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Consider All Your Problems to Be God’s Discipline. Hebrews 12:5-6.
When I was a little boy, my father disciplined me frequently. Daily, it seems. Hourly, perhaps? It was so frequent! But I loved my daddy and I respected his authority. I feared the discipline (not gonna lie), but I never ran from it or fought it. I took my licks with a good attitude.[1]
I love Proverbs 3:11-12.
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him. For whom the Lord loves, He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.”
I love this verse but it is tough! How do you know when you are facing the discipline of the Lord? Maybe you’re facing an attack from the enemy? Or maybe you are reaping what you sowed? Or maybe you are suffering because you live in a fallen world where bad things happen at random?
Have you ever been SURE that you were being disciplined or reproved by the Lord? I haven’t.
However, God is sovereign. Everything that happens—EVERY TIME I suffer—I can assume God is in it or God is using it to help me grow. In other words, even when we cannot identify the source of our suffering, we can regard it as something God allowed in His wisdom and love. The point of Proverbs 3:11-12, a passage repeated verbatim in Hebrews 12:5-6, is that in ALL suffering, we can assume God is growing us. God is sovereign. God will use it, even if He did not cause it but merely allowed it.
Consider your struggles as God-ordained or God-allowed, and do not “faint when you are reproved by Him.” Instead, bend your will. Submit.
“Do not be stiff-necked, as your ancestors were. Submit to the Lord” 2 Chronicles 30:8.
“Whoever remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed without remedy” Proverbs 29:1.
Adapt. Submit. Bend your will. BEND—do not be stiff-necked.
“Some rolling with the punches is a fact of workplace life” E.E.O.C. v. Sunbelt Rentals, Inc. (2008) 521 F3d 306,315. In this life, you’re going to have to roll with the punches!
Dear Lord, remind us to submit. To roll with the punches. To accept the circumstances You allow in our lives, to trust You, and to trust Your heart! You are always good and kind and loving and gracious and forgiving. Give us hearts that trust You and welcome the circumstances You allow. Show us when to fight and when to yield.
AΩ.
[1] This is a shorter version of a longer study here: https://dadsdailydevotionals.com/2026/06/03/where-do-hard-times-come-from-and-how-should-we-respond-proverbs-311-12/
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Where Do Hard Times Come From and How Should We Respond? Proverbs 3:11-12.
The discussion generated by the question above is complicated enough that I am going to begin with the answer:
Hard Times come from several places, but God is in control no matter the origin. Because we trust God, we should embrace painful experiences and assume God is actively using adversity to help us grow more Christlike and bear more fruit.
Recently someone close to me—let’s call her Innocent Driver—had a minor car accident. She was hit by a driver whom we’ll call Mr. Whiplash. Now, although Mr. Whiplash caused the accident (and initially admitted it), he later sued Ms. Innocent Driver, claiming whiplash and other injuries he had not mentioned at the time. The insurance company also rated Innocent Driver’s car a total loss.
Yet that car was sold at auction, repaired, and the new owner managed to drive for months on all the local tollways because no one had stopped to remove the toll tag from the car that was supposedly a total loss. Ms. Innocent Driver had to deal with not only the hassle of buying a new car but also the hassle of convincing the toll road authority to waive the expensive charges it expected her to pay. Ms. Innocent Driver was getting the run-around from all sides.
Then a driver we’ll call Gentle Grandmother plowed into Innocent Driver, this time totaling Ms. Innocent’s new car. Gentle Grandmother admitted the accident was her fault and was sweet about the whole thing. But after having her second car totaled, Ms. Innocent Driver was rattled, and began to ask herself hard questions about what philosophers call ‘the Problem of Evil.’
“Is it the enemy? Is the enemy attacking me because I started reading my Bible every day? What will happen next, a serious wreck? Will I end up in the hospital or dead?”
Have you ever felt that way? When you suffer a string of bad things do you wonder whether it is the enemy? It could be. It could also be the Lord’s way of keeping you humble or reminding you to live by faith, or any number of things. And there is a third option. Maybe there is no supernatural element. Maybe the devil did not cause it and God did not cause it and you are simply suffering another in the series of bad things that happen because you live in a fallen world. (When you live East of Eden, there are thorns and thistles, Genesis 3:18. It is not paradise.) As Hamlet observed, we all suffer not only the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” but also the “thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to.” Life is hard and bad things happen.
But who causes those things?
1 Yes, sometimes the enemy is involved.
This seems most likely when an amazing spiritual victory is on the horizon, such as when an evangelist is preparing to preach the gospel. But many spiritual victories are quiet and hard for us to perceive, such as the seemingly small step of launching a new life-long habit, such as daily Bible reading. That is one small step that can change not only your life, but the lives of the generations that come after you. So yes, sometimes the enemy places stumbling blocks in our path. “Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone whom he may devour,” 1 Peter 5:8. But “resist the devil and he will flee from you” James 4:7.
Resist the devil. Keep reading your Bible. Be strong and he will leave you and try another time, see Luke 4:13.
2 Other times, God will discipline His children.
I love this verse:
“Do not despise the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him, for whom the Lord loves, He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives” Proverbs 3:11-12.
God is making us better. He disciplines us to make us more hopeful, more joyful, more filled with faith. Our struggles make us grow closer to Him. Our struggles make us more like Him. Isn’t that what we want?
3 God also prunes His children—cleaning up the branches that bear the most fruit.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even bear even more fruit” John 15:1-2.
