Why God is Pleased to Place His People in a Very Tempestuous and Stormy Night

He does it that His people may be conformed to Christ.

As they are tempted and distressed, so was He; as it is with their souls a season of darkness, so it was also with His holy soul that was full of amazement under a sense of God’s wrath- though He never despaired indeed, as many of His servants are apt to do under the violence of sorrow. Isaiah 53:3: [He was] a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” When He was so saddened for our sakes, it is reasonable to think that we should sometimes taste the bitter cup, and not always rejoice and be at ease. If God did not spare His only Son, why should we expect to feel nothing but what is very mild and gentle? Our Lord has told us that the world will rejoice, but we shall be sorrowful (see John 16:20-22). The sufferings of Christ were to give satisfaction to divine justice; ours are not to be looked upon with such an eye. By these terrors and desertions we learn to value and esteem the love of Christ, who was pleased to redeem us when it cost Him so very dearly, and who was pleased not to decline the field of battle, though it was not to be managed without vast labor and a mighty pain. And the apostle says, “Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings” (1 Peter 4:13).

He does it because our fall and our ruin came by pleasure.

It was a delight. Though a very short one, that made our forefather Adam apostatize; and it is equitable that we should be cured by something contrary to that which occasioned our disease, seeing that our joys are dangerous. He makes our grief and sorrows to be medicinal.

He does it because it is a very proper season wherein to be sorrowful.

Among all the other excellent appointments of providence, this one is that there should be a time to weep (Ecclesiastes 3:4). There is in this weeping night nothing strange or uncouth. All our fathers have, in some respect, pass under a cloud, and a cloud that has dissolved in rain, and which has given the good pilgrims much trouble as they went along. 1 Peter 1:6: “Now for a season ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” It is no more strange to see mourning in the church on earth than to see storms or snow in winter. Everything is beautiful in its season, and so is affliction. The night is useful to the world, though not as pleasant as the day. Our sickly state will not admit us to have nothing but what is satisfying to our palates; the wise God, therefore, many time, instead of very pleasant things confers the best upon us. We must allow the great Master of the family to maintain its order, prosperity, and welfare by His own methods, and to chastise us when and how and as long as He pleases; for His strokes, though very painful, yet are still very just. And it is in order to achieve some better thing that He designs for us that at the present we are made to grieve; for grief, as Dr. [Robert] Harris observes, is an imperfect passion, not made for itself but for some higher use, as are all the rest of the declining affections, such as hatred for love, fear for confidence, and so sorrow for joy, unto which it is subservient. Lancing and searing are not for themselves, but for ease and remedy. A bitter potion is not for sickness, though it may cause if for a time, but for health. In the same way, sorrow is made for joy, and joy is the end of sorrow. And God, we may be sure, will have His end.

He does it to show His own sovereignty both in afflicting and in comforting.

He causes such a prince as Job to sit upon a dunghill, in anguish and trouble, while another sits in unclouded glory on the throne. He pulls down one and sets up another, and does whatsoever He will in occasion of mourning for the soul, and one that He permits at various times; for though He does not deny what is absolutely necessary to the being of the Christian, yet He many times does not promise to give what would make it very comfortable. He, for wise reasons, allows the hearts of His people to be overwhelmed with sorrow when He could make them brim-full of joy, as in nature He lets the earth gape for thirst when He could immediately refresh it with seasonable flowers.

Who, in all this mysterious variety of His administrations, can say unto Him, “What art Thou doing?” Some countries are desert, barren and forsaken, burned up with scorching heat, and filled with beasts of prey; others are inhabited and fruitful, and greatly blessed, and He sees fit to have part of His dominions thus qualified. Some He draws with the sweet savor of His ointments, and they perceive nothing but what is gratifying and refreshing; but others He sorely terrifies with the greatness of His power, His holiness, and His majesty, and they never eat nor live with pleasure.

The Captain of our salvation causes some of His soldiers to meet with much more formidable dangers than others do: they have more sweat, fatigue, toil, and painful duty, though He will be sure to help them Himself when they are ready to give way. The manner of His dispensations to His servants is varied, both in life and at death. Some are chastened all the day long, and with sore pains upon their beds too, while others have no pain at all. Some go drooping to the grave, bowed down with God’s displeasure, while His favor and His gracious eye make others go smiling there. Enoch and Elijah had a pleasant removal from the world; very short and very glorious was their passage hence. But most men groan a long while before they are called away, and then He does it to show His own power, so that when the wound appears to be desperate He can cure it with a word. When the night is most full of horror, He can bring the reviving day. When the storms are highest, He needs but say to the waves, to our doubts and our fears, “Be still,” and immediately there is a calm.

What is such a God, so great and so good a God, not able to do! He who produced from a mere chaos this beautiful and pleasant world needs only say to us in the middle of our doleful darkness, “Let there be light,” and it shall be so. Job 5:18: “He maketh sore, and bindeth up. He woundeth, and His hands make whole.” It is in acknowledgment of this sovereign ability it is that David prays in Psalm 51:8, “Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice.”

Why so? Had not Nathan told him that his sin was pardoned? Yes, but all the testimonies of men are nothing without the inward witness of the Holy Spirit. God has committed to men the administration of His Word, but reserves the Spirit to Himself, that Spirit which gives consolation to our hearts and peace to our consciences. When Mary and Martha were in sorrow for their brother’s death, it is said in John 11:19 that many of the Jews came from Jerusalem to comfort them. But they received no comfort until Christ Himself had come there.

Timothy Rogers

Trouble of Mind and the Disease of Melancholy, pp. 340-343

Counsel for a Man Overtaken by Melancholy

 

I asked him [Martin Luther] about a certain man who, when he had a stomachache for several days and as a consequence had pain in his head and was confused in his thoughts, got the notion and was afraid that he was falling into a state of melancholy. He disclosed his anxiety to me and asked that I notify the doctor, whereupon he [Martin Luther] responded with these words: "When the devil can bring this about, it means that imagination has produced the effect. On this account his thoughts ought to be changed. He ought to think about Christ. You should say to him, 'Christ lives. You have been baptized. God is not a God of sadness, death, etc., but the devil is. Christ is a God of joy, and so the Scriptures often say that we should rejoice, be glad, etc. This is Christ. Because you have a gracious God, he won't take you by the throat.'"

"A Christian should and must be a cheerful person. If he isn't, the devil is tempting him. I have sometimes been grievously tempted while bathing in my garden, and then I have sung the hymn, 'Let us now praise Christ.' Otherwise I would have been lost then and there. Accordingly, when you notice that you have some such thoughts, say, 'This isn't Christ.' To be sure, he can hear the name of Christ, but it's a lie because Christ says, 'Let not your heart be troubled [John 14:27]. Trust in me,' etc. This is a command of God: Rejoice! I now preach this, and I also write it, but I haven't as yet learned it. But it happens that we learn as we're tempted. If we were always glad, the devil would befoul us. Christ knows that our hearts are troubled, and it is for this reason that He says and commands, 'Let not your hearts be troubled.'"

"Thus we are like the holy fathers in our faith. The weaker we are than the fathers, the greater the victory Christ obtains for us. We are very inexperienced, very weak, and very proud over against the devil; he has a great advantage over us, for our wisdom, power, and holiness are not so great as our fathers' were. But our Lord God wants to put an end to the devil's extreme arrogance. Paul had to say, 'I alone have resisted all the derision of Satan.'"

Table Talk, Spring, 1533

Luther's Works Vol. 54, pp. 95-96

Treatment of Melancholy, Despair, Etc.

When I was in spiritual distress a gentle word would restore my spirit. Sometimes my confessor said to me when I repeatedly discussed silly sins with him, 'You are a fool. God is not incensed against you, but you are incensed against God. God is not angry with you, but you are angry with God.' This was magnificently said, although it was before the light of the gospel.

"Right here at this table, when the rest of you were in Jena, Pomeranus sometimes consoled me when I was sad by saying, no doubt God is thinking: What more can I do with this man? I have given him so many excellent gifts, and yet he despairs of my grace!" These words were a great comfort to me. As a voice from heaven stuck me in my heart, although I think Pomeranus did not realize at the time what he had said and that it was so well said. 

