ON THE VANGUARD

HOLEY REVELATION
“Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.”
Hebrews 12:10

I always try to spend a little time reading before bed each night. Some nights I wait too long and the minute I lay down I am out. Last night, however, I was able to get a few pages read before the book crashed onto my face. It was in my reading that I found a revelation. I guess it was something I had known all along, but the freshness in the way it was said made sense. The author spoke of a young boy who had found his daddy’s tool box. Inside he found all sorts of things. Seeing his daddy hammering nails before, he immediately grabbed the hammer and the box of nails and went to town. His father arrived home from work a few hours later to find the shed door peppered with nails driven through it and poking out the other end. After the dad’s frustration subsided, he called his son out and told him that as his punishment he would now have to take each nail out. Two hours later, with sore hands and wrists, the boy finished. As both he and his daddy examined the shed door the son began to cry. His father questioned what was wrong, thinking it was the pain from his pulling the nails out or such. The son responded, though, “I can still see the holes from the nails.”
I have been reading a book lately concerning the twelve sons of Jacob. The men who became the twelve tribes of Israel were first simply sons, like me. They quarreled, got into mischief, and most of the time came to one another’s defense. Of course there was that one brother Joseph, the dreamer, who they didn’t like, but I’m sure we’ll talk about him later. But as these brothers gathered around their father for a blessing in his final moments, they did not all hear the happy words they were expecting. It was Reuben, the eldest, who Jacob declared was as stable as water, and that history shows never produced a prophet, king, or anyone of significance. He did have the intention of saving Joseph, which was to his advantage in God’s eyes, but it was he who also slept with Bilhah, one of his step-mothers. In the good and bad, Reuben could not change his past, and it defined his future.
While not one of the sons of Jacob, I want to look at another man in the Bible. We all know of David, the giant slayer become king. Most people will remember that David had an affair with Bathsheba and then had Uriah, her husband, killed to save face. But think on this with me. Bathsheba gave birth to a child. What happened to him? He wasn’t Solomon. In fact he is not even given a name in the Bible. Hebrew tradition states the name was given on the eighth day. This un-named son died shortly after birth (II Sam 12:18-23), on the seventh day. For that one moment of sin, David lost his son.
So what do a holey shed door, Reuben’s future, and a dead baby all have in common? They are the effects of sin. God’s Word is clear that if we confess our sins He will forgive us. But it is the effects of sin that must still be carried out. The holes from the nails were still there even though the nails were removed. The lack of much good in Reuben’s future was still played out even though he had been forgiven for his sleeping with step-mother. And the child was still taken from David and Bathsheba even though David repented, and even fasted. These stories only prove to us that sin does carry a price. The encouragement of Hebrews 12:10 should then be for us to learn from our mistakes so that they are not repeated. In God’s mercy and grace for us we are forgiven. In God’s love for us we are disciplined.