Kiss the Rod: Wisdom from John Newton
I have enjoyed reading some of John Newton’s letters, the slave ship captain turned pastor who wrote Amazing Grace and other stunning hymns in the late 18th and early 19th century. He was a prolific writer of letters to friends and young ministers. In a letter he wrote to a friend who was traveling abroad, he described his own trial, which, though relatively tame and temporary, reveals Newton’s biblical perspective on the strange fruit that comes from bearing through suffering. Here is the excerpt:
The Lord was pleased to visit me with a slight illness in my recent journey. I was far from well on the Tuesday—but supposed it owing to the fatigue of riding, and the heat of the weather—but the next day I was taken with a shivering, to which a fever followed. I was then near sixty miles from home. The Lord gave me much peace in my soul, and I was enabled to hope he would bring me safely home, in which I was not disappointed. And though I had the fever most of the way, my journey was not unpleasant. He likewise strengthened me to preach twice on Sunday; and at night I found myself well, only very weary, and I have continued well ever since.
I have reason to speak much of his goodness, and to kiss the rod, for it was sweetened with abundant mercies. I thought that had it been his pleasure I would have continued sick at Oxford, or even have died there, I had no objection. Though I had not that joy and sensible comfort which some are favored with—yet I was quite free from pain, fear, and care, and felt myself sweetly composed to his will—whatever it might be. Thus he fulfils his promise in making our strength equal to our day; and every new trial gives us a new proof how happy it is to be enabled to put our trust in Him.
It’s quite a phrase, “kiss the rod.” To offer a word to those who are desiring to do some good in the presence of a sufferer. We may notice, as with Newton above, that an acknowledgement of the good hand of God in our trials comes most often in hindsight. We get into trouble when we suggest to people who are under the shock and severe pain of a trial that they should understand and be able to articulate how grateful they are to God for the privilege of suffering. That is why the wisest thing Job’s friends did was keep their mouths shut for an entire week after seeing his pain.
On the other hand, Job teaches us that in due time, as the sufferer engages with God over what has happened, there’s great benefit to God’s wise governance of the world, including us, even if it seems harsh to us at times. Job says,
“I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you”
It was through Job’s encounter with God in his suffering that he came to know God more fully, such that Job says, “Now I see you.” Like Newton, perhaps we might learn to “kiss the rod” though the learning may be slow. God’s abundant mercies are evident. One way is to observe that despite our trials, we are still here. Still living. Still hoping in the King and his promised eternal kingdom. Some of us will walk into church scraped up from a week marked by struggling, sorrow, and even moments of despair. But God is still good. And despite how we may feel, we will see him more fully, if we endure. Hold on to hope.
