This is one of the most erroneous and dangerous teaching that exists in the Christian sphere. And I would say that this topic is what made me commit to opening up Musingwell after a talk to a fellow Christian who strongly believed in this. In their understanding, “breaking sheep’s leg” is (akin to giving His children diseases, sickness or disasters or accidents, etc) to teach us a lesson and get us closer to God. This is the first part of this musing, I don’t know how many will come out of it.
You only need to google this question and thank God, so many resources are out there to affirm my belief, that God is a loving father and in no way, shape and form would ‘break my leg’.
There are so many reasons as alluded by these resources online, that a shepherd would have nothing to gain by breaking the legs of a sheep, there is risk of infection, the sheep would be lame growing up and be the slowest one of the flock who could not keep up with the grazing with others, also there are no historical or cultural record in the Middle East that this happens.
I cannot imagine a God as loving father that would break the leg of his children to teach a lesson or to influence the children to love Him more.
That’s just outright sadistic. I’m a father myself, and I wouldn’t in my right mind orchestrate something so critical as a permanent critical injury as to teach a lesson to a child. And think about it, if the sickness or accident leads to coma or death, what lessons are there to learn?
The bible says about not sparing the rod, but it doesn’t mean that you beat the kid with a rod until he/she got a broken bone. Discipline is still required and sometimes a rod is necessary to break the will but not the character or the spirit of a child. There is a difference to breaking until bone is broken, which I believe is when the character/spirit of the child is also damaged in the process.
The same process as breaking the will of a horse, it needs to be tamed so that the power and glory of the horse can be channeled in the way it runs, gallops to the will of the master. Sure there is going to be restraint, a bridle, a rope and a whip to ensure that the horse understands the instructions, but as far I know where I came from, as soon as a horse got a broken bone, especially in the legs, it will not be able to race again. Hence the broken spirit/character analogy.
But enough about musing of my worldly thinking, what about of the scripture? Can you back it up? I’m glad you ask.
Firstly, in the New Covenant, God’s judgement on sin has been done on the cross, we’ve established that and the core of what Musingwell is all about.
Secondly, what is God? God is love (1 John 4:16) , and that the bible calls God’s judgement as a “strange act” in Isaiah 28:1 – (NIV) – “The Lord will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim, he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon— to do his work, his strange work, and perform his task, his alien task.”. I like how NIV puts it as “alien” task, it’s a foreign thing to God, it’s just not something familiar to Him.
So God is love, but He has judgement. Why?
Psalm 89:14 says “Righteousness and Justice are the throne of His foundation, mercy and truth go before Your face”
God cannot be love (merciful) and let our unrighteousness be, because His very throne is at stake, His ruling power and authority is based out of Righteousness and Justice. To extend mercy and love, but not to punish sin will jeopardize His throne (authority).
But to uphold His Righteousness, Justice has to be performed. A payment for the sins of man must be paid, a judgement from the Throne of God must be dispensed to thrice sinful man, but this will go against every fiber being of what God is which is love. Hence the dilemma that is presented to God and why Isaiah called it “a strange act”. What is the solution then?
1 Corinthians 15:57 – “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”
Through the cross, Jesus received the judgement on the cross for our sins and God’s Righteousness is upheld and God’s mercy and love is extended towards man. Hallelujah!
Hence to re-iterate, all judgement for sins (past, present and future) has been nailed to the cross, and that God’s love and mercy is extended towards us. Which again emphasizes the very fiber being of God and that He is love. And God is righteous in making us righteous. (Romans 3:26 – NKJV – “to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus”)
Now hence, when you want to see God, Jesus says that “He who has seen me has seen the Father”. Jesus is the embodiment of God walking on earth.
He has mentioned several parables using Shepherd and sheep circumstances.
One particular one, He mentioned that “He is the good Shepherd”, He will leave the 99 to look for the 1.
Firstly, no worldly shepherd would do that. Worldly shepherd would cut their loss and just go on with the 99. Why risk losing more of the leftover 99?
Secondly, when the Shepherd found the sheep, He puts it on His back and rejoices, and wants to celebrate with His friends.
I don’t see any mention of the good Shepherd breaking the legs of the sheep anywhere in the bible. Never will you see Jesus “breaking the leg of a sheep”. Thank God the bible said in the book of John that “Jesus went around healing all who were sick and oppressed by the devil”.
The bible didn’t say that Jesus went about “breaking legs of His sheep” that He dispenses leprosy to teach his sheep a lesson. That’s so crazy!
So if we see Jesus in the New Testament, that is the character of God which is love.
If God does want to teach us a lesson, He will do so out of His words (through the scripture), out of His words through our trusted friends, or He will allow you to be in an oppressive circumstance (within the bounds of His authority) – be it a demanding boss, an annoying colleague, a troublesome friend, etc.
Can you see this example in the New Covenant/New Testament? I had an example in mind and now it eluded me, but when it comes back I will write it in another musing post.
Again God doesn’t give cancers or diseases or accidents to teach you a lesson, just look at how Jesus is and reconcile that this is what God is like truly, which is love. Hence when you catch this in your heart, be blessed about the heart of the Father and Jesus towards you. One of these days, I will convert this musing into a bible study notes where it is led towards steering a discussion towards the truth of the gospel.