Compassionate Correction

Our family has been reading through the book of Deuteronomy each night after supper. A few years ago our Sunday school class began studying Deuteronomy and our teacher shared God's Word in such a way that gave me a new appreciation and hunger for the Old Testament. I find our study in Deuteronomy wonderfully exciting as I reflect on God's power, love, and sovereignty in our lives. Sometimes I find it a bit painful as I reflect on my own sinfulness and weakness of heart and wandering. Always, I find it comforting as I see God's compassionate correction for His people.

v. 1 The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers.

Earlier this week we read Deuteronomy 8 together after supper and the words seemed to wash over me as my husband read them. It was as if God was speaking those words right to my heart.* They were compassionate. And they were corrective. And they were good for me. That is how I want my correction to be for my children - compassionate and good.

v. 2: And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart whether you would keep his commandments or not.

Forty years! Forty years! My wilderness, my hard season, has not been forty years, but it has seemed like it at times. Two years is nothing compared to forty. When I go back to verse one I remember the entire goal is to go where God is leading me, not to lead myself. (Pride!) Along the way in the wilderness He has revealed some significant heart issues that have needed to be humbled. I am just guessing that these same heart issues of the Israelites could not have been humbled anywhere else but the wilderness. I can appreciate my time in the wilderness because of what God has done there in my heart.

v. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

Hunger is such a real and scary thing for some of my children. It is so real and scary that it can consume them to the point where they lose their ability to think rationally and are unable to control their impulses regarding food. Stealing, hoarding, and binging food are unintentional responses to the fear of hunger and sometimes just the memory of it. This verse is so powerful because it tells me that God reaches us through our hunger and still He meets our needs, providing for us, not with what we would expect, but with manna, so that we would understand our need for His Word. I pray that as my children's fear of their past hunger abates, that their hunger for God's Word would increase and be satisfied only in Him.

v. 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years.

God's provision was perfect for Moses in the wilderness and His provision is perfect for us. I have experienced this provision in my own way and I am amazed and humbled in gratitude.

v. 5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you.

Discipline is often viewed as such a negative thing - discipline, correction, teaching, training - they so often get confused with the word punishment. Loving discipline is for our good, to draw us in. Punishment is to cast off and to keep out. Sometimes the two may seem the same to a child with an unrepentant heart. I pray for a heart that loves the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

v. 6-10 So you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.

Daily as the kids and I spend time in worship and prayer it is my hope that they would learn that there is joy in keeping God's commandments and walking in his ways. I desire for my children to see that there is wonderful joy in fearing (honoring, respecting, revering) God in all that we do. I desire that they see that God is for them, doing good work in their hearts, bringing them into His promised land where their hearts will forever be satisfied and where their hearts will forever bless Him.

This was only half of chapter 8 of Deuteronomy, but it has really impacted my heart this week as I have read it over and over each morning, seeing the goodness of the Lord as He disciplines His people. I am thankful for His passionate and compassionate correction, both as an example in the book of Deuteronomy, and personally in my life. I desire to be passionate and compassionate in my correction with my children.

*Disclaimer: This is not from my Sunday school class notes, just my personal reflections. Dr. DeRouchie at Bethlehem's North Campus has a great class on Deuteronomy that I'd highly recommend!