Chastening: November 2021
Table of Contents
Chastening
The Lord gives our souls “rest from the days of adversity” by communion with Himself, not only communion in joy, but in holiness. Circumstances are used only to break down the door and let in God. God is near to the soul when He, in the certainty of love, comes within the circumstances and is known as better than any circumstance.
The Lord never chastens without occasion for it, and yet, “Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest, O Lord” (Psa. 94:12). There is not a more wonderful word than that! If the soul is judging itself, there will often be anxiety and sorrow, but the effects are blessed. What we exceedingly need is intimacy of soul with God, resting in quietness in Him, though all may be confusion and tumult around us. “In the multitude of my thoughts within me Thy comforts delight my soul” (Psa. 94:19).
Our portion is not only to know the riches of God’s grace, but the secret of the Lord — to have intimacy of communion with Him in His holiness. Then, however adverse the circumstances, the soul rests quietly and steadfastly in Him.
Christian Truth (adapted)
God's Ways With Us
The title of this issue of The Christian is “Chastening,” but all of God’s ways with us, in shaping us and conforming us to the image of Christ, are not chastening, strictly speaking. In everyday speech, the word carries the thought of correction by punishment, while in Scripture the word is often used in a wider sense and may also refer to discipline or training, without necessarily defining the ways and means that are used. There are multiple ways in which the Lord trains His children, all of which are described to us in the Word of God. Let us look at them and some examples in the lives of those in Scripture. Since this publication is distributed primarily in English, we will use five English words to define these ways of God, all beginning with the letter “P.”
Preparatory
The first one we will consider is preparatory. When the Lord has something for us to do for Him or perhaps something that we will endure for Him, He generally prepares us for it by putting us through lesser circumstances that strengthen us and allow us to experience His love and care for us. He shows us how that “tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope” (Rom. 5:3-4). Then, as we perhaps face a greater test or embark on a work for the Lord, we are ready to act or endure with a measure of confidence in the Lord, having experienced His care for us in the past.
As an example of this, we see that David, although he had been anointed king, was compelled to flee from Saul and to spend a number of years as a fugitive, hunted as “a partridge in the mountains.” At times he was tested rather severely, to the point where once or twice his faith faltered, and he defected to the Philistines. At other times his own followers turned against him, and his only resource was to encourage himself “in the Lord his God” (1 Sam. 30:6). Another has put it very well: “The one who was going to be king and to lead his people into a closer relationship with the Lord must first of all learn to trust only in the Lord when everyone else failed him.” A number of the psalms were written during this time of David’s rejection, and the preparation was well worthwhile.
Preventative
Next, we find the opposite of preparatory, which is preventative. Our blessed Lord and Master, who knows the end from the beginning in our lives, may sometimes intervene in order to prevent our failing in the future. He may pass us through an experience which we do not understand at the time and for which there seems to be no particular reason. We may search our hearts (and it is good that we do so!), yet be unable to detect in the Lord’s presence anything for which we need correction. But as time goes on, we find ourselves put into a circumstance or situation that really tests us, and we find that what we have experienced from the Lord prevents us from making a wrong decision, or perhaps even falling into sin.
We find an example of this in Paul, who was given “a thorn for the flesh” (2 Cor. 12:7 JND), after he had been caught up to the third heaven. While up there, he did not need such a thorn, but when he was brought back to the earth, there was a danger that he might be “exalted by the exceeding greatness of the revelations” (vs. 7 JND). The “thorn for the flesh” was to prevent this undue exaltation, but it was evidently very irksome to Paul. He “besought the Lord thrice” that it might depart from him, but eventually learned through it all to “glory in [his] infirmities, that the power of Christ might rest upon [him]” (vs. 9).
Purgative
We find the word “purgeth” in John 15:2: “Every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” This is a very positive action by the Lord, for a farmer prunes a good tree that bears fruit very carefully, in order that it might bear even more fruit. So the Lord trains in a very careful way a believer who is bearing fruit for Him. There may be a character trait, a fleshly tendency, or even a particular activity in which we indulge ourselves, which is not in itself sinful, but which hinders our spiritual growth and our usefulness to the Lord. The Lord may bring this before us in a variety of ways, in order to purge (or prune away) that which is a detriment to us.