As Bruce Wilkinson explained in his book, The Secrets of the Vine, most of the pruning in a vineyard involves cutting away the leaves so that more grapes can grow. A grapevine primarily bears fruit in the sunlight. So the gardener (or vinedresser) will cut away most of the leaves so the vine can bear as much fruit as possible. And that is what God wants for our lives. A plant covered in beautiful leaves may be lovely. But lovely green leaves do not help the farmer sell grapes or raisins or juice or jelly or wine. Healthy leaves are attractive, maybe something like an attractive, orderly life with all your ducks in a row. But leaves do nothing for the Kingdom of God. Leaves do not bear fruit. In fact, leaves get in the way of bearing fruit. So God prunes our lives so they will bear more fruit.
4 Finally, in this world you will have trouble.
Jesus said it Himself: “In this world, you will have trouble, but take courage, for I have overcome the world” John 16:33. A few of your problems may be caused by the enemy. A larger portion of your problems may be God’s loving discipline or God’s artistic pruning so you will bear more fruit. But perhaps the largest portion of your struggles in this life may simply be the result of living in a fallen world. Since the day Adam and Eve left the Garden, life has been throwing thorns and thistles in the path of Adam’s Race. Like hazards in golf, trouble is simply par for the course.
But what about the question of Ms. Innocent Driver? Is the enemy attacking her? Can she be certain? And how should she respond?
I think she is rarely going to have certainty. There are times, particularly with the most extreme suffering, when the Holy Spirit may help you understand what is going on, whether it is spiritual warfare, or the Lord’s pruning, or simply another in life’s string of absurdities and frustrations. Sometimes God will give you insight. Often He will not.
So what do you do if you don’t know? You adopt the attitude of Proverbs 3:11-12: “My son, do not despise the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him…”
I read that verse today—again, one of my favorites—and I laughed, thinking but how do I know? How do I know it’s God? If the Lord came to me and said, “Steven, you remember what you did yesterday at 5:02 pm? Well, it’s time for some corporal punishment,” then I would smile and take my licks. I might cry or react to the physical pain, but I would definitely have a great attitude. I would NEVER despise the discipline of the Lord.
But God never makes these announcements. Life just happens. Bad things happen and I don’t know whether it is God or God’s enemy or me reaping what I sowed or just another unlucky circumstance in a fallen world. I may look at my struggles and have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA to what it should be attributed. Did the devil cause this? Did God cause this? Did the devil cause this, but God allowed it in order to achieve His purpose of making me a better person? Or did I cause this? Or did Adam and Eve and the Fall of Man cause this? Who knows?
Seriously! Who knows? Not me. Usually not anyone. Like I said, on rare occasions the Holy Spirit will give you insight. But often we have no idea what force or combination of forces might be behind our afflictions and adversity. But look again at Proverbs 3.I think the wise position is this: trust God and submit, assuming He has a purpose in everything. Because in all things, He is sovereign. The devil has to ask permission before attacking you, see Job chapters one and two. See also Luke 22:31, in which Jesus reports to Peter: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat.”[1]
The enemy must operate within the limits of the permission God gives him—and within that permission, we can assume some of us, perhaps all of us, will sometimes face spiritual warfare. Yet, because God is sovereign, He remains an active, engaged Father at all times, always using every circumstance for our good (Romans 8:28), whether it originates as a spiritual attack, as God’s loving pruning, or as just another accidental weed or thorn growing up in our imperfect world. In other words, we need not identify the cause of every difficult moment life brings us. Instead, trust God’s sovereign, loving hand in all things. I suggest we lean-in to what we can learn, assuming our loving Father-God is involved with ALL THINGS.[2] No matter the circumstances, may we trust God and “not despise the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when we are reproved by Him, for whom the Lord loves, He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives” Proverbs 3:11-12.
Dear God, remind us that You are sovereign. You are always on Your Throne. No matter what adversity we face, may we endure it with hope and faith, keeping our eyes on You, our loving Father. Remind us never to despise the chastening of the Lord, but to submit our lives and circumstances to You. May we trust You with our health, our money, our work, our families, our future, our everything. Thank You for Your love that never fails.
AΩ.
[1] John Piper argues that Satan must ask permission EVERY time he attacks someone. https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-fall-of-satan-and-the-victory-of-christ/excerpts/satan-always-asks-permission#:~:text=Satan%20is%20a%20murderer%20from,He%20has%20not.%20Deuteronomy%2032%3A39%3A
However, the writers at the GotQuestions website argue that the Bible does not expressly say the devil must ask EVERY time. Yet, they too argue that God is sovereign and has clearly placed limits on what the enemy can do to God’s people. Both of these articles are worth reading. https://www.gotquestions.org/Satan-God-permission.html
[2] There are tragedies in life I would never connect with God. The death of a child, for example, was never God’s plan. We are horrified by such things and we should be. Facing such devastation, the heart of God breaks more deeply than ours does because His heart is infinite. God has an infinite well of compassion and grief and grace for the grieving. And His hatred of evil and death is an ever-present energy that never tires. God never grows relaxed about it. There is no zen, no weird mystical peace about death. When Lazarus died and his sisters grieved, “Jesus wept,” (John 11:35) even though He knew He would bring Lazarus back in a few minutes. He wept in the face of death because it was never meant to be this way. “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all remain alive” Matthew 22:32. God does not lose people the way we do, but I believe He hates to see us suffer such devastating grief and loss. But God is sovereign, He is wise, and His heart is loving. We must learn to trust His infinite love and mercy even in the unspeakable horrors some of us will face.
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Being Single is Not So Peculiar (Don’t Skip the Footnote!). 1 Corinthians 7.
According to the Pew Research Center, as of 2021, 25% of 40-year-old adults have never been married. That number was only 20% in 2010, and only 6% in 1980! The number of single adults in the United States is the highest it has ever been—and yet, being single still feels like being a member of a peculiar minority, sort of like an exclusive club you never really signed up for.
