"You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son,
so the Lord your God chastens you."
(Deut. 8: 5 nkjv)
"5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:
“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
6 For whom the Lord loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.”
7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? 8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. 11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." (Heb. 12: 5-11 nkjv)
"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent." (Rev. 3:19 nkjv)
In the previous chapter we spoke of how we need to thank God the Father daily for his work of continually pruning us who are branches in Christ the true Vine. In this chapter we will now focus on how we should also daily thank him for his chastening of us as his children.
The text in the picture above is from the man God gifted with superior wisdom, king Solomon, about God's fatherly chastening of his children, his sons and daughters, and how they should not despise it but should rather appreciate it. The writer of Hebrews elaborates on what Solomon said. Obviously both Solomon and Paul (who I believe wrote Hebrews) understood the discouragement, the hating and the dread, that the children of God often experience from being chastened (whipped, disciplined, punished) by their heavenly Father for their disobedience. So, they both exhort the children to not be discouraged nor despise the Father's chastening. They not only tell them not to be discouraged but give them strong reasons why they should not be discouraged or dread his corrections.
The chastening of the above texts is described as being fatherly "rebukes," "scourgings," "corrections," and some translations give the word "disciplines" instead of "chastens." We are also told that every child of God experiences this divine chastening. We are told that if we are not experiencing such chastening then we are not real children of the Father, but are "bastards" (kjv), or "illegitimate" children. It might be said to false professors as LORD God said to his covenant people: "Then God said:
“Call his name Lo-Ammi,
For you are not My people,
And I will not be your God." (Hosea 1: 9 nkjv)
Further, we are not simply told not to despise our Father's chastening but to be glad of it and given several good reasons why. The first is that it is proof of God's love for us, of his care for us, and shows that he is a good Father. The second reason is because his chastening yields such good results. Another reason for divine chastening is to prevent us from failing to persevere and to be condemned with the wicked.
With this introduction to our subject, let me ask the reader (who I assume is a child of God) this question: what experiences in your life do you believe were God sent chastisements? Recently I spent a lot of time in meditation on this question concerning my own life as a child of God (now for over fifty five years). Of course I first think of all the times in my life when I was suffering trials and afflictions. But, how do I know if these were chastenings, afflictions, or trials sent or suffered by God to test or try my faith and not as chastisements for sin? After all, they are not the same. About thanking God for our trials I will have more to say in a separate chapter in this series. We might say that every chastening is a trial but not every trial is a chastening.
Are chastenings associated with times when I feel God is showing me a frowning face rather than a smiling face? With times when I sense that he is displeased with me rather than pleased? With times when I feel like he is ignoring me and not answering my prayers? Can I trust my feelings or inner sense of things (intuition) in this matter? How do I know that God is "rebuking" me? Or "scourging" me? What do the scriptures say?
The Case of David
We should look at the case of king David, who is said to be "a man after God's own heart." (I Sam. 14: 13; Acts 13: 22) He committed some awful sins when he lusted after Bathsheba, committed adultery with her, and had her husband killed so that he could have her as one of his wives. Notice the punishment David received from the Lord for these sins:
“Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.' Thus says the LORD, 'Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.'" (2 Sam. 12:10-12 nkjv)
However, these sins did not mean that David lost his salvation, or fell out of the love of God, or came back under condemnation. For David not only received the above denunciation of his acts, but also received this message along with it:
"David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." And Nathan said to David, "The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the LORD, the child who is born to you shall die."” (vss. 13-14)
This is what happens when the Lord's children sin. Notice too that God's chastening of David did profit him and produce the "peaceable fruit of righteousness." This is what the Lord said:
"30 “If his sons forsake My law And do not walk in My judgments, 31 If they break My statutes And do not keep My commandments, 32 Then I will punish their transgression with the rod, And their iniquity with stripes. 33 Nevertheless My lovingkindness I will not utterly take from him, Nor allow My faithfulness to fail. 34 My covenant I will not break, Nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips." (Psa. 89: 30-34 nkjv)
God does not cast off his erring children but he will "punish" or chastise them with his "rod" of correction. In other words, he will give them a whipping, which is what godly fathers were instructed to do in the scriptures, though in today's society this is often viewed as child abuse.
Some of the losses David suffered for his sins were restored, and these were the chiefest blessings restored. In Psalm 51 David is experiencing "godly sorrow" for his sins and prays thusly:
"Make me to hear joy and gladness;
That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins,
And blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God;
And renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence;
And take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;
And uphold me with thy free spirit." (Psa. 51: 8-12 kjv)
In addition to the punishments mentioned, David lost joy and gladness, suffering internal pains as a result of his deep remorse, and a load of guilt, and a sense of lost communion with God and his presence, and a loss of the abiding influences of the Holy Spirit. These are often experienced by the Lord's people when they sin against their Father and come under his chastening rod and his punishments. These are restored by genuine repentance produced by godly sorrow. But, other consequences for some sins may not be restored.
God's chastening of his children does not ruin them, but only improves them, so Paul could say: "as chastened, and yet not killed" (II Cor. 6: 9 nkjv). He also said:
"For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world." (I Cor. 11: 31-32 kjv)
It is interesting how nearly all English translations use the word "judged" in these verses in describing the self-judgments of Christians and of the judgments of the Lord upon them, but they use the word "condemned" when speaking of the "condemnation" of the world, yet judge and condemned are from the same Greek word. Believers should not only judge themselves (by the word of God) but condemn themselves when they sin. They should do this rather than doing as many do, i.e. excuse their sins.
We see that God's chastening of his people is not only for temporal profit or to bring about repentance and reformation, or the "peaceable fruit of righteousness," but for salvation and to prevent being condemned with the world. So Barnes says in his commentary:
"That the purpose which God had in view in inflicting these judgments on them was, that they might be purified, and enlightened, and recovered from their errors, and saved. This is the design of God in the calamities and judgments which he brings on his own children..."
So, dear child of God, be thankful that God is correcting and training you and fatherly disciplines you. Do not sass back to God nor think less of him for such chastening. Rather, rejoice that he cares for you.
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