We see an example of this in Abraham’s life. He was a godly man, whose life of faith is mentioned throughout the Word of God. Yet twice he said that his wife Sarah was his sister — first in Egypt, and then later to Abimelech and his kingdom. The rebuke from Abimelech was more severe than that which came from Pharaoh in Egypt, and evidently Abraham learned his lesson, for we do not read that he ever said this again about Sarah. Yet we notice that there was no direct rebuke from the Lord. Communion looked after it, and the rebuke from Abimelech was enough to prune away that bad portion of the branch.
Proving
This way of God’s dealing with us is perhaps the most difficult to understand, yet the one that the Lord uses with the very best of His children. We all know that when men wish to test something that they have made, they do not test it merely under ideal conditions. No, they test it under severe conditions, to see if it will stand up to the stresses and strains of those situations. So it is with the Lord, for if He always allowed only “fair weather” conditions among His people, the world might well say, as did Satan about Job, “Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast Thou not made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land” (Job 1:9-10). Thus the Lord sometimes allows the worst of circumstances in the lives of the best of His saints, in order to show what His grace can do and how a believer can rise above the severest trials, in communion with Him.
Job himself is an example of this, for it is recorded that “in all this did not Job sin with his lips” (Job 2:10), and Satan was totally defeated. But perhaps a better example is Stephen in Acts 7, who, although he was rushed upon and stoned to death by a fanatical mob of Jews, could look up “steadfastly into heaven, and [see] the glory of God” (Acts 7:55). His last words were, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge” (vs. 60). His death is an example of what a believer can endure when he is walking with the Lord and has a vision of coming glory. How many such scenes have been witnessed down through the centuries, as earnest believers have died joyfully for Christ or perhaps endured painful and lingering illnesses with cheerfulness!
Punitive
Finally, we come to what we may call punitive discipline. This kind of dealing by God with His people is, no doubt, that which causes real grief to His heart, just as dealing with a child in this way causes grief to a godly parent’s heart. There is a government in the house of God, and when we willfully pursue a course that is contrary to the mind of God and to His Word, He may eventually deal with us in serious discipline. All this is in love, for “when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world” (1 Cor. 11:32). In this particular chapter, the discipline involved many being “weak and sickly” among them and many who had died. Likewise John in his ministry refers to “a sin unto death” (1 John 5:16), where a believer’s course is so dishonoring to the Lord that he is taken home in death. However, such discipline may not go that far, but may, for example, take the form of illness, an accident or financial setbacks. I knew of a case many years ago where a brother pursued a willful and fleshly course, disturbing the peace of his local assembly and generally causing trouble. Eventually he was involved in a serious automobile accident which almost took his life. Thankfully, he profited by it all and was restored in his soul.
An example in the Word of God might be King Josiah. It is recorded of him that “like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him” (2 Kings 23:25). He was one of Judah’s godliest kings, and the Passover he kept in the eighteenth year of his reign was the highlight of his career. But the next 13 years of his life are passed over in silence, and when he persisted in going out to war against Necho king of Egypt, the Lord allowed him to be slain. It is solemnly recorded that “he hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God” (2 Chron. 35:22).
We know that a true saint of God can never lose his salvation, yet it is solemn to think of our coming under the government of God for willful disobedience. Yet again, it is well worthwhile, if we profit by it. God does not take us away in death as the first voice to our souls. Without wanting to go beyond Scripture, I believe that there were other lesser voices to Josiah from the Lord during the 13 years preceding his death. He evidently did not heed them, and finally he was slain in battle. May we profit from what has been “written aforetime.”
W. J. Prost
Retribution, Chastening and Purging
The more we apply our hearts unto wisdom, the better we shall understand God’s dealings with us. If we are attentive to the purpose of those dealings, we shall find that most of them are comprised under three heads, each of which is distinct in its character, intent, and the effect produced on the soul. Before tracing the examples of each action in Scripture, I may state what I believe to be their respective characteristics.
Retribution I regard as distinctly belonging to God’s government in the world and the Lord’s rule in the church. The principle is embodied in that passage, “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again” (Matt. 7:2).
Chastening is of another order, and it is more when we have neglected our calling, like Jacob at Shalem; the Lord comes in to remove the weight which obstructs our course. Perhaps there is a wrong position which we are unwilling to renounce, but which, being an obstacle to our progress, some sorrow is sent to effect the required correction.
Purging I understand to be the help one gets to detach oneself from an association at the moment, during service. It enables us the more effectually to carry out the purpose of the soul. The great characteristic of the action is that the soul readily accepts it as enlarging it in the service with which it is engaged. We may now examine these a little more closely.
Retribution
Retribution is often very difficult to trace to its cause. One great reason of this is that God, in His mercy, often allows time to elapse before He inflicts what His righteous government demands. Death is the first and greatest retribution: “The day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen. 2:17). This is the first judicial penalty attached to an infraction of God’s just law of government. The curse of Cain is an instance of simple retribution very speedily instituted, while the suffering of both his sons was a chastening to Adam, and we see the fruit of it in his naming of Seth. All Abram suffered on account of Hagar was retribution, for had he not gone down into Egypt, he would not have met with her. In David’s history, we find instances of each. When, in the matter of Bathsheba, he offends against God, he suffers retribution in the sentence that the sword was not to depart from his house; he is also chastened, for his child dies. Retribution occurs apart from chastening, but the exercised soul may use it as chastening, although it may not be primarily inflicted for this reason. “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again” will explain many a trial from which God’s people suffer.
Chastening
As to chastening. I think we may say there are three orders of correction: the first and happiest is that termed “purging,” which we shall notice presently. The second is that correction which is sent to make us renounce what failure has led us into and which is hindering our progress. For this purpose, the soul is brought through sorrow and exercise, and it is “afterward” that it yields the “peaceable fruit of righteousness.” This is easily understood, for we never see anything distinctly till we are some distance from it. This order of chastening is always “grievous,” and during its continuance there is more or less a sense of distance between the Father and the soul. With “purging,” there is none whatsoever.
Careless Souls
The third order of correction is when God chastens His people but they do not perceive it. Careless souls are often admonished and never know why, but the Lord does this to vindicate His own care, so that when their eyes are opened, they may recall His correction.
This is, in one sense, unhappy work and unwilling work, if I may so say, with the Lord, but He must vindicate Himself, His care and His correction, however little appreciated. But He always corrects as little as possible, and He always corrects most where He finds most acceptance of it.
A striking example of the third order of chastening may be found in Lot’s earliest sufferings in Sodom — those recounted in Genesis 14, from which Abram delivered him. We have there the Lord’s dealings with an unexercised soul, and though not accepted as correction at the time, yet later, when his eyes were opened by the final catastrophe, Lot surely must have realized that God had been warning him.
Purging
Purging I have termed the first order of chastening or correction, having this special feature, that the soul which is purged is in full sympathy with the Purger and gladly avails itself of the process which removes whatever impedes its service. This is what the Lord speaks of in John 15, where He says, “Every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit” (vs. 2). The convicted soul welcomes the means of righting itself.
Moses was purged when told to put off his shoes, for the place whereon he stood was holy ground. And Paul, when in prison (the result of his own failure), is relieved from fear by the vision at night. I regard the blessing of Melchizedek as purging to Abraham, because it detached him from earthly expectations. It fixed him on the future more distinctly, and thus enabled him, already a fruit-bearer, to “bring forth more fruit,” by refusing all the offers of the king of Sodom. When we really seek to serve, we are delivered from what would impede our service, and this is properly purging. It is not necessarily attended with suffering, for its grand object is to dissociate the soul from what it desires to be rid of.
Effects
As to the effect produced by each of these dealings, I am inclined to think that, in cases of retribution, there is no elasticity of soul until the sorrow is past. Retributive sufferings, when accepted, will always lead us rather to humiliation than actual fruit-bearing. They may prepare us for the latter, but the tendency of the natural man under this class of sorrow is self-vindication, and we generally have to be taught to accept the punishment of our iniquity, not as a compensation for it, but as a righteous satisfaction for the offense toward God. We may have “sought to do it secretly,” as David did, but the enemies of the Lord blasphemed on account of it. His experience, which is given in Psalm 51 shows us the proper condition of soul at such times, and the one which will lead to full deliverance. Thus will it be with Israel in the latter day. David’s retributive sufferings were followed by chastening, for Absalom and others of his family die, but he returns to the throne, bearing the “peaceable fruit of righteousness.”
Any suffering is chastening or correction, if the effect of it is to lead us unto God. And when we have accepted it as leading us unto Him, knowing that it is necessary for us, then the chastening has advanced to purging. Purging often follows the lower order of correction, but which is nevertheless distinct from it, and which always produces joy and vigor of soul, increased fruit-bearing, and freedom for service.
Girdle of Truth, Vol. 6 (adapted)
Suffering for Christ and Chastening
Hebrews 12:1-13
When we look at Jesus as a Man in glory, we see one who has arrived at the end of the course. He has run the whole course of faith, gone through every trial of it; He has begun and finished it. You never can find yourself in any place of trial, where a believer can be found in the pathway of obedience, that Christ has not been in it. He has trod the whole path and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. There is where the road leads, so do not give up the cross. Jesus has borne it and has sat down there — it is worth running for. He came in divine love, but He walked in the path in which we have to walk with all the motives which sustain and cheer us. He had before Him the joy of being before God in that blessed place. What comfort in the path of difficulty and trial to see that He has trodden it all and was sustained in it all in the very way we are!
Suffering and Chastening
All along the way, as we pass towards the rest in glory, God is exercising our hearts to make us partakers of His holiness. These exercises have a double character: “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin” (Heb. 12:4). Here we have two principles which only the Spirit of God could connect: first, resisting unto blood, in which would be suffering unto death for Christ; second, at the same time suffering in conflict against sin, and by which it is practically judged in us. God connects our striving against sin with suffering for Christ; resisting unto blood is dying for Christ, but as this is in the conflict with sin, it cannot be truly carried on when the principle of sin and our own will is active in us. Hence, this same suffering serves as discipline, and so in the next verse it is added, “My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord.” Who would think of God’s chastening us at the very time we were suffering for Christ? But so it is, for self is so subtle; it mixes itself up even with suffering for Christ and hinders our service, and we may fear even to dishonor rather than to serve Him. We are apt to get discouraged when we have to judge ourselves in the midst of conflict, and even may be tempted to sit down and do nothing at all. The judgment of self is right, but not the discouragement. Suppose I am serving Christ and that I get discouraged in the warfare. Why is this? Confidence in my own misuse of power — lack of faith in God’s doing His work. Now what is God doing? God is using discouragement to exercise me to judge self. There is not a step of our lives that is not part of the process in which God is dealing with us. It is a process to break down flesh so as to make me depend on the salvation of God. After this deliverance, it is a system of experiences to exercise me to walk with God. The question of deliverance never needs to arise again, but there is a quantity of things to be judged that I may enjoy communion with God.
Moses
In Moses we have an example of these two things; he was suffering for Christ and suffering for his flesh too, at the same time. The Spirit of God tells us of the bright path of faith in which he was walking when he came among the children of Israel (Heb. 11:24-26), yet the flesh accompanies him, and with a mixture of human energy, nourished by the position he had been in, he slays the Egyptian. God surely allowed this that the breach might be complete, but Moses then fears the wrath of the king. In his actions, he looks this way and that way, and when it is known, he flees. He was, in the main, suffering for Christ — bearing the reproach of Christ most blessedly, but much had to be purged out and subdued in him, and if he had to flee because he had identified himself with the people of God, he had to go through that 40 years’ discipline to wean him from all confidence in human strength. When that is gone, we see how little courage flesh can have in the presence of difficulty. Now, though flesh had indeed shown its weakness, he can be a god (judge) unto Pharaoh.