Do you ever feel like you just have to be married? I mean, doesn’t that feel like the norm for American adults? For adults anywhere? I know it does to me. We scratch our heads when we meet the unmarried. In fact, we probably find the never-married more peculiar than the divorced. Divorce we understand (even in all its horrible messiness), but the simplicity of never-marrying in the first place we somehow find inexplicable.
Most cultures encourage marriage.
Marriage means families. Marriage means children. Marriage forces young men and women to grow up, be responsible, and put aside many of their selfish impulses so they can nurture the little ones growing up around them. Marriage is a civilizing force, making mature, productive adults out of those who might otherwise have remained self-centered, aimless adolescents. If we hope to accomplish anything in life, most of us need to grow up, get married, and have children. Most people who have chosen to marry are the better for it.
The Bible encourages marriage.
God told Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it” Genesis 1:28. God’s plan requires a world full of children. Families. People.
But marriage is not for everyone.
In 1 Corinthians chapter seven, Paul crafts a great essay on marriage. Commentators believe Paul was a widower at the time of this writing, thus he understood the pros and cons of both celibacy and married life. He begins by saying he wishes everyone could be single as he is, 1 Corinthians 7:7. But he understands that sexual temptation is difficult, and thus, “it is better to marry than to burn with passion” 1 Corinthians 7:9.
But don’t miss this:
Paul just said celibacy is the ideal state.
Not marriage. “I wish all of you were as I am” 1 Corinthians 7:7. True, he responds to his own point, noting that celibacy is a gift that is not given to everyone. To remain single is tough for a host of reasons. Celibacy is a rare gift. But for some people, being single means not being less productive, but more productive. For some, being single means serving the Kingdom of God more effectively than they could had they been married. Because marriage is distracting!
“Those who marry will face many troubles in this life and I want to spare you this … I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband” 1 Corinthians 7:28, 32-34.
Thus, marriage is a powerful, life-changing institution. It helps most of us grow up and it smooths the rough edges of our immaturity and selfishness. Moreover, marriage stabilizes society by creating children and families and adults who care about making the world around them better. But for some of us, celibacy is the greater gift and marriage may represent a distraction that would keep us from serving God efficiently while we are busy serving our spouse and children.
Unlike the soccer moms and room mothers around her, “an unmarried woman … is concerned about the Lord’s affairs” 1 Corinthians 7:34.
One final thought: If you are single, and find yourself the odd-man-out here on earth, consider this. In heaven it is not single-ness, but marriage that will be peculiar. In fact, no one in heaven will be married, other than in the sense that we are all the Bride of Christ and Jesus—Christ Himself—is the Groom.
As Jesus explained, “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven” Matthew 22:30.[1]
So, as difficult as it is to be single on earth, rejoice—your state is actually the norm in heaven. You will no longer be the one person in four who has never married. You will no longer be the odd-man-out.
Dear God, may we fall in love with You before anyone else! Fill us with a passion for Christ. And may the single adults among us be “concerned about the Lord’s affairs … devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit” (1 Cor.7:34).
Guide us in Your wisdom to the people and relationships You have for us. Give us the courage to meet people, the courage to speak honestly and to be vulnerable, and the wisdom to pursue some relationships and not others. May we follow Your leadership in all our dealings. Do Your will in our lives. We love You and we trust You!
AΩ.
[1] We will know each other in heaven. We will love each other in heaven. I know my wife will be a close friend in heaven. But the relationship will be different. And no, I don’t think it will be sad at all. It will be a better relationship, a deeper relationship. But a different relationship.
This story may be a helpful illustration: My wife and I broke up during college after having dated about two years. I would still see her sometimes, both at church and on campus, but it was different. Friends would tell me the news from her life, and I remember telling them how deeply I respected her, how highly I thought of her. I did not imagine myself dating her again at any time in the future. I assumed that door was closed forever. But I could say with complete honesty that I had so much respect for her and wanted the best for her. I still cared about her and what would happen to her life in the future. But after we stopped dating, I simply took a step back. The day-to-day relationship had changed, but my admiration and respect for this young woman who deeply loved Jesus had not.
I sometimes imagine that my feelings for her in heaven may be something like that.
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Hospice Care, “MAiD,” and End-of-Life Decisions: Scripture Addresses the Controversies of the Day. 2 Timothy 3:16.
“In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes” Judges 21:25.
Which is better: to do what seems right to you, or to follow the leadership of a King who has given us 66 books of guidance?
If God had given us a single page, the Ten Commandments, for example, and nothing more, then perhaps we would have to make a lot of hard decisions, often doing “that which was right in our own eyes.” But God has given us 66 books, as many as two thousand pages in some English editions. There is no need for every man to do that which is right in his own eyes. We have the written word.
I try to avoid arguments online. It’s not worth it. It’s pointless, right? But I kicked the hornet’s nest today…
My friend Cam posted information about the growing use of MAiD, or “Medical Assistance in Dying.” In short, some thirteen U.S. states now allow medical patients facing the end of their lives to choose between hospice care and MAiD. Hospice is the more traditional practice: dying patients are made comfortable with pain relief while they and their families wait for the patient to “pass” naturally. Patients average two to three weeks in hospice care.
MAiD is different, providing that a legally competent patient whom doctors believe will die within six months is given a medication by his physician which the patient must then administer to himself when ready (some details vary by state). That medication (often including propofol or other powerful sedatives) will end the patient’s life through a painless process that can take a few minutes or several hours.
Because a close family friend chose to end her life via MAiD only last week, I was particularly interested in this online conversation. Everyone talking about it was raving about what a beautiful experience MAiD could be. (Yes, they literally called it “beautiful.”)
