Good Morning! - 2010.06.28 - Proverbs 3:11-12 - God Chastens His Own

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. (Proverbs 3:11-12)

The language of these verses is offensive to people who maintain that mankind is basically good and that God is soft and never interacts with His creation in a corrective or punitive way. While some children have a more submissive and docile nature, a great percentage of children will either be corrected by their parents or juvenile authorities or the prison guards. There are no children who can develop themselves to the greatest advantage and potential. They must all be guided and if need be—corrected.

There are so many things we can be wrong about without serious consequences but being wrong about human nature and the nature of God is not one of them. Our basic natures are flawed just like the Bible says they are and God is holy, infinite in knowledge and without flaw in judgment. Three verses are enough to sober a careless but honest mind.

The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. (Psalm 58:3)

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. (Jeremiah 17:9-10)

But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart. (1Samuel 16:7)

A gas or diesel engine that has no limitations on how fast you can rev it up will destroy itself in a short time. A fighter pilot who does not limit himself to the design of his plane will rip its wings off and plunge to his death.

The Founding Fathers of the United States knew about the depravity of man and set up our government with its powers divided into the legislative, judicial, and administrative branches. Those three powers compete with each other and help to restrain excessive exercise of power.

Historian John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton (1834-1902) in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887 said: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."

The New Testament picks up the Old Testament theme.

For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. (Hebrews 12:6-8)

There is not one child of God who escapes a correction relationship with Almighty God. If you are living like a demon and God does not lay His hand on you, it is because you don't belong to Him through the New Birth by the Spirit of God.

R. J. Rushdooney, a Calvinist philosopher, historian and theologian, wrote many books, including Form and Freedom. His point was that there all of creation has to be contained in some form and that when it loses its form in quest for freedom, it loses its basic characteristics or properties.

Concrete is nothing more than a blob unless poured into a form and gunpowder will do nothing unless contained in a shell casing. Even so, man is incapable of being free to determine his own being and destiny. We self-destruct in our attempt to do so. We are free to be like Christ. We are free to be holy. When you have the death of God you have the death of man.

It is God's plan that we develop into the image of Christ. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. (Romans 8:29)

So God, in His mercy and love, chastens His own for the purpose of correction. Are you OK with that? Ω