are You doing?’

It is all the same, and so I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’

Your hands shaped me and altogether formed me. Would You now turn and destroy me?

If He comes along to imprison you, or convenes a court, who can stop Him?

What He tears down cannot be rebuilt; the man He imprisons cannot be released. …

…then understand that it is God who has wronged me and drawn His net around me.

Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.

How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? Does disaster come upon them? Does God, in His anger, apportion destruction?

God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me.

“As surely as God lives, who has deprived me of justice—the Almighty, who has embittered my soul—

Because God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they have cast off restraint in my presence.

But when He remains silent, who can condemn Him? When He hides His face, who can see Him? Yet He watches over both man and nation,

There is no soundness in my body because of Your anger; there is no rest in my bones because of my sin.

You led us into the net; You laid burdens on our backs.

Though You have shown me many troubles and misfortunes, You will revive me once again. Even from the depths of the earth You will bring me back up.

God’s anger flared against them, and He put to death their strongest and subdued the young men of Israel. …

You have laid me in the lowest Pit, in the darkest of the depths.

Your wrath weighs heavily upon me; all Your waves have submerged me. Selah

Your wrath has swept over me; Your terrors have destroyed me.

Now, however, You have spurned and rejected him; You are enraged by Your anointed one. …

For we are consumed by Your anger and terrified by Your wrath.

Make us glad for as many days as You have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen evil.

…because of Your indignation and wrath, for You have picked me up and cast me aside.

He has broken my strength on the way; He has cut short my days.

The Lord will give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, but your Teacher will no longer hide Himself—with your own eyes you will see Him.

I form the light and create the darkness; I bring prosperity and create calamity. I, the LORD, do all these things.

You have said, ‘Woe is me because the LORD has added sorrow to my pain! I am worn out with groaning and have found no rest.’”

Her foes have become her masters; her enemies are at ease. For the LORD has brought her grief because of her many transgressions. Her children have gone away as captives before the enemy.

I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath.

This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree that the Most High has issued against my lord the king: …

If a ram’s horn sounds in a city, do the people not tremble? If calamity comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?

For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current swirled about me; all Your breakers and waves swept over me.

For the dwellers of Maroth pined for good, but calamity came down from the LORD, even to the gate of Jerusalem.

For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope

But when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.

Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness.

Those I love I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent.