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I. WE MAY DESCRIBE EVERY REAL AFFLICTION WHICH COMES UPON THE CHRISTIAN AS A CAPTIVITY. To be in a condition which we never should have voluntarily preferred, or to be held back, by the power of something which we cannot control, from that which we eagerly desire to do, — is not that the very thing in an experience which makes it a trial? Take bodily illness, for example, and when you get at the root of the discomfort of it, you find it in the union of these two things: you are where you do not want to be, and where you would never have thought of putting yourself, and you are held there, whether you will or not, by the irresistible might of your own weakness. The same thing comes out in every sort of affliction. You are, let me suppose, in business perplexities. Well, that is not of your own choosing. If you could have accomplished it, you would have been in quite different circumstances. But, in spite of you, things have gone crooked. You have been carried from the Jerusalem of comfort to the Babylon of perplexity, by no effort of yours, nay, perhaps, against the utmost resistance on your part, and now you can do nothing. So sometimes, also, our providential duties are a kind of affliction to us. We had no choice in determining whether we would assume them. They came to us, unbidden, at least, if not undesired, and they have chained us to themselves, so that when we are asked to take part in some effort for the benefit of others we are compelled to say "No."

II. EVERY CAPTIVITY OF WHICH THE CHRISTIAN IS THE VICTIM WILL HAVE AN END. "Time and the hour run through the roughest day." "Be the day weary, or be the day long, at last it ringeth to evensong." It is but a little while, at the longest, and we shall be where "sorrow and sighing shall for ever flee away." This state of limitation, this conflict between our aspirations and our abilities, is not to last for ever. Not for ever shall we be in bondage to the weakness of the body, hampered by its liability to disease, and hindered by its proneness to fatigue. Not always shall we be at the mercy of the unscrupulous and dishonest. Not continually shall we be held down by the encumbrances that overweight us here on earth. For in the fatherland above we shall work without weariness, and serve God without imperfection. But, while there is much in this view of the case to sustain us, we must not lose sight of the moral end which God has in view in sending us into our captivity. Ah! how many of our idolatries He has rebuked and rectified by our captivities! We had been worshipping our reputation, and lo! an illness came which laid us aside, and our names were by and by forgotten, as new men came to the front; and then, learning the folly of out false ambition, we turned from the idolatry of self to the homage of Jehovah. Or, we had made an idol of our business; but now it is in ruins, and as we see the perishableness of earthly things, we turn to Him who is unchanging and eternal. Or, we had made a god of our dwelling, and by some reverse of fortune it is swept away from us, just that we might learn the meaning of that old song of Moses (Psalm 90:1). How many portions of His Word, also, have been explained to us by our trials! There is no commentator of the Scriptures half so valuable as a captivity. It unfolds new beauties where all had appeared to be beautiful before; and where formerly there was what we thought a wilderness, it has revealed to us a fruitful field.

III. IF WE WOULD HAVE SUCH RESULTS FROM OUR CAPTIVITY, THERE ARE CERTAIN IMPORTANT THINGS WHICH WE MUST CULTIVATE.

1. A willing acceptance of God's discipline, and patient submission to it. The impatient horse which will not quietly endure his halter only strangles himself in his stall. The high-mettled animal that is restive in the yoke only galls his shoulders; and every one will understand the difference between the restless starling of which Sterne has written, breaking its wings against the bars of its cage, and crying, "I can't get out," "I can't get out," and the docile canary that sits upon its perch and sings as if he would outrival the lark soaring to heaven's gate, and so moves his mistress to open the door of his prison-house and give him the full range of the room. He who is constantly looking back and bewailing that which he has lost, does only thereby unfit himself for improving in any way the discipline to which God has subjected him; whereas the man who brings his mind down to his lower lot, and deliberately examines how he can serve God best in that, is already on the way to happiness and to restoration.

2. Unswerving confidence in God. If we doubt Him we at once become the prey to despondency, impatience, and rebellion. Confidence in your physician is itself more than half the cure, and trust in God is absolutely essential if we would gain benefit from His discipline. Yet because a change in men's conduct toward us is usually the indication of a difference in their disposition toward us, we think that God has ceased to care for us when He puts us into trial or sends us into captivity. But it is not so. To-day the medical man gives his patient liberty to take anything he chooses; to-morrow he cuts off all indulgence, and uses severe and painful remedies; but does he care the less for him because he thus changes his treatment, or has his purpose regarding him undergone an alteration? Not at all In both cases he is equally earnest to have his health restored. And it is quite similar with God in His dealings with His people.

3. Fervent prayer. No calamity can be to us an unmixed evil if we carry it in direct and fervent prayer to God, for even as one in taking shelter from the rain beneath a tree may find on its branches fruit which he looked not for, so we, in fleeing for refuge beneath the shadow of God's wing, will always find more in God than we had seen or known before. It is thus through our afflictions that God gives us fresh revelations of Himself; and the Jabbok ford, which we crossed to seek His help, leads to the Peniel, where, as the result of our wrestling, we "see God face to face," and our lives are preserved.

(W. M. Taylor, D. D.)

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KJV: For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.

WEB: For thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Don't let your prophets who are in the midst of you, and your diviners, deceive you; neither listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed.