Get Out of Jail Free
The Lord has disciplined me severely, but He has not given me over to death. Psalm 118:18 NASB
Disciplined me severely – Salvation isn’t free. Oh, yes, we Christians know all about this. God’s son paid the price so we could be forgiven. Really? Is that it? God delivered His “Get Out of Jail Free” card on the back of Yeshua? You didn’t have to do anything except say, “I accept,” and open your hand? No, I don’t think so. Apparently neither does David.
“Disciplined me severely” is my cost. It might be preliminary to rescue but it doesn’t come free. Yassor yisseranni Yah, writes David. Did you notice the alliteration? Then you will also notice that the opening verb, yasar, is repeated in a derived form to describe increased discipline. This isn’t sitting in class taking notes. It isn’t even following the instructions of the journeyman in the shop. This is “behind the woodshed” discipline. For those who are too young to know about this idiom, this is discipline that involves corporal punishment. In Yah’s case, this is physical and spiritual beating. Does that make you feel uncomfortable? Too bad! God isn’t going to usher you into the blessed presence of His kingdom without stripping you of your egocentric control issues. And that hurts! Ego has kept us alive in our broken world. We survived by pushing others out and making ourselves the gods of our little kingdoms. But the one true God is not going to abide competition. He will need to beat this out of you. It might take a long time. Be prepared. Behind the woodshed is not a nice place to be. But remember what David says. “He didn’t kill me.” “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”[1]
Have you thanked the Lord for not giving you over to death while He severely disciplined you? That might be a place to start. Why complain when His objective is to prepare you for endless enjoyment of His presence? Thanking Him for your chastisement honors the process, even if it means spiritual welts.
Salvation costs. It costs God the risk of rebellion. It cost Yeshua the voluntary submission to the will of the Father for overcoming sin’s ultimate consequence. But it’s going to cost you and me as well. It’s going to cost us our misdirected yetzer ha’ra protection. What does this mean? It means that the will to survive, essential at the beginning, is the appropriate function of the yetzer ha’ra. It operates by protecting me against those forces that threaten my life. But over time the yetzer ha’ra expands its range of activities so that the presence of others becomes a threat to my sense of control. Whereas God designed me to extend myself into the lives of others, I now act as if the world of others threatens my existence. And it does, so far as I am in control. But God wants me to emulate Him, to relinquish my control in voluntary submission to another (“It is not good for man to be alone”). Therefore, I must be disciplined to bend my yetzer ha’ra toward His intentions for the yetzer ha’tov. And this hurts. Letting go of my control of my world in order to enter into the presence and obligation of others stretches me to reach beyond myself, to connect deeply and personally with others, to take down the walls I have built around myself. I must become vulnerable just as God is vulnerable. So, to the woodshed I go.
Thank you, Lord.
Topical Index: discipline, musar, yasar, Psalm 118:18
[1] Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of Idols
Good morning Job…
Here we go, Skip your statement and its reality hits me between the eye just as David slung the stone between Goliath’s eyes.
Yeshua said:
He who loves father or brother above Me is not worthy,
If your hand lets you stumble cut it off, If your eye lets you stumble pluck it out…
The one had someone to bury, the other a piece of land to attend to etc but only he that takes up his cross and follows Me is worthy…
He who starts but fails to continue is not worthy…
He who loves Me will adhere to My words, My Father will love him and we will make abode in him…
From the earliest biblical records till the struggle of Paul the apostle for the gentile all went through the same disciplining principle. Why? So that what ever is achieved the individual cannot claim it is because of him or her… No; all glory, power, strength and wisdom comes from God and must be given to HIM.
The rightful question asked is are you ready? Or, Do I still plea/justify why me Lord? Did not the same David and Saul also say that God disciplines those He loves. To make His abode in them nothing else, well reflected Skip.
Now the stake of Yeshau means nothing for us if we do not do likewise. Eat of His flesh and Drink of His blood for these are truly food for the soul… JOHN 6
Do I take up this discipline cross, this burden to be likened unto Him or do I sit back and say Yippee I am saved. A good question Skip – sounds like my excuse… Why now, Why this, First this blessing, Fist this reward to prove it is God speaking.
Gideon you have been chosen by God not by man…
Reflection Question: Were you alive 2016 years ago? If not He could not have died for you, He would just have paved the way of the doctrine of Apostle (Paul’s teachings) for each to reveal the spiritual gifts we have been endowed with. Only 1 of the 9 of the supporting roles or doing 1 of the 7 empowering tasks as members of the resurrected body of Christ.
Emmanuel – God in flesh. John 1 and the word took on flesh and dwelt in them that were led by this word…
Thank you for the cruel awakening.
