by Lashes and wounds purge away evil, and beatings cleanse the innermost parts. Proverbs 20:30
Spanking is physical or corporal punishment. A recent review of secular parenting literature suggests that society has lost the understanding of the nature of corporal punishment and its role in behavior change in children. Recently corporal punishment has gone out of style in secular and Christian communities as a discipline strategy. In some circles, spanking is even considered immoral and cruel. This trend was not always the case, however, as the Bible shows us. The language of Proverbs 20:30 cannot be more clear that physical punishment such as lashes and beatings can be beneficial to people. I have recently been asking how physical discipline such as spanking works because God is miraculous, not magical. God is orderly and rational, so there must be a way that spanking “cleanses innermost parts.”
I do not advocate for parents acting on modern interpretations of lashing or beating or otherwise severely punishing a child physically or otherwise. How one uses corporal punishment in child-raising is an essential question, but not the subject of this essay.
Examining the structure of Proverbs 20:30 is vital for the point I am going to make. Lashes and evil, beatings and innermost parts. Lashes and beatings are external activities humans can perform, but purging evil and cleansing innermost parts are internal effects and outcomes. Humans can clean a cup and purge air from a radiator, but the purging of evil and cleansing innermost parts activity refers to something humans cannot do. As Christians, we believe (and depend on the fact that) only God can change (purge, cleanse) on that level what is inside us.
The Bible described this dichotomy about what God does to what man does in many places, but quite famously in the words of Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:7, “Man does not see what the Lord sees, for man sees what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart.” In this case, it is seeing: man sees the external, but God sees the internal, or the heart. The concept of man affecting the outer (i.e., body, the physical world) and God affecting the inner (i.e., heart, thoughts, intentions) is prolific in the Bible. It refers not only to the limitations of man but also the depth, completeness, and permanence of the work of God (Matt. 9:2-8).
However, Proverbs 20:30 suggests a compliment between outside (physical) work and inside (heart, spirit) work. What man does is spank, which seems to result in something being affected on the inside, which we know is the work of God because only God can cause the change of the heart. Ezekiel 36:26 (“I will give you a new heart”) describes a unilateral work of God on the heart, but Proverbs 20:30 suggests that an external work of man in some respect precedes the work of God. God commands man to do exterior work so a work of God will occur. Here are two other examples of God doing work that only God can do after people do commanded work.
Prayer
Prayer is an imperfectly described activity in Christianity. As much as people study prayers and even experience prayer, I suspect prayer will only be fully understood in heaven when we see God face to face. In this case, the mechanics of prayer are a mystery (to me, at least). Scripture states prayer is essential for some works of God but also cannot force God to do anything. Thus, a paradox of prayer is that God commands us to pray for things that God has already planned to do, and in some respects doing.
“...and My people who are called by My name humble themselves, pray and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.” 1 Chronicles 7:14
In this case, people pray, and God hears, forgives, and heals. Praying is an outward act or behavior people can do. After people pray, God does what only God can do, such as forgive sins. Can God forgive sins without people praying? Of course, He can and did, through Jesus. However, in 1 Chronicles 7:14, however, God describes something He does (forgive) after people do something they do (pray).
Matthew 6:9-13 is the Lord’s prayer. Jesus commands us to “pray like this,” and each line is something that God will do and has already done without people praying for it. People understandably question why we pray if God is just going to do it anyway. After all, He planned the death of Jesus before He even laid earth’s foundations (Heb 4:3). He is omniscient and is never surprised or caught off guard. If we believe God is sovereign and believe in all the promises of God, what is the point of praying? More specifically, if God supplies all of my needs (Phil 4:19), what is the point of asking for anything? And yet, we are told to pray that God gives us “our daily bread” and not just thank God for giving us our daily bread. This prayer is one of supplication-of asking. And then He gives us everything we need.
What, if anything, does prayer do? Why are we commanded to pray even though it seems like God is going to do things anyway? These are deeper issues that I will not discuss here. There is precedent for man to do something (e.g., pray, supplicate) and then for God to freely do something that only He can do. God can do these things without people praying, but He has intentionally created this connection between our prayer and His act.
Missions
God will change the hearts of people through an act decisively, and in a way, only He can do (see Ez. 36:26). Ephesians 1:4 says, “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” God planned the ultimate work of salvation and caused (predestination, election) from before “the beginning” for every child of God. Jesus said he would not lose even one sheep that the Father had given Him (John 6:37; John 10:29). The work of God is decisive to save us, so why does Paul make such a big deal about missions (i.e., going and preaching the Gospel to the ends of the earth)?
Romans 10:14 says we are supposed to go and preach the Gospel. Otherwise, people will not believe (“how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?”). So we have a situation where God has already chosen who He will save (predestination) and makes sure it happens (election), but states that people must go and preach for this to happen. So man must preach, and then God does the work of salvation. Again there are multiple right and wrong ways to make sense of this relationship between what man does and what God does, but the point is that man is commanded to do something, and then God sovereignly does something after that.
Physical Discipline
Lashes and wounds purge away evil, and beatings cleanse the innermost parts. Proverbs 20:30
God, of course, causes lashes and beatings, but the agent here is people. People lash and cause wounds and do beatings. Parents spank. God purges evil and cleanses hearts. It seems reasonable to state the verse another way:
People lash and wound; then God purges evil in the lashed and wounded.
People beat others; then God cleanses the hearts of the beaten.
or
Parents spank their children when they misbehave; then God transforms their hearts.
The relationship between parents spanking a child and God changing the child’s heart is consistent with what Scriptures indicate happens when people pray and preach. Spank, pray, preach; cleanse, provide, save. God has decided that man has a role in His decisive work, even, it seems, in the supernatural work of changing the heart of a child.
