Proverbs 3 · a question people ask
Is every hardship the LORD's discipline?
Proverbs 3:11-12 speaks of "the LORD’s discipline" and "his correction" (3:11), given to the one the LORD loves (3:12). It doesn't say what the discipline is, and it doesn't say that every trouble or illness is discipline. In John's Gospel, Jesus' disciples asked about one man born blind, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9:2), and Jesus answered of that man, "This man didn’t sin, nor did his parents, but that the works of God might be revealed in him" (John 9:3). Hebrews, which gives words close to 3:11-12, says of discipline, "All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Hebrews 12:11). These notes don't call anyone's hardship the LORD's correction. What Proverbs 3:12 gives is the reason the LORD corrects: "for whom the LORD loves, he corrects" (Proverbs 3:12).
The verses
“My son, don’t despise the LORD’s discipline, neither be weary of his correction; for whom the LORD loves, he corrects, even as a father reproves the son in whom he delights.”
“His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “This man didn’t sin, nor did his parents, but that the works of God might be revealed in him.”
“All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”