Receiving Correction

The true measure of wisdom is not found in the amount of knowledge you possess, but your willingness to receive correction from God.  Christ has become for us wisdom, and a broken and contrite heart God will not despise.  Proverbs 15:31 says, "The ear that hears the rebukes of life will abide among the wise."  How we respond to rebuke and chastening of God is one of the most accurate gauges of whether we are walking in wisdom or not.  Both the wise and foolish man hears the words of Christ, but the wise will adopt His ways.  The wise will heed His rebukes and take appropriate action.

This wisest among men realise God is righteous and good.  Even when God's ways appear unreasonable or ridiculous, a wise man humbly affirms that if anyone needs correction it is himself.  Habakkuk was a prophet of God who was dismayed with God's plan to use the Babylonians to judge the people of Israel.  It didn't make sense to Habakkuk God would choose to use a heathen nation which deserved the wrath and judgment of God to judge God's own people!  It seemed a grave injustice and inconsistent with Habakkuk's understanding of God.  It was utterly appalling.  How could God seemingly tolerate such great wickedness and refuse to defend God's people from violent overthrow?  Why would God use a corrupt nation to judge another?  How could such methods be just or righteous at all?

But Habakkuk was a wise man.  He knew no matter how things appeared to him, God was still God and in control.  God remained righteous, just, loving, merciful, and true.  Though confused and without answers, the prophet sought God's answer.  Like a watchman who carefully scanned the horizon, Habakkuk looked to God to correct his faulty perspective.  Habakkuk 2:1-4 reads, "I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected. ² Then the LORD answered me and said: "Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. ³ For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. ⁴ "Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith."  Habakkuk realised it was not God who needed to be corrected, but he needed God to correct him.  God's plan hadn't changed, and God gave Habakkuk a charge to clearly write the vision and make it plain.  God would surely bring it to pass.  "The just shall live by his faith," God said.  Babylon would someday be judged in righteousness, but God would use them as His servants to chasten His people to repentance.

Sometimes God allows situations we cannot understand to accomplish His purposes.  At times we may look back and see the wisdom of God's ways, but other times we are at a loss.  Wisdom is not found in man being able to explain how and why, but in us willingly receiving correction from God and walking in obedience.  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, but fools hate correction.  Habakkuk was challenged to walk in faith even as all men are.  Will we trust God despite the apparent injustice?  Will we continue to faithfully follow Christ despite difficulty, pain, and obstacles?  The wise actually seek correction from God and do not despise His chastening.  He disciplines us out of love and compassion for our good and restoration, not our destruction.  Even when Jerusalem was sacked and the temple destroyed, God remained good.  He did not leave or forsake His people, and He will not forsake us either!