God’s Grace and Sin’s Consequences

*The below transcript was generated and formatted by AI and may not accurately represent the recording.

I remember many moons ago, one of my children—and don’t ask me which one ’cause I actually can’t remember—one of my children asked me the question. This wasn’t at an obstinate moment; it was a time of reflection. They asked me, “Why do you still discipline us if you forgive us?” An insightful question, isn’t it? Because when we talk about forgiveness, one of the things we often say is when you forgive someone, you give up the right to hold it against them, you give up the right to punish them. And it’s an insightful question: “Why do you discipline us if you’ve forgiven us?”

And that question sort of gets at a problem in our text, at the heart of the problem in the text that this story teaches us. You see, one of our problems in life as a Christian, as a believer, as a child of God, is that we’re tempted to think that God is unfair for laying disciplinary consequences upon us when He’s forgiven us. We’re tempted to think that if God’s forgiven me, then there should be no consequences for my sin, because He’s washed me clean, right? And when we’re tempted to think that way, or when we do think that way, we’re then very quick to murmur and complain against God when the consequences remain. So to say it differently, we sin, God forgives us, but there’s a consequence for our sin, and so we murmur against God because it’s not fair, because you’ve forgiven me.

And we need to see—and we’re going to see—that God’s forgiveness and discipline are not mutually exclusive. Or children, to say it differently, the Father in heaven disciplines and forgives those whom He loves. I can show you this in 2 Samuel. If you just briefly turn to 2 Samuel with me. 2 Samuel chapter 7—there’s a wonderful, helpful text in regards to this. 2 Samuel chapter 7, this is the Davidic covenant when the Lord makes a covenant with David to ensure that he would always have a son seated upon the throne. And in 2 Samuel chapter 7 verses 14 and 15, we read these words: “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you.”

Do you see that connection there? I will discipline him, but my steadfast love will remain on him. So we know that the Lord judges and rejects people like King Saul, but we also need to understand that for the children of God, the Lord will discipline in his love, even though he is a God who is filled with steadfast love, grace, and mercy. Or maybe to say it differently, God’s forgiveness doesn’t mean that there’s no consequences for our sin, and the consequences for our sin don’t mean we’re not forgiven. And sometimes we can get those wires crossed, can’t we? And we can think to ourselves, when we’re sort of suffering under the effects of sin, whether it’s small or large, we can think, “I must not be forgiven.” Or when we’re forgiven, we can begin to question why we’re also suffering consequences.

And the story of Moses provides a wonderful opportunity to think through this, and we should remind ourselves again, as Paul says in Romans 15 verse 4—you should have memorized it by now. This is your homework for next week, to memorize Romans 15 verse 4. All of these things were written for our example, for our encouragement, right? They’re here to set an example to encourage us in hope so that we might live for the Lord. So we need to see three things tonight.

Moses’ Sin and God’s Discipline

The first thing we need to see is Moses’ sin and God’s discipline. Moses doesn’t tell us the particular details in this section, but he’s reflecting on Numbers chapter 20. If you turn with me to Numbers chapter 20, that will be helpful. We’ll just briefly read the account that he’s reflecting on. Numbers chapter 20 verse 2:

“Now there was no water for the congregation. And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people quarreled with Moses and said, ‘Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord! Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our cattle? And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink.’ Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them, and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.’ And Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he commanded him. Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, ‘Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?’ And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.’ These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord, and through them he showed himself holy.”

So what did Moses do? What was Moses’s sin? Well, on one hand, he’s angry. It’s not a righteous anger. He’s angry. He’s not listening to God’s word. He’s not following God’s command. He strikes the rock rather than talking to the rock as he’s been told. He puts himself in the position of God—“Shall we bring water?”—thus not honoring the Lord. And Moses’ sin is really one of unbelief, God says. He says, “You did not believe in me.” And you think to yourself, “Well, in what way did he not believe in God?” Well, last time Moses struck the rock and everything was fine. But the point is, this time God didn’t tell him to strike the rock. He did not believe in God because he did not believe in God’s word, and he rebelled against God’s word, and God disciplined him for it.

