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𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐬 𝟏𝟗:𝟏𝟖

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐲 𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐲 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥 𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐫𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠.

Do you want a family tree to God’s glory, man’s benefit, and your children’s happiness? The Creator God and King Solomon gave you two crucial rules in this proverb. What a privilege to know two points of certain truth, but you must apply them to get their benefit.

Is there hope for your children? It depends how old they are. Once set in ways of sin, it is very hard to reverse their foolish thinking. It may take a miracle to recover them, and God has not promised miracles for lazy parents. Get serious today about child training.

Train your children today: tomorrow may be too late. Do not waste a single day. You do not have forever. They quickly grow beyond training, and then they are gone from your influence. Efforts to train or chasten then will likely provoke them. It will be too late.

God gave them to you helpless and open to instruction. He gave you a window of time to train them, which closes very quickly. Then you must pray for a miracle, which God has not promised to give, if you chose to ignore or reject His wisdom earlier in their lives.

The proverb has two clear lessons for you. Child training and its related chastening must be done early in a child’s life, and this chastening must be done firm enough to cause proper pain, without compromise for foolish parental pity or tearful appeals by the child.

Child training is not an option; it is a commandment (Pr 22:6; Ep 6:4). Chastening is not an option; it is a commandment (Pr 23:13-14; 29:15,17). Chastening is the use of punishment to produce pain for the enforcement and reinforcement of training.

Chasten. To inflict disciplinary or corrective punishment on; to visit with affliction for the purpose of moral improvement; to correct, discipline, chastise.

The corrective punishment God teaches here is by the use of the rod (Pr 13:24; 22:15; 23:13-14; 29:15). Horses are trained to run fast with a whip, or riding crop; asses are kept controlled and made useful by bridles; fools are corrected from foolishness by a rod (Pr 26:3; 10:13). Some stripes on the back are a wonderful training method, as many generations of sober Americans and others would testify, if they could (Pr 19:29; 20:30).

Due to the influence of confused Benjamin Spock, who renounced his hallucinations before he died, spanking with a rod is now considered abusive, barbaric, cruel, or Neanderthal. But it was once practiced by all nations with good results, just as Solomon clearly taught. Speaking on behalf of our grandparents that practiced such child training, consider Encyclopedia Britannica’s entry for flogging in its 14th edition:

FLOGGING has been one of the most universally utilized methods of punishing public crimes, as well as a means of preserving family, domestic, military and academic discipline.

What happened to this scriptural, wise, obvious, and universal method of discipline and training for much of society? It was thrown out in the bathwater along with God, the Bible, the Ten Commandments, prayer in schools, creation, balanced budgets, protection of the unborn, opposite s*x definition of marriage, personal responsibility, duty and honor, and a secondary education good enough to read and grasp the Federalist Papers.

There is not a better idea than spanking for chastening children. God settled the issue by King Solomon’s rules for child training in the book of Proverbs. History, observation, and common sense confirm the wisdom. You cannot improve on it, no matter how many or how educated its opponents may be. If you waste your children’s early years wishing or looking for a different approach, they will soon shame and trouble you (Pr 29:15,17).

Two generations now have neglected chastening, and youth today are haughty, selfish, lazy, rebellious, and undisciplined compared to their chastened grandparents. Traits not allowed one hundred years ago in any children are now the norm. Public, academic, and employment standards are reduced regularly to accommodate an undisciplined generation. The folly of modern parenting is coming home to roost on their offspring.

Children, daughters included, will be well behaved when they are old, if you train them when young (Pr 22:15). You must chasten them betimes – early in life, while there is hope, before it is too late (Pr 13:24). Dear parent, get a strong sense of urgency today.

Betimes. At an early time, period, or season; early in the year; early in life. In good time, in due time; while there is yet time, before it is too late.

Chastening is God’s method for training your children for godly and successful lives, but it must be done early in life. If you wait too long, children become hardened in rebellion, established in their own thoughts, formed in their own habits, resentful of corporal correction, and able to leave the home and live on their own. As you know from delayed civil punishment, men are hardened to do evil when it is not speedily executed (Ec 8:11)

You must begin when they are young, and then only reminders will be needed later. Self-discipline and right conduct can be taught early, and they must be taught early. Every year of life makes it more difficult to change habits and attitudes. Train them now, while they are young. Consistent chastening early will do more good than harder and more frequent chastening later. The earlier you begin, the less is required. Start today!

Training can begin in infancy, for Hannah delivered Samuel to the priests at Shiloh right after his weaning (I Sam 1:24-28). He was prepared to live away from home, follow instructions, and worship God from a very, very early age. Self-discipline, a key virtue, can be effectively taught by what may or may not be touched to a diapered pupil in a highchair. True parental love finds creative ways to accomplish much of the goal early.

