And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:

“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord,

Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him.

(6) For whom the Lord loves He chastens

And scourges every son whom He receives.”

(7) If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?

(11) Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.  (12) Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, (13)  and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.

The main theme for the letter to the Hebrews – author unknown – is that Jesus Christ is superior to all and that knowledge of Him is antidote to the backsliding of Christian Jews who feared persecution for their faith.  The whole book was written to keep the Jews from giving up their belief in Christ.  In the ancient world the father had authority – in the Roman world he had absolute authority – and disclipline of the sons was to be expected.  God gives us disclipline as His children not to weaken us but to build us up –  the cure for hopelessness is hope in God.

Chapter 12 is not a feel good chapter but a massive statement about the sovereignity of God.  What seems hostile and adversarial for sinners is meant for training – God means for their good, their perfection and salvation.  We must remember that in pain we are not the enemy.  We are treated as a loved child – will we surrender and be subject to God’s love or rebel and die?  Instruction, disclipline, correction are warnings and all are designed to drive out evil.  They are a sign that God regards us as genuine children.

There is a natural suffering because we are human – a gradual breakdown of the aging body – sickness, injury, loss of loved ones.  We must remember that pain is not the whole story and that there is always a later on; the present will be swallowed up in the afterward.  We have a limited, timebound perspective and must focus on the goal.  All discipline is designed to chasten us for our profit as partakers of His holiness.  This letter was a call to the Hebrews to rise up out of their despair and to get ready for the race as without it the prize will never be won.  We are told to keep our eyes on Jesus and accept the trials as the very means of His grace;  to take courage and yield and surrender to Him, as this is the first step onto the course.

Pain and fear focus the mind powerfully.  If we cease to believe in God because of suffering that does not mean that God ceases to exist.  Again, a quote from C.S. Lewis:  God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience but shouts in our pains:  it is His megaphone to arouse a deaf world.