All Scripture is profitable, and not only for doctrine but also for reproof, for correction and for instruction in righteousness. One thing that we naturally do not like is to be corrected. But this is so necessary and helpful in the end. Correction is for purifying and for our profit.
There is another related thing and that is training or discipline. Discipline will keep us for future exaltation, but makes us low now in this present world. It is productive, a fruitful field for the soul. Discipline comes to us from a God and Father who loves us as children. It comes in His faithfulness to us very often because we have not heeded His Word. How much better for us it would be if we obeyed the Scriptures. We would not need so much correction, and training would be easier for us.
One of the remarkable scriptures that instructs us and gives an object lesson in these things is Ezek. 17. The first ten verses of this chapter are a parable. The key, or unfolding of the parable, follows in verses 11 to 21. The last three verses are prophetic as to Christ the Nazarene, and then the millennial King. In the parable, the cedar is Judah, or the house of David. The two eagles are the king of Babylon and the king of Egypt. The cedar has merited the discipline of the Lord and the Lord uses one of the eagles, the king of Babylon, as the rod in His hand for correction. The house of David is humbled but preserved because correction is for purifying and not for destruction.
Jehoiachin, who was of this cedar, humbled himself under this eagle, the king of Babylon (the rod of the Lord for correction), and he was preserved although "base" for a season. For thirty-six years he was hid in Babylon and then exalted. For him this was a "fruitful field" (2 Kings 24, 25).
Zedekiah, his successor, was different. He disobeyed the word of the Lord and broke his own promise. He "bent" toward the other eagle, the king of Egypt, and lost everything. Such is the result of rebellion against the Lord and His rod. Instead of discipline, he gets judgment. It is happy for us if we bow to the correction of God. It is the place of blessing. First we must be broken, then blessed. Discipline keeps us for future exaltation, but leaves us base in this world. Although we may not like it, yet it is a "fruitful field" for the soul.
We find in the last three verses that the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, is the cedar of this parable in His day. He is the Heir of the house of David. The Lord Jesus humbled Himself. He took His place with the remnant that repented at the preaching of John the Baptist. The Heir to the throne was a carpenter.
Ed.