Punishment

I grew up in a home where discipline was part of our life. If I disobeyed my parents, there were consequences. I also did some stupid things when I was in elementary school and received the “board of education applied to the seat of understanding”! Side note, if I put two wallets in my back pockets, the paddling didn’t hurt quite as bad. I had to borrow the extra wallet.  I learned where the boundaries were and how to avoid getting in trouble. The discipline actually worked on me and my behavior was changed in a good way. Punishment doesn’t work on everyone. Some people seem to think that the rules don’t apply to them. Our prisons are filled with people who think like that.

The kings of Judah and Israel seemed to think that their position as king gave them free reign to rule how they wanted with no attention given to the Lord. The Lord became frustrated with the ongoing idol worship and decadent behavior of His people. He decided to punish them severely by scattering them and exiling them away from the land He had given them. Check this out…

In the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, he took Jehoiachin prisoner. ¹³ As the Lord had said beforehand, Nebuchadnezzar carried away all the treasures from the Lord’s Temple and the royal palace. He stripped away all the gold objects that King Solomon of Israel had placed in the Temple. ¹⁴ King Nebuchadnezzar took all of Jerusalem captive, including all the commanders and the best of the soldiers, craftsmen, and artisans—10,000 in all. Only the poorest people were left in the land.

²⁰ These things happened because of the Lord’s anger against the people of Jerusalem and Judah, until he finally banished them from his presence and sent them into exile. (2 Kings 24:12b-14, 20 NLT)

There are consequences to all of my behavior. If I do good, good consequences often follow. There are situations where even good behavior is not rewarded properly by our culture – do good anyway.  If I do stupid stuff and act with no regard for law and order, there are pretty stiff consequences to pay like fines or incarceration.

Everyone on the planet must understand that there are boundaries for all of us. There no amount of money, position or power that excludes us from consequences for our choices. People in power who misbehave get removed from power. People who are make stupid choices usually get a punishment that teaches them that the rule of law does apply to them.

Punishment was and is quite a deterrent for me. I don’t like being punished, so for the most part I operate inside the rule of law. I still have room for improvement when it comes to obedience before the Lord. His laws and His boundaries are often deeply personal and private. He cares about my thought life as well as my behavior. He knows that my thoughts and actions are directly related to one another.

I want rewarded for good behavior instead of punishment for my bad behavior. I deserve way more punishment than I get because the Lord implements grace instead of punishment that I often deserve.

Pressing On!

Dwayne