Teach Your Children Well

For Thursday, August 3, 2006
Proverbs 1:8-9

Hear, my son, your father's instruction,
and forsake not your mother's teaching,
for they are a graceful garland for your head
and pendants for your neck.

This is a good lesson for parents and children. First to children: what you may regard as chains around your neck, burdening and holding you down are really garlands and pendants to adorn you. Their instructions and rules are for your protection and your growing in maturity and wisdom - and wisdom is the finest of jewels. Their teachings which may appear to be outdated are based on principles that have stood the test of time, and much of what they have to teach they learned from experience. Understand further that they have been entrusted by God with raising you according to his ways. It is a great responsibility and all the more reason then for you to listen to them regardless of how well you think they follow their own rules. You will be held accountable by God for how well you listened and obeyed godly instruction, regardless of your parents ability to obey. You will be accountable for your own behavior.

Then to parents: see the great responsibility laid upon you. Are you indeed giving instruction that is graceful and valuable. Are you teaching the ways of the Lord? Are you teaching what it is to be just, to be godly, to be merciful? Or do you lay heavy burdens on the necks of your children that you yourself would not bear? And are you living before your children the very principles that you teach them to observe? You must teach your children; you must give instruction. You cannot evade that responsibility. All the more then, study the Word of God, seek after wisdom, and follow what you teach.

And always point your children to the Word - Jesus Christ. Do not let them think that life is about following the right rules. Teach them the salvation found only in our Lord, and teach them to live by his grace and mercy.

Fear of the Lord

For Wednesday, August 2, 2006
Proverbs 1:7

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.

To have right knowledge, one must have a right perspective on reality. The skills of a mountain climber avails nothing if the climber is ascending the wrong mountain. Indeed, they take him further away from the goal. Reality is grounded - it exists - in God. Thus, knowledge begins with a right understanding of God. And yet, knowledge about God is not enough as Satan has demonstrated. There are scholars who know more about Christian doctrine than most true believers, and yet they do not believe. And there are those who "sort of" believe, even have convinced themselves they do believe, but do not fear the Lord - the essence of belief.

One cannot know God and do not fear him; for even that small part that we can know should move us to acknowledge him as our Sovereign Ruler whom we exist to serve. To know God is to grasp that we live for his glory. To know God is to grasp that all creation exists for his glory. To fear God is not a mere matter of being a bit frightened by him as we would a supernatural being. Surely to be in the presence of God would be an unnerving experience as demonstrated by Isaiah and John. Surely we should tremble to be in the presence of Holiness. But the essence of biblical fear is about right relationship - the relationship of the Creator and his creatures.

It is this matter of relationship which accounts for the latter half of the proverb - that fools despise wisdom and instruction. They despise true wisdom and instruction because such things require of them knowing and accepting a right relationship with their Maker. They must acknowledge God as Lord over them, and that they refuse to do. Thus, however they may grow in mastering information, they are in the same dilemma as the misguided mountain climber.

Keep this in mind as you study and meditate on these proverbs. For if you begin on any other path than the fear of the Lord, they will only help you move more easily along the wrong path. And how do we know the right path? By passing through the right Gate, Jesus Christ. In him alone will these proverbs take you along the path of the truth, the way, and the life.

Increase in Learning

For Tuesday, August 1, 2006
Proverbs 1:5-6

Let the wise hear and increase in learning,
and the one who understands obtain guidance,
to understand a proverb and a saying,
the words of the wise and their riddles.

Note the supposition of Solomon. The wise can always increase in learning. They do not reach a stage of learning all they need to know. Furthermore, it requires wisdom to learn. Two men may have the same mental faculties, but one is able to benefit from knowledge in a way the other does not. Why? One possesses the wisdom to know that he needs to learn more and the wisdom to discern what is worth learning. The other is foolish, thinking he already knows more than enough or else uses knowledge for foolish purposes. Thus, "let the wise hear and increase in learning."

Take these verses as a call to you to prepare your mind for learning and obtaining guidance. You want to know how to better communicate with your neighbors, how to deal wisely with the daily challenges of life, how to use your money properly, and so on. These proverbs will give you practical counsel in these things, but they will require of you thoughtful attention. You will have to think through what they are saying (some in riddles), discern their practical implications, and (the hardest work of all) examine your heart and life in light of them. You will have to ask yourself how you have played the fool and even the role of the wicked as described in these proverbs.

For as a person grows in righteousness through sanctification sees more clearly the depth of his sinfulness, so the person who grows in wisdom sees more clearly his foolishness.

To Know Wisdom

For Monday, July 31, 2006
Proverbs 1:2-4

To know wisdom and instruction,
to understand words of insight,
to receive instruction in wise dealing,
in righteousness, justice, and equity;
to give prudence to the simple,
knowledge and discretion to the youth-

It is not enough to know your goal, be it to obtain financial security or to win the world for Christ. Knowing the goal is essential, but one must also be wise to attain it. We must have wisdom to understand the goal and its value. We must engage in wise dealing, knowing what pitfalls to avoid, how to speak in a way that wins our hearers. It is well enough to desire righteousness, justice, and equity - but to achieve such things in a world of sin takes shrewdness, keeping aware of shrewd enemies.

Most of all we have to deal with the great obstacle of our own sinful nature. We may think we are for righteousness, justice, and equity, but it takes wisdom to recognize our selfishness and prejudices so that we can actually make progress. We need prudence and knowledge to protect ourselves from our own desires, desires that are fanned by the temptations of the world. Many an idealist has fallen because he failed to use prudence.

Many a Christian falls because he thinks being a Christian somehow gives him all the wisdom he needs. Because he is a Christian, surely his motives are in order. He is baffled by how others get so easily offended and keep misinterpreting his words and behavior. He is even baffled by God allowing bad things to happen to him when he is living for the Lord.

Turning to Christ is turning to wisdom; but to follow Christ is to commit oneself to a lifetime of studying wisdom. Proverbs is a good instruction book for meditating on the wisdom needed to follow Christ and be a useful servant.