Who
is Responsible for Teaching Wisdom? Proverbs 4:1-9
There
are none who are perfect, the Scripture says, ÒNo not one.Ó We donÕt live
perfect lives. We live in a world that is corrupted by sin, a world where the institutions
that God established (referred to as the divine institutions) have all been
corrupted in our experience by sin: whether it is circumstances related to
individual responsibility, marriage or family; whether it refers to nation or
human government; all these divine institutions have been impacted by sin. They
are corrupt. Therefore when we look at a number of commands in Scripture
related to how we are to function within these different spheres of authority
we recognize that all human authorities have problems, because they too are
corrupted by sin. And so we have to learn from the Scripture
how to best function within those systems.
That
immediately presents a problem for some of us. Some of us have an area of
weakness that tends toward legalism and can only think in terms of absolute
black and white, and it is impossible to see any grey area. And yet the Bible
does talk about areas of what we might call greyness.
There are those categories of absolute morality, absolute right and wrong,
righteousness and unrighteousness, justice and injustice, that which is
obedience to God, that which is disobedience to God.
In
wisdom literature wisdom is not always a matter absolute right and wrong. There
are some things that are wise and some things that are not wise, but this one
is more in a spectrum. Some of us are in circumstances where we would like to
apply what we know to be the wisest. And when we use that suffix on the word
wise we know that there is a spread. There is that which is wise, wiser and wisest.
Sometimes we are prevented by circumstances from doing what we would really
like to do if we were in other circumstances. Every person is
saved in a certain place in their life. Some are in very good
circumstances due to things totally beyond their control—financial,
parental, geographical, educational. Other people arenÕt as fortunate.
Everybody starts at a certain place and has to move to the best of their
ability through the application of doctrine toward spiritual maturity. We have
to understand that, and that there are some areas in life where all things
being equal, yes, X decision; a certain decision is better and should be
implemented rather than another decision. But that doesnÕt mean that everybody
is the same place where they can do that.
This
is the warning as we get into this, because what we are going to deal with here
is the wise course of action in terms of parental training for children. This
lesson is titled: Who is responsible for teaching wisdom? The basic bottom line
on this is, only the parent is responsible for the education of the children.
Does that mean we shouldnÕt send our children to public school? Not
necessarily. Does that mean that churches should not have Sunday school? Not
necessarily. But these concepts that we have so deeply ingrained in our culture
are new, relatively speaking, to history. They are not something that is
embedded in the historical past. The concept of a Sunday school and of public education were completely unknown to the biblical
writers and biblical culture. The only person who is going to be accountable to
God for the education of children is going to be the parents. That refers not
only to what we might refer to as secular subjects today but also in terms of
spiritual subjects. And Proverbs 4:1-9 is one of those key passages in the
Scripture related to the divine institution of the family and part of the
responsibilities of parents to children in terms of passing on doctrine,
passing on wisdom from one generation to the next.
Our
children, spiritual or physical, have their own volition and we can only do so
much. Beyond that point we canÕt do it.
But
what this passage does is challenge us as parents the fact that we have to do
your very best within our own set of circumstances in terms of passing on the
Word to our children. We cannot slough it off and expect Sunday school
teachers, Prep school teachers, school teachers in the
public school, to do our job. If we expect them to do any percentage of our job
for us we have already failed as a parent. The Word of God doesnÕt give us the
option to shift these areas of responsibilities, these divine institutions, to
someone else.
We
may not have children yet, we may not have children, our children may already
be grown, we may now have grandchildren, but there are ways in which we can all
take principles from this in terms of application within our particular sphere.
In
this section of Proverbs there are, as we have seen, ten basic lessons on
wisdom that are given in these first nine chapters. We are now in the fifth
lesson on the importance of following the path of wisdom, knowledge and
understanding. This is stressed in vv. 1-9, but it is stressed in terms of
following the instruction of the father. In just the first four verses we see
something significant emphasized here.
Proverbs 4:1 NASB ÒHear, {O}
sons ÉÓ This is unique here because everywhere else it is ÒHear, my son.Ó So
here we see that it is addressed to a broader audience—children, not just
his son. ÒÉ the instruction of a father, And give
attention that you may gain understanding, [2] For I give you sound teaching [doctrine]; Do not abandon
my instruction.Ó
Then in verse 3 and down through the
end of verse 9 we see that it is a quote within the passage and it takes us to
his training from his father. So we see here that this is where the
generational concept goes on. He is teaching his son what his father taught
him. And that is the idea. We are the custodians as a parent of biblical truth
and wisdom to be passed on from the previous generation to the next generation.
You are the vital link in that process of carrying doctrine forward from one
generation to the next.
