“the LORD has called for a famine” - 2 Kings 8:1

“the LORD has called for a famine” - 2 Kings 8:1 — “This is the Scripture mode of representing those heavy calamities brought upon a land or a single habitation, and which sheds upon the sorrows and distresses of life a peculiar light, that is highly consolatory to the children of God. Viewed in this light, famine, pestilence, and war, and every other calamity, constitute an army, ever ready to come and go, to advance and retreat, at the Almighty’s command, but which, without His permission, can assail none… Sometimes they are employed to punish, and are the instruments of Divine justice; sometimes to awaken, and to restore sobriety to the intoxicated; sometimes to embitter sin, and to force sinners to a throne of grace; sometimes for the trial of the saints, and to kindle around them a refining fire; whatever may be the purpose for which they are employed, they never return, till, like the word of God, they have accomplished the thing whereunto they were sent. No one, therefore, when afflicted, has simply to do with his afflictions, but, above all, with Him who has appointed them; he is not to content himself with complaining, and thinking how they can be removed; but is to consider why they have been sent, and to decipher the obscure handwriting…”

— F.W. Krummacher, The restitution