Chastisement And Compassion Series

“This hurts me more than it hurts you.” Are those words familiar to you? Do they bring back memories from your childhood? I don’t know if your dad ever spoke those words to you, but my dad said these words more frequently than should ever have been necessary. And I readily admit that I gave him ample reason to say those words. As a child, I questioned how he could possibly feel greater pain than I would feel from the switching I was about to receive, but it was impossible for me to understand what he meant by that statement until I had children of my own. Then, I understood what my dad had meant when he uttered those words.

Though administering corporal punishment is controversial in modern society, the use of such punishment as a teaching aid for behaviour is a sound biblical concept. For instance, among the Proverbs are verses advocating judicious discipline such as these which are found among the Proverbs:

“Whoever spares the rod hates his son,

but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.”

[PROVERBS 13:24]

“Folly is bound up in the heart of a child,

but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.”

[PROVERBS 22:15]

“The rod and reproof give wisdom,

but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.”

[PROVERBS 29:15]

Punishment for the sake of punishment, especially when that punishment is administered to those we profess to love, is reprehensible! It is worse than meaningless because it serves only to drive a wedge between the formation of a lasting relationship. Punishment must have purpose, or it is merely sadistic, cruel, and wicked. However, when punishment flows from love, the compassion with which it is administered will strengthen the bond between the one administering punishment and the one punished.

And that is the situation when God disciplines His people. His people never have to ask, “Why is God doing this?” We may, indeed, ask why we are being disciplined, but inevitably, we know the reason we are disciplined. And Israel knew why God was giving the nation over to their enemies in the days in which Jeremiah prophesied.

All nations that are under the heavy hand of divine wrath understand they are suffering because of their own wickedness, but that nation which was founded on righteous principles of faith in the Living God will especially understand when God’s judgement is unleashed that they are experiencing the consequence of opposing the True and Living God, and their chastisement will be all the more painful for that knowledge.

I AM THE MAN WHO HAS SEEN AFFLICTION [v. 1] —

“I am the man who has seen affliction

under the rod of his wrath.”

[LAMENTATIONS 3:1]

Why should Jeremiah write of his pain? He had not turned his back on the LORD; he had faithfully proclaimed the Word of the LORD, warning the people of pending judgement and pleading with both high and low to turn again to the LORD. Yet here we witness him crying out in pain at what he is witnessing and what he is experiencing together with those who had brought this judgement upon the nation through their own sinful choices.

You may recall something that the Apostle to the Gentiles wrote concerning the reason God included accounts of divine judgement in the Word. Paul was instructing the saints gathered as the Church of God in Corinth, when he wrote, “I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

“Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.’ We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” [1 CORINTHIANS 10:1-13].