Proverbs 4:3 NASB ÒWhen I
was a son to my father, Tender and the only son in the sight of my mother, [4] Then he taught me and
said to me, ÒLet your heart hold fast my words; Keep my commandments and live.Ó
So the writer here reflects upon the fact that when he was young he had
listened carefully to his father. This is Solomon and he listened carefully to his
father David. And for much of SolomonÕs early life he followed and exemplified
the teaching of his father. But what happened to Solomon? We all know that
Solomon eventually became influenced by the world, influenced by the idolatry
of the many wives that he took in disobedience to God, and he ended up
rejecting God and being influenced in disobedient directions. So even with the
best instruction he had from his father David it did not guarantee that he
would not go away from Bible doctrine.
So part of the caution here is that
this is not the opportunity for us to go home and self-flagellate for the next
three or four days as you are beating yourself up over some failure as a
parent. This is not designed to do that; this is designed to challenge all of us
to press on in a higher form.
This passage really focuses on an
emphasis on the third divine institution, the family. This and Deuteronomy
6:4-8 are passages that are the core passages for the family responsibility in
passing on education. The divine institutions are designed to provide for the
security, the safety, the perpetuation of the human race, and they are not
culturally conditioned. They are for every culture, for every human being,
believer or unbeliever. The first three were instituted before the fall. The
second group, four and five, were instituted after the fall. The first two were
to provide for prosperity even in the midst of a perfect environment. Numbers
four and five were designed to curtail sin so that the first three divine institutions
could be developed and could flourish in that environment. These are not
conventions developed over the course of time, which is what the culture wants
to say, but they are divinely mandated, built-in principles that when violated
will ultimately lead to the destruction of a culture.
We see this today. This is what is lost
in the current debate that we are gradually losing related to same-sex
marriage. Marriage is not something just for believers. It is for believers and
unbelievers. Marriage is a foundational element in all culture and it is what
it is because God designed it that way, and once we get a culture based on
human viewpoint paganism they then want to go in and change and modify these
different foundational elements. Once you completely shift your foundational
elements what happens to the house built on that foundation? It collapses. The
problem we have in our culture is that when you reach a larger and larger
majority that buys into these ideas then eventually you are going to see a complete
self-destruction of the culture. It will implode. We are not going to fall
because we are going to be defeated from the outside; we are going to fall
because we are going to be defeated from the inside.
These divine institutions each carry
and authority structure within them, and that authority relates to the fact
that within that sphere of operation there is one primary person or entity in
the place of responsibility. So that when another authority or entity comes in
and supplants that authority that is when there is a conflict. For example, it
is not the role of the government to come in and supplant the role of parents
when it comes to what goes on inside of the home.
The second divine institution is
marriage and the authority is the husband. That doesnÕt minimize the value and
significance of the wife but it places the fact that there is one person who is
going to have the authority in the home and be the one who is held accountable
for it before God.
Third, the parents are the ones in
charge and the parents are responsible for the education and development of the
children.
The fourth divine institution in human
government, no matter what kind it is. Then we have the establishment of the
nations after the tower of Babel, and the individual nation is the ultimate
authority, not an international executive of judiciary such as the United
Nations or the World Court; that is a complete violation of the fifth divine
institution.
This last week a firestorm of reaction
set in, ignited by a piece on MSNBC by Mellisa Harris-Perry, one of
their hosts. She recorded a commercial for MSNBC
in which she stated that children do not belong to their parents but are the responsibility of the members of their community. She
is not the first to state this idea. Hillary Clinton stated this idea in her
book It Takes
a Village back in the 90s. But she didnÕt originate this idea. This is just
a manifestation of a series of ideas that are a result of the most extreme form
of thinking from the Enlightenment, which rejected all divine authority. Ever
since the late 1700s there has been this aspect of Enlightenment thinking that
the ultimate authority is not God, it is whatever we derive from empiricism or
rationalism; in other words, the majority vote determines what is right, not
God. As the elements within our society that have bought into that increase
then the society comes under tremendous weakness.