"Those who are troubled with melancholy," he [Martin Luther] said, "ought to be very careful not to be alone, for God created the fellowship of the church and commanded brotherliness, as the Scriptures testify, 'Woe to him who is alone when he falls,' etc. [Eccles. 4:10]. To be gloomy before God is not pleasing to Him, although He would permit us to be depressed before the world. He does not wish me to have a long face in His presence, as He says, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked' [Ezek. 33:11] and 'Rejoice in the Lord' [Phil. 4:4]. He desires not a servant who does not expect good things of Him.

"Although I know this, I am of a different mind ten times in the course of the day. But I resist the devil, and often it is with a fart that I chase him away. When he tempts me with silly sins I say, 'Devil, yesterday I broke wind too. Have you written it down on your list?' When I say to him, 'You have been put to shame,' he believes it, for he does not want to be despised. Afterward, if I engage him in further conversation, I upbraid him with the pope and say, 'If you do the same as he does, who is your pope that I should celebrate him? Look what an abomination he has prepared, and it continues to this day!' Thus I remind myself of the forgiveness of sin and of Christ and I remind Satan of the abomination of the pope. This abomination is so great that I am of good cheer and rejoice, and I confess that the abomination of the papacy after the time of Christ is a great consolation to me. Consequently those who say that one should not rebuke the pope are dreadful scolds. Go right ahead and inveigh against the pope, especially if the devil disturbs you about justification. He often troubles me with trivialities. I don't notice this when I'm depressed, but when I feel better I recognize it easily.

"Well, then, our furious foe has done us much harm. I know that I shall see him and his flaming missiles in the last day. AS long as we have pure teaching he will not harm us, but if the teaching is wrong we are done for. But praise be to God, Who gave us the Word and also allowed His only Son to die for us! He did not do this in vain. Accordingly we should entertain the hope that we are saints, that we are saved, and that this will be manifest when it is revealed. Since Christ accepted the thief on the cross just as he was and received Paul after all his blasphemies and persecutions, we have no reason to despair. As a matter of fact, all of us must be saved just as the thief and Paul were. Good God, what do you think it means that He has given His only Son? It means that He also offers whatever else He possesses. We have no reason, therefore, to fear His wrath, although we must continue to fear on account of the old Adam, who is still unable to understand this as it ought to be understood. If we had only the first three words of the Creed, 'I believe in God the Father,' they would still be far beyond our understanding and reason. In short, it does not occur to man that God is Father. If it did, man could not live for a single moment. Accordingly in this infirm flesh we must have faith, for if we were capable of fully believing, heaven would already be here. There is therefore no reason to fear, in so far as the object of fear is concerned, and yet we cannot understand and are compelled on account of the weakness of the flesh to suffer assaults of fear and desperation. Thus the catechism remains lord, and there is nobody who understands it. I am accordingly compelled to pray it every day, even aloud, and whenever I happen to be prevented by the press of duties from observing my hour of prayer, the entire day is bad for me. Prayer helps us very much and gives us a cheerful heart, not on account of any merit in the work, but because we have spoken with God and found everything to be in order.

"Having been taught by experience I can say how you ought to restore your spirit when you suffer from spiritual depression. When you are assailed by gloom, despair, or a troubled conscience you should eat, drink, and talk with others. If you can find help for yourself by thinking of a girl, do so.

"There was a bishop who had a sister in a convent. She was disturbed by various dreams about her brother. She betook herself to her brother and complained to him that she was again and again agitated by bad dreams. He at once prepared a sumptuous dinner and urged his sister to eat and drink. The following day he asked her whether she had been annoyed by dreams during the night. 'No,' she responded. 'I slept well and had no dreams at all.' 'Go, then,' he said. 'Take care of your body in defiance of Satan, and the bad dreams will stop.'

"But his you ought to know, that other remedies are suitable for other persons. Copious drinking benefits me when I am in this condition. But I would not advise a young person to drink more because this might stimulate his sexual desire. In short, abstinence is beneficial for some and a drinking bout for others. Augustine says wisely in his rule, 'Not equally for all because you are not all equally strong.' So he speaks about the body and so we can speak about illnesses of the spirit."


Martin Luther
Luther's Works, Volume 54, pp.15-18
Table Talk, November 30, 1531