THERE IS HOPE WHEN GOD CHASTENETH (Part II)

“My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of His correction: For whom the LORD loveth He correcteth; even as a father the son in whom He delighteth”
(Prov. 3: 11-12).

One of the ways God teaches His children is through the rod of discipline. Foolishness is bound up in the hearts of all God’s children (Prov. 22: 15), and the rod is necessary to rebuke, to subdue, to humble and to bring them back into the path of righteousness. The desire of our loving Heavenly Father in correction is to make the consciences of His children tender, their hearts sensitive to sin and earnest in their pursuit after holiness. To effect this, He afflicts that we might see the corruptions within and bring forth “the peaceable fruit of righteousness” (Heb. 12: 11). It is His loving way of guiding us to our heavenly home through the safest and surest path.

Perhaps ease and prosperity have dulled our spiritual senses and we have become cold and complacent. Perhaps we have been disobedient to His revealed will. Perhaps we have clung too fondly to the things we love. “These false throbbings of the heart, these goings out after other objects than Himself, He cannot allow, but must correct or else forego His claim. Hence, He smites and spares not till He has made us sensible of our guilt in this respect. He strips off the leaves whose beauty attracted us; He cuts down the flowers whose fragrance fascinated us; He tears off one’s string after another from the lyre whose music charmed us. Then when He has showed us each object of earth in its nakedness or deformity, then He presents Himself to us in the brightness of His own surpassing glory. And thus He wins the heart. Thus He makes it true to Him. Thus, He makes us ashamed of our false-heartedness to Himself and to the Son of His love” – Horatius Bonar.

God smites His children in many different ways. For each child, He has a peculiar rod; at different times, He applies different rods. It will be profitable for us to consider some of these rods and how they are applied.
 

Adversity

The Lord, in His sovereignty and wisdom, may fill our cup with bitter drops. This may be the loss of a job, friends, possessions, or it may be difficult relationships, revilings, or it may be the disappointment of our hopes.

Consider Job’s woes when the Lord severely afflicted him : “But now He hath made me weary: Thou hast made desolate all my company … I was at ease, but He hath broken me asunder: He hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for His mark. His archers compass me round about, He cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; He poureth out my gall upon the ground. He breaketh me with breach upon breach, He runneth upon me like a giant … He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and He hath set darkness in my paths. He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath He removed like a tree” (Job 16: 7; 16: 12-14; 19: 8-10).
 

Bereavement

To love tenderly and deeply and then to part; to meet together for the last time on earth – this is the bitterest of all earthly sorrows. The loss of someone dear to us reminds us that the coming of the Lord draws nigh, and kindles in us a longing for our Father’s house and the happy reunion there. Meanwhile, we surrender our hearts to live for the Lord and to prepare for His coming.

Often, bereavement bring us back to the solemn realities of life. Listen to the words of the wisest of men : “It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart” (Eccl. 7: 2)
 

Physical affliction

Sickness prostrates us. The sickbed exposes our physical infirmities and sets us alone with God. One writer aptly puts it :“We are taken into His private chamber, and there He converses with us face to face. The world is far off, our relish for it is gone, and we are alone with God.” With all our props taken away, we must now lean solely upon God; we are cast wholly upon Him that we may learn that He alone is our Sufficiency.

“Sickness teaches us that activity of service is not the only way in which God is glorified” – Bonar. Man approves of active service but God teaches us that He is also glorified through our suffering.
(… to be continued)