Paul
In Paul, too, we see the same thing. A thorn in the flesh is given him, lest he should be exalted above measure. We see in him the action of devotedness in the divine life, and the action of the flesh kept down by that which would make him despicable in his preaching. (See Galatians 4:13-14.) When the Apostle thus felt the thorn, he was really suffering for Christ, yet it was needful for keeping down the flesh. This is the effect of that wondrous grace which employs those who have yet to learn for themselves, as vessels of divine glory and truth to teach others. The vessel must be dealt with, as well as employed. God, in a certain sense, having given occasion to Paul’s danger of self-exaltation by the abundance of revelation granted to him, secures him from the danger.
How precious is this constant care of God! He is always looking after us. The Hebrews were getting worldly, and persecution comes. It is suffering for Christ, and yet for sin. And the hand of God is there to give, through it all, senses exercised to discern good and evil. The work is going on, though I do not know all that is going on until afterwards. When the work is done, I become more spiritual and am then able to see what God was doing all the while. His own work He will carry on for His own glory. The chastening is not always for transgression, but if not, it is for the principle that produces transgression or that could produce it.
Girdle of Truth, Vol. 3 (adapted)
Affliction's Lessons
It is clear that afflictions are trials of faith as well as chastening; so we ought not to suppose that what happens to us is always for the purpose of chastening, properly so-called. There is discipline as well as chastening; that is what purifies, what helps to mortify the flesh, what breaks the will, and helps by an inward work to shelter us from outward temptations. Otherwise, these temptations would surprise us, because of the innate levity of the heart, which yields itself to vanity so easily, if there is nothing to counterbalance it. I do not speak of outward levity, but of this tendency to forget the presence of God, which is so natural to us. There are then chastening, discipline, and the trying of faith. Chastening ought to affect the conscience, awakening it as to any failure (through the operation of the Holy Spirit which accompanies it), but at the same time the work is not done until the root of the failure is discovered to the conscience, and this applies to all sorts of discipline.
Lack of Dependence and Pride
Lack of dependence on God and pride may cause us to fall into many failures; the soul is not restored before that which has given occasion to these failures is judged in the heart. Discipline applies rather to the condition of the soul. There are things like negligence, pride, inward forgetfulness of God — a thousand things which need the pruning-knife of the Husbandman—and it is even necessary that things which are not laid bare to the conscience should be hindered from acting upon the heart. The flesh needs to be thus kept in check beforehand.
The Perfecting of the New Creature
But there is a perfecting of the new creature which leaves room for trials: Christ passed through them. Although the new man is in itself perfect, still there is progress. In us these various kinds of trials are mingled; in Christ there was this last only — the experience of what He had not passed through before. Not that He was not always perfect, but He “learned obedience by the things which he suffered”; His faith and His obedience were put to the test by circumstances ever becoming more difficult, and this even to death. His perfection was not to act, but to suffer; in suffering there was a more entire surrender of Himself. It was so likewise with the Apostle Paul; we find this more particularly in Philippians. God allows the enemy to put difficulties in the path of the new man. A trial comes; the energy of the new man is exercised by it; it is strengthened by it, and in the end it gains the victory. If one does not act according to faith, one shrinks back, one loses joy, or at least the light of the Holy Spirit. The new man, while perfect in his nature, is a dependent being. This is the place which was taken by Christ.
The Old Man and the New
Sometimes external trials are necessary, that we may distinguish between what is of the old man and of the new, which are often confounded in our deceitful hearts. When there remains in the heart any groan which is not uttered to God as to a God of grace, any distrust of Him, it is the flesh and the work of the enemy. When we do not go forward when God has shown the way, because of some difficulty, the flesh acts, and the Spirit is grieved. Have confidence in Him, and rejoice in His love. We may be cast down at times (although scarcely ever without some want of faith), and yet everything goes on well, if we bring it all to God. If it is trial only, we shall certainly be comforted; if there is failure in us, it will be discovered there. However matters stand, let us go to Him; His peace shall keep our hearts.
J. N. Darby (adapted)
God's Comfort
In Psalm 94 we find, first, the tumult of the enemies, and, then, that God has done it. So with the saint constantly in trial: He sees the work of Satan, then God’s hand in it, and he gets blessing. All the present effect of these dealings of “the wicked” is, “Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest, O Jehovah, and whom Thou teachest out of Thy law; that Thou mayest give him rest from the days of evil, until the pit be digged for the wicked” (Psa. 94:12-13 JnD). The pit is not yet digged; the throne of iniquity is not yet put down. If, in chastening, the power of the adversary is against us, the Lord’s end in it all is to give “rest in the day of evil.”
