Punishment

No one likes to be punished. And no punishment is enjoyable at the time. When we are being punished our first instinct is usually denial and self-righteous indignation. We try to justify our actions, describe ourselves as the victim, and make it seem like there was no choice for us but to act out in a way that went against the law. It doesn’t matter if we were speeding; our schedule and priorities were more important than everyone else’s at that time! Because there was no choice for us but to act the way we did, there’s no reason why we need to be punished. Sound familiar? This is the line of thinking and way of acting for most people when they go against God. We believe that our circumstances are such that we need to override God’s law — we place ourselves in His position. This is a dangerous place to be!

The author of Hebrews says as he quotes from Proverbs 3:11-12, “ . . . the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” Later in that same in that same chapter that “ . . . God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:10b-11). Discipline, or punishment, isn’t something God does on a whim, or because He wants to see us squirm. His discipline is so that we will grow in our righteousness and become more like Jesus. It is not arbitrary, but purposeful.  

Over the next few weeks we’re going to look at the book of Hosea in the Old Testament, a book about God’s punishment of Israel. It is hard to read at times as it is mainly written as poetry and uses a lot of symbolic and figurative language. It is also set in history and speaks to events that were happening in Israel over 700 years before the time of Christ. But it still is relevant to us today, and speaks to what we as the Christian church in North America are currently going through, and it also speaks personally to each one of us. I know a lot of questions will be raised as we study it which is why we’ll also be having a bible study that happens alongside this series. If you’d like to be a part of that, please let us know. We’ll be meeting every other Thursday evening beginning on January 17th.
Hope you have a wonderful week, and we look forward to seeing you on Sunday at our gathering at 4pm.

Pastor Mike