I brought up a dissenting view:
“A family member in Maine chose MAiD last week. After swallowing the oral meds, she lingered for hours. Her decision was difficult and controversial. Not only did the deceased insist on controlling the circumstances of her departure, but she also forbade family from telling anyone she took her own life. We were instructed to say she died of complications related to stomach cancer.
“Because hospice uses medicine to relieve pain, it seems the only benefit of MAiD is that it allows the dying to control the circumstances of his or her departure. That is, to have a tidy ending today rather than living with illness for a few more months.
“I’m not convinced a neatly scheduled exit outweighs thousands of years of Christian tradition vesting God with sovereignty over life and death.”
As you might imagine, my comments were not well-received. Cam and his friends were mostly polite (though they did call me judgmental). But here’s what was particularly intriguing: the two who responded to my comments began by making reference to their resumes:
The first wrote, “As a woman who is an ordained minister myself and has been a hospice chaplain for many years ….” Then Cam—whom I know well—thought it important to remind me that he is “ordained clergy in the Presbyterian tradition.”
The thing is, I do not enjoy conflict–particularly online conflict. It can seem pointless and even counterproductive. So I decided to limit myself to one comment and one reply comment. I was not going to spend the whole day hashing and re-hashing this. This is a great strategy for online arguments: two quick comments. And it’s okay to let the other person have the last word. Particularly when that person posted the original article. I like to give them that respect on their page.[1]
Here is part of my reply to the replies I received:
“I do not doubt your compassion. And I certainly do not doubt God’s compassion.
But truth is a greater consideration than compassion. If you can point me to a scriptural defense of this practice, I would be curious to read it.”
Guess what?
The two ministers did not cite one Bible verse.
They wrote lengthy replies about God’s compassion and the challenges of medical ethics and end-of-life decisions (topics I had already admitted can be baffling). But when faced with the Church’s thousands of years of history AGAINST something like MAiD, these two trained and licensed members of the clergy gave me only this:
“My experience and understanding of God go beyond a single scripture. It is the all-encompassing love of God that leads me to my understanding of His mercy, love, and grace … this is why my understanding of the Word … extends beyond a single scripture reference.”
Do you see the problem here? When confronted with a controversial new medical practice, a practice both members of the clergy claimed to have witnessed often in their work, neither could offer me any Biblical counsel.
I mean, sure, they talked about God’s love. And they reminded me that God is compassionate. Absolutely. I had said as much myself. But we also know this compassionate God allows His children to suffer many difficult things, and unpleasant deaths are the norm, not the exception. So God’s compassion for the hurting cannot alone be a basis for taking God out of the picture by taking one’s own life.
As I told the two clerics, my own father suffered with Alzheimer’s and then a broken hip. He was in pain and lacked the mental clarity to understand that pain or handle it with the wisdom and perspective that had always guided his life. In fact, that broken hip did lead to his demise some two months later. My father suffered. But his suffering was reduced significantly by the pain-relieving medications administered to him as a part of hospice care.
Scripture supports the use of medication for pain relief, see Proverbs 31:6-7. And if hospice care can remove pain, what justification is there for using medication to cause the death of someone who is no longer suffering? Christians have always believed God to be sovereign over life and death. His children have felt strongly about this since before the time of Christ. Before adopting the opposite view, I need to see a scripture to support it.
Am I to toss out the question of sovereignty without even opening my Bible?
Can’t one of these ordained, seminary-trained members of the cloth point me to a scripture to justify a practice the church has long considered murder?
I don’t mean to be harsh—and again, I do not judge. There is no subject more perplexing than medical ethics; I have always said that. These are hard questions, and I respect patients and families no matter what decision they reach. If I were asked to be present during the use of MAiD, I would be there. I could offer comfort without fear that my presence condones or “blesses” a choice about which I have doubts. I may even come to agree with MAiD at some point in the future. God could show me something—in the SCRIPTURE—and I would change my view.
What interests me about this controversy is not who controls life and death, or medical ethics, or even questions of God’s sovereignty. Instead, I am just blown away by the fact that two people who felt it necessary to point out that they were ordained clergy were UNABLE to point to anything in the Bible that could help them persuade me that this MAiD or “Doctor-Assisted Suicide” was a right decision rather than something the Catholic church (for one) historically considered a sin that would damn the soul to hell.
Not one Bible verse.
Here is one of the problems of our modern age summed up: we believe deeply in empathy and compassion. But our compassion is unmoored. It has been cut loose from the anchor of truth and is adrift on a rolling sea of feelings. Without scriptural truth to anchor our lives, we are lost. We are at sea. How can anyone make a good decision? Do what feels right? Do what feels compassionate?
I’m sorry. I believe that integrity and character are tied to TRUTH. And truth is tied to scripture.
If you cannot use scripture to defend your choices, then either your choices are wrong or your knowledge of scripture is poor.
For members of the clergy to endorse—without scripture—a practice that so radically breaks with church tradition is a case of the blind leading the blind. We should not make our most serious decisions without consulting scripture. That is not serving the Gospel. It is shooting from the hip. You are putting on your robes and your collar and doing whatever feels right, not what the scripture counsels.
“In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes” Judges 21:25.
“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” 2 Timothy 3:16.
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path” Psalm 119:105.
“Plans fail for lack of guidance, but with many counselors they succeed” Proverbs 15:22.
Dear God, give us wisdom when we face the increasingly difficult questions of medical ethics and end-of-life decisions. Lead us to a SCRIPTURAL basis for the answers we need. Teach us to love Your word more every day.
AΩ.
