This also cometh forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.
This also ... The skill wherewith the farmer duly adjusts his modes of threshing is given by God, as well as the skill (Isaiah 28:26) wherewith he tills and sows (Isaiah 28:24-25). Therefore He must also be able to adapt His modes of treatment to the several moral needs of His creatures. His object in sending tribulation (derived from the Latin tribulum, a threshing instrument, Luke 22:31; Romans 5:3), is to sever the moral chaff from the wheat, not to crush utterly. 'His judgments are usually in the line of our offences: by the nature of the judgment we may usually ascertain the nature of the sin' (Barnes).
Remarks: The "glorious beauty" of all earthly persons and things is as "a fading flower. "The crown of pride" which men try to weave for themselves, "shall be trodden under feet." The earlier that "the hasty fruit" of man's vanity ripens, the sooner it will be a prey to be swallowed up by the destroyer. Very different, indeed, is the crown which belongs to the remnant according to the election of grace. "The Lord of hosts" is now invisibly, and hereafter manifestly "shall be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty" unto them, even as they are His crown and diadem.