Those who repent and accept correction find themselves restored to communion with God and experience again the joy of their salvation which compensates them for all. The saints do not resent the discipline of the Lord for afterwards they see how much has been achieved by it which could not have been achieved in any other way. What is required is a return to unreserved obedience so that there is no area of life that we are not willing to put under the government of God. We are not sanctified in a moment, and therefore we must be continually looking out for new areas of our lives which need to change, as well as being prepared for God to revisit old areas of our lives that need more attention.
But if we do not obey, there is only hardship for us and further trials, or else we will be given over to sin and all discipline will be terminated. Abandoned by the Lord we are no longer treated as children but as illegitimate. Even the possibility of this ought to strike fear into the hearts of ever true believer who is tempted to go this way and to cause them to hurry to bow before the Lord. After being abandoned only worse can follow and Elihu pictures the person as perishing by the sword and dying in a hardened state with any light and knowledge that they may have had for a time, stripped away.
This is the most solemn warning to Job. Was such a warning suitable to a man so advanced along the path? Yes, there is no believer who is so advanced that they do not need to be warned of the consequences of turning away from the Lord and there is no believer who is not capable, without the Lord’s correction, of turning right away from the Lord under the influence of sin. This is one of the means of drawing us back to him again, and although God will not allow any of his children to perish, he may allow them to stare full into the face of the destruction that they would meet with if they were to return to the paths of sin. This will infallibly be used to bring them back to him again.
This is not a text that can be used to teach a prosperity gospel, for although God may choose to bless with material things and did so in Job’s case, the believer considers prosperity chiefly in spiritual things. In this sense we most certainly are made prosperous if we obey and this can be treated as an absolute promise. But in material things God is pleased to prosper some above others and some of his greatest servants are reserved in a state of simplicity or even deprivation for the sake of their calling. So Paul said, ‘We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now’ (1 Corinthians 4:13); so Lazarus died a beggar, and the thief on the cross died a cursed criminal in the eyes of the world.