Should I Stay or Should I Go?

The book of Proverbs says a great deal about the discipline of the Lord.

The fear of the Lord

is the beginning of knowledge;

fools despise wisdom and discipline. (Prov 1:7)

Do not despise the Lord’s instruction, my son,

and do not loathe his discipline;

for the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights. (3:11-12)

Listen, sons, to a father’s discipline,

and pay attention so that you may gain understanding,

for I am giving you good instruction.

Don’t abandon my teaching. (Prov 4:1-2)

The notion of discipline is covering two overlapping ideas. The writer of Proverbs is dealing with the idea of parental discipline. The discipline we often think of is self-discipline. The latter is willpower—the ability to control ourselves against the lure of temptation. Two ideas, but they are related in a unique way here.

The discipline of the Lord is always a good thing. It may feel like it hurts, but it always helps, thus the clear instruction not to despise the discipline. Discipline is a form of instruction. If someone gave us the gift of knowledge, why would we ever resent that? In discipline we are being given something we cannot get anywhere else. What’s more, no one but a parent loves us enough to bequeath to us this incredible gift of the learning that comes from discipline. In parenting sometimes discipline is punitive, but it is always discipleship. When I type the word discipling, my software autocorrects it to disciplining, and that’s helpful. We discipline in order to disciple.

The person who understands this can, anticipating the Lord’s discipline, embrace it by his or her own self-discipline. This leads us to the fascinating yet counterintuitive wisdom of Proverbs 1:23 where Solomon writes,

Turn to my reproof,

Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you;

I will make my words known to you. (NASB)

Do you see the integration here? Turn toward the reproof; move into the discipline. I’m envisioning a child backing into a spanking or putting himself in time-out. This is a teen who gladly hands over the cell phone when the discipline is the loss of privileges. How unnatural.

The verse is also translated, “Turn at my reproof” (ESV), which provides more clarity.

The idea is that when God disciplines us we do not run from it; we turn into it. And then once we have embraced the discipline of the Lord, we turn at it; we pivot at that point and go a different direction.

The reason a father would write a son a book filled with short, easily remembered sayings and pithy quotes, and the reason that book mentions the idea of discipline over twenty times in so many different contexts, indicates that this is more than a fleeting idea. Solomon, the wisest of all men, is passing on to his son one of the secrets of life: when God speaks, turn.

Or, to place the verse in the context of Jeremiah 24, when the Lord says go, don’t stay. They should have been packing their U-Hauls, but instead they were cutting their grass. They bedded down in the place they should abandon. And God sees. And God disciplines. They sprinted away from God by staying put. They ran by remaining.

Their life becomes a twisted metaphor. On the one hand they are remaining in Jerusalem. This seems like a good thing, yet it is not what God wants at this time. So their remaining is actually running. How odd.

In the last chapter we saw that Jesus was the prophesied Righteous Branch, and we alluded to John 15 where Jesus tells his disciples that if they want to bear much fruit they must remain, abide, in him. Sounds a lot like Proverbs 1:23, doesn’t it? If we were to smash the two together, we would have this: Run to the discipline of the Lord and stay there.

Why? Well, to mash the benefits of Proverbs 1 and John 15 together, remaining in the Lord results in hearing from the Lord, and in that way we are fruitful.

So we come back to the twisted irony of Jeremiah 24. Here we have people who are running from God by staying while God says go. This is the perverse idea that they could both rebel and remain. Run by standing still, both static and defiant. But it does not work that way. God is calling them out. Not to go is to reject their calling. It is to run from the discipline of the Lord and not into the discipline of the Lord.

When the Lord in his sovereignty seems to put on you more than you can bear, when you are facing the challenges of living in his sovereignty or suffering the consequences of your own bad choices, the ever-present temptation is to get wasted. Not necessarily with an intoxicating beverage but with life. When life gets hard, we intoxicate ourselves with a busy schedule, with activity, with life. We can fill the void with food or drink or any number of distractions. But while that may seem to ease the pain momentarily, there is no substitute for listening to the Lord in obedience.

Often the Lord will bring us hard circumstances to get us to move—figuratively or literally. In that moment, remember that waiting is sinning. Move on and follow what God has. We can never see clearly where his discipline is leading us, so we trust him in the move of faith.