I speak not merely of suffering for Christ. If we are reproached for the name of Christ, it is only for joy and triumph and glory to us, but I also refer to those things in which there may be the “multitude of thoughts within,” because we see that we have been walking inconsistently and carelessly in Jehovah’s ways. Still it is, “Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest, O Jehovah.” Jehovah does not chasten willingly, without a needs-be for it. And when there has been failure or inconsistency that brings chastisement, He turns the occasion of the chastisement to the working out of the heart’s evil that needed to be chastened. In chastening, Jehovah throws back the heart upon the springs which have been the occasion of the evil. The soul is hereby laid bare for the application of God’s truth to it, that the Word may come home with power. It is taught the reason why it has been chastened, and not only so, but it is brought into the secret of God’s heart; it learns more of His character, who “will not cast off His people, neither forsake His inheritance” (vs. 14). What God desires for us is not only that we should have privileges conferred upon us, but that we should have fellowship with Himself. Through these chastenings, the whole framework of the heart is brought into association with God. And this stablishes and settles it on the certainty of the hope that grace affords.
Look at Peter after the enemy had sifted him. Though his fall was most humbling and bitter, yet by it he gained a deeper knowledge of God and a deeper acquaintance with himself, so that he could apply all that he had learned to his brethren.
Rest From Adversity
The Lord gives our souls “rest from the day of adversity” by communion with Himself — communion not only in joy but in holiness. We are thus brought into the secret of God. Circumstances are used only to break down the door and to let in God. God is near to the soul, when He, in the certainty of love, comes within the circumstances and is known as better than any circumstance.
Jehovah never chastens without occasion for it, and yet, “Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest, O Jehovah.” There is not a more wonderful word than that! I do not say that a man can say this always while under chastening, for if the soul is judging itself, there will be often anxiety and sorrow, but the effects are blessed. What we want is that all our thoughts and ways and actions of the will should be displaced and that God should be everything. All chastening must have, in principle, the character of government in it, for it is His dealing with His people in righteousness (as it is said, “If ye call on the Father who without respect of persons, judgeth according to every man’s work”), not in the sovereign riches of grace. It is God’s allowing nothing in the heart inconsistent with that holiness of which the believer has been made partaker. It is indeed most blessed grace that takes all the pains with us, but that is not the character it assumes.
Intimacy With God
What we need more than anything is intimacy of soul with God, resting in quietness in Him, though all be confusion and tumult around us. When the man in this psalm had God near his heart, though iniquity abounded, it was only the means of making God’s “comforts” known to his soul, as it is said, “In the multitude of my thoughts within me Thy comforts delight my soul” (vs. 19). Our portion is not only to know the riches of divine grace, but the secret of the Lord — to have intimacy of communion with Him in His holiness. Then, however adverse the circumstances, the soul rests quietly and steadfastly in Him.
If we would have full, unhindered peace and depth of fellowship with God and one with another, if we would meet circumstances and temptations without being moved thereby, it must flow from this: not merely the knowledge that all things are ours in Christ, but acquaintance with God Himself, as it is said, “Being fruitful in every good work, and increasing by the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:10).
May we, through grace enabling, let God have all His way in our hearts.
J. N. Darby (adapted)
A Right Reaction
In other articles in this issue of The Christian, we have seen that God disciplines and trains each of His children, often described in Scripture under the broad category of chastening. We have also seen that the word “chastening,” as it is used in the Word of God, embodies all of God’s ways with us, and not merely those things that are corrective or punitive. However, our reaction to God’s ways with us may be right or wrong.
It has often been said, and rightly so, that in this world there are wrong actions and wrong reactions, and that “two wrongs do not make a right.” While God’s ways with us are always perfect, He may on occasion involve a human instrument, or even Satan, to carry out His purposes. Then the ways and means of the action are not perfect and can easily provoke a wrong reaction in us. Sad to say, even true believers, if not walking with the Lord, can find fault, not only with the instrument, but also with God Himself, and react in a wrong way.
