Year 1, Week 45, Day 2 Bible Reading Observations

Year 1, Week 45, Day 2

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Proverbs 22-24.

Today’s reading concludes a section of Proverbs begun in chapter 10, and continues on with additional selections of proverbial sayings. These short pithy statements, contrast wisdom and righteousness with folly and wickedness as practical life themes such as work ethic, money, speech, family relationships, friendships, and governmental matters are explored. Wisdom in all of these areas is needed in order to build a stable life: “By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might, for by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory” (Proverbs 24:3-6).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was the insight provided in childrearing: “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). On the one hand, the entire Book of Proverbs is about childrearing. Most of the Book of Proverbs is framed as a conversation that a father is having with his son: “Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching” (Proverbs 1:8). So, first of all, childrearing consists of many, many conversations with your children. Parents can often grow frustrated with their children when they adopt an expectation that they shouldn’t have to give instruction to their children. This is an extremely unrealistic expectation. Children do not come filled with the knowledge that they need for life. This is true in most every area of life, but it is especially true in the spiritual and moral spheres of life. Parents are charged to provide that instruction to their children. The most likely chance that a child has for growing up with a strong sense of moral skill is that they were trained in it by their parents. Faithful parenting alone is not an automatic guarantee that a child will grow up to embrace the way of wisdom, but faithful parenting will strive for that goal. So the starting point of fostering wisdom and righteousness in children is for parents to actively train their children. There is not a better context for children to learn the way of wisdom than in the loving environment of parents who are actively engaged in the moral and spiritual training of their children.

But children need more than instruction. Certainly not less-instruction comes first in training; but assuredly more. Children are not simply uninformed and in need of information; children are not neutral in their uninformed state, they are resistant, sluggish, disinclined, uninterested, and even opposed to moral and spiritual instruction. Obtaining wisdom requires a strong measure of humility: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7). To put it plainly: children are not natively wise but foolish: “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him” (Proverbs 22:15). Instruction needs the aid of discipline. Discipline must not come before instruction, but instruction without discipline is inadequate training. The loving environment of parents who are actively engaged in the moral and spiritual training of their children is the best context to orient children to begin experiencing the consequences of their folly. Learning and experiencing such realities at an early age prepares them to grasp the reality of consequences in life. There is no guarantee that a child will go up to become an adult who grasps the concept of consequences, but there is little chance that they will when they are not appropriately disciplined starting early in life: “Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol” (Proverbs 23:13-14); and: “Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death” (Proverbs 19:18). When discipline is absent from the task of childrearing then they fail to learn about consequences; if they have to start learning the reality of consequences later in life, then the consequences will typically be much more dire in nature.

Disciplining a child can often seem contrary to loving the child, particularly in a culture like today that has especially distorted notions of what love consists of; but discipline should be seen as a vital component of love: “My son, do not despise the LORD’S discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights” (Proverbs 3:11-12). Even a discipline that is punitive can be loving: “Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him” (Proverbs 13:24). One reason why discipline and love can fit together is that love seeks the best for another, and seeking the best for our children should include, very high on the list, moral and spiritual development. It is not loving to permit children wander off down a path that their own foolish heart prompts, so that they live a shameful life: “The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother” (Proverbs 29:15); and: “A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother…He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame” (Proverbs 10:1,5); and: “He who does violence to his father and chases away his mother is a son who brings shame and reproach. Cease to hear instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge” (Proverbs 19:26-27). Certainly, children who are faithfully instructed and disciplined can go up and live shamefully, but parents who love their children properly have sought to lovingly train their children to go in an honorable direction.

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe