Daughters and Sons of God Week 6, Day 4 Deuteronomy 1-7

Daughters and Sons of God Week 6, Day 4 Deuteronomy 1-7

Discipline.  Discipline has a lot of different meanings. 

I like to cycle and occasionally do long distance events.  I might do a two day event riding 40 miles one day and 75 the next.  I’ve done century rides which are 100 miles.  For a causal athlete that requires a certain amount of self disciple.  You need a plan for progressively longer rides leading up to the event so that you’ll be ready and able to finish.  If you don’t plan and follow your plan you might finish the event.  But you probably won’t enjoy it.

Then there’s punishment, another form of discipline.  You do something, you get punished, disciplined.  Children might be disciplined at school.  Adults can receive disciplinary action at work or from the courts.  Most people who receive the sort of discipline don’t like it.  It can feel punitive.  We tend to think of punishment as bad, coming out of anger.

Then there’s a parent disciplining their child.  When this is at its best the purpose isn’t punishment but correction and training. 

So now we find that all that wandering in the desert was God disciplining His people as a man disciplines his son.  Why does a parent discipline a child?  They discipline their child so they will learn how to do what’s right.  The discipline their child so they’ll learn to not do things that are wrong.  They disciple their child so the child will become strong, strong enough to live in the right way.

But the real reason a parent disciplines their child is that they love them.  They care about their child.  They want their child to be able to prosper.  They want their child to know right from wrong.  All these things are meant so that the child will be able to have the best life possible.

But the main message here is that God sees the people if Israel as His daughters and sons, as His family, as His children.  The implication of that is truly staggering.  It’s unlike anything the world has seen before.  And it will remain unique to God and His people. 

And again I’m struck at the consistency in the character of God.  In the New Testament we can read about being brothers and sisters with Christ.  And the audacity of that statement can shock us.  But here we have the same sentiment coming for the same God.  We are not God’s subjects.  We are not just some play thing.  We are children of God.  We are daughters and sons of God.  And this is incredible.  That is unique.  That is an incredible privilege.  It means that God loves us.  It means that God calls us His own.  It’s not the disciple that makes us His children.  He disciplines us because we are His children.  And that’s true even when we don’t like the discipline.

God, thank You for Your love.  Thank You for calling us Your daughters and sons.  And I even thank You for Your disciple because that is a sign of Your love.   Amen

Leonard