September 5 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading:

Proverbs 19:9-23

⁹A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall perish.
¹⁰Delight is not seemly for a fool; much less for a servant to have rule over princes.
¹¹The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression.
¹²The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion; but his favour is as dew upon the grass.
¹³A foolish son is the calamity of his father: and the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping.
¹⁴House and riches are the inheritance of fathers: and a prudent wife is from the LORD.
¹⁵Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger.
¹⁶He that keepeth the commandment keepeth his own soul; but he that despiseth his ways shall die.
¹⁷He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again.
¹⁸Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.
¹⁹A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment: for if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again.
²⁰Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.
²¹There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.
²²The desire of a man is his kindness: and a poor man is better than a liar.
²³The fear of the LORD tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil.

Devotional:

'While there is hope!' we read in verse 18. This striking phrase carries with it the intimation that the day will come when there is not going to be any hope. What does God mean by this?

He may mean that death will come to all. After death there is no hope of changing one's standing with God. There is no so-called second chance.

He may mean that the day will come when the child will be beyond the control and influence of the home. The years of training will be over and the child will be on his own.

But it is likely that God here is expressing in another way what He declares so fearfully in Romans 1. As a person repeatedly refuses the wooings of the Holy Spirit, the overtures of the love of God, he is more and more confirmed in his sinful way. Progressively God gives him up to go his own way and to live his own life. He is increasingly more confirmed in his sinful walk and settled in unbelief.

So important is this chastening, in the light of the phrase 'while there is hope,' that the parent is not to let his soul be swayed by tears from his purposeful training. Here we come to a delicate point. It is difficult to see your beloved child cry. And it takes a firm hand to persist in training when the son or daughter reacts with tears.

One of the complicating factors is the way the child, even in infancy, learns to use tears as a weapon. One woman we know well remembers clearly from the early teen years forcing the tears out in order to sway her parents. In the face of this it behoves us to give our principles of training a hard look in the light of God's Word and then prayerfully, gently proceed with our discipline.

All stems back to our sinful nature. 'There are many devices in a man's heart' (19:21).

God lets us cry, doesn't He? Don't we have to acknowledge the place sorrow has had in the making of what we are?