10 Submit to the LORD (Proverbs 3:11-12)
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Over the past two weeks we’ve looked at the introduction of this section, found in verses 1-4, which marked a transition from the outer life we focused on at the end of chapter 2 to the inner life. And then last week we looked at the body of this section, the ‘MEAT ON THEM BONES’, which showed us our three biggest obligations in our covenant relationship with the Lord, those three being to:
Trust in the Lord
Fear the Lord
Honor the Lord.
And all of that brings us to today, verses 11-12, which give us a final admonition or obligation in addition to the ones we’ve already covered, and that is to:
Submit to the Lord.
‘My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof, 12 for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights’ (Proverbs 3:11-12).
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I love how Solomon ends this section with the admonition to submit to the Lord’ to ‘not despise the Lord’s discipline’ … it’s as if he anticipates the son’s inability to keep the obligations found in the odd verses of this entire section and thus anticipates the Lord’s correction rather than blessing.
Of course he is wise to anticipate that. Given the fallen condition of man, given our sinful nature, there’s no way we can continually uphold the charges to keep the Lord’s commands in verse 1, to not let go of unfailing love in verse 3, and to trust, fear, and honor the Lord in verses 5,7, and 9.
There’s no way. You know it. I know it. We’ve ALL failed to uphold these obligations. We’ve all failed to realize the value of the promises that come with them, and so thus that means as children of the Most High God, we require discipline, and much of it at that.
But why exactly should we submit to the Lord? Why should we care about that? Why should we not despise his discipline or be weary of his reproof? Why should we accept and value discipline?
Verse 12 ‘Because the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights’.
God disciplines us, He corrects us, because He loves us.
Just like any parent would correct their child because they love them & want to see them grow, so God corrects us because He loves us and wants to see us enjoy the promises He has made to us.
Although it may not sound right & although it’s an oxymoron, discipline is actually an incredible mercy to us. An incredible mercy. Although reproof, although correction may in and of itself be or feel harsh, it is actually proof of the LORD’s love & NOT of his wrath, because it concerns those (in verse 12) ‘whom. he. loves’.
CS Lewis used to liken the Lord’s discipline to a painter and his artwork:
A painter that truly cares about his artwork is not going to just paint carelessly and then leave it be. The best painters paint and then chip away some of that paint to then paint again, trying to correct and refine and refine every last detail of their artwork so that it can BEST reflect the image they are trying to portray.
In the case of a painter, discipline and correction of the artwork shows that the painter cares! It shows the painter cares! And God with us is similar. He corrects us because He cares about us, He is refining us because He wants us to reflect Him more and more.
Put in context of Proverbs 3, as our loving Father, God desires us to experience the blessings and promises found in the even verses of our section, but the condition to realizing this goal is satisfying the obligations of the odd verses. Therefore, God imposes discipline on us to conform us to its obligations & thus proves His love for us.
In fact, the absence of correction and discipline from the Lord, as late professor William Lane put it, would indicate rejection.
Think about that for a second.
The absence of correction from the Lord would indicate rejection.
Think about your earthly parents, rather than discipling you, just ignoring you.
Think about God, your Heavenly Father, leaving you alone rather than pursuing you.
Think about that.
You see, I think it is really easy for us to complain over our corrections and our sufferings.
I’m guilty of this myself. Often I’ve asked God why people around me seem to get away with far more than I do…like at times I get frustrated because it doesn’t seem fair to me that I’m being corrected for ‘X’ sin while others aren’t. Or if I’m not comparing myself and my correction to others, it is easy to find myself just complaining in general of the Lord's correction & how much of a hindrance it seems to be to me.
And in saying that I assume most if not all of you reading have been in a position like that before.
You’ve probably found yourself sometimes just wishing the Lord would look away, as if His watchful eye and his correcting hand are too much for you to handle. You’ve most likely found yourself asking ‘Why God?’ ‘Why do you care so much?’ As if to challenge His correcting hand saying ‘It’s not as big of a deal as you’re making it to be’….
Job is a prime example of this attitude:
In Job 7:17-19, he laments to God saying,
‘What is man, that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart on him, 18 visit him every morning and test him every moment? 19 How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?’
You see the truth of the matter is, the truth that we find here in verses 11-12, is that by doing this, by complaining over the Lord’s correction, by despising it, by sharing in Job’s perspective in those verses, we are not asking for more love from God, but for less.
In effect by doing this we are asking God not to take us so seriously.
We’re effectively saying, “God please don’t love me as much as you do. Love me less. Care for me less. Pursue me less. Be with me less. Bless me less. Please God, my goodness, please take me less seriously. Please. I’m not that important. Don’t treat me as if I am. I mean c'mon? Who wants to be treated as if they're important? Who wants to be treated as if they matter, and matter a lot? Pshhh.. Not me. Not me God. Please love me less and PLEASE take me less seriously.”
THAT^, friends, is our effective heart posture when we complain about God’s discipline and correction rather than embrace it.
‘The Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights’.
I know it’s not easy to believe sometimes, especially since correction never feels good in the moment, but discipline is for your good! It is! Why despise, why complain about something that is meant to benefit you?
Back to the art analogy, the painter corrects his work and refines and refines it for the artworks good! He’s not refining to make it worse but to make it better! To make it more beautiful! And that’s exactly what God is doing with us. He refines, He corrects, and He does so for the purpose of our holiness.
We see that truth played out through the use of Proverbs 3:11-12 in Hebrews 12, when the author says…starting in verse 5
‘And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness’ (emphasis mine).
God disciplines us for our good. He disciplines us for the purpose of holiness. We are disciplined because God desires us to uphold the obligations to trust Him, fear Him, honor Him.
God desires our holiness. We are to be set apart, and as adopted sons and daughters, God is sanctifying us through His Spirit to be more and more like Him, to be more conformed to the image of His Son, and oftentimes He does that through the use of discipline.
So kiss the rod, as Charles Bridges says. Kiss the rod of discipline, and receive its benefits.
‘Do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof, 12 for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights’.
Love you guys. God bless.
