Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to
OurChristianWalk@aol.com.
In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Follow The Christian Walk on
Twitter @ThChristianWalk
** Like posts and send friend requests
to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn
** Become a Follower of The Christian
Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
For He does not enjoy bringing affliction or suffering on
mankind.
Crushing all the prisoners of the land beneath one’s feet, denying
justice to a man in the presence of the Most High, or suppressing a person’s
lawsuit—the Lord does not approve of these things.
Lamentations 3:33-36
(HCSB)
This ends today’s
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Throughout our Old Testament studies, we have seen two sides
of God.
On one hand, we have seen Him as a God who forgives and
redeems, a God who shows amazing mercy, grace, and love to His people.
But on the other hand, we have seen a God of wrath and anger
who sends judgment and its associated punishment on His people.
So which of these brings God the most pleasure?
The answer is found at the heart of our scripture passage as
we continue the study of Lamentations 3. Look again at those words here (for
clarity, I am using the Holman Christian Standard Bible translation):
For He does not enjoy
bringing affliction or suffering on mankind.
Crushing all the
prisoners of the land beneath one’s feet, denying justice to a man in the
presence of the Most High, or suppressing a person’s lawsuit—the Lord does not
approve of these things. Lamentations 3:33-36 (HCSB)
It doesn’t take long for us to see what the Lord likes doing
most when it comes to His people and it certainly isn’t bringing affliction or
suffering on them. His word tells us as much:
He does not enjoy
bringing affliction or suffering on mankind.
You see, God does not delight in sending harsh consequences
on His people. He would much rather love them for they are His children. If you’re
a parent, think about that and how it applies to the way you feel about your
own children.
In my case, I can remember the days when my girls were home
very vividly, even though it’s been quite a few years now. I loved spending
time with them and doing fun things together. It’s what I enjoyed most. But
there were times when one or both of my daughters would do wrong and leave me
no other option than to give them consequences, consequences that often
impacted the fun I liked to have with them (i.e. them being grounded so we
couldn’t go out to sporting events together). I didn’t enjoy discipline but I
knew it was necessary if my girls were going to learn things that would help
them in adulthood.
In other words, my natural inclination was not to judge and
punish my children. I only went that way when I was provoked to do so, when my
daughter’s violated well known and established rules for proper behavior.
Through my human example, we get a glimpse into the way God
feels about us as well. He does not enjoy bringing affliction and suffering on
us. Rather, He would much rather love us every day as He spends time with us,
watching us grow up into the people He longs for us to be.
Matthew Poole, an English theologian who lived in the 1600’s,
wrote the following commentary on this subject and the scripture from
Lamentations:
“In the Hebrew it is,
He doth not afflict from His heart, that is, with pleasure and delight; or
(which seemeth the best sense to me) not from His own mere motion without a
cause given Him from the persons afflicted. Hence judgment is called God’s strange
work. Showing mercy is His proper natural work, which floweth from Himself
without any cause in the creature. Judgment is His strange work, to which He
never proceedeth but when provoked, and as it were forced from the creature,
whence it followeth that He cannot delight in it.”
In sum, Poole is simply saying that it is God’s natural
inclination is show mercy, loving and nurturing His people whereas to judge and
punish His people is unnatural for Him and only occurs when we provoke Him into
acting.
Just as my daughters forced my hand of discipline by
breaking the rules, we provoke God into correcting us in whatever way He sees
fit to turn us from the very sins that serve as the catalyst for His
punishment. And in instigating that move toward punishment, we move God away
from what He wants to do most (love us) toward what He does not enjoy (sending
penalties upon us).
One more thing to note.
For God and God alone reserves the right to initiate
punishment on His people. He does not approve of any man or woman choosing to
take this on themselves without His endorsement. His word tells us as much:
Crushing all the
prisoners of the land beneath one’s feet, denying justice to a man in the
presence of the Most High, or suppressing a person’s lawsuit—the Lord does not
approve of these things.
Did these things happen to God’s people in the scriptures in
a way that God did approve?
Yes, but only when He used mankind as instruments of His
judgment, something we saw prominently in the way He used the Babylonians in
our recently concluded study of Jeremiah. In that instance, it was God who was
the initiator of correction and not man. We need to keep that in mind when we
are in positions of possible discipline such as parenting as I discussed
earlier. We should be praying at all times for the Lord to lead and guide us as
we raise the children that He has entrusted to our care and it’s that point
that is most critical.
Our children are His not ours and so we need to always
consult Him as to how He wants us to raise them.
When we do this, then our natural inclination will be to
love and nurture them, just as it is God’s natural inclination toward us. And
we will see that punishment toward our children will only come when it provokes
God to guide us toward disciplining them in a way that will help them grow up
to be the adults He wants them to be.
In other words, God is the Facilitator of proper behavior
and when we allow Him to lead and guide us, we will always ensure we are living
in a way that is pleasing in His sight, a way that brings His blessings and
favor, a way that He enjoys because it will be a life that does not provoke Him
to punish us, a way that promotes Him relating to us in the way He wants to
most and that is in complete, uncompromising, amazing love.
Amen
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
No comments:
Post a Comment