[1] Another great strategy when you find yourself disagreeing online is to sum up your thoughts, say your piece, end with “have a good day” or whatever, and then make a “permanent” exit by choosing not to be notified of future comments. On Facebook, click on “Turn off notifications about this post.” Just let people say what they want. Let them have the last word. The entire conversation will be forgotten in a week anyway.
- Proverbs 31:6-7: “Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, And wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink, and forget his poverty, And remember his misery no more” (KJV). “Give strong drink [as medicine] to him who is ready to pass away, And wine to him whose life is bitter. Let him drink and forget his poverty And no longer remember his trouble” (AMP). “Strong drink is given to the terminally ill, who are suffering at the brink of death” (Passion Translation). “Use wine and beer only as sedatives, to kill the pain and dull the ache Of the terminally ill, for whom life is a living death” (Message).
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People are Not Simple. Genesis 33:4.
We like to think of people in simple terms: villains and heroes. Good guys and bad guys. But people rarely make it that easy to categorize them. First impressions will guide you, but once you get to know people, contradictions arise. One of my favorite villains is a character in THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE. Initially, he is an evil Nazi leader, wielding a tremendous amount of power. He tortures and kills without regret. But then his son develops a disease that makes him, in the eyes of the Nazi regime, a defective, a “useless eater.” Suddenly this powerful Nazi officer has to confront the horrors of the Socialist party he serves—and viewers discover that this evil man loves his son, loves his family, and carries secret regrets and questions. Almost immediately, the evil Nazi officer becomes a sympathetic character, and his story becomes more interesting. Why is it interesting? Because of growth. The characters—even ostensibly purely evil characters—have to grow. The book-turned-TV-series is like that: several of the most evil characters eventually become if not entirely sympathetic, at least much more human. They GROW. It is fascinating.
The Bible often shows both sides of the people within its pages. Why? Because these people GROW. King David is the greatest king Israel would ever know, a genius on the battlefield, and a worshipper who wrote half the lyrics in the book of Psalms—and it is hard to imagine a person in the Bible who failed worse than he did. But after his colossal failure, David grows.
And consider Esau, the brother of Jacob. We often dismiss Esau. The author of Hebrews condemns him, warning us not to be “unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal” Hebrews 12:16. But there is more to the story. Esau certainly acted rashly on the day he sold his birthright to his always-scheming brother. But it was Jacob who later dressed as Esau and deceived their father Isaac so that Jacob could add Esau’s blessing to the stolen birthright. (Maybe it’s the older brother in me, but I think Jacob’s was the greater sin.) This time Esau recognized the gravity of what was taken from him and quietly vowed to kill Jacob, a promise which sent the heel-grabber running for his life. (Significantly, there is no record Esau ever acted on his threat.)
Years later, God told Jacob it was time to go home. He set out with his huge family and thousands of animals, and almost immediately was told that Esau was coming to meet him with 400 men. Four hundred men? That’s a battalion! Esau was ready for war. Jacob set aside hundreds of sheep, goats, and camels, and put them in the front of the caravan as a gift to his estranged twin brother. Then he spread out his belongings and his wives and children, hoping Esau might have a change of heart and not kill everyone.
“Now Jacob lifted his eyes and looked, and there Esau was coming, and with him were four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two maidservants. And he put the maidservants and their children in front, Leah and her children behind, and Rachel and Joseph last. [Benjamin was not yet born.] Then he crossed over before them and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept” Genesis 33:1-4.
Then after Esau met Jacob’s wives and children, he asked about the caravan of herds.
“‘What do you mean by all this company which I met?’
And he said, ‘These are to find favor in the sight of my lord.’
But Esau said, ‘I have enough, my brother. Keep what you have for yourself’” Genesis 33:8-9.
Is this the same man who swore to kill Jacob as soon as their father Isaac was dead, see Genesis 27:41? Is this the same unholy man who “despised his birthright”?
I think not. Esau has changed. If he were after revenge, he clearly has the manpower to take it with his 400-man army. If he were after the riches of his lost inheritance, he would not have turned down Jacob’s gift of herds and herds of animals. But all of that is gone. Gone is the selfishness, the bitterness, the vow for revenge. Gone is the lazy desire for easy money, the lack of perspective that would value a bowl of soup as much as an inheritance. Esau has grown up and acquired wisdom.
Look again at the way he greets Jacob:
“But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept” Genesis 33:4.
That reminds me of another Bible passage:
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him” Luke 15:20.
Jesus, the Master Teacher and storyteller, created the parable of the Prodigal Son. And, like any great writer, He wove familiar elements into the new tale, some of them seemingly taken from the story of Jacob and Esau: two rich brothers fight over an inheritance, both display childishness and selfishness, but the story is resolved with forgiveness, reconciliation, and love. Jesus’s audience would have known the story of Jacob and Esau so well, that I believe they would have recognized the tune as Jesus wove familiar notes into a new song.
Many find it easy to dismiss Esau for his one act of supreme short-sightedness. But he deserves another chance. This is a man who forgave a tremendous violation, who embraced the brother he once planned to murder. Esau embraced him and the two men wept. That makes Esau a hero in my book. Not a simple man. Not a perfect man. But a man who overcame some youthful failures to become a better person. Esau grew. Esau learned how to forgive. Because he did so, his life not only reminds us of the father in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, but also of our Father in Heaven whom the prodigal’s father symbolizes.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the Sons of God” Matthew 5:9.
AΩ.
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Judgment in Context. Isaiah 47.
Have you ever walked into the room when a friend is halfway through a movie or television show? It is easy to draw conclusions based on a quick glance. But if you do not know the history—the context—your conclusions will be wrong. For example, there are several scenes in Peter Jackson’s LORD OF THE RINGS films that might induce sympathy for Smeagol/Gollum. If you do not know the context, you could walk in the room and think this poor creature has suffered unjustly. But Smeagol suffers for his own choices—many of them bad choices. He has lived a life of selfishness, motivated by greedy addiction to the One Ring, which he calls “my precious.”
