Posted on 09/17/2022 12:34:58 AM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“He that hath a froward heart findeth no good: and he that hath a perverse tongue falleth into mischief. He that begetteth a fool doeth it to his sorrow: and the father of a fool hath no joy” (Proverbs 17:20-21).
“He that hath a forward heart,” a perverse, crooked heart like that found spoken of by Jesus in Matthew: “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Matthew 15:19).
“He that hath a froward heart findeth no good,” it doesn’t matter how hard he looks, or how far he seeks, if the heart isn’t right you are not going to find anything but bad.
“. . . and he that hath a perverse tongue falleth into mischief,” like that tongue in James 3 that sets everything on the fires of hell. Now, sometimes a man’s tongue will cause the speaker to fall into mischief, and it will be the will of God. James says, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations” (James 1:2). You start to witness to others, like the recent problems where soulwinners spoke to Muslims in cities in America that lean towards Muslim Sharia laws. Just because a man has a good clean tongue and he is living for God doesn’t mean that he isn’t going to fall into mischief from Satan’s crowd.
One of the things we can count on in life is trouble. We are going to have some trouble whether we live right, or we live wrong. We are not going to escape some form of trouble no matter where we live in this world. Trouble follows you, and you are born into it. Job said, “I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came” (Job 3:26). In other words, if you think it is bad now, wait a bit—it’ll probably get worse. All this, and then more trouble on top of it—that’s life.
You can’t really escape trouble, so the best thing to do is to live right with the assurance that no matter what may come we will be rewarded for living right.
“He that begetteth a fool doeth it to his sorrow,” every baby born into this world has the potential of being a fool. They are born in sin and “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him” (Proverbs 22:15). Just don’t let that child grow up to be what he is born to be. In other words, sorrowful is the father that doesn’t correct his child while it is still young enough to matter.
A child is born to be a fool; but teach him, instruct him, love him, guide him, direct him, mold him, and take time with him. One preacher said, “The best way to spell LOVE is T.I.M.E.” You don’t let him run amok and do his own thing, you put reins on him and put walls up that he is not to go beyond. Give him security, discipline and love.
How does a father raise a son to his own sorrow? He just needs to leave the kid alone and let him grow up to be whatever he is going to be, like the psychologists and the modern philosophers say, and he’ll be sorry.
“. . . and the father of a fool hath no joy,” David was the father of Absalom and Amnon, and they both brought him sorrow. David didn’t do right by those boys. He didn’t raise them the way he should have. You can see that by the way that David treats Absalom when he comes back into Jerusalem—David wouldn’t talk to him, would not see him. He should have forgiven him and welcomed him home like the Prodigal Son’s father, but he failed. In many ways it can be argued that David forced his boy into rebellion. David reaped his own sin with Absalom. Eli had some bad kids too, and Samuel failed with his sons as well.
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Important message so applicable today as the world breaks away from God.
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