You must chasten early, and you must chasten firmly. Do not let tears and crying move you, for children quickly learn to beg, plead, promise, cry, and scream to avoid discipline. Ignore his tears now to save him and you much worse crying later. The interruption of domestic tranquility for a few minutes now is much less than the calamity coming without it. Do not let anything distract or stop you from grasping this sober equation.

It is ungodly pity that hinders you from doing your duty for their happiness and good. Eli’s choice to compromise with his sons brought infinitely more pain to his entire family and him than any short difficulty that chastening would have caused. Consider it! When you ignore a child’s infraction or a character fault in order to have a peaceful evening after work, you are asking for many years without peace in the near future.

No good parent enjoys chastening his child, for he would much rather hold him tenderly or enjoy his happy company, depending on age. But the goal of saving him from hell in life must drive you to your duty. True love is not just hugs and kisses: true love is correction; withholding correction is hatred (Pr 13:24). If you truly love your children, you want their very best in a functional and prosperous life, which requires chastening.

If you spare the rod, you hate your son, for you create future pain and trouble for him in his life. This foolish choice will come back to haunt both of you (Pr 29:15). David chose to spare the rod on Adonijah, and it cost that foolish son his life (I Kgs 1:6; 2:23). Never sacrifice the future on the altar of the present, no matter your dislike of chastening. Make your child great in the future by chastening him in the present – today, if he needs it.

Exalting friendship with your children will lead to problems, for it will be hard to chasten with the right consistency and severity. You must first be a parent, and then you can be a friend. Chasten them, and you will bring rest to your soul; you will be able to take perpetual ease later when your chastening has earned it (Pr 29:17). Your fellowship with successful children in the future will be great (Pr 10:1; 15:20; 17:21,25; 19:13; 23:24-25).

Do you want a great family tree to God’s glory, man’s benefit, and family happiness? The Creator God inspired King Solomon to give you two crucial child training rules in this proverb. Have you grasped the lessons? Do you understand the value? Can you see the consequences of your choice? What a privilege to know two points of certain truth for your family’s success, but you must apply them to benefit from them.

If you have young children, there is hope today. Do not plan on tomorrow, for your case may soon be hopeless. If you have been negligent in the past, confess your sin fully to God and beg Him for mercy for children already past the point of hope. He does forgive and can mercifully help you recover the lost opportunity (Joel 2:25-27). There is always hope with God on your side, but God charged you to start their training when young.

True Christians are God’s sons by adoption through Jesus Christ (Gal 4:4-7), and He proves His love by chastening them when they disobey. He does have pity (Ps 103:13-14), but He chastens and scourges every adopted son (Heb 12:6). Chastening proves His love, for only bastards are ignored to go their own way (Heb 12:7-8). If you receive painful results for sin, on the inside or outside, you can know you are greatly loved.

https://letgodbetrue.com/proverbs/index/chapter-19/proverbs-19-18/

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐬 𝟏𝟔:𝟐𝟗

𝐀 𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐫, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝.

Do you understand violence? The word “violence”? The concept of violence? There is much more to it than, for example, the 2013 sequel in 3D of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”

Men love to categorize and rank sins to justify themselves, and this includes the word and concept of violence. Are you willing to let God and Solomon teach you wisdom here?

The context of this proverb has condemned an ungodly man for digging up evil about others and sharing it (Pr 16:27), a froward man for sowing strife, and a whisperer for separating close friends (Pr 16:28). The proverb at hand condemns a violent man.

Violence may certainly mean the use of physical force to cause bodily harm, to destroy property, or to interfere with personal freedom. However, violence may also mean other harm to people, such as corrupting their morals and leading them to do something wrong.

Both kinds of violence are wrong. Persons capable of either kind should be avoided. The methods of such men should be explained, identified, and condemned. Those who seek to hurt others in any way are wicked and should be clearly marked as dangerous to men.

Violent people are not content being violent themselves – they entice others to join them in their abuse and injury of others, whether bodily or morally (Pr 1:10-19). They use all sorts of invitations and justifications to convince the gullible to join them in their sins.

The result is “the way that is not good.” This is the figure of speech called meiosis or litotes: intentionally understating a thing (Pr 17:26; 18:5). Literally, violent people lead men to folly and wickedness, a result considerably worse than merely “not good.” God drowned the earth with the Flood for corrupting His way on the earth (Gen 6:11-13).

Consider an example. So-called family planning counselors advise women to abort their babies. These are violent persons in the bodily harm sense – they want to shed innocent blood, so they entice foolish women with premeditated lies to help murder their babies.

What about a young man using, “I love you,” to steal a girl’s virginity? Has he done her violence? He has reduced her value, and she can never get it back (Deut 21:14; 22:24,29). He did it by enticement, and he led her into fornication – another way that is not good.

