"God deals strangely with the saints, contrary to all human wisdom
and understanding, to the end that those who fear God are good
Christians, may learn to depend on invisible things, and through
mortification may be made alive again; for God's Word is a light that
shines in a dark place, as all examples of faith show. Esau was
accursed, yet it went well with him; he was lord in the land, and priest
in the church; but Jacob had to fly, and dwell in poverty in another
country. God deals with godly Christians much as with the ungodly, yea,
and sometimes far worse. He deals with them even as a house-father with a
son and a servant; he whips and beats the son much more and oftener
than the servant, yet nevertheless, he gathers for the son a treasure to
inherit, while a stubborn and a disobedient servant he beats not with
the rod, but thrusts out of doors, and gives him nothing of the
inheritance." - From Luther's Tabletalk, #77.
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