Hebrews 12:3-13: The Chastening of the Lord
2023-12-09
Hebrews 12:3
For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. (Hebrews 12:3)
Jesus “endured such contradiction of sinners against himself.” They argued with Him and confronted him over every word and good deed He did.
Consider first that they wanted Jesus to say something amiss and sin. “Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk” (Matthew 22:15). After His triumphal entry, they were full of jealousy of the crowds that praised Him. That is the praise the religious leaders wanted, for Jesus said of them, “But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments” (Matthew 23:5). They tried to get Him to contradict Himself with issues like paying taxes, the woman who married seven brothers, and the greatest commandment. In His case, He was able to answer all those concerns publicly, making them look foolish. “And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions” (Matthew 22:46).
The religious leaders also tried to get the Lord to stumble in action. Consider Mark 3:1-6. They were looking for a chance to accuse Jesus. They did not want Him as their King, and Jesus knew their hardness. If these men really cared about the Sabbath Day, wouldn’t they have said to Jesus, “Stop, Jesus! Don’t do it! You’re making a mistake!” This Sabbath was really an excuse to try to accuse Jesus of breaking the Law of Moses. If they could get Him to do something that breaks the Law or look like He did, they could have room to accuse Him. “But they held their peace.” With that Sabbath healing, they now had ammunition to accuse Jesus.
They wanted some sign from heaven. “The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven” (Matthew 16:1). The abundant healings, exorcisms, and raisings from the dead were not enough. Even this was not enough: “And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11). They wanted something bigger, maybe? The real answer is that there was nothing good enough to prove He was the Christ. They had already decided to not receive Him as the Lord and Christ that He is.
People tried to kill Him many times. Consider the people from His very own hometown of Nazareth in Luke 4:16-30. The people of Nazareth were expecting all these healings and blessings from Jesus. When He applied this prophecy of Isaiah to Himself, they questioned Him. They were probably thinking, “He is merely some man with magical powers. He is not God. Skip to the good part and how you’re going to heal all of us.” But Jesus told them that of all the people helped in Elijah’s and Elisha’s times, only pagan foreigners were healed. Many people in Israel did not accept those men as prophets in their time, as we discussed previously. He applied the hardened Israelites of the northern kingdom to Nazareth, descendants of those hardened northern Israelites. Their response? They tried to kill Him. Being God, He walked right through them and left them.
They tried to compel him to blaspheme. Consider Mark 14:61-65. Jesus spoke very little while on trial. But when He spoke about coming in the clouds of heaven and being the Son of God, He was charged with blasphemy, which was enough for them to move forward with His trial. Now, if we were to say that about ourselves, we would be blasphemers. If Jesus were not really the Son of God, they would have been right. But since He was and had repeatedly demonstrated Himself the Son of God, He was falsely accused. They nailed Him to the cross, and with a group of soldiers, they tried to make sure He would stay in that grave.
Now apply these things to us. “Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also” (John 15:20). We will not win all those logical arguments and battles of wit that Jesus did. We will likely not be healing people left and right. We will say wrong things and sin. If Jesus faced contradiction from sinners, how much more shall we!
If we do not recall these situations that our Lord went through and how He endured them, we will succumb to responding like the world responds when being contradicted. We will respond in wrath and with sin. We will quickly get tired, give in, and surrender. Then our life purpose of serving Christ is lost and we will remain fruitless.
We saw in the previous verses that Jesus looked forward to something greater than the pain and shame that He experienced. Obedience to that vision kept Him on track. We must do likewise when enticed by sin and sinners.
Hebrews 12:4
Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. (Hebrews 12:4).
How much do you fight against sin? It is easy to fight against sin when they are sins you do not struggle with. I don’t struggle with booze and drunkenness. When you are like me in this area, it is easy to look at drunks and say that you’re better than them. Well, I fought against the sin of drunkenness, and this sorry soul didn’t. Of course, if I ever opened that door and became a drunk, I would be singing a different tune and making all the excuses in the world to show why my case is different, or some such thing. But now, here I am, booze free, not thinking for one second how wonderful it would be to guzzle that poison down.
