The rod was dipped in love'
Back to Man's religion & God's religion 5
"I will bear the indignation of the Lord,
because I have sinned against Him."
Micah 7:9
It is a view of our sins against God that
enables us to bear the indignation of the
Lord against us and them.
As long as we are left to a spirit of pride and
self-righteousness, we murmur at the Lord's
dealings when His hand lies heavy upon us.
But let us only truly feel what we rightly deserve
—that will silence at once all murmuring. You may
murmur and rebel sometimes at your hard lot in
providence. But if you feel what you deserve—it
will make you water with 'tears of repentance'
the hardest cross.
So in grace, if you feel the weight of your sins,
and mourn and sigh because you have sinned
against God, you can lift up your hands sometimes
with holy wonder at God's patient mercy that He
has borne with you so long—that He has not smitten
you to the earth, or sent your guilty soul to hell.
You will see, also, that the heaviest strokes were
but fatherly chastening—that the rod was dipped
in love—and that it was for your good and His glory
that it was laid on you.
When this sense of merited indignation comes into
the soul, then meekness and submission come with
it, and it can say with the prophet—"I will bear the
indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned
against Him."
You would not escape the rod if you might.