I. Why God allows difficult times: the chastening of God.
A. Remember the exhortation regarding the discipline of the Lord. Vs. 5, 6
1. You have forgotten: One great reason for the discouragement among these Jewish Christians was because they saw no reason why God would allow difficult times to arise. But they have forgotten principles regarding the chastening of the Lord.
a. Much difficulty in our Christian life can be traced back to those three words: you have forgotten.
b. Perhaps it is some principle we remember in our minds, but we have forgotten it with our hearts – and we must remember it again.
c. In times of trial or stress many Christians forget some of the basics. They seriously wonder if God is still in control or if He still loves them. We must admit that God does allow everything that happens; so He must at least passively approve of it, because He certainly has the power to stop bad things that happen.
d. Of course, God can never be the author of evil. But He does allow others to choose evil, and He can use the evil choices others make to work out His ultimately good purpose, even if only to demonstrate His justice and righteousness in contrast to evil.
2. Which speaks to you as sons: The quotation from Proverbs 3:11-12 reminds us that God’s chastening should never be taken as a sign of His rejection. It is rather a sign of His treating us as His children.
a. Only the most proud Christian would claim they never need correction from God. No one is above this kind of training.
3. Do not despise the chastening of the Lord: When chastening comes it is an offense to God when we despise it. It is His loving tool of correction and we should receive it gratefully.
a. Chastening should not be regarded as the only reason God allows difficult times, but it is an important one. For example, we know that God allows difficult times so that we can, at a later time, comfort someone else with the same comfort God showed towards us in our crisis (2 Corinthians 1:3-7).
b. This is why James recommends a prayer for wisdom in the context of enduring trials (James 1:2-5). We need to know how to react differently when God does different things.
B. Chastening a sign of being a son of God. Vs. 7, 8
1. God deals with you as sons: Many people claim an inability to relate to God as a loving Father because they never knew a loving human father in their own experience. Yet, even these can still receive the love of God the Father.
a. Not everyone knows by experience what a model father is, but we all know by intuition what a good father is like. God is that perfect Father, and He gives us that intuition. One feels cheated or disappointed by a bad father because they intuitively compare the bad father to our good Father in heaven.
2. God deals with you as sons: God’s correction is never to punish us or make us pay for our sins. That was done once and for all at the cross. His correction is motivated only by His love, not by His justice; He chastens us without anger.
3. (Spurgeon) “While he shall never be arraigned before God’s bar as a criminal, and punished for his guilt, yet he now stands in a new relationship-that of a child to his parent: and as a son he may be chastised on account of sin.”
4. If you are without chastening . . . you are illegitimate and not sons: Those who consider themselves “beyond” God’s chastening mark themselves as illegitimate children of God.
5. Illegitimate and not sons: God shows His wrath when He ignores our sin, allowing it to pass without correction. His inactivity is never due to ignorance or a lack of initiative, as may be true with a human father.
C. God’s chastening is superior to that of human fathers. Vs. 9, 10
1. We paid them respect: We should be even more submissive and respectful to our Heavenly Father’s correction than to an earthly Father’s correction.
2. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live? Therefore, we must never despise God for His chastening, though it is unpleasant. When we resent it, we consider ourselves virtual equals with God instead of His children.
a. It can be humiliating and bitter to be chastened by an equal, but it isn’t the same to be chastened by someone who is legitimately our superior.
b. Resentment at chastening shows how we see God and how we see ourselves.
c. We see ourselves as never needing correction
d. We see God as making a mistake in thinking we need correction
3. But He for our profit: Human fathers, even with the best of intention, can only chaste Imperfectly because they lack perfect knowledge.
