Proverbs 3:1-12, The Secret of Soul Care – Part I

January 23, Proverbs 3:1-12

Deut. 4:1-9; Jn. 5:1-4; Rev. 22:14 “O that my ways were directed to keep thy statues” (Ps. 119:5).

The Secret of Soul Care – Part I

We now have a series of six couplets in these verses (synonymous proverbs). They move from general advice (vs.1-4) to specific commands (vs.5-12), and represent the prayers of godly parents for their children. How touching is the opening petition, My son! Here is a series of pleas and promises by which alone true purpose and prosperity are to be found.

1. Appropriation: Here is a personal faith. Though the first couplet is general it brings out the personal aspect. It is my law and my commandments. Law and commandments have their origin in God. They become my law, my commandments, when I too love and obey them as my parents have done before me. Since God’s law must include both teaching and example, thy father’s and mother’s (1:8) law is no sterile, hypothetical creed, but the source and secret of how life can be lived to the full here and in preparation for Heaven. Only those who have personally appropriated God’s law can commend it to others. “This inspired teacher is to be reverenced as a spiritual father” (Lawson).
2. Admonition: Now follows the perfect formula. Forget not and keep present a negative as well as a positive response. Both are essential. My son, forget not my law. The verb forget means to lose or mislay something. In this case it is to lose or mislay not just an earthly father’s law but the law of the Heavenly Father! If this is so, then how perilous is this lapse of memory! The text Beware lest thou forget, was a continual reminder to John Newton that he who was one a wretch was now a sinner saved by grace. This forgetting is not so much a failed memory as a wilful forgetting. “To renounce God’s law because you don’t accept it, is infidelity that slays thousands; to forget God’s law because you don’t like it, is ungodliness that slays ten thousands” (Arnot). What we beg as an excuse for our disobedience, God brands as sin (1 Sam. 15:22-23). Therefore forget not God’s Law, but fix upon it as the rule of life and yield obedience to it always.
3. Application: This is the positive side. To keep my commandments means to “stand up for” them, to preserve them. God’s commandments are “His orders” and leave no option but to obey them. Therefore, young person, make it your aim not only to know them, but also to love them, to live them, and to defend them when needed (Ps. 1:2). Law and Commandments have a broad meaning. Law (Torah) is more than a legalistic charge. The Bible says, The law of the Lord is perfect (Ps. 19:7). Torah is from the root to teach, to instruct. It is not just a list of don’ts. It covers more than the Ten Commandments. Such a father would not give his son a bunch of rules. He would teach by illustration and advice. He would recount the history of God’s providence. In Deut. 6:7 teach is from a root meaning to sharpen the mind and memory, to teach incisively at every opportunity. Therefore, my son, forget not my law, is thy father’s plea for your eternal good.

Thought: “The gospel no more excuses sin than the law does” (Henry T. Mahan).

Prayer: Remind me that what is alien to God’s law is also averse to Christ’s Gospel.