The Lord was angry with Moses. Angry enough to give him the same judgment that the rebellious Israelites face. Remember the rebellious Israelites who were cast out of the Promised Land? They’re told they’re not allowed into the Promised Land. Moses now shares in the lot of the rebellious, and he is cast out from the blessing which he has been laboring for, for some forty years. Now, you might be tempted to say, “That’s a bit harsh.” And part of the problem is we don’t really understand the depravity of our sin, the offensiveness of our sin. When you consider all of the myriads of blessings poured out upon us, poured out upon Moses, and that we would take the gifts of God and use them for our own glory, for our own gain, for our own sinful ends, is an abomination that far outstrips anything we receive.

And yet we recognize here, don’t we? Moses sins, and he receives a punishment, but here’s the important thing you have to pay attention to. He does not receive what we call a penal punishment. What I mean by a penal punishment is he’s not cast out from God forever. He’s not judged, but he is disciplined. There’s a difference between those two things, isn’t there? There’s a difference between receiving God’s judgment and receiving God’s discipline. Moses is still forgiven. We don’t see it in Numbers 20, but it’s implied from the rest of the story, because he’s still there, and he’s still serving the Lord, and he still has face-to-face communion with God. He still meets God in the tent and speaks to God face to face like a friend speaks with a friend. He still is the leader of God’s people. Or to say it differently, Christ still paid for Moses’ sin. All of Moses’ sin was heaped upon the Lord Jesus Christ. That rebellious act was heaped upon Christ and was paid by Christ, and the wrath of God for it was heaped upon Christ, but there was still a disciplinary consequence for his sin. There was no eternal consequence, but there was a temporal one in the here and now.

Matthew Henry comments on this and says, “Those that are delivered from wrath may yet lie under the tokens of God’s wrath in this world, and may be denied some particular favor which their hearts are set upon.” And maybe that makes you a little bit uncomfortable. And yet, is it not true that the mark of being loved by your father is that he disciplines you? Loving discipline is one of the greatest displays of love from a father to his child. Because a loving parent will never discipline their child? They may beat their child, they may mishandle their child, they may neglect their child, but they will never lovingly discipline them. But how much more the Father of lights, who only ever gives good gifts? You see, we understand good fathers not because we’ve seen them in human relationship, because all of our fathers have failed, but because we understand what God is like. The Father of lights disciplines his children because he loves them.

And I think this has a very practical lesson for us, and that is that though the Father forgives us, brothers and sisters, he will discipline us. And so don’t be surprised when he does. Don’t be surprised when the Father disciplines you for your sin. And also, the other side of that is, let it motivate you to holiness. Because no one loves the displeasure of their parents, do they? I remember one of my children saying to me, “You know, I didn’t enjoy receiving smacks and things like that, but one of the things I disliked the most was when you looked at us with a look of disappointment and you said, ‘I’m so disappointed in you.’” And that sense of displeasure just can just so weigh heavily upon a child. Well, do you want to displease your Father in heaven and be disciplined by him? Well, if you don’t, there’s a really easy solution, right? Don’t sin. I mean, it’s not rocket science. But the Father will discipline us for sin, so don’t sin. Give ourselves to holiness. It’s an encouragement. It’s a motivation. It’s not a motivation of fear; it’s a motivation of love. Because I love my Father. I want his smile upon me and not his frown upon me. And so we see Moses’ sin and God’s discipline.

Moses’ Plea and God’s Response

But then the second thing we need to see here is Moses’ plea and God’s response. Sometimes our children can complain about discipline, can’t they? You set a rule, you set the discipline, they break the rule, they face the discipline, and then they complain about the discipline and they say, “It’s unfair.” And they ask you to have it taken away. Now, maybe if you might imagine, it’s like a grounding. I was grounded for a month once. I came home with a report card that was filled with many low-graded scores of Ds. It wasn’t the grades that was the problem. The problem was the remarks the teachers left. “He could have done better. He could have done better. He could have done better. He doesn’t try. He doesn’t apply himself.” Needless to say, my father, who has an extremely good work ethic, was not very impressed to read my report card, and the discipline was I was grounded for a month. And, you know, very quickly, you want out. You want out of the discipline, because discipline is not enjoyable and we want to get away from it.

