Posted on 12/06/2020 5:55:00 AM PST by Pilgrim's Progress
“My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee" (Proverbs 6:20-22).
Verse 20, “My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother,” and he considers those two things to be the same thing. If father's commandment is the commandment that not only my father gives me, but that that my father keeps; because it's the commandment of God; and if the law of my mother is not just my mother's law that she passes to me, but the law that God gave her; well, that's the same thing, right? God’s commandment, God's law. So what if those two things are really considered singular? An “it?”
In verse twenty-two, “It shall lead thee,” “It shall keep thee,” and “It shall talk to thee.” Okay. then what is the “them” of verse twenty-one? I would say that the “them” of verse twenty-one is your mother and your father. It’s not that unusual for the Lord to switch up singulars and plurals and pronouns and stuff like that. He can switch in the middle of a verse, and that’s fine. There is nothing wrong with this either way, but maybe it points to something else.
“My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother. Bind them continually, and tie them about thy neck,” what if verse 21 is not talking about the law and the commandments, but is talking about your father and your mother? If you love your father and your mother, you’ll keep their commandments and their laws. If you are doing it just as an outward ritual, it is going to slide pretty quick.
If what you love is God, then you are going to love His commandments and His word. If you are just following the Ten Commandments because the church said you should, and you don’t really love God, you don’t stand a chance. And then you get to verse 22, “When thou goest, it shall lead thee.” That command, that law, is the word of God. That commandment, that word of God, it shall lead thee. It’ll lead thee, it’ll keep thee, it will talk to thee.
I’m suggesting that verse 21 is maybe talking about you making sure; just as the word of God tells us in the greatest commandment to love the Lord thy God with they whole heart, and thy whole soul, all thy strength, and all thy might, so it is humanly speaking that we are love our mother and our father. If you love them, you will keep their rules. And if you are just keeping their rules because you are supposed to keep their rules, eventually you’ll depart from them when you are on your own.
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