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. 5:3-43And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4And patience, experience; and experience, hope: (Romans 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. 30:66And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. (1 Samuel 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. 12:77And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. (2 Corinthians 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 15:22Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. (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 1:9-109Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? 10Hast not thou 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 2:1010But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? 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 7:5555But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand 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. 11:3232But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. (1 Corinthians 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 5:1616If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. (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 23:2525And 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. 35:2222Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. (2 Chronicles 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