Similarly, you can open Isaiah 47 and feel sorry for the beautiful princess whose suffering is depicted in such great detail. Readers find themselves watching a once-beautiful woman suffer abuse. It is easy to feel sorry for her when you hear how she is treated:
“Sit on the ground. You will no longer be called tender and delicate. Take millstones and grind flour. Remove your veil. Strip off the skirt. Uncover your leg. Your nakedness will be uncovered, your shame will be exposed … Loss of children and widowhood will come upon you in a single day … Evil will overtake you which you will not know how to charm away. Disaster will fall on you … There is no one to save you” Isaiah 47:1-3,9,11,15.
Oh, this poor, miserable creature, suffering at the cruel hand of fate! But no, not fate. It is God who has set His judgment upon this woman. It seems cruel and sad. Vindictive, even. This is the sort of passage skeptics point to when they want to dismiss God as a cruel, angry god of wrath, hurling thunderbolts at the disobedient, as though He were no better than the completely human Greek god, Zeus. But God is not a human. In fact, it is for that very reason that God does not indulge His wrath recklessly (as we do).
“I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger … For I am God and not man. The Holy One in the midst of thee” Hosea 11:9.
God is patient.
“God is patient toward you, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to the knowledge of repentance” 2 Peter 3:9.
Nor is this woman suffering unjustly. The woman of Isaiah 47 is a symbol of the evil nation of Babylon.[1] This woman is evil personified. God has prepared an indictment, a list of criminal charges, if you will:
Babylon has showed His people no mercy.
She was cruel to the elderly.
She was given to pleasure.
She trusted in her sorceries, her charms, and her enchantments.
She was so confident in her witchcraft and astrologers that she proudly proclaimed, ‘I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children.’
She even made herself an equal with God, announcing, “I AM, and there is none else beside me” Isaiah 47:10.
When we read of God’s wrath, we must consider the context.
What may at first appear a cruel circumstance often turns out to be the long-delayed wrath of a patient and holy God.
When we read of God’s wrath, we must consider God’s heart.
God has a heart of love, of kindness, of goodness. He wants to forgive and bless those many of us would give up on.
“God is love” 1 John 4:8.
God possesses wrath. But God says that He IS love. He defines Himself by His love. It is His very nature.
Dear God, teach us to read the context, to understand Your word by reading the rest of Your word. And give us a better sense of Your heart. May each of us know the “breadth and length and height and depth” of the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge Ephesians 3:18-19.
AΩ.
[1] This vivid symbol of Babylon the Great as an evil queen is also used in—better remembered from—Revelation 18.
- Here’s a great article that provides a bit more information about Smeagol and the Lord of the Rings, and a nice counterpoint to the view I expressed about the character. https://hannahrobinsonauthor.wordpress.com/2017/10/11/what-gollum-taught-me-about-being-a-christian/
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Cormac McCarthy and Wrath and Hope. Isaiah 34.
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2007 was awarded to Cormac McCarthy for his apocalyptic novel THE ROAD. The dark novel tells the story of a gray, ashen world following some world-destroying disaster that is never explained.
When I read the story of God’s wrath in the 34th chapter of Isaiah, I was reminded of McCarthy’s book. Allow me to paraphrase:Come and listen, everyone. Hear the news. The wrath of the Lord sits heavily on all nations. On your nation. He will destroy your army. The dead will be piled high, stinking to the heavens. The mountains will be soaked in blood. The sky will be rolled up as a scroll. The stars will be gone. The moon? Gone.
The Sword of the Lord will drink its fill. The sword of God’s wrath will be bathed in blood. God will punish Edom, the symbol of the enemy of His people.
Can you imagine a world where the land is ash and the rivers flow with smoking hot tar? Then you can imagine Edom. The nation’s rivers will no longer run with water but with hot pitch. The dust of Edom will be turned to burning sulfur. The smoke of that burned land will rise forever, ashes drifting down like gray snow, poisoning the land.
The only life will be the desert owl and the screech owl. The raven will build a nest in the barren, burnt trees.
God will stretch out over Edom the measuring line—the yardstick—of chaos and destruction. God will size up Edom with the plumb line of desolation. Her royals will be reduced to nothing. Her rulers will be impoverished. The castles will be overrun with thornbushes. Nettles and brambles will overtake the forts and garrisons. The whole of Edom will be the desolate home of jackals, coyotes loping along, ribs poking through. The whole place will be a desert, suitable only for hyenas, owls, and a wild goat here and there. But families will persist, if only animal families. The owl will guard her eggs, feeding her young. The falcons will protect their mates. They will survive. Isaiah 34:1-16 (paraphrase).
“None of these will be missing. Not one will lack her mate” Isaiah 34:16.
Cormac McCarthy’s bleak novel is built on hope, believe it or not. It is the story of a father and a son on a journey to the coast. The two have a shopping cart, a few cans of food, and a pistol to protect them from raiding bands of marauders. But most importantly, they have each other. At its core, THE ROAD is a book about love. About family.
And so is Isaiah 34. Yes, God will exercise judgment. God will punish evil. But God is love. God is always motivated by love and compassion and holiness. And He will always preserve a remnant. God will always preserve life. Even animal life, as He did with Noah’s Ark and as He does for the owls and falcons of Isaiah 34.
“Not one will lack her mate” Isaiah 34:16.
Dear God, thank You for hope. There is always hope. Even when You exercise Your wrath, You remain a God of love and compassion and mercy and holiness and HOPE.
AΩ.
