You will go out at the breaks in the wall, Everyone straight before her; And you will cast yourselves into Harmon," says Yahweh.
Now, as long as you're a child you don't understand that. It's not until you become a parent that you understand it. I thought my dad was just feeding me the biggest line when he would say, "Son, this hurts me more than it hurts you." I did not believe that. I thought my dad was just putting me on, until I became a dad and I understood exactly what he meant. The hurt that you feel when it is necessary to punish your child, but you know you must for their own sake and for their own good chastise them, or else they could destroy themselves. But you don't want to inflict pain, but you know that you've got to somehow teach them the danger of their activities. So you are forced to chastise them, though it is an extremely painful thing to do. God, for our benefit, chastises us, and for Him it's a painful process. God says, "Turn! I don't want to meet you in judgment. I would rather meet you in mercy. I delight in mercy, not in judgment." I know that as a parent. I always look for any excuse not to spank them. "Say you're sorry, please say you're sorry." I was a softie. I would let them talk me out of it, with a very stern warning, "Next time..." And God doesn't enjoy chastising His children, but it is for our benefit and our good in order that we might turn to Him.So God brought various chastisements against the land. Oh, how we misunderstand God. Whenever a chastisement or judgment comes, somehow in our minds we picture God is angry with us, as I often pictured my dad angry with me, because I did not understand him. After being chastised, I would often go in my room and I'd begin to cry, "Nobody loves me. I don't even think my dog loves me anymore. Nobody loves me." Then I'd wish I were dead, because they would all feel sorry then if I were dead, you know. So you think about them standing around your casket crying like everything. The emotional traumas of a child.When in the Garden of Eden after Adam had sinned and the Lord came down in the cool of the day to walk with him, Adam hid himself from the presence of the Lord, for he realized that he was naked. God said, "Adam, where art thou?" That was not the cry of an arresting policeman, but the sob of a heartbroken Father. But so many times we read it and we think, "Oh man, here he is. Gonna wring his neck, 'Where are you!'" No. You've got to read that and hear the sob in the voice, "Adam, what have you done?" As God could see the effect of Adam's transgression upon the whole human race, you and me included. What we have suffered, and what mankind has suffered for the action of Adam. "Adam, where are you?" Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and the purpose is always to turn us to God from the path of self-destruction. God knows to continue that path is to destroy ourselves. So God speaks of those things.