The Bible speaks of marital violence when divorce laws are used to get rid of a covenant spouse to pursue someone else (Mal 2:16). God hates abuse of divorce laws to get out of a right marriage or to get into another – He calls it marital treachery (Mal 2:10-16).

The Bible speaks of violence to God’s law (Zep 3:4). False teachers that abuse scripture fit the proverb perfectly (Mal 2:7-8). Of course, they use enticing words to prey on the gullible, especially women (Rom 16:17-18; II Tim 3:6-7). Paul feared the churches at Ephesus and Corinth would fall to their enticements (Acts 20:28-31; II Cor 11:1-4).

Let the breadth of this proverb sober you – s*xual health advisors, a hot date with a cool guy, marriage counselors suggesting divorce, and popular pastors teaching false doctrine. Can you identify them? Have you marked them? Do you reject and avoid these and other evil seducers (II Tim 3:13; Gal 1:6-9)? Are you guilty of any of their violence?

Rather than the corrupt ways of evil seducers of any kind, look for the old paths and the good way, where you can please God and find rest for your soul (Jer 6:16). How can you find such ways? In God’s written word the Bible, which you should use to judge everything you hear, no matter how enticing it might sound (Ps 119:128; Isaiah 8:20).

Let the words of Jesus Christ keep you in the right way, never measuring by popularity, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matt 7:13-14).

https://letgodbetrue.com/proverbs/index/chapter-16/proverbs-16-29/

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐬 𝟏𝟓:𝟑

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞, 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝.

Where can you hide from God’s sight? David could not hide in heaven, hell, the farthest parts of the sea, or in darkness (Ps 139:7-12). God is everywhere to see everything (Jer 23:24; 32:19). He is not watching from a distance, as one pagan lied in her popular song.

What can you hide from God’s sight? David could not hide his thoughts, dreams, or even his unspoken words (Ps 139:1-6). God fully knows even the thoughts and intents of your heart (Pr 15:11; Heb 4:12-13). There is nothing of your life that you can hide from Him.

What will God overlook or approve? The LORD is in His holy temple. His eyelids see and hate all of your hypocrisies, sins, and evil thoughts (Ps 11:4; Hab 1:13). Though you may excuse your sins to others or influence them by other means, you cannot affect God.

No matter where you go or what you try to hide, the LORD Jehovah sees and knows it all. All your ways are naked and opened to His all-seeing eyes (Pr 5:21; Job 34:21-22; Heb 4:13). If you have secret sins that others do not know, He knows each one fully.

Young reader, what is hidden in your bedroom? God sees it, knows why you have it, and will curse you for it. Achan buried stolen stuff in his tent, but the Lord showed it to Joshua; he and his family were stoned to death and burned for it (Josh 7:1-26). What is hidden in your heart? God sees it and will punish you, unless you repent.

Be sure your sin will find you out! God gave Moses these precious words (Num 32:23). You cannot hide sin from God. He sees and knows it all, and you will pay for it. The eyes of the Lord should cause you to tremble in holy fear and hate any thought of sin.

Men have lied to themselves that God does not see (Job 22:13-14; Ps 10:11; 73:11; 94:7; Ezek 8:12; 9:9). Reject such dangerous folly, dear reader, for it is Satan lying to you. Do not deceive yourself. You would not commit a crime knowing a policeman or judge was watching, so why consider sinning after knowing God the Judge of all is watching?

God also sees your good works. He does not miss a single prayer you make in secret (Matt 6:1-8). A poor widow sneaking her two mites into the treasury was fully known to God (Luke 21:1-4). Every good thing you have done will be remembered in the great Day of Judgment, even those you forget (Eccl 12:14; II Cor 5:10; Matt 25:31-40; Heb 6:10).

God sees every person, all eight billion of them. But His eyes look for those few that love and obey Him, and He will strongly bless them for it (II Chr 16:9). Though very great, He humbles himself to behold His children on earth (Ps 113:4-9). Though perfectly holy, He sees a man’s entire life and heart to overlook some faults (II Chr 15:17; I Kgs 15:3-5).

Christian woman, God sees all you do for your husband and children. Comfort yourself at the end of a long day that your Heavenly Father sees and cares. He knows and revenges any trouble that others cause you, even a cruel husband (Mal 2:13). Remember the case of poor Hagar – the Lord saw her and rescued her in her great need (Gen 16:1-14).

Christian, He sees all your afflictions, so comfort yourself in any distress. He bottles your tears and writes them in His book (Ps 56:8; Mal 2:15). He hears you talk about Him with others, and He writes your name down for it (Mal 3:16). Not a sparrow can fall without His providential care, and you are of more value than many sparrows. Trust Him today.

https://letgodbetrue.com/proverbs/index/chapter-15/proverbs-15-3/