NOTES for Pro 3:11-12

It is not surprising that a person's relationship with God also presupposes God's instruction toward that person; the corresponding Hebrew word means, first of all, not "punishment," but precisely "instruction" or "correction." What are God's instructions like? And do they presuppose punishment in the sense in which we use this word today, and not in that archaic meaning assumed by the Synodal translation? Much here depends on how one understands instruction and punishment, and on where one sees the goal and meaning of each.

In the fallen world, instruction is often reduced to a kind of gentle training: a person is instructed in order to instill in him the corresponding rules of behavior, namely those advantageous and convenient for society. Often no one thinks about the person himself. Usually it is either presumed that the rules of behavior worked out by society are certainly good for everyone, or for those called "normal people" - in practice, this actually means precisely those people for whom the rules worked out by society are acceptable - or it is taken for granted that society and its interests are more important than the interests of an individual person, and more important than that person himself. And for those who, for some reason, do not want to accept this order of things, punishments are provided, whose goal is either harsher training where gentle training does not work, or revenge on the one who dares violate the rules of the game established for everyone. Of course, no one gives a thought to the person, to his spiritual life, or to his spiritual condition: such things are considered each person's private business, which concerns no one except the person himself and interests no one.

For God, however, the most important thing is precisely the person's spiritual condition, for which He cares above all. His main goal is to change a person inwardly in such a way that he becomes capable of full communion with God. Of course, in doing this He often has to rebuke a person, pointing out to him in various ways those sins, or simply those features of character and way of life, that can become an obstacle on the spiritual path. But God does not need trained beasts, even highly intelligent ones. Nor does He intend to take revenge on anyone.

Therefore punishments in the earthly sense are of no use to Him. The only thing God uses as something resembling our earthly punishments is His withdrawal. At times, when it becomes clear to Him that a person wants no relationship with Him, He can simply turn away from that person. Of course, He never forgets anyone definitively; otherwise the person whom God forgot would simply disappear like smoke. At times He can hand over an individual person or a community of people, and sometimes an entire nation, to their own fate. Usually this is enough for those who have been left to begin loudly crying out about God's punishment. Although in reality, of course, there is no punishment from God here at all: people are simply reaping the fruits of their own sinful life, and this harvest is in no way softened by God's intervention. For a person, such nonintervention proves more terrible than any punishment, since every punishment has a beginning and an end, and most importantly, it always has at least some meaning. Evil, however, whether generated by people or demons, has neither purpose nor meaning. And without God's intervention, it would also have no end. Without such intervention our world would already have turned into hell today. This is the harshest instruction of all those to which God resorts when addressing a person: to let him feel what hell is already here on earth. A frightening lesson, but an entirely visible one.