Genesis 49:6 English Standard Version (ESV) Let my soul come not into their council; O my glory, be not joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.

While some might not connect that last post with this verse, the Lord has connected the life in Christ with living in the world with the issue of the hamstrung ox.

Oxen are service animals. We serve the Lord. In this example we are the ox.

Hamstrung is a process of crippling the ox. Willfulness hamstrings us. That is willfulness in the living world, not the life in Christ. The desires of the flesh oppose the spirit according to Galatians 5:17 and the spirit opposes the flesh. The desires of the flesh are sins.

Our sins hamstring us in living as servants for Christ. This cripples our walk with Christ. This keeps us from keeping up with Christ. If we do not keep an appointment Christ will choose another servant to enact His will.

Because Christ is the good and perfect physician He will heal us of this cut if we will come to Him with the self-inflicted wound. Sin is our self-inflicted wound that hamstrings our walk with Christ.

This is how we get healed from our self-inflicted wounds. We make an appointment with our Good Physician by repentance and keep that appointment by confession. We are then healed by forgiveness. As always, the doctor’s orders for future care is “Stop doing that to yourself.”

What happens when we do not follow the Doctor’s orders?

He writes us a prescription for our lack of self control. It is called chastening. Like a doctor the first dose is administered in the office. That chastening has a lasting effect after we leave His office and return to the world.

If we don’t take our medicine we will only get sicker.