Justify God
First and foremost, then, it is most important to justify God in all His ways with us. He may on occasion allow very difficult circumstances in our lives, as He did with Job. But Job had to learn from the mouth of Elihu that the pathway to blessing was to justify God, and then, if necessary, to go to the Lord and say, “That which I see not teach Thou me” (Job 34:32). When Job eventually did this, he did indeed learn the value of chastening and got the blessing God intended for him.
Second, it is important not to look at the instrument the Lord may use. Everything man does is necessarily tainted with failure and may, in some cases, include a great deal of that which is not of God. Yet we are to take it from the Lord and learn from it. An older brother, under whose ministry I was privileged to sit as a teenager, made this remark many times: “If someone says something unkind to you or about you, do not look at the one who said it. Ask the Lord why He allowed it.” It was excellent advice. We hasten to say, however, that on the part of the one who says something unkind, acting in the flesh toward a fellow believer is always wrong. The Lord may well have to deal with those who do so. This was the case with Job’s three friends, yet God used them to bring out a side of Job that needed correction. It is significant that God did not “[turn] the captivity of Job” until he prayed for those same friends (Job 42:10); then they, in turn, had to go to Job and offer a sacrifice for speaking wrongly to him. However, we are not responsible for a wrong action toward us; we are responsible only for our reaction. How many dear saints have missed the blessing the Lord had for them in a time of chastening, because they focused on the wrong actions or wrong ways and means of those whom the Lord chose to use in the chastening. Let us look beyond the instrument and not fall into this snare.
Despising Chastening
There are three main reactions to chastening mentioned in the Word of God, all in Hebrews 12. The first one is, “My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord” (Heb. 12:5). Unhappily, this is a common reaction, and a bad one. It has been rightly said that the natural man reacts to trouble of any kind either by becoming hardened or crushed. To despise chastening is to become hardened and to refuse to listen to the voice of the Lord. We see much of this in the world around us during the present COVID pandemic, as the difficulties drag on and the end of it seems elusive. While some seem to be coping reasonably well, very few seem to be acknowledging God’s voice to them. Most are hoping for a return to normal as soon as possible, so that they can get on with a worldly lifestyle. Others are becoming enraged, as “old hurts” and frustrations are brought to the surface, and the result is violence in every form.
Even true believers are not immune to this reaction. Among those who know the Lord, we surely expect to see more respect for the Lord’s ways with us, yet it is possible even for those with new life to despise the Lord’s training, and thus to miss the lesson the Lord has for them.
Fainting
The next reaction is in the same verse (Heb. 12:5): “Nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him.” Here is the second reaction of the natural man — to be crushed under God’s hand and to faint. This is another common reaction among worldly people and is the result of wrong thoughts of God. When the natural man is brought into God’s presence and does not want to repent, often despair is the result. This was the case with Cain, who complained, “My punishment is greater than I can bear” (Gen. 4:13). Yet there was no repentance or the acknowledging of God’s claims over him.
Likewise even a believer today can faint under God’s ways, although we are reminded in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able.” The word “faint” in this connection (as it is used in Hebrews 12:5) has the thought of giving up and is the opposite of having our “loins girded about.” The Lord knows what we are capable of bearing, and He does not impose that which is too hard for us. We have already mentioned Job, who suffered possibly more than almost any other man except our blessed Lord Jesus Himself. Job did indeed faint under it at times, but God did not allow any more than was needed to produce the right result. In the end it was well worth it!
Exercised Thereby
This brings us to the final reaction to chastening, and the right one: “No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Heb. 12:11). To be “exercised thereby” honors the Lord who sent the chastening, acknowledges His hand in it, justifies Him, and opens the door for Him to reveal to us the reason for it. I believe that this is what is implied, at least in part, in the expression, “God ... will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able to bear, but will with the temptation make the issue also, that ye should be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13 JnD). “Making the issue” would suggest God’s showing us why He allowed the chastening, and thus we not only know that it will have an end, but also that it will be for our ultimate blessing.
