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In the old days when mules were used for plowing, a farmer, who gave
up farming, didn't know what to do with his unemployed mule. He had
grown very attached to the beast. Finally, he decided to put it out
to pasture.
The farmer's neighbor, who needed a mule, noticed the idle mule in
the pasture and asked if he could buy it. The owner said, "I've had
this mule for many years and am quite attached to it. I'll sell it
to you if you promise to take very good care of it. I don't want
you mistreating it." The neighbor agreed.
Several days later the new owner went back to the previous owner
complaining that the mule was stubborn and would do no work. So the
previous owner went to see what was going on.
"Let me see what you're doing," the former owner asked. So the new
owner got behind the mule and plow, shook the reins, and yelled, "Ye
Ha!" to get the mule to start plowing.
Nothing! The mule just stood there. Several times the farmer
yelled, "Ye Ha," but still nothing.
The former owner said, "You're doing everything right, except for
one thing." He got behind the plow, took the reins in one hand, and
with several feet of slack rein in the other hand, he smacked the
mule twice on the rear end, and yelled, "Ye Ha!" The mule
obediently began plowing.
The new owner was amazed. When he found his tongue, he said, "Wait
a minute. You told me to take very good care of this mule and not
mistreat it, and here you go and smack it with the reins."
"That's right," the former owner said. "But if you're going to get
him to do what he's supposed to do, you have to get his attention
first."
I thought of this story when I was reading Hebrews 12 on
chastening. "My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord,
nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth he
chasteneth . . ." (Heb. 12:5b-6). In Scripture, instruction and
chastening are inseparable.
The Hebrew word musar is used twenty-four times in the Book of
Proverbs where instruction and chastisment are almost synonymous.
It is a truism of education that if we are to be instructed, the
instructor must first have our attention!
Perhaps that sharp pain you're feeling on your gluteus maximus is a
message from The Instructor that He wants your attention.
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