But what about, say, holding a grudge? There are times when I remember something from 30 years ago when someone harmed me in some way, and I get angry. But then I need to take that step back and realize the severity of unforgiveness. All sin is against Jesus. If He has forgiven those sins, we must also.
Think about all the examples of people who were imprisoned, tortured, and persecuted for the faith we discussed in previous weeks. How many have been compelled to blaspheme, and they would not have it, both in ancient and modern times.
“What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death” (Romans 6:21). We are ashamed of sin now because for this cause our Savior had to die. Why would He do that? He had mercy on us for sure.
For every temptation, the Lord has provided a way out. “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). We stive against sin by running to Christ because He is the way out.
These Hebrews receiving this letter had started giving into sin. They also had much contradiction from sinners as the Lord had. They were discouraged, and started doing what came natural according to the flesh. Their fellow unsaved Hebrews were great blasphemers against the Lord, and perhaps they were asking, what is the point? Their eyes were off the prize of Jesus Christ.
This is why we must continue pursuing Christ, and when temptation comes, we flee from it to Jesus, recalling that being in Him we are new creatures.
Hebrews 12:5-6
And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. (Hebrews 12:5-6).
This is an Old Testament quote: “My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth” (Proverbs 3:11-12).
That last phrase is a little different, but the difference is accounted for in the following verses in Hebrews.
The Hebrews, having grown up with the Scriptures before their conversion, would have known this exhortation from Proverbs, but they had not retained it in their minds, or perhaps did not apply it to their post-conversion lives.
The analogy is this: As a father corrects (or trains) his children when they are growing up, God the Father corrects (or trains) His children in this life. We will see this more specifically shortly.
Why does the Lord correct His children? He loves us and receives us; therefore, He corrects us. Why correct us? We train our children because we love them and want them to grow up and not be delinquent, evil people. God does the same with us. Recall that “he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). What do you think He uses as part of that “good work” that He keeps performing? The chastening, correcting, and guiding to make us more like Christ. “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8).
All that these Hebrews suffered is a part of the “child training” because He loved them and wanted them to be like Jesus.
Hebrews 12:7
If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? (Hebrews 12:7)
So if one is corrected by God and the same perseveres, that is evidence that he is a son, namely, he is a believer and God treats him as such. Fathers correct their own children all the time. We want our children to know right from wrong and grow up and thrive for the Lord. But how many times do we correct somebody else’s child? If the neighbors’ kids are acting out of line, do we try to train them like we do our own children? We don’t do that, and usually it is inappropriate to do that!
Part of this is enduring the chastening or correcting. Recall the parable of the sower: “Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away” (Matthew 13:5-6). And the interpretation: “But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended” (Matthew 13:20-21).
This is not to say that all chastening and correcting of the Lord takes the form of persecution. It is also not fair to say that all persecution is because of sin. Taking sin out of the equation for a moment, the goal is to become more like Jesus. Even those who are not in habitual sin need correcting. Everything is for us to grow in sanctification.
The Lord uses the conscience just as easily to correct us. Consider Matthew 21:28-32. The first son defiantly said he would not work, but changed his mind and went. The other said he would work but didn’t. The second cared about knowing what was right, but it did not matter if he did what was right. The ones who did wrong were admonished and repented, and the religious lip service crowd heard and never repented.
Hebrews 12:8
But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. (Hebrews 12:8)
Here is the flipside of the previous verse. God does not chastise those who are not His. His wrath is toward them. Punishment is for enemies; training is for children. If people seem to go through life, making a profession of faith, but are constantly in habitual sin, having no care about it, will not accept rebuke, and there is no evidence of the Lord working on him, then he is one of these “bastards.” This is what is meant when we read, “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). All your religious health-and-wealth gurus are examples of these.
Hebrews 12:9-10
Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. (Hebrews 12:9-10)
Consider earthly fathers that disciplined and corrected us. You see their motivation may have been for either selfish reasons or godly reasons. What are some of the godly ways?
“He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes” (Proverbs 13:24). The rod here represents discipline. If you do not discipline your child, you really do not care how he is going to turn out. You start training him early and while he is young, for the reasons found in this next verse, Proverbs 22:6.
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). It was once said that practice does not make perfect, but practice makes permanent. If you train up children the right way while young, they will keep doing right when they are old. Righteousness becomes habitual.
“Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him” (Proverbs 22:15). Instilling the knowledge of consequences for sin and foolishness will teach them to depart from evil.
“The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame” (Proverbs 29:15). Training a child while he is young teaches him wisdom. If you just let them go their own way, they will grow up and be a disappointment to you.
These are some of the best examples. Now apply them to how God disciplines His children. From the moment they are born again, God disciplines His children, because He loves them. As He works throughout our lives, what we learn from Him is instilled in us. He is driving the foolishness of the sin nature from us, and we learn to walk in wisdom. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4).
Now the father that does not know the Lord’s instruction will still discipline for his own reasons. If children do something embarrassing in public or make him angry, he might discipline for vengeance’s sake. They want respect and will force it as necessary. Even we as Christian fathers may resort to some of this at times.
However, the perfect heavenly Father never fails in this area, as He perfectly loves us. “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” (Matthew 7:11). We gave our fathers reverence. Now we give our heavenly Father much more respect, for He is God, and heaven and hell are at His fingertips. All of this is for our own benefit. We see the terror of chastisement, but God sees full potential realized: people in the image of Jesus Christ. The goal is for us to be “partakers of his holiness.” This is important because later we will read, “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).
Our Father is the “Father of spirits.” Elsewhere we see that the sons of God are likely angels. “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them” (Job 1:6). He is also the Father of the spirits of humankind. “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7). He has control over all life; therefore, we must fear and submit to Him.
When we accept this training from the Lord, we “live”: “in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live.” Sometimes walking so contrary to His teaching will result in even death and loss of reward. Recall that we touched on this subject a little previously. “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep” (1 Corinthians 11:30).
Hebrews 12:11
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. (Hebrews 12:11)
We discussed previously how the Lord despised the shame He went through but saw a greater goal before Him: a redeemed humankind and He enthroned with the Father. We must also have this same attitude. Going through any trial is a training opportunity to learn righteous living by faith. Any trial we experience is painful but has glorious results. This is a pattern the Lord uses for us that He used for Himself: Life comes out of death. Honor comes out of humility. True riches come out of poverty.
We are all declared righteous from the moment of our rebirth. “Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe” (Romans 3:22). “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (Romans 4:3).
Being positionally righteous, the Father trains us in this righteousness. “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17). We receive righteousness by faith, and then we live by it. We appropriate what is true in heaven by faith, and it becomes reflected in our experience. The food of faith that produces this experiential righteousness is the grievous chastening from the Lord. As we go through trials, we must remind each other to that end.
Joseph’s rejection of his brothers, being sold into slavery, and imprisonment made him into the leader that Egypt and the ancient Near East needed in the time of famine. Saul’s pursuing of David helped make the shepherd into the king. The death sentence of Esther’s people made her stand up to the king and Haman.
Hebrews 12:12-13
Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. (Hebrews 12:12-13)
This is the encouragement we need. We should not be discouraged or permanently broken over anything that is meant for our good. Rather, we need to set ourselves up for success.
Consider what happened after David’s adultery in 2 Samuel 12:15-23. David fasted and prayed to save this child, but the consequences of sin could not be erased. You would think that after his son died, he would despair. Rather, he cleaned himself up, worshipped the Lord, and renewed himself. This did not mean that all his grief was gone, but you see how the trial was over and there was nothing left he could do. He started over with the Lord and kept going, not denying the grief and pain he went through.
Again, consider Jehoshaphat when he returned from the battle that killed Ahab. Recall they were in league together, an unholy alliance between the righteous king of Judah and the wicked king of Israel. Consider 2 Chronicles 19:1-4. God rebuked Jehoshaphat via Jehu the prophet for helping a wicked king. Here is a lesson right here: the righteous man should not support something wicked, even if it is in the guise of something good and calls itself “Israel.” Let the reader understand when thinking about modern Israel! Jehoshaphat may have done much good, but this helping an ungodly nation was wicked. What is the king’s response? “...he went out again through the people from Beersheba to mount Ephraim, and brought them back unto the LORD God of their fathers” (2 Chronicles 19:4). He took the rebuke and moved on in service to the Lord.