It is a blessed experience to be in the school of God and to learn from Him things which have not only present benefit, but will have a lasting effect for all eternity. We have only this life to build for eternity; let us not waste the opportunity, by despising or fainting under God’s hand upon us.
W. J. Prost
A Root of Pride
If I am proud in my spirit, thus losing the place of humility before God, and some lust breaks out, God may use this particular failure to get at and chasten me for this root of pride or self-will which seemed to have no connection with the particular lust that showed itself. So it was with Peter; he had confidence in himself, and this led to his fall. The Lord in His grace had provided for it beforehand; He looks upon Peter, and it breaks his heart. After this, He does not say a word publicly about the particular failure, but He does deal with Peter in the closest way to bring out this confidence in Himself. “Simon, son of Jonas,” He says, “lovest thou Me more than these?” A second and a third time He says, “Lovest thou Me?” At last Peter had to take refuge in the Lord’s omniscience. He who knew all things could see the love which was in Peter’s heart, even if no one else could.
The soul that knows and owns its wretchedness and makes no pretension to any claim, yet brings its misery before a God of goodness, is a soul that Jesus can never refuse to comfort. He may be repelled by the claims of a false and pretended righteousness, but He cannot hide Himself from the misery that seeks His aid and has no plea nor appeal except for mercy, for mercy dwells in the heart of God, and Jesus is both the expression of that mercy and the channel through which it flows.
It is good to notice Paul’s rare and beautiful humility! (1) As a sinner, he calls himself the chief. (2) Among saints, he is as less than the least. (3) As an apostle, he is not worthy of the name.
Sound Words, 1873 (adapted)
The Firmness of Love in Discipline
There is a firmness in real, perfect love which an easy, amiable nature is not able to appreciate or exercise. We see it in the Lord Jesus. He maintained His discipline or education of His disciples (of Peter, for instance), and did not relax, as one who sacrificed their blessing to present gratification.
The Lord will not slacken the hand or the word that is chastening His servant, but His heart is as near His servant as ever, and His purpose both to honor him and to make him happy, just as perfect and fresh as ever. It reminds me of Jesus and Peter. “I have prayed for thee,” says the Lord Jesus to Peter, “ that thy faith fail not, and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren” (Luke 22). Was not that putting new honor upon a chastened, humbled Peter? As before, in the time of Matthew 16:17, it was a rebuked Peter that was taken up to the mount of glory.
What a tale of divine, perfect love all these things tell us! Rebuked Peter is taken up the hill; humbled, chastened Peter is commissioned to strengthen his brethren; Moses, who had lost Canaan, is to ordain, endow, instruct and dignify his successor — to strengthen, more than strengthen, his brother!
This is the way of perfect, divine love. It is firm, but it is unchanging in its favor and its objects. A mere easy, amiable nature, again I say, can neither appreciate or imitate it.
Girdle of Truth, Vol. 2
Made of Good Stuff
How wonderful for a man in prison like Paul to say, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil. 4:13). Many have triumphed in prison through God’s grace, but still had a feeling as if they were shut out from service and chastening was come upon them. Paul’s being in prison may have been in some sense a chastening, but in his case the chastening came, to use a homely phrase, upon good stuff — upon a man with a single eye—and so it only purged away dross and made him see clearer.
J. N. Darby
Chastening
“Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness” (Heb. 12:9-10).
It is Thy hand, my God!
My sorrow comes from Thee:
I bow beneath Thy chastening rod;
’Tis love that bruises me.
I would not murmur, Lord;
Before Thee I am dumb;
Lest I should breathe one murmuring word,
To Thee for help I come.
My God, Thy name is love;
A Father’s hand is Thine;
With tearful eyes I look above
And cry, “Thy will be mine!”
I know Thy will is right,
Though it may seem severe;
Thy path is still unsullied light,
Though dark it oft appear.
Jesus for me has died;
Thy Son Thou didst not spare:
His pierced hands, His bleeding side,
Thy love for me declare.
Here my poor heart can rest;
My God, it cleaves to Thee:
Thy will is love; Thine end is blest:
All work for good to me.
J. G. Deck