Can we avoid God’s discipline?
Apr 19, 2011
The Base for Grace - part thirty-six in a study of the book of Hebrews
By Mike Gaudet
No one likes to be disciplined.
We avoid it whenever possible.
Can we avoid God’s discipline?
“Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!” Hebrews 12:7-9
God instructs us to “Endure hardship as discipline.” When we are faced with problems at home and at work, we are to accept these difficulties as “instructional interventions” from God’s hand. This is tough to do. We don’t like painful circumstances. Can you ever remember responding to time-outs, groundings or spankings with the words, “Thanks, I’d like another!”
Part of our problem is that we identify God’s discipline with the discipline we experienced as children. There are, however, three aspects of God’s discipline that help us warm up to the idea of receiving it.
First: God’s discipline is driven by love, not anger.
When we face hardship we assume that God is either uncaring or unaware. We naturally link the presence of difficulties with the absence of God’s activity. The truth is, the presence of difficulties points to the presence of divine involvement. “God is treating you as sons.” In fact, not being faced with challenging realities is a cause for concern. ”If you are not disciplined . . . then you are illegitimate children.”
Second: God’s discipline is directed at belief, not behavior.
When children violate family statutes, parents employ some form of discipline to cause the child to behave. We assume that God operates the same way and concentrates on behavior as well. The reality is that God is more concerned with our motives than He is with our actions. “THE LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7
While God is invested in developing obedience, He doesn’t focus there. God focuses on internal motives, not external actions. He isn’t content to train us to do the right thing. God is invested in training us to do the right thing for the right reason.
Third: God’s discipline is experiential, not theoretical.
Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the LORD your God: his majesty, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm; the signs he performed and the things he did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his whole country . . . But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the LORD has done.” Deuteronomy 11:2-3, 7
God’s “discipline” was something the children of Israel “saw and experienced.” They witnessed God’s miraculous deliverance from slavery in Egypt with their “own eyes.” This firsthand evidence of God’s saving acts fueled their trust and obedience.
God didn’t merely save the Israelites from being oppressed by external forces. He also used discipline to deliver them from being enslaved to internal desires.
“Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.” Deuteronomy 8:2-5
God caused the Israelites to experience “hunger” in order to teach them to trust him. When He led them to places where they were not able to provide for their needs, they reacted the way we still react today . . . with grumbling and resentment. He then fed them “with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known.” He fed them in unexpected ways so that they would learn to trust in “every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
When they were faced with hunger and hardship, 1st century Jewish Christians assumed that God had stopped caring about them. As their confidence in God’s care decreased, their craving increased. In this respect, we’re a lot like them. We become resentful and demanding when we believe we’ve been abandoned.
God deals with 21st century children the way He dealt with 1st century ones. His discipline hasn’t changed. He still leads us to places where we don’t have what we want and need. We question His love when we are in places of hunger and want. When He supplies our needs in unexpected ways we learn from experience that we can trust Him. Trust is the foundation for obedience.
God uses discipline to teach us to trust Him. If we’re His children we can’t avoid it.
We don’t experience hardships because we’ve done what’s wrong.
We experience hardships so that we’ll do what’s right.