Originally posted: 07/22/2019
“Thus you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son,” (8:5).
In His great grace, the Great and Awesome God decrees His laws to ensure success for His chosen people to live, multiply, and possess the land He promised. Not only has He set forth His commands, but also His Discipline, to develop a people to receive His blessings.
As a father loves and trains his children, the LORD God lovingly trains His own to grow into a people to reap His blessings, and as His Children, to bear His family resemblance.
Consider Him Who Disciplines His Children
- He Disciplines His Children that they would be humbled.
- “You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you…” (8:2).
- He Disciplines His Children that they would know the intent of their hearts.
- “…testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not,” (8:2).
- He Disciplines His Children that they would understand their sustenance is provided by His Word.
- “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord,” (8:3).
- He Disciplines His Children that they would learn to walk in His ways with fear and reverence.
- “Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him,” (8:6).
- He Disciplines His Children that they would bless Him for His good gifts
- “When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you,” (8:10).
- He Disciplines His Children that they would never forget, but always remember.
- “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; …18 But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day,” (8:11, 18).
- He Disciplines His Children that they would experience His good for them in the end.
- “In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end,” (8:16).
How do we respond to Him Who Disciplines His Children?
The Bible tells us that when we are His legitimate children of the faith, we will be Disciplined.
But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. (Hebrews 12:8).
And as His children of faith, it is by faith that we must accept His Discipline.
“Thus you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son,” (8:5 emphasis added).
- By faith, let us accept His Discipline that we would be humbled.
- Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you, (James 4:10).
- Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, (1 Peter 5:6).
- By faith, let us accept His Discipline that we would know the intent of our hearts.
- O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar…
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way, (Psalm 139:1-2, 23-24).
- O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
- By faith, let us accept His Discipline that we would understand our sustenance is provided by His Word.
- …like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, (1 Peter 2:2).
- By faith, let us accept His Discipline that we would learn to walk in His ways with fear and reverence.
- It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? … 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness, (Hebrews 12:7, 10).
- By faith, let us accept His Discipline that we would bless Him for His good gifts.
- Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow, (James 1:17).
- By faith, let us accept His Discipline that we would never forget, but always remember.
- All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness, (Hebrews 12:11).
- By faith, let us accept His Discipline that we would experience His good for us in the end.
- And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified, (Romans 8:28-30).
- Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? (Hebrews 12:9).
As we humbly and respectfully accept His Discipline, the LORD God will be faithful to do His good for us in the end. For what could be better than knowing that in the end, we are His Children who bear His family resemblance?
“…that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end,” (8:16).
For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son… (Romans 8:28-30)