THE DAY OF ADVERSITY
A. "IN THE DAY OF ADVERSITY CONSIDER" - Eccl. 7:14
  1. Man, born of a woman, is of few days:
    1. So says Job - Job 14:1
    2. Jacob utters similar words - Gen. 47:9
    3. The Psalmist prayer was, "teach us to number our days" - Ps. 90:12
  2. Experience teaches us:
    1. That man is born for trouble and adversity.
    2. "Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward" - Job 5:7
    3. We become heirs of sorrow as surely as we are born into this world - Ps. 127:2
    4. Man is exposed to misery as surely as he breathes - Eccl. 8:6
B. THE DAY OF ADVERSITY
  1. What is to be understood by The Day of Adversity?
    1. When we are deprived of the temporary things in this life, as Job was, we are in the day of adversity.
    2. So long as we are in this present world, we will need and strive for the possession of this world's goods.
    3. Yet, some of the very best men have been deprived of the material things of this life - EXAMPLES -
      1. Our Lord, Creator of the universe, heir to all there is in the world, lived about thirty- three years in this world without being recognized as the rightful owner of all there is - Matt. 8:20; 2 Cor. 8:9; Luke 9:58
      2. Hagar had spent considerable of her life in the home of Abraham, yet, when she left, she could carry all her possessions on her head - Gen. 21:14
      3. Elisha, a mighty man, fled his homeland with but his staff in his hand - 1 Ki. 19:4
    4. Family bereavements keeps most of us in the shadow of adversity - EXAMPLES -
      1. Adam and Eve had their sorrow - Gen. 4:8
      2. Job had plenty of it - Job 1:12-21
      3. Recall the sorrows of David - 2 Sam. 18:33
      4. Ezekiel was told that his desires would be taken away with a stroke - Ezek. 24:16
      5. Then there is the case of a man by the name of Lazarus - Luke 16:20, 21
      6. The widow of Nain, who was following her son's coffin - Luke 7:11-13
C. THE COURSE PRESCRIBED: "IN THE DAY OF ADVERSITY CONSIDER"
  1. It cannot be denied that we all are adverse to adversity:
    1. Even the Son of God was pained at his heart when the day of adversity approached -
      1. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief - Isa. 53:3
      2. See Him in the garden of Gethsemane - Luke 22:41-45
    2. If that was true of Him, who knew no sin, what may any one of us expect!
  2. Consider:
    1. "O that they were wise, that they would consider their latter end" - Deut. 32:29
    2. "Israel doth not know, my people will not consider" - Isa. 1:3
  3. Afflictions, sorrows, have often turned into great blessings in disguise:
    1. Note how the story of Job turned into glorious triumph - Job 42:10-17
    2. God requires for us to go through the refining process - Isa 48:10
    3. We shall be satisfied when all our trials are over, and the eternal rest comes to us.
  4. Afflictions are but transitory or seasonable:
    1. "For our affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." - 2 Cor. 4:17
    2. "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporary: but the things which are not seen are eternal." Verse 18
  5. Job's answer to his discouraged wife expresses the correct attitude of the children of God in the day of adversity: "shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" - Job 2:10


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