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The People Reap What their Leaders Sow: Pray for Leaders with Integrity. Isaiah 32.
The integrity of leaders matters. Honesty matters. Yet, with every scandal, a politician somewhere will argue that what happened behind closed doors does not matter—sort of the “what happens in Vegas” defense.
But when you are a leader, what you do always matters.
When President Clinton cheated on his wife with a White House intern 27 years younger than he, he had to answer questions about his behavior during nearly every day of 1998. His defense during more than twelve months of questioning from journalists, politicians, and the Special Counsel was, “I have to get back to the work of the American people.” He and his advocates—including numerous feminists—kept arguing:
“What a man does in his private life is a private affair. The president must get back to the business of running the country.”
These women sacrificed their credibility as feminists to defend one of the most powerful men in the world after he had an 18-month affair with an intern 27 years his junior. President Clinton, the leader of our nation, was wrong. The leaders of the feminist movement who defended the womanizer were also wrong. Just as the philanderers in every capitol city are wrong today—on both sides of the aisle.
When leaders dishonor their marriage vows, they hurt all of us. The private harm they do to their families is worse, of course. But the nation does not escape unscathed.
Actions have consequences. The actions of leaders have consequences for those who follow them.
Yet I remember the daily, nearly hourly arguments about the Clinton-Lewinsky affair. You could get caught up in it. It was not unpersuasive. Bill Clinton was charismatic, sincere, and charming, more Jack Kennedy than Richard Nixon. Clinton could look at the camera with just the right combination of sadness, contrition, and a glint of anger, and say in slow, measured tones: “this is a private matter for me … and my family … and my God. And now I’ve got to get back to the work of the American people” –and you wanted to believe him. You wanted to believe his gnostic arguments.
Because that’s what it was: Gnosticism.[1]
Gnosticism comes from the Greek word gnosis, the root of the English word knowledge. But there is more to this heresy than the notion that you are saved only when you find some secret knowledge. Modern Gnosticism focuses on the heretical belief that the physical body is unimportant, and therefore, what a man does with his physical body is of no consequence. Rather than paying attention to the physical body, Gnostics would advise you to focus on your heart. This modern iteration of an ancient cult has swept across America: the body does not matter; the only thing that matters is that you follow your heart. Of course, that is ridiculous.
God knew we were crafty, creative creatures, always looking for ways to get into trouble. “God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices” Ecclesiastes 7:29. To protect us, God gave us laws. Not hearts. Our hearts do not protect us. “The heart is deceitful above all things,” Jeremiah 17:9.
It is God’s law that protects us—the law and the prophets. God gave us His word—sixty-six books filled with wisdom and guidance.
When leaders break God’s laws, both the leaders and those they lead suffer the consequences. But when leaders obey God’s wisdom, both the leaders and those they lead reap the benefits.
The Prophet Isaiah praises leaders with integrity:
“Behold, a king will reign in righteousness
and his princes will rule with justice.
Each one will be like a shelter from the wind
and a refuge from the storm,
like streams of water in the desert
and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.“Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be dim,
and the ears of those who hear will listen.
The fearful heart will know and understand,
and the stammering tongue will be fluent and clear” Isaiah 32:1-4.Isaiah employs rich word pictures: leaders with integrity will be a shelter from the wind, and a refuge from the storm. They will be streams and shade in the desert.
In other words, upright leaders provide SHELTER for their people.
And then what happens? Those who see, see better. Those who hear, hear more clearly. The fearful will have wisdom and understanding, and the one who struggles to speak will speak clearly and fluently.
That is, leaders with integrity do not merely shelter those who follow them. They heal them, somehow. They make their lives better.
The character of politicians matters. Integrity matters. Morals are not a “private affair.”
Many members of my tribe, even my family, have defended the election of men of questionable character by saying, “we are not choosing a pastor.” They go on to argue that God used Nebuchadnezzar and King Cyrus to bless Israel.
But what God may have done with a pagan king through His all-wise Providence and Grace, does not change my responsibility to steward my vote in a way that I believe will bring God glory. I believe it is my responsibility to vote for leaders who will effectively enact a Biblical approach to governance (and yes, to be ‘effective,’ one must win). Whether such a choice fits neatly into one party or another or somewhere in between will be a matter for prayer and research.
But character merits consideration as well. Character is not merely a so-called “private matter.” Character, integrity, honesty, dare I say, virtue, should be considered. There are strategic decisions in politics. Sometimes the most deserving, even the most virtuous, may not be able defeat the candidate from the other party during the general election and thus, may not be the best choice in the primaries. There are many factors to consider in politics and I understand that.
But I want you to recognize this factor: character does matter.
When leaders break God’s laws, both the leaders and those they lead suffer the consequences.
But when leaders obey God’s wisdom, both the leaders and those they lead reap the benefits.
Dear God, give us leaders with integrity! Bring us leaders who will pursue justice, leaders You can use to shelter us and to heal us, like those of Isaiah 32:1-4.
AΩ
[1] For an excellent discussion of modern Gnosticism, consider this article published by the Gospel Coalition: https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/ancient-heresy-driving-modern-identity/
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Plant, Prune, and Bear Fruit. Isaiah 27.
Your ancestors were probably hunters. Hunters and gatherers, nomadic people forced to roam every day.[1] Many of the earliest people did not build houses because they could not afford to stay in one place. They had to be free to move with the harvests and the herds.
Farming changed all that. Someone invented plows and irrigation. Next came pruning and grafting and other techniques for making crops and fruit-bearing trees more productive. For the first time, food could be salted or pickled for preservation—and the city was born.
(There’s a non-sequitor: What did fruit-bearing trees bear? The City.)