Harris-Perry said: ÒWe have to break
through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents or kids
belong to their families and recognize that kids belong to whole communities.Ó
This is a communist idea, a statist idea, and it is a complete rejection of
divine institution number three. But once we transform divine institution
number one (which we have done) nobody is responsible for their
actions anymore. It is somebody elseÕs fault. Now we redefine responsibility;
we redefine marriage; we can redefine the family. And it is not the
responsibility of parents to train their children, it
is the responsibility of the government to train the kids. This idea goes back
in history to Plato, and probably earlier. In The Republic Plato said:
ÒAll those in the city who happen to be
older than ten they will send out to the country; and taking over their
children, they will rear them—far away from those dispositions they now
have from their parents—in their own manners and laws that are such as we
described before. And, with the city and the regime of which we were speaking
thus established most quickly and easily, it will itself be happy and most
profit the nation in which it comes to be.Ó
In other words, if you want to have the
best citizens in your country the government has to raise your kids.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78):
ÒÉ the
education of children should not be left to their fatherÕs capacities and
prejudices, especially since it is more important to the state than to their
fathers; for in the natural course of things the fatherÕs death often deprives him
of the ultimate benefits of having educated his child, but his country will
sooner or later feel the effects of what he has done: the state remains while
the family is dissolved.Ó
RousseauÕs thinking was part of the
Enlightenment thinking which began to take root and influence western
civilizations in the late eighteenth century, and this grew and flourished
throughout the nineteenth century. But at the heart of this understanding of
the role of family and the role of education is a theological concept. And that
is true for all of these people. It is expressed clearly in Emile where
Rousseau stated: ÒThere is no original perversity in the human heart.Ó There is
a rejection of what God said as being the basic nature of human beings, and
that is that they are fallen. Scripture says: ÒFor all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God.Ó
So modern education philosophy is
ultimately based upon a concept that can be traced back through John Dewey,
back to Rousseau, back to Plato, that the nature of a child is basically good; not basically evil. That changes the perspective of what
you are going to do with children in the classroom.
As Christians living in any
culture—whether it is the Greco-Roman culture at the time of the New
Testament or whether in France at the time of the French Revolution, In New
England or California in early 21st century where the state wants to
have more and more control over children—have a problem trying to
implement their responsibilities before God. We are always faced with this
challenge of living in the devilÕs world.
Education is to be family-centered and
family based. It is the job of the parents to train and educate children in
everything. Public school systems and public school curriculums are all shaped
by different worldviews. Our job is to train our children as a Christian and
pass on a Judeo-Christian biblically based worldview. Proverbs chapter four
emphasizes the parental role.
Proverbs 4:1 NASB ÒHear, {O}
sons, the instruction of a father, And give attention
that you may gain understanding.Ó He is talking to ÒsonsÓ (children) which indicates he is talking to a broader range than just
his own biological son. So it is pointing to a class or a kind of instruction
that should characterize all fathers to sons, not just him addressing his own
son. There are two parallel commands here: to hear and to give attention.
Hearing in biblical language doesnÕt mean to just sit there and listen and take
notes. It means to do what the Scripture says to do. You havenÕt heard if you
are not doing it. This is the same idea in the parallel words Ògive attention,Ó
which means to be fully alert, to listen attentively. So the challenge is to
pay close attention. This is repeated numerous times in the introduction and is
stated again in this chapter in v. 20: ÒMy son, give attention to my
words; Incline your ear to my sayings. [21] Do not let them depart
from your sight; Keep them in the midst of your heart.Ó Wisdom is the priority.
The word for ÒinstructionÓ is musar,
which indicates the idea of disciplined instruction. The father should have in
his mind and develop somehow a curriculum for developing his children for
taking them from infancy to maturity, from being spiritually unsaved to being
regenerate, and than maturing in the Lord until they are out of the home. We
are to value, listen and apply the instruction of the Lord.
Proverbs 4:2 NASB ÒFor I
give you sound teaching [doctrine]; Do not abandon my
instruction.Ó The word leqach, translated ÒteachingÓ or
ÒdoctrineÓ means instruction, teaching or guidance. That is what doctrine is.
Instruction in Scripture includes not only understanding the more abstract
ideas that are there but also how you implement them in your life. The word
ÒinstructionÓ [law] here is the word torah, but it
doesnÕt always mean law in the sense of the Mosaic Law or law in the sense of a
legal code. The word torah comes from the word yarah which means instruction. It is a form of instruction or
teaching. So the Torah is really GodÕs instruction to man and how he should
live. So we are not to forsake the teaching or the instruction of the
father.
Proverbs 4:3 NASB
ÒWhen I was a son to my father, Tender and the only son in the sight of my
mother.Ó The word here for Òonly [son]Ó is the Hebrew word echad.
This is a significant word because it means uniquely as one. A
word that describes Isaac to Abraham. Abraham had other sons but Isaac
was his unique son. So it is emphasizing the uniqueness of each individualÕs
child. ÒWhen I was a son to my fatherÓ emphasizes the fact that in Hebrew
thought sonship was not just a matter of biology, it
was a matter of following the teaching that has been handed down from the
parent.
Proverbs 4:4 NASB
ÒThen he taught me and said to me, ÔLet your heart hold fast my words; Keep my
commandments and live.ÕÓ The father taught, yarah.
This is emphasizing basic instruction, the fact that the wise person gives
insight to his children in all aspects of life so that they may know how to
conduct themselves and how to live a long and blessed life.
The only thing that
matters when all of life is over is how much doctrine anybody has in the soul.
This is the priority for parents. It is to give that doctrinal framework to
their children.