brownchair
Read 2 Kings 17:14-23
“Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only” (v. 18).

Having grown up in the 50’s and 60’s under the training of parents who believed in teaching us that children were responsible for behavior, sometimes the rod (maybe a yardstick or green switch) was employed. Sometimes we got the “brown chair treatment.” The brown chair was a place where we could sit and reflect upon our misdemeanors and consider how we might adjust our attitudes to be more conformable to the expectations of parents.
Admittedly, as a parent I sometimes counted to ten. Counting is condemned by those who may have it all together, but I was not one of those. Sometimes counting to ten gave me time to think of the next step. Sometimes a time-out chair was safer for the child than corporal discipline, and again, it gave me time to formulate a plan.
God gave Israel a “time-out” not because He was fearful that He would overreact nor because He did not have a next step in mind. He set Israel aside so they could reflect. He set them aside so they could reject those things which had displaced God. (Lonnie Witt)
God sometimes sets us aside so we can deal with carnal pride.
God sometimes sets us aside so that we can better accept Him as a guide.
— Lonnie Witt

It is better to take a time-out voluntarily than it is for God to impose one on us.

This is the February 3, 2014 devotional from Opening the Word.
Photo Credit: "chair" by qmnonic used under CC BY 2.0 / Cropped and resampled.