For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.
Ver. 18. For he maketh sore, and bindeth up] As a surgeon maketh an incision to let out the imposthumed matter, and then heals up the wound again. God hath a salve for every sore, a medicine for every malady; he is both a Father and a Physician, he lanceth us not unless need be, 1 Peter 1:6. We are judged of the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. Would we that God should let us alone to perish in our corruptions (as he did Ephraim, Hos 4:14), and not meddle with us? or that he should scarf our bones before they are set, and lap up our sores before they are searched? this were a mercy more cruel than any cruelty, as a Father calls it. And yet most people are of that countryman's mind, spoken of by Luther, who being on his sick-bed advised by his minister to take in good part his present pain, as a token of God's love, answered, Ah quam velim alios amare, non me! If this be his love, I could wish he would love others, and not me (Luth. in Gen.).
He woundeth] This is more than to make sore or sick, like as Hebrews 12:6. Scourging is worse than chastening. God sometimes makes bloody wales upon the backs of his best children; he wounds them with the wound of an enemy, Psalms 68:21; Psalms 110:5, and leaves them all gore blood, as the word here used importeth, מחץ cruentavit. stained with blood.
And his hands make whole] He hath, as a chirurgeon should have, a lady's hand, soft and tender, a father's heart, relenting over his pained Ephraims, Hosea 11:8. He afflicteth not willingly, or from the heart, Lamentations 3:33; it goeth as much against the heart with him as against the hair with us; and evermore
Deiecit ut relevet, premit ut solatia praestet:
Enecat, ut possit vivificare Deus.