I spent my time in solitary confinement, wondering why nothing, and I mean exactly nothing, in that Good Book seemed to work for me. Decades, I wondered. Decades, I tried everything to move heaven with my exquisitely crafted self pity. Decades I spent, with nothing but myself in that place to look at. I did not like one single thing there. Almost.
When I threw away the false righteousness, and the false scales not made by heaven to weigh it in, the load lightened. When I found the pretense too expensive to keep up, and dropped it, choosing instead to agree that no one seemed to be looking, I felt better. When I realized that I had too little pride left to bother with, and so decided that yelping for help cost me nothing (and so I could) I found that none of my worst fears – all generated by that pride, come to find out – were so. You could not have persuaded me that any of this was so. I had to experience it for myself.
I found the scales of condemnation I was foundering under were all crafted by me: I set the standard under which I was sinking. I thought I knew what righteousness was: I set out to do it – by myself, of course. What kept that noose around my neck? Bitterness and pride. I measured myself, others and heaven by that standard in my courtroom and found all wanting. I raged and suffered and judged and failed alike.
I chose how long the sentence lasted, too. It lasted every bit as long as I held the standard against God, myself and others, in an attempt to bypass being judged by Another. I was working my way to heaven, crippled and insane. I got off that hook set on my own line when I dropped the unforgiveness the line was made out of. When I stopped blaming heaven, myself and others, and decided to give us all that Get Out Of Jail Free pass, we all got out. At the very same time. The Lord’s Prayer had it right all along: I get free when I put the freedom (forgiveness) of all ahead of my own survival. Ego: you can go back to what you were doing before I tried to invent a new use for you. When there is no one left who is my enemy, I no longer need to be protected, and the panic is over. Halleluah!
Tough Love
For Our Children Only
So, since when do we “discipline” the neighbor’s kids? Lol. Not hardly! We may “want to,” but [sorry] the “get to” isn’t there! We have “zero” authority! Chastisement [discipline] is for “ours” only! And? [Are you listening?]
~If you are not disciplined/chastised–and everyone [all God’s children] undergoes discipline–then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all ~ (Hebrews 12.8)
May I? I would like to, if I may, have a “selah” moment here.. Thank you mom and dad for “chastising/disciplining” me. I certainly had it coming to me! And thank You, Heavenly Father for the very same. I belong to You! Hallelujah!
What does chastisement/discipline [not “punishment” btw] do for our children? – and for us [every child of God] as well?
It is simply this: “May I have your undivided attention, please?” Yes, Father. I am [now] listening. O, and when the student is ready? – The Teacher will show up!
You know, and I know.. the lessons we learn the best “don’t come easy!”
OUCH! I’ll remember that one! I have many “scars of remembrance!” All, are marks of ownership.
~ Although He [Yeshua] was a son, He [also, as all humans do] learned obedience through the things He suffered. Friend, ~ the servant [me] is not above His Master [Him]. ~ Lest we forget, we are to also, ~ endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ ~ (2 Timothy 2.3).
In our faith, I look for ‘truth’ not ‘holes’. Wherever this takes me, I journey, always seeking to worship God in truth and in truth only. If and when I discover holes in this faith, so be it. I don’t care if it contradicts millennia of church tradition. I note it and move forward on my journey. If a wall collapses by removing a couple bricks, the wall was created with great weakness. I clean my glasses each day and attempt to always look at Scripture with fresh eyes. I try to swallow nothing ‘whole-cloth’. And so I ask questions and more questions. I don’t need the ‘assurance’ that I have it ‘nailed’, because I never will. I don’t seek refuge in a fortress of ‘church doctrine’, because I recognize that all doctrine is a human creation, and the last time I looked, humanities track record is not the best. Each day is a blessing, but each day is not always ‘blue sky’ and ‘green lights’. If my life to date is any indication, a thick cloud cover is not unusual. But, I continue on the journey to worship God in truth and in truth only. I have been taken to the ‘woodshed’ quite frequently by God, but the last time I looked, I was still alive and thinking and asking questions. I want to be worthy of that kingdom life promised, to the extent that I can ever be worthy. God’s risk came with great price and pain and work. Should our ‘salvation’ exclude all that God endured and continues to endure with His human creatures? If you answer ‘yes’, my quess is that you have a bad case of the ‘lazies’ and may be in need of an ‘eye exam’.
I needed this as I prepare to start a Bible Study for women in my church. The Lord immediately pointed to 3 things I need to address, repent and deal with. Chronic pain, cancer, chemo wasn’t enough to jerk me to reality about myself. Thank you for the reality check.