The Hand that Smites

"For the people turneth not unto Him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of hosts." Isaiah 9:13

God is not being malicious when He smites. He is not a sadist (Lamentations 3:32, 33). He finds no delight in causing affliction. Affliction is a necessary evil. It is always meant as an attention-getter, meant to make us turn around and seek God in the matter. If He smacks you on the back of the head, like any good father would do to a misbehaving child, He does not want you to wilt like a dead flower and whimper like a quivering puddle of spinelessness. His smiting is to smack you back to reality so that you, with all the power and honor of a child of God, pull yourself up by your bootstraps and say as Samuel said, "Here am I, Lord."

How quickly we fade like chaff in the wind under the hand that smites. It should not be. Through Christ we come from hardier stock, i.e., the bloodline of God Himself. There is no whine or whimper in a child of God, only the rousing of yourself up by the power of the new man within to seek the Lord while He may be found.

"There is no possibility of lying like a limp jellyfish on God's providence," says Oswald Chambers. God's smiting is meant to rouse you to seek Him, not shatter you into whining pieces of self-pity. There is no backbone in Christendom anymore: we do not really believe that all things are working for our good, including the smiting of God.