My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.
Proverbs 1:8-9 (KJV)
How many of you did your homework assignment last week? Truthfully, I had to revisit my notes to remember that I gave an assignment last week.
Last week you were supposed to learn to fear the Lord. That fear, or high reverence and awe, is the first step to gaining wisdom. Because once you learn to fear the Lord, you begin to act upon His Word, obey His Commands, and do things His Way.
Here is an interesting nugget of truth. We are going through Proverbs in order to attain more wisdom, which we learned in last week’s lesson means knowledge that we implement in our lives. Now, look at the following verse. “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30, emphasis added).
If you are, in fact, in Christ Jesus and following Him, all of the wisdom found within Proverbs should become a part of you. Christ is wisdom and you have His Spirit within you; thus, all you need to do is listen to Him and obey. That is wisdom.
Those last two paragraphs were just added nuggets of truths, but now let’s get back to our journey into Proverbs.
Proverbs1:8 tell us to hear the instructions of our fathers. “To hear,” means more than just physically hearing him talk. Rather it means that we should intelligently listen to his words with the implication that we will obey his instructions. Furthermore, when we look at the word instruction, which is muwcar, we find that it means chastisement, reproof, discipline, and warning. So we can say that we should intelligently consider and implement our father’s words and learn from his warnings and his disciplines.
Also verse 8, instructs us to not to forsake the law of our mothers. In some countries, cultures, and beliefs, the mother does not have the authority to instruct her own children. The father has complete authority over everything.
Sinful man attempts to contaminate God’s divine laws of equality. God equally values all people whether they are male or female, rich or poor, or strong or weak. Whereas, sin suppresses and devalues anything that is physically or socially weaker: such as, females, servants, or slaves. However, this is not God’s way. And if you ask me, we should always strive to do things God’s way because He knows what He is doing.
So now, we know that we should listen attentively and compliantly to our father’s instructions and learn from all of his warnings and disciplines. Further, we should heed our mother’s laws, never forsaking or abandoning those laws. This goes right along with one of the Ten Commandments. “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee” (Exodus 10:12).
Honor, kaba´d, means to do well by, respect, esteem highly, richly bless, and have courteous regard. Therefore, we should honor our fathers and mothers, by respecting their authority, accepting their instructions, and attentively comply with their laws. Further, we should always do well by our parents, bestowing rich blessings upon them. This means that once our parents get older and frailer, we must take care of their needs, just as they took care of us as young children.
Unfortunately, during my years as an accountant, I saw just the opposite from sinful man. Too many times, I saw adult children dishonor their parents through lies, greed, or manipulation. Just as soon as their parents suffered from any form of physical or emotional weakness, sin came swarming in.
Just as buzzards pick at a carcass, these sin-filled children pick at their parent’s property and money, either through outright stealing or persuasive manipulation. Moreover, when all of the parent’s property and money were gone, the buzzards flew off…never to be seen or heard from again. That is just the opposite of God’s divine laws, and according to Exodus 10:12, the sin-filled children’s days will be shortened.
There sure was a lot of information that could be gleaned from just one little verse, so let us go on to see what our next verse holds in store for us.
Verse 9 tells us that our parent’s instructions, laws, and disciplines are valuable. Honorable instructions and disciplines are life enhancing and improve our dignified walk through this world. Consequently, we should value those instructions like a precious ornament around our necks.
If you happened to misplace a costly, beautiful, diamond necklace, you would search everywhere for it. You might not be able to eat or sleep until you found it and it was back safely in your hand. Likewise, if you get away from your parents’ wise teachings, you should search for those teachings until they are, once again, back safely in your heart. Heeding wise instructions from wise parents will keep you from acting foolishly.
But I like the New Living Translation version of verse 9. “What you learn from them will crown you with grace and clothe you with honor.”
Well folks, that’s about all that we have time for this week, but I do want to leave you with a preview of next week. Next week, we are going to discuss verses 10 through 19. In those verses, we will learn that we should never let anyone entice us into doing evil. The pathway of evil is like a steep, slippery slope; once you start down it, it is almost impossible to stop and reverse your direction.
Sin whispers to the wicked, deep within their hearts. They have no fear of God to restrain them. In their blind conceit, they cannot see how wicked they really are. Everything they say is crooked and deceitful. They refuse to act wisely or do what is good.
Psalms 36:1-3 (NLT)
Three Key Concepts:
1. Knowing Christ Jesus gives you wisdom, “…made unto us wisdom.”
2. Honor your father and mother and value their laws.
3. Heeding your parents’ honorable instructions and disciplines is life enhancing.
