Chasten Your Son While There is Hope

Proverbs 19:10–19
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It isn’t right for a fool to live in luxury or for a slave to rule in place of a king (v. 10). Good sense makes a man restrain his anger, and it is his glory to overlook a transgression or an offense (v. 11). The king’s wrath is as terrifying as the roaring of a lion, but his favor is as refreshing as dew upon the grass (v 12). You will find a very unhappy home where a foolish son and a quarrelsome wife are found (v. 13). In fact, where you find one you often will find the other. For where the wife disputes her husband’s authority and takes sides with the children as well as opposes proper discipline it is bound to have a bad effect on the children. Children who grow up in a home where parents air their differences before them tend to despise authority and defy correction. You may inherit all you own from your parents, but a sensible wife is a gift from the Lord (v. 14). If you are lazy and sleep your time away, you will starve (v. 15). The commandments we are told to keep are those found in God’s Word. To obey what God teaches in the Bible is self-preserving. To disobey is self-destructive.

The person is shortsighted indeed who despises the ways of God and chooses to just go his own way. The person who chooses to follow the instructions of God’s Word will avoid his own destruction (v. 16). Giving to the poor is like lending to the Lord and it is truly an investment that He will reward (v. 17). The widow of Zarephath is a great example of this type of giving (I Kings 17:10-16). A child guilty of wrongdoing should be disciplined in his early years while there is hope for him (v. 18). In fact, to fail to administer such needed discipline may contribute to a premature death of the child. This may either come by punishment under the law or because of natural consequences brought on by the child’s foolish behavior in which he destroys himself. Many a child have been left to grow up in a home where there wasn’t much if any discipline. If there was any discipline it was often done in anger which only hardens the heart of the child. People with bad tempers are always in trouble, and they need help over and over again (v. 19).

Application

It is better to be pruned to grow than to be cut up to burn. I am thankful for all the pruning I have had by my parents and by the Lord but know I needed a lot more and still do.