Some will see this post as a need to defend myself. That is not the case. I wanted to defend the Bible. Today I got caught up in an "argument" on Facebook (silly, stupid, and absolutely pointless I know) about "spanking." I would feel the need to defend myself if I felt I were doing anything wrong, but I'm not. I do, however, feel the need to defend the Bible because of the way people distort it! I realize that God doesn't need my help, but it irritates me to no end that people make "God" into a monster, and "Jesus" into this hippie type, love everybody, do good dude/homeboy. So we separate Old Testament and New Testament and we conveniently take the Bible OUT of context and apply it to our modern day human psychology. In other words, we twist the Bible OUT of context to fit it into modern life and thought. The Bible is MUCH more simple than that. So, down to the brass tacks on spanking:
The verse I used initially was Proverbs 23:13-14, " Do not withold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with the rod you will save his soul from Sheol."
-So, let's get down the the nitty gritty. The word Discipline in Hebrews is transliterated: muwcar. It means, "1) discipline, chastening, correction. The word rod is Hebrew- shebet . It means, a) rod, staff. The word strike is nakah, and is used 500 times in the Bible with different meaning. For THIS verse, since the scripture says, "he will not die," we can cut out MANY of the meanings. "To give a thrust" is the most fitting definition. The others are NOT to be applied, or confused, with disciplining a child. We are NEVER to bruise, wound, beat, attack, or kill a child. The purpose of discipline is only to startle a child, not to inflict serious injury such as bruising.So to understand this a little better we need to put it IN CONTEXT.
What is the context? Well, the context is found in the meaning of the words used. We could put it like this,"Do not withhold chastening or correction from your child. If you apply force to your child's bottom, he will not die. If you swat him with the rod of correction you will save his soul from hell." Well, how is that possible? God gives us a perfect illustration as a shepherd tends to his flock. David uses the rod in Psalm 23. He says, "Thy rod and thy staff comfort me." Same word, shebet. So, what did shepherds use the rod for? Four things (and this is from a secular source on shepherding, www.ehow.com) 1. Throw the rod gently at a sheep to get its attention or warn it not to do something. Shepherds use rods this way as a tool of discipline. Do not throw it to hurt the sheep, just to startle them into compliance. 2. Club a predator 3. Inspect sheep 4. Poke and press into line. Number 1, throw the rod gently at a sheep to get its attention shows a physical disciplinary technique. To startle the sheep. Same could go for "giving a thrust" to a child's bottom. To startle him into compliance! So, why is this comforting? Well we know that the ONLY reason we would get any sort of physical discipline is to keep us from danger. What danger does a child of God have in disobeying his mom or dad? Well, Proverbs 23 says hell. Disobedience of mom and dad leads to disobedience and disrespect for God. Disciplining a child teaches him compliance, obedience, and respect. It is for the BENEFIT of the child, not for the destruction of the child. God does not discipline HIS sheep to hurt them, bruise their character, or destroy them. God disciplines to train, guide, and lift up a person to LIFE. This should be our goal in discipline! Sometimes simply pulling the child back from danger doesn't train the child. He'll do it again because he doesn't realize the danger (and there was no consequence for his action). Sometimes the child needs to be startled (spanked) and redirected. If you don't know anything about sheep you would have a harder time understanding the physical discipline, and redirection needed, to redirect the animal. Sheep are not intelligent animals (not saying children are not intelligent. I am only saying that they do not understand the complexities of life yet. They do not understand if they run out in the middle of the road they will get hit by a car. This is why God gives them parents)! Sheep DO NOT UNDERSTAND "reasoning" or "communication." It was said that the staff was only used to "point" in the direction the sheep should go. Yea, right. A sheep needs to be "poked" and MOVED into the direction you want it to go. With a little force. Not to cripple, but to say, "hey, move here or I will physically move you.Next time they will know, "I don't want to go there, I'll get poked." If you believe you could point a herd of sheep in the right direction, I would invite you to the farm. I would seriously like to see that.
Like sheep, children also can not understand WHY you are giving the command. So, you apply physical discipline as a punishment, instead of reason. A kid understands, "if I run away from mom in the parking lot I will get a spank." They can not possibly understand, "if I run away from mom in the parking lot I could potentially get hit by a car and die." What is death? They don't know what death is! Tell them they are going to die and they say, "die?" "Ok... die." If you spank them, however, they can understand that immediate consequence. One more example. If a child hits another child. You say, "you can't hit, you will hurt the other child." O.k., well what is hurt? What is pain? THEY DON'T KNOW! But if you pop them on the bottom when they hit Bobby in the face, they will understand hitting leads to punishment. THEN at an advanced age you can explain hurt, feelings, consequence of actions, etc.. So I believe at an older age physical discipline won't be needed as often.
To say the verse above (Proverbs) doesn't literally mean physical punishment is ridiculous. What do we strike with? Authority? Our words? Nope, I don't think so.
Why did I feel the need to defend the Bible? Because acting like God doesn't discipline His children physically, or with force, paints God in the wrong light. Then when He DOES punish with the "rod" of correction, He looks cruel and evil. UNLESS you understand that discipline is ONLY out of love. Hebrews 12:11 says,"For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." The goal is fruit of righteousness. Not to "beat down" a child as someone put it. Yes, I agree with that statement, but spanking isn't parallel with "beating them down," so stop intertwining the two. People run from one side of the "ditch" to the other side (not spanking at all to beating). There can't be a balance in some peoples minds. In these peoples minds it always comes down to, "your hitting your child and hitting leads to more hitting." Yes, maybe if you were hitting your child it would. I never HIT my children, and the Bible doesn't instruct us to hit them. It instructs us to physically get their attention, and my son knows the difference. If he acts out and hits someone, as all children do at some point, it is out of anger or frustration. Physical discipline is never out of anger or frustration, and children notice the difference.
It is important for us to understand HOW to discipline our children so we understand our relationship with God. Sometimes we do not understand WHY we can't do something. God says, "don't do this," we do it and punishment results, so we learn, "uh oh, don't want to do that again!" We may not understand the complexities of the situation! Same goes with disciplining. The Bible says to do it! Don't do it and you will be punished by your child, "The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left [to himself] bringeth his mother to shame. " Proverbs 29:15