Farming created the first food surpluses; for the first time a few members of each city could give up food-related activities and pursue other things: manufacturing, teaching, architecture, the arts, law and culture and more. Civilization owes its very existence to farming. There is a direct connection between farming and prosperity.[2]
Consequently, the Old Testament uses orchards and vineyards to symbolize productivity and riches. A man who bears fruit is productive. A nation that bears fruit is wealthy.
In Isaiah 27, God compares Israel to a vineyard and Himself to the farmer.
“Sing about My fruitful vineyard [Israel]:
I, the Lord, watch over it;
I water it continually.
I guard it day and night
so that no one may harm it.
I have no wrath.
If there were briars and thorns confronting me,
I would march against them in battle;
I would set them all on fire …In days to come Jacob will take root,
Israel will bud and blossom
and fill all the world with fruit” Isaiah 27:2-6.Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit, Isaiah 27:6.
Isn’t that a beautiful, rich picture? God’s people will bear fruit—and because of them, all the people of the world will eat. Can you imagine the tiny nation of Israel feeding the entire world? This passage may look to the New Jerusalem for its ultimate fulfillment, or perhaps it is fulfilled more obviously in Jesus, Israel’s Messiah. And yet, when you consider the contributions of the Jewish people in areas like law, medicine, the arts, the media, and nearly every academic field, it seems this small number of people[3] have indeed made a huge contribution to the world.
Some 700 years later Jesus borrowed the rich imagery from Isaiah 27 and employed it in a new way. No longer were God’s people instructed simply to bear fruit. Jesus told His followers to bear fruit by first remaining on the vine. Notice the way these verses echo the words of Isaiah:
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that bears fruit he prunes so that it will bear more fruit … Remain in me, as I remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” John 15:1-5.
Isaiah’s message: God will prune Israel, causing the nation to bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit, Isaiah 27:6.
Jesus’s message: God will prune even His children who are bearing fruit so they will bear more fruit. But you must abide in the Vine. Every day you must choose to walk with Jesus in true obedience. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit, John 15:5.
Dear God, teach us to bear fruit. I pray every day that I would bear fruit and store up treasure in Heaven. Help me to remember that “every branch that bears fruit” You will prune. When I suffer, remind me that I am being pruned so I can bear more fruit. Thank You for the shears.
AΩ.
[1] Interestingly, the people of Israel were not hunters. The law required them to eat only kosher animals, and to be kosher meant not only to be from a kosher species but also to be killed through kosher means. Such means could not be applied to wild animals. Thus, the meat-bearing animals consumed in ancient Israel were largely domestic, not so much hunted from nature as culled from the herd.
[2] Farming made place for the urban lives so many live today, lives in which farming never enters the mind. Farming gave birth to cities whose citizens have forgotten farming.
[3] As of this writing, the worldwide population of Jewish people is estimated at almost 16 million, roughly the population of Buenos Aires, Argentina, or Istanbul, Turkey. To put it another way, Jewish people account for two tenths of one percent of the world, or two people out of every 1,000.
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Prophecies, Dreams, and Hope for the Remnant. Isaiah 17.
Bible Prophecy can read like a dream—you see elements that do not add up but clearly stand for something. There may be cause-and-effect problems. Words and scenes feel out of context. It can be baffling.
Bible prophecy is not written in the linear, logical fashion to which Western readers are accustomed. This is not a geometry proof nor a logical syllogism.
A plus B may not equal C.
Yet if you read prophecy loosely, analyzing it with the scrutiny you might apply to a dream, an understanding emerges. Read Bible prophecy as a series of pictures rather than a series of arguments. Unlike so much Biblical literature, prophecy does not build an argument brick-by-brick, stacking premise upon premise, persuading a reader to accept a conclusion. Instead, prophecy presents a series of pictures, and the conclusions take care of themselves.
Isaiah 17 prophecies destruction for Israel. The back story is that Israel and Damascus (Syria) had attacked Judah. For that, God will send Assyria to punish Israel and Damascus. Consider the following paraphrase of Isaiah 17. This series of pictures indicates exactly what the future holds for Israel:
Behold Damascus is wiped out. It shall be a ruinous heap. A pile of broken stones. And the glory of Jacob shall be made thin. The fatness of his rich flesh shall wax lean as a starving man—like one of his starving brothers he attacked in Judah. Israel’s reapers shall enter the fields to harvest, but find no grain to reap, Isaiah 17:1-4.
Yet God will not leave His people hopeless. A few gleaning grapes shall be left in the valley. They will shake the olive trees and find two or three olives in the uppermost boughs. Four or five of the outermost branches will remain fruitful. There will be something. Not nothing. And that day shall a man of Israel look to his Maker and his eyes shall have respect for the Holy One of Israel, Isaiah 17:5-7.
Then I heard a loud voice from heaven condemn the nation that attacked Israel. ‘Woe to the Assyrian multitude! Woe to the numberless, countless crowds, the hundreds of thousands who make a noise like the noise of the seas, that make a rushing like the rushing of many waters. God shall rebuke them. They shall flee on the wind like tumbleweeds, like a rolling thing before the whirlwind,’ Isaiah 17:12-13.
When I first opened Isaiah 17, I read it several times unsure what it had to offer. Then I reviewed Matthew Henry’s Commentary on this chapter and the picture became clearer.
In sum: God will work justice on behalf of His people, Judah, even when it means punishing Israel. God will also save a remnant of Israel and provide food for them—food and hope. With God, there is always hope. Finally, God will punish the nation that attacked Israel, so that in all these nations, Judah, Israel, Syria, and Assyria, He will have glory.
Dear God, teach us how to read Your word. Fill us with a love for Your scripture! Give us the interest, the passion, and the TOOLS to figure it out!
AΩ.
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