November 15

Through God’s threshing mill

“For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye know” (1 Thess. 3:4).
“These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 7:14).

We all know, in a general way that this word “tribulation” which occurs not seldom in Scripture and in the Liturgy, means affliction, sorrow, anguish, but it is quite worth our while to know how it means this, and to question the word a little closer. It is derived from the Latin “tribulum”—that word signifying the thrashing instrument, or roller, by which the Roman separated the corn from the husks; and “tribulatio,” in its primary significance, was the act of this separation.

. But some Latin writer of the Christian Church appropriated the word and image for the setting forth of a higher truth; and sorrow, and distress, and adversity being the appointed means for the separating in men of their chaff from their wheat, of whatever in them was light, and trivial, and poor, from the solid and the true, therefore he called these sorrows and griefs, “tribulations,” threshings, that is, of the inner spiritual man.

—Richard Chenevix Trench.

The three Hebrew children were wonderfully preserved, not only from destruction, but even from the smell of fire upon their garments. All they lost were the bands which bound them. So are Christ’s people graciously kept in the hour of their affliction from the destroying power of their enemies. The Son of God is with them as He was with the Hebrew worthies. They lose nothing but the evils of their nature, which have hitherto been entanglements to them. They come forth with freedom and purity for the service of God, either on earth or in Heaven.
—John Bate.

Tho’ in affliction’s furnace tried,
Unhurt, on snares and death I’ll tread;
Tho’ sin assail, and hell, thrown wide,
Pour all its flames upon my head,
Like Moses’ bush I’ll mount the higher,
And flourish, unconsumed, in fire.
—Charles Wesley.

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