4. The all-knowing God can chasten us perfectly, with better and more lasting results than even the best earthly father.
D. Focus on the result of chastening more than the process. V. 11
1. No chastening seems to be joyful for the present: Trials are trials and chastening is chastening. If it does not hurt or press us, then trials do not serve their purpose. We sometimes want trials that are not trials and chastening that is not chastening.
a. (Spurgeon) “If affliction seemed to be joyous, would it be a chastisement at all? I ask you, would it not be a most ridiculous thing if a father should so chasten a child, that the child came down stairs laughing, and smiling, and rejoicing at the flogging. Joyous? Instead of being at all serviceable, would it not be utterly useless? What good could a chastisement have done if it was not felt? No smart? Then surely no benefit!”
2. The peaceable fruit of righteousness: This fruit must be evident in the life of the Christian. The reason why many experience a “one-crisis-after-another” life is because they are either blind to God’s chastening or they resist it. They are not trained by it and therefore the peaceable fruit of righteousness is not evident.
a. Trained in the ancient Greek language is a word from the world of athletics. The training of an athlete is marked by some agony and so is our training as God’s “spiritual athletes.”
b. God has a purpose for training you. Think of David after a lion attacked when he was just a boy tending the sheep. He could easily despair and ask, “Why did God allow such a terrible think to happen to me? I barely escaped!” But if David could see ahead, he could see God had a giant named Goliath he was destined to face, and the battle with the lion prepared him ahead of time. God always has a purpose. We can trust Him.
3. Afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness: A “heavenly spanking” smarts, but we must look beyond the process to the result. The result does not come immediately, but afterward.
a. “Many believers are deeply grieved, because they do not at once feel that they have been profited by their afflictions. Well, you do not expect to see apples or plums on a tree which you have planted but a week. Only little children put their seeds into their flower-garden, and then expect to see them grow into plants in an hour.” (Spurgeon)
II. Application: Get strong, get right, get bold, and watch out.
A. Get Strong. Vs. 12, 13
1. Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down: Almost like a coach or a military officer, the author tells his “players” to get with it. He gave exhaustive reasons to be strong in the Lord and to put off discouragement, so now is the time to do it.
2. But rather be healed: The pictures here (strengthened hands and knees, “straight-ahead” feet) speak of readiness to work and move for the Lord. This readiness is first to go when one surrenders to discouragement.
B. Get Right. Vs. 14-17
1. Pursue peace with all people, and holiness: Get right with both men (pursue peace with all men) and with God (and holiness). Discouragement makes us sloppy and unconcerned with our personal relationships.
a. Regarding holiness, we are told without which no one will see the Lord. A lack of holiness is a critical obstacle to a close relationship with God.
b. (Spurgeon) “Unholy Christians are the plague of the church. They are spots in our feasts of charity. Like hidden rocks, they are the terror of navigators. It is hard to steer clear of them: and there is no telling what wrecks they may cause.”
2. Lest anyone fall short of the grace of God: We must get right with God’s grace. So look diligently to keep both yourself and others from a return to legalism in either outward form or inward attitude that falls short of God’s grace, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble.
a. (Morris) “A bitter root is a root that bears bitter fruit . . . So it is possible for the seed of bitterness to be sown in a community and, though nothing is immediately apparent, in due time the inevitable fruit appears.”
b. Bitterness corrupts many, rooted in a sense of personal hurt, and many hold on to the bitterness with amazing stubbornness. What they must do is remember the grace of God extended to them, and start extending that grace towards others – loving the undeserving.
c. William Barclay wrote that the phrase fall short of the grace of God might also be translated failing to keep up with the grace of God. The idea is that the grace of God is moving on, past the pain and hurt of the past. We should move on also.
3. Lest there be any fornicator or profane person: Get right with your moral conduct. Remember that there are blessings reserved only for the pure in heart: they shall see God (Matthew 5:8).
a. Like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright: Many Christians today sell a birthright of intimacy with God as cheaply as Esau sold his birthright (Genesis 25:29-34 and 27:30-40).
b. For he found no place for repentance: “It is not a question of forgiveness. God’s forgiveness is always open to the penitent. Esau could have come back to God. But he could not undo his act.” (Morris)
c. Though he sought it diligently with tears: Esau’s birthright wasn’t restored simply because he wished it back. It could never be regained because he despised it.