The Psalmist records that the afflictions of the righteous are many. They are also, at times, painful, bitter and heavy, especially when there is some particular design or purpose behind them as from the Lord. But the particular meaning of “the chastening of the Lord” is, that the Lord afflicts His people by way of correction and discipline for some sin or fault committed to His dishonour and to their own or another’s spiritual or temporal harm or hurt. This is to be seen in the Lord’s message to David through Nathan the prophet of which we read in 2nd Samuel, 7: verses 12-15, and which has special reference to David’s son Solomon, as follows: “He shall build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of men: But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee.” And there are many other parts of Scripture which explain the nature of the chastening of the Lord which should be subject matter for meditation and consideration on the part of believers whether under affliction or not. But when such are in adversity an appropriate question is—is this the chastening of the Lord? Of course in the case of such as Daniel facing the terrible ordeal of the den of lions, and Paul again and again in the midst of trouble, these godly men were suffering adversity by reason of their faithful devotion to their heavenly Master and as permitted to them by the Lord. They were not therein being chastened by the Lord, but honoured to suffer for His name’s sake.
When the Christian errs, goes astray, backslides and sins, his case may or may not be known to men; yet the eye of God is upon him as one who has been brought into God’s family by being born from above of the Holy Spirit through the Truth. And the truth which states: “What son is he whom the Father chasteneth not?” becomes relevant here in its spiritual application to God’s handling of His children. What believer is he whom the Father of mercies chasteneth not? The whole history of the people of God throughout the Bible reveals clearly that their sins and faults which obviously call for reproof and chastisement are thus dealt with and are not passed over, in fulfilment of the expressed mind of God as in Psalm 89: verse 32—”Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.” For instance, were not Aaron and Miriam reproofed by God for their unseemly attitude towards Moses? Even such eminent persons were not immune from divine reproof when they erred grievously even in a domestic matter affecting Moses the man of God. They were corrected.
Yet, behind and along with the chastening of the Lord is the great and precious fact of His covenant love to His people, for, “Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth.” His rod upon His people is no reason to conclude that the Lord has withdrawn His love from them, but on the contrary, that He in the continuance of His love toward them has a divine and blessed regard for their spiritual welfare and growth in grace, and that they be brought to see their folly and mourn over it after a godly manner, and to seek and find anew the sweetness of divine pardon through the precious blood of their Redeemer. The divine love is unchanging and everlasting with respect to the Christian, even when the Lord’s chastening is heavy upon such.
Then, a most necessary advice is given to the child of God under chastisement, in Hebrews, chapter 12: verse 5—”My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord . . .” They are not to regard it with indifference or as a matter to be endured without the expectation of a profitable outcome. It should be an experience giving the deepest concern to believers, inasmuch as God speaks thereby, and because His chastening is capable of being an invaluable blessing to their souls and of the greatest profit in ordering their life and conversation according to the gospel of their Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Under the experience of chastening there is the inestimable privilege available to the believer—the throne of grace. This is indeed a time for earnest, humble, wrestling in prayer with the Most High, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Isaiah, 26: verse 16, we read these significant words: “Lord, in trouble have they visited Thee, they poured out a prayer when Thy chastening was upon them.” And for an actual case in point, let readers read especially the second chapter of the Book of Jonah where we see the Lord’s disobedient prophet in the greatest depths of trouble by reason of the chastening of the Lord, yet crying to the Lord, turning to the Lord, praying to the Lord. Jonah said: “I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and He heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and Thou heardest my voice.” And again Jonah relates his exercise: “When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.” As we see in Jonah’s case the hope of deliverance from the chastening of the Lord, is to be found wonderfully in the mercy and power of the Lord Himself. And so ultimately Jonah records: “Salvation is of the Lord. And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.” (Chap. 2: verses 9, 10).
The chastened Christian is a divinely favoured person. The Father of mercies and the God of all grace by the rod of affliction reproves, corrects, teaches and sanctifies him, in conjunction with His Word and the work of the divine Spirit. “Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law.” (Ps. 94, v. 12). Many lessons are to be learned by the Christian in trouble and affliction of the aforesaid character; new lessons, necessary lessons, bitter lessons, sweet lessons and at times deep lessons, regarding God, the natural heart, the precious Mediator the Lord Jesus, the need of the power of grace, man at his best state being altogether vanity and eternity. The Lord knows what His people need to be taught when He takes them in hand to chastise and bless them. What a blessed people they are, when others are living without God, without Christ and without hope and in all ungodliness and prospering at their will in judgment; yet, the children of God are kept unto the Lord’s heavenly Kingdom, albeit they are chastised and afflicted on their journey thitherward.
It is good for the Christian, and indeed most essential, that on enduring the chastening of the Lord and after it has been lifted from him, that there be a serious search to discern and discover in what way and what manner he has gone astray from the righteous ways of God in heart or in conduct or in both. David confesses: “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept Thy word.” (Ps. 119, v. 67). After he forced Joab to number the children of Israel, the Lord by the prophet Gad presented David with the terrible choice of one of three heavy rods of affliction, viz., famine, to flee before the enemy, or pestilence. Later when the pestilence came upon Israel, David said: “Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly . . .” (see 2 Sam. 24: v. 17, etc.). And so the chastening of the Lord has in view, among other blessings, the spiritual instruction of His people as to how they are to abide is His love and the sensible enjoyment of it by keeping His Word and walking in the ways of the commandments. “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love.” (John 15, v. 10).
But the day will come in the experience of all God’s children when they shall bid farewell to sin and imperfection, to affliction and chastening, when they reach at death the better country even an heavenly, where God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.