FATHER’S DAY JOY
Proverbs 23:22-25 NET.
22 Listen to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother when she is old. 23 Acquire truth and do not sell it — wisdom, and discipline, and understanding. 24 The father of a righteous person will rejoice greatly; whoever fathers a wise child will have joy in him. 25 May your father and your mother have joy; may she who bore you rejoice.
I wanted to talk about Father’s Day from a biblical perspective today, so I naturally went to the book of Proverbs. The book of Proverbs serves as an instruction manual for raising kids in God’s way. If we neglect the biblical wisdom literature, we are missing out on how to make decisions that reflect God’s plan for our life choices.
Today’s culture talks a lot about making personal life choices, but it does not emphasize the fact that God has given us revelation so that we can make the right choices. We talk about people’s right to choose, but we turn a blind eye when they make choices that bring suffering on them, their parents, and God himself.
We cannot avoid all suffering in life because some suffering will not be our fault. We learn that lesson from the book of Job. But we can avoid much suffering in life by following the wisdom guidelines that God gave us in the book of Proverbs.
All parents and children have a choice (22).
Children can choose to listen to their parent’s instruction and advice, or they can choose to despise their parents and disregard their advice. Parents can choose to speak into the lives of their children, or they can choose to let someone else take control of their education and their training. Both parents and children must make the right choice or else wisdom is not going to be passed on.
To put it another way, both parents and children can undermine the wisdom education process. Children can choose not to listen, and parents can choose not to speak. By making those choices, we render null and void the promises of scripture regarding the benefits of wisdom.
The book of Proverbs urges us to “Listen, my child, to the instruction from your father, and do not forsake the