In view of the tendencies of our nature, how needful it is to keep it in check. Thus we are told in
this passage in Hebrews that if you are a child you must expect chastening. "He that spareth his
rod, hateth his son; but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes" (Prov. 13:24). In love God is
pledged to chasten us. His rod we are to receive as a part of the proof of that love which gave His
own precious Son for us.

It is interesting to notice the character of these chastisements. They are persecution, scorn, hatred,
the reproach of man. You say, if God would only lay me on a bed of sickness, I could stand it.
If it were God who had done these things I could tolerate it; but it is just the wretched malice of
man. I cannot see Him in it. Well, faith sees God in it. Whom did the Lord Jesus see in all that
He passed through_which was not, I need hardly say, for His discipline, for He needed neither
correction nor prevention? If He could say of the bitterest part of the cup, "The cup which My
Father hath given Me to drink, shall I not drink it?" He could say it of everything else. These
things which we bear, no matter how much they seem to come from malignity, envy, or hatred,
we know they also come from a Father’s heart who permits them for our blessing.

Look at Job, for instance:Satan was let loose upon him. He took away his property and his
family. He afflicted him with grievous sickness. And then the wife of his bosom unconsciously
lends herself as an emissary of Satan. She says, "Curse God and die." See his noble answer:
"Shall we receive good at the hands of God, and shall we not receive evil?" He does not attribute
his trial to Satan. In fact, we do not even read that Job knew it was Satan who was acting in it all.
Whatever the chastening might be, it was the chastening of God. Oh for faith to look past the poor
tools that Satan may use_whether it be the world or the flesh in fellow Christians_to look past
all second causes into the Father’s loving heart.

Now that is not an easy thing to do, for, as he says further, "No chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous." Do you know what we all have a desire for? It is a kind of
chastening that does not hurt_that might be a pleasure to go through. But that would be no
chastening. It must be grievous in order to be a chastening.

Then he reminds us of the effect of this. We have had earthly parents who corrected us according
to their pleasure. A father smote us with the rod, rebuked us with his lips, cut off some pleasure,
or did something that showed his desire to deliver us from evil; and the effect of it was that we
gave him respect and reverence. But now he says, Shall we not much rather, if our Father sends
affliction, bow to Him? It is not for a few days with Him, but forever. Earthly parents have done
the best they could for our temporal profit, but He has done so that we might be partakers of His
holiness.

Notice that expression:not merely "partakers of His holiness"; but there are given unto us
"exceeding great and precious promises," whereby we might be "partakers of the divine nature"
(2 Peter 1:4)_brought to the place where we can drink from the fountain-source of holiness, the
divine nature itself. God chastens us in order that we may partake of His nature, that we may
drink that in, as it were, and have the fruits of holiness in our outward Me as the result. After the

chastening come the peaceable fruits of righteousness to those who are exercised thereby.

You will notice here that there are three ways in which we can be affected by chastening. We can
despise the chastening of the Lord_we may think it a trifle, and throw it off. We have been
speaking about reproach and scorn. A man may say, "I don’t care for people’s opinion_that is
nothing to me"; he may brave it out in his own strength. He is despising the chastening of the
Lord. He does not have to go to God about it. It cannot be a severe chastening that does not bring
us to God. Then, on the other hand, there are those who "faint" when they are rebuked of Him.
They are overwhelmed and the hands hang down; they are discouraged.

These are the two extremes_neither of which is faith. But now we have, "To those who are
exercised thereby." We are to be exercised by what we pass through, not to despise it, not to faint
under it. We are to learn the lessons which God would teach us, to go to Him for comfort, help,
and guidance, to lay hold upon His grace and mercy.

(From Lectures on Hebrews.)