04 7th, 2021

Hope for the Chastened

“You shall also consider in your heart, that, as a man chastens his son, so Yahweh your Elohim chastens you.”

The chastening of Yahweh can be a fearful thing. So fearful, in fact, that it can cause the recipient to believe his sin is so great that he can never be forgiven and is lost forever. Thoughts of having blasphemed the Holy Spirit, of having committed the willful sin of Hebrews 10, of being a cast away or a reprobate have gripped the heart of some of  Yahweh’s children.

Sometimes the chastening can be prolonged for years leading to the strengthening of those fears. Such a horrific fear of being lost forever can impair a saint’s ability to function effectively in daily life and can prolong the repentance process that the chastening was designed to bring about. It can actually hinder yielding the peaceable fruit of righteousness that our Father desires from us.

In an effort to help relieve those fears so that the child of Yahweh can proceed in the chastening process and be restored unto righteousness, I have compiled a list of verses and passages from the Word that may be helpful. Don’t give up hope brother or sister. Our Father loves you dearly and is chastening you for your good, not for your destruction.

Psalm 30:4-5 – Sing unto Yahweh, O you saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness. For His anger endures but a moment; in His favor is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

Psalm 37:28 – For Yahweh loves judgment, and forsakes not His saints; they are preserved forever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.

Psalm 94:12-15 – Blessed is the man whom you chasten, O Yahweh, and teaches him out of your law; That you may give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be dug for the wicked. For Yahweh will not cast off His people, neither will He forsake His inheritance. But judgment shall return unto righteousness: and all the upright in heart shall follow it.

Psalm 107:1, 9-14, 17-30 – O give thanks unto Yahweh, for He is good: for His mercy endures forever.

For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness. Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron; Because they rebelled against the words of Elohim, and contemned the counsel of the most High: Therefore He brought down their heart with labor; they fell down, and there was none to help. Then they cried unto Yahweh in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their bands asunder.

Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Their soul abhors all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death. Then they cry unto Yahweh in their trouble, and He saves them out of their distresses. He sent His word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. Oh that men would praise Yahweh for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing. They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of Yahweh, and his wonders in the deep. For he commands, and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end. Then they cry unto Yahweh in their trouble, and he brings them out of their distresses. He makes the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he brings them unto their desired haven.

Isaiah 54:7-10 – For a small moment have I forsaken you; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, says Yahweh thy Redeemer. For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with you, nor rebuke you. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from you, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, says Yahweh that has mercy on you.

Lamentations 3:1-41 – I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath. He has led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light. Surely against me is He turned; He turns His hand against me all the day. My flesh and my skin has He made old; He has broken my bones. He has built against me, and compassed me with gall and travail. He has set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old. He has hedged me about, that I cannot get out: He has made my chain heavy. Also when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer.

He has enclosed my ways with hewn stone, He has made my paths crooked. He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places. He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: He has made me desolate. He has bent His bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. He has caused the arrows of His quiver to enter into my reins.

I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day. He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drunken with wormwood. He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones, He has covered me with ashes.

And you have removed my soul far off from peace: I forgot prosperity. And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from Yahweh: Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul has them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

It is of  Yahweh’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. Yahweh is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in Him. Yahweh is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeks Him.

It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh. For Yahweh will not cast off forever: But though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto Elohim in the heavens.

John 6:37,39 – All that the Father gives me shall come to me; and him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out.

And this is the Father’s will which has sent me, that of all which He has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

Romans 8:1 – There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Messiah Yeshua, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 1:8 – Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Master Yeshua Messiah.

Philippians 1:6 – Being confident of this very thing, that He which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Yeshua Messiah:

2 Timothy 1:12 – For which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

Hebrews 7:25 – Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto Elohim through him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them.

Hebrews 10:12,14,17 – But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of Elohim;

For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.

And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.

Hebrews 12:1-2, 5-11 – Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Yeshua the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of Elohim.

And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of [Yahweh], nor faint when you are rebuked of Him: For whom [Yahweh] loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, Elohim deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chastens not? But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are you illegitimate, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh who corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them who are exercised thereby.

1 Peter 1:3-5 – Blessed be the Elohim and Father of our Master Yeshua Messiah, which according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Yeshua Messiah from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of Elohim through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

1 John 1:7,9 – But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Yeshua Messiah His Son cleanses us from all sin.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.