The Woodshed School
Ps 94:12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest,
O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law
The mental anguish was far greater than the
physical pain that awaited my cousins. I was visiting them in northern Michigan
during the last few days before school would start that fall. They had made a
raft. When it sank in the swamp their new school shoes were soaked and covered
with swamp ooze.
The mental anguish was the result of the task
preceding punishment. My uncle had given them his jackknife and told them to go
cut their own switches. He would whip them with the one they selected. If they
chose a thick switch it would hurt more, but if they selected a switch that was
too small and it broke during their whuppin then they would get double with a
razor strap.
Selecting the smallest switch that they were
sure would not break was probably the hardest part of their punishment. They
knew they had done wrong and understood exactly why they were being punished.
We experience something similar when we do
something stupid. John Wayne said “Life is hard. It’s even harder if you’re
stupid!” We sometimes suffer from self-inflicted punishment. There is no end of
videos that show people doing some of the dumbest things. We can relate because
we have suffered from our own mistakes.
We recognize the connection between sin and
consequences. Lot went to live in the wicked city of Sodom and lost everything.
That cause-effect relationship is easy for us to understand. Make bad decisions
and get bad results. Hit your thumb with a hammer and you get pain.
But that is not how God corrects us. This
devotional has been a real learning experience for me and has taken me a few
days to complete. I had fallen into the mental trap of connecting chastening
with pain, mental anguish and suffering. But our verse mentions none of those
things. It says the result of chastening is not pain but happiness. That
explains why I could not think of a single time when I God had chastened me and
left me sobbing in pain. I can recall lots
of time when I have been spiritually chastened and the result was greater
happiness.
My childhood was less than ideal. My parents
divorced shortly after I was born.
Through my teen and early twenties I complained in detail about my
parents.
A dinner guest listened to me complain about my
parents and then told me I should obey the verse that says.
De 5:16 Honour thy father and thy mother,
as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee;
“How can I honor parents like that?” I asked.
He simply replied “By not telling everyone
about their faults!”
It was a life changing moment as I suddenly
understood my error and knew how to correct it. I stopped dwelling on my
parents flaws. I had enough of my own to work on. The result of my friend’s
rebuke was that I have been happier. Blessed.
I think that is what our verse for today says.
Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest,…
Over the years God has sent people, circumstances and
things into my life to rebuke me for wrong attitudes. Without exception, every
rebuke and the lessons I have learned have led to greater happiness. It has also led to the second part of the
verse.
…teachest him out of thy law
I had excused myself from following clear Biblical
instruction because of my circumstances. That is a backward way of looking at
both the Bible and my circumstances. We should view our circumstances through
the teaching of scripture instead of viewing scripture through our
circumstances.
2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God,
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness:
There have been times when I have felt the pain
of regret. But they were from self-inflicted errors, not chastening from the
Lord. Every time I have been “corrected” spiritually it has resulted in greater
happiness. Oh, if we could just learn the lesson of trusting God’s Word and not
relying on our own twisted logic, we would all be happier Christians.
Our meditation for today is to consider any
Bible passages that make you uncomfortable. If you think there are
circumstances that permit you to ignore being obedient to some clear passage of
scripture, may I suggest you are wrong! I was wrong in ignoring a clear and oft
repeated command. And yes, I know the
Ten Commandments were given under the law and we are no longer under law but
grace. However the phrase “honour thy father and mother” is New Testament
teaching. See Matt 15:4, Mark 10:19 and Eph 6:2. There was no excuse for my
failure. But with obedience came blessedness.
In our modern culture it seems like the world
is having more influence on the church than the church is having on the
world. Perhaps “cafeteria Christianity” where
we take what we like and skip what we don’t like, is part of the problem.
Give it some thought. Perhaps there is the double
happiness of correction (chastening) waiting for you as well. Even Job
understood our meditation for today.
Job 5:17
Behold,
happy is the man
whom God correcteth:
therefore despise not thou
the chastening
of the Almighty:
