Loving Fathers Displease

How important it is to have a biblical worldview!  God is revealed in scripture as the only true source of wisdom.  If we only see as men see, we are spiritually senseless and without wisdom from above.  Libraries contain a wealth of knowledge, and reading is required for understanding and application.  Without a vantage point provided by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, we walk though life like an illiterate man wandering through a library.  He may be familiar with the appearance of books, flip through the pages of large tomes, and admire the pictures, but the captions and text remain unknown to him.

We live in a world that largely claims (by whose or what standard I cannot tell) man is inherently good.  Besides, who is permitted to say what is right and wrong anymore with authority?  The Bible has a very different view of things.  It tells us that there is none good, no not one.  When measured against God's righteous standard there is nothing good in us at all!  Jeremiah 17:9 describes the condition of man in clear terms:  "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?"  Man is not born righteous and learns evil through outside influence, but wickedness is his natural path.  Circumstances outside a person draw out sin which already resides within.  Proverbs 22:15 says, "Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; the rod of correction will drive it far from him."

David was a great king and a man after God's own heart.  The expression of his love to his children, however, did not reveal itself through discipline.  Of David's grown son Adonijah it is written in 1 Kings 1:5-6:  "Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, "I will be king"; and he prepared for himself chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him. ⁶ (And his father had not rebuked him at any time by saying, "Why have you done so?" He was also very good-looking. His mother had borne him after Absalom.)"  As Adonijah passed through infancy, childhood, and even as an adult, he lacked correction from his father.  It seemed Adonijah was a bit spoiled (perhaps that is too gentle), for the scriptures tell us David at no time rebuked or disciplined him for bad behaviour.  As an adult his pride was on full display, even demanding his father's throne for himself!  The KJV says "his father had not displeased him at any time..."  The original word translated "displeased" is most often translated "grieved."  Because man is born crooked, he cannot walk uprightly.  We cannot even draw a straight line a meter long with chalk unaided, much less live righteously before God all our days!

Some have a view of God that if He is indeed loving, He will acquiesce to our every desire.  This is not a biblical view.  God is altogether righteous and loving, but He is not like a man who gives into the whims of His children to speed them towards their own destruction.  David loved Adonijah, but the love he displayed towards him according to a biblical worldview was more like hate!  Solomon wrote in Proverbs 13:24:  "He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly."  If your child is perfect in thought, word, and deed, discipline would be unnecessary.  But if the Bible is true in saying foolishness is bound up in the hearts of children, then discipline is not optional:  it is a requirement to be carried out promptly when necessary!  Discipline is displeasing to those who receive it, but in the end it yields peaceful, delightful fruit.  God loves man too much not to question us.  He at times will rebuke us:  "Why have you done so?"  Those who love Him will receive such love by taking to heart His rebukes.

I do not give my allegiance or loyalty to God because He always does what I want or has not displeased me at any time.  I have given my allegiance and chosen to trust God because He loves me and has proven Himself trustworthy.  Not one word of His promises have failed.  Jesus has demonstrated His love for me and all people by dying on the cross for my sins.  I am the crooked one, and He has opened my eyes to see the straight and narrow way of salvation through the Gospel.  I am grateful for God's love extended to sinners like me!