Moses does that. We’re told in verse 23 of our text, “I pleaded with the Lord, saying, ‘O Lord God, you have only begun to show your servant your greatness and your mighty hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as yours? Please let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, that good hill country and Lebanon.’” Please, Lord. He doesn’t casually ask, right? He pleads. He begs. You can imagine him in the tent with the Lord face to face, on his knees, “Father, please.” And look how he roots it—not even selfish. He doesn’t say, “Lord, I just really wanna see it. I’ve been waiting.” He says, “Look, I’ve only just begun to see your wonders. I want to carry on seeing your work. Please don’t take it away from me yet. Continue to show me your glory.” He’s passionate for the glory of God. He has a desire to know more of God, and he pleads with God, “Please, God.”

And God says, “No.” In fact, the Lord doesn’t just say no; we’re told the Lord was angry. The Lord was angry, and he says, “Enough from you. Do not speak to me of this matter again.” That’s a very firm no, isn’t it? But Moses is not the only one in the Bible to receive that no, is he? Do you remember King David after his affair with Bathsheba? Bathsheba gets pregnant. Bathsheba has a son. The son gets sick. That’s the consequence of David’s sin, remember? That’s the discipline of the Lord on David. “Your son will die.” And for seven days, what does David do? He fasts, and he lies on the ground, and he pleads with God to save his child. And the Lord says, “No. Your consequence remains.” The Apostle Paul, though it’s not a consequence of sin, he gets a no, doesn’t he? He says in 2 Corinthians that he has this thorn in the flesh of the devil that he desperately wants gone, and he pleads with the Lord three times to have it removed, and the Lord says, “No.” And so too our dear Savior. Though it was not a consequence of his own sin, but a consequence of ours, did our Savior not plead with his Father three times, “Father, if there’s another way, please take this cup away. I do not want to do this. I don’t want to have to drink this. Don’t make me do it.” And his Father said, “No. No. No.”

Sometimes God refuses and leaves the consequence of sin upon us. It reminds me of the words in Lamentations chapter 3. You remember that very dark, shadowy book of Jeremiah after the downfall of Jerusalem, filled with much sorrow and suffering. And in Lamentations 3, you get that amazing cry right in the center of the whole song, “Great is thy faithfulness.” And straight after that, Jeremiah says, “It is good for a young man to bear his yoke in his youth.” What’s Jeremiah saying? It is good to bear up under the discipline and suffering that God has laid upon us. Sometimes it’s needed. It’s necessary. Henry puts it like this: “God is a gracious, tender, loving father, but he is angry with his children when they do amiss, and sometimes denies them many things that they desire and are ready to cry out for.” There is a time to ask. You need to understand there’s nothing wrong in asking, but there’s also a time to stop asking.

But what I want you also to see here is not just Moses’ plea and God’s response in this section, but the way Moses receives it. Do you see any complaining of Moses? Do you see any murmuring? Do you see him rejecting God and walking away? The same father that lays discipline upon Moses grants him the grace to accept that same discipline. Again, Henry captures it beautifully: “With this word, no doubt a divine power went to reconcile Moses to the will of God and to bring him to acquiesce in it. If God does not by his providence give us what we desire, yet if by his grace he makes us content without it, it’s all the same thing.” And this is something that’s just so beautiful that you have to see. Yes, the father will discipline you, and yes, the father will give you his Spirit to bear you up under his discipline so that his discipline does not crush you, but builds you up into Christ. The same father who strikes you grants you the grace to live.

And so I think this challenges us not just to recognize that there is consequences like we saw in the first section, but to humbly accept it, to be willing to accept humbly the discipline of God without murmuring and to accept when he says no. And I think Paul’s a fabulous example of this, even though it wasn’t disciplinary in a sense. Do you remember what he says? “I pleaded three times, and the Lord said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you.’ And so I will boast all the more of my weakness, for the power of Christ is made perfect in my weakness.” See, the Apostle Paul learns rather than murmuring and complaining, he learns to humbly accept the no and then exult in the no. Because if God says no, that means in the discipline he is going to give me the grace so that he will be glorified and I will be built up in it. And so the discipline itself, the consequences itself begin to become vehicles of glory, and we begin to rejoice in the consequence because God’s doing something in it, rather than seeing it negatively as something that we must get rid of. And so, brothers, let us humbly accept whatever the Lord lays upon us.

Moses’ Lot and God’s Compassion

But thirdly, we’ve seen Moses’ sin and God’s discipline, Moses’ plea and God’s response, and thirdly, we need to see Moses’ lot and God’s compassion. You know, if you’ve never had children, this might not make much sense, but it warms the heart of a parent to see a child receive discipline well. You know, when you discipline a child, whether it be corporally or whether it be in some other form, and your child backchats and complains and argues with you, that is a bitter thing for your heart as a parent. But when you discipline a child and they accept it, and you embrace them, and in time they thank you for it, it warms the heart greatly because you’re seeing maturity and wisdom playing out in your child. You know, sometimes it makes you want to reward them. It’s a striking thing that takes place in the heart. Maybe it’s just that I’m soft, I don’t know. But your child does something wrong, and you discipline them, and they respond well, and you want to praise them. You know, and thank them. “Thank you so much for receiving a stroke without complaining and without murmuring and receiving the discipline that’s your due.”

Now, there’s a sense in which we kind of see that here from the compassion of God. We see Moses’ lot as this all plays out. Yes, he is denied. He will not enter the Promised Land. The door is shut. The discipline remains. It will not be lifted, and yet we see God’s compassion as he consoles his son because he loves Moses. Observe a few things with me.

Firstly, God lets him miraculously see the entire Promised Land. We’re told, “Go up to the top of Pisgah”—that’s a very tall mountain—“and lift up your eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward, and look at it with your eyes, for you shall not go over this Jordan.” The idea here is look at the entire Promised Land. Let me ask you a question. How many Israelites do you think traveled over the entirety of the land of the Promised Land? Probably none. They went to their portion, and they stayed in their portion. Moses, by the compassion of God, gets to lift up his eyes and see the whole Promised Land. He says, “Yeah, Moses, you don’t get to go in, but I will let you look at it.” He didn’t have to do that.

But here’s a more wonderful touch when you realize that the guy that’s telling us this, Moses, also wrote the book of Genesis. Now, we know—you know that, don’t you, right? He wrote the first five books of the Bible. And in the Book of Genesis, in the life of Abraham, he records for us in Genesis 13 that the Lord says to Abraham, “Lift up your eyes. Look over the Promised Land. I will give you this land to your children and your offspring after you.” And what Moses is now experiencing is the exact same blessing that the Lord gave to Abraham. This is just such a beautiful fatherly touch from God, isn’t it? Where he comes to Moses, he says, “Moses, look, I know the discipline remains, but here, let me give you a gift. Raise up your eyes and by faith see what Abraham saw.” It’s the consolation of his father.

But secondly, see that God continued to give him fruitful service. Now, Moses doesn’t fall over dead after Deuteronomy 3, does he? Or after Numbers 20 when this occurs. After Numbers 20, he’s gonna do a whole heap of other stuff. The Lord continues to use Moses to build his kingdom and advance his cause in spite of, despite the fact that he had disciplined him. And this is a wonderful encouragement because the consequence of our sin, the discipline of God, does not mean that we can never be fruitful, that we can never flourish. A good example of this is King David. Not with Bathsheba, but with the building of the temple. You remember he wants to build the temple? You remember what the Lord says to him in 1 Chronicles 17 and 22? The Lord says to him, “You cannot build the temple. You are a man of blood.” Now, when he says that, he’s not primarily thinking about the wars he fought. He’s thinking about Uriah, right? “You cannot build the temple. Your son will.” You think, “That’s so harsh.” Now, what does David do for the rest of his life? He prepares everything, doesn’t he? He gets the gold. He gets the stone. He gets the wood. He gets the brick. Like, he just goes to work. “I’m not gonna build it. The Lord said no, but I can prepare what’s needed.” And he recognizes that, yes, the Lord has said no to entering the Promised Land or building the temple, but he hasn’t said no to all of that. And so there’s still fruitful labor for me. The Lord is not finished with me just because he disciplined me. Sometimes we can be tempted when we’re disciplined for our sin to shut down and say, “Well, I might as well just pack up and go home.” A very dear friend of Rob and mine faced a consequence for his sin, and yet throughout his life—he’s in glory now—throughout his life, he showed that a man who has made a grievous mistake, a grievous sin, can still be greatly used in God’s kingdom. And that’s true of all of us when we face the consequences of God.

But there’s another one here, and that is that God gave him a Joshua. That might not seem very significant to you. The Lord said to him, “Charge Joshua and encourage and strengthen him, for he shall go over at the head of this people.” Matthew Henry makes this wonderful little comment. He says, “It is a comfort to the church’s friends when they’re dying to see God’s work likely to carry on after them.” You think about it. You’re laying down your head to die, and you look at the next generation fighting the fight of the faith after you. That’s a great joy to see. Moses is about to die. He said, “You’re not going into the Promised Land.” Who’s gonna lead them? Who’s gonna guide them? It’s been Moses for forty years. And the Lord says, “Don’t worry. I’ve raised up Joshua.” You can think about Elijah. Remember, Elijah’s depressed, and the Lord comes to Elijah. He’s just said, “I wanna kill myself.” And the Lord comes to him and he says to him, “This is what I want you to do. Go find Elisha.” Go find Elisha. There’s a helper. There’s someone to carry the load. There’s someone to help you. There’s someone to carry on after you.

But there’s one more, and it’s not so much seen in this text, and that is that ultimately, God did bring Moses into the Promised Land. Effectively, the Lord said, “No, not yet.” But the Lord did bring him into the Promised Land. One day, Jesus and three of his disciples walked up a mountain, a little bit like Pisgah. And they walked up a mountain, and when they ascended the mountain, a great cloud descended upon them. And there appeared before them three men. Do you remember who one of them was? Moses. Where was he? In the Promised Land. Do you see what’s happening here? No consequence, brothers and sisters, lasts forever. No consequence lasts forever. The only consequence that lasts forever is the eternal judgment of God upon people that do not repent. But the discipline of God on His children never lasts forever. And yet God gave him a greater Promised Land, didn’t He? Because who will we see when we get to our final Promised Land? I mean, the Promised Land was just a piece of dirt, let’s be honest. Yes, it was a land flowing with milk and honey. Nothing like what it is today. But at the end of the day, it was just a geopolitical land. At the end of the day, it was just a national inheritance to point to something far more significant. And what was it pointing to? It was pointing to the real promised land. Why? Well, as the writers of the Hebrews said, “Joshua failed to give the people rest, but a new Joshua has come, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has given them rest.” Christ himself is our promised land, and in him we enter into the new heavens and the new earth. And so Moses, though denied entrance, though denied with consequence and discipline the blessing he so sought, yet through that very discipline, the Lord would bring him into the promised land anyway. And he has received an inheritance that is far greater than the maybe forty years he would have had in the promised land.

Do you see the goodness of God to Moses? Yes. Brothers and sisters, do not miss that God’s discipline lies upon Moses. But for the love of everything, do not miss the comforting love of his father. He disciplines him because he loves him, and he comforts him likewise. Brothers and sisters, your consequences that you face, the consequences of God, his discipline upon you, does not mean that you have lost his favor. Children—the big ones too, and the really big ones too—when your father, if you’ve got a good father, when your father disciplines you, he may be grumpy, he may be angry, he may be upset, but he never loves you less, does he? You know he loves you. And even if he strikes you, he smacks you, you know he loves you still. The amount of times I said to my children, “You need to understand, there’s nothing you can do that will stop me from loving you.” How much more is that true of our Father in heaven?

You must leave here in confidence as you look at Moses, seeing that the consequence of our sin has nothing to do with the favor of God, because the favor of God is based solely upon the cross of Christ. It is the person and work of Christ that accomplishes the favor of God, not how well you live your Christian life. It is like the intercession section. It’s got nothing to do with you. This is why we don’t look to saints and ourselves. Why? Because all of our access to God is rooted in Christ. We must look outside of ourselves for favor. And so, though it is good and right to sorrow over our sin and to have remorse over the mistakes we’ve made, yet we ought never to doubt that our Father looks upon us with a smile.

It reminds me of a story told by a minister in a sermon I’ve probably listened to more times than any other sermon in my life. Listen to it, tell me and I’ll send it to you. He tells the story of a daughter. He preached a sermon and this lady came up to him and she said to him, “You know, I’ve just realized I’ve misunderstood God this whole time.” She said, “I had a terrible father. A solo dad, just me and my sister. And my father loved my sister and he hated me. And no matter what I did, it was never good enough. But everything she did was perfect. And one thing that she would always do that he would always praise was the washing. She would press and wash his shirts and hang them up in the cupboard perfectly. And, you know, he would come home and he’d find the shirts and he’d lavish praise upon her. And so one day I thought to myself, ‘You know what? I’ll do the washing.’ And then I’ll get the praise of my father. And so out she went and she washed the shirts and she pressed the shirts and, you know, they’re still a little bit damp on the clothes hangers. But she wasn’t tall enough to reach the cupboard. And so she just hung them on whatever she could find. She hung them on the lawnmower and she hung them on the old wheelbarrow. And of course, these beautiful white shirts are covered in rust. And you can imagine what happens. The father comes home and berates her savagely. And she said, now I understand. God is nothing like my father. My father in heaven, he would never have berated me.”

And the preacher says to this girl, “You’ve got no idea what your father in heaven’s like. You haven’t got it at all. I don’t think you’ve heard a single thing I’ve said.” And of course, the young girl’s probably feeling a little bit berated at that moment. She said, “What do you mean?” He said, “No, your father in heaven’s nothing like that. Your father in heaven would have put the shirts on. And he would have worn them to work. And his work colleagues would have said, ‘Why have you got rust stains all over your shirt?’ And he’d say, ‘Because my daughter did the washing. She’s rubbish at it. But I love her a bit.’”

You see, that’s what we have to see here in the life of Moses, that the Lord, yes, brings consequences and yet shouts over him in joy. And parents, you have a small taste of this, don’t you? You discipline your child and then three seconds later, you’re rejoicing over them because you love them. How much more our God because he both forgives and disciplines those he loves. That’s what we read in Hebrews 12, right? And what this means is that when you face discipline, when you face consequences, actually you accept it as an assurance of your salvation. Remember what the writer to the Hebrews said in chapter 12? He said, if your father does not discipline you, you are not legitimate children. You know, we had all the teenagers around at our place this afternoon. They got food, happy to stay. They can stay as much as they want. There’s a striking difference between my children and the rest of them. I will discipline my children. But I will not discipline the others because they’re not my children. I love them. I care for them. I treat them well. I respect them. I delight in their presence. But I will not discipline them because they’re not my children. The hand of discipline is a mark of the fact that you are a child of God.

And if you want the greatest evidence for this, look at Jacob and Esau. Do you remember Paul’s comment and Malachi’s comment? “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” Now you have to ask yourself, how has God hated Esau and loved Jacob in their lives? The love of God for Jacob is a heavy hand of discipline that drives him to his knees so that he would become dependent upon God and not upon himself. God harasses Jacob almost his whole life long. Why? Because the Lord is not content to have wayward children. And yet the Lord completely ignores Esau. Have you ever noticed that in the story? The story starts between Jacob and Esau with Jacob seemingly winning over his brother, and yet by the end of the story, Esau’s absolutely loaded and he’s got way more wives than Jacob does, which in those days, children, meant he was rich and Jacob was poor. Now, of course, we know he wasn’t poor, but comparatively speaking, Esau had everything and his life was easy. Do you know why? Because God hated him. The display of God’s hatred for people is this: He leaves them alone. You see it in the world. Why do you think the people of this world are so happy and content and so rich? It’s because God’s left them alone. And yet let us not forget the story of Lazarus and Dives. Lazarus and Dives die. Lazarus goes to the bosom of Abraham, which, children, means heaven, and Dives goes to hell. And Dives cries out to Abraham in the parable and says, “Please, Abraham, help me.” And Abraham says, “Dives, you had your good things in this life, and Lazarus had bad things. But now it’s been reversed.” Esau had his good things, didn’t he? And he had his good things all the way to hell. Jacob carried his cross, and he carried it all the way to heaven. And the same is true for you and I. The very consequences which you are tempted to murmur about are the evidence that there is a Father in heaven who loves you.

So brothers and sisters, let us learn to kiss the hand of the Father that strikes us, because they are the blows of love. And as we saw this morning, they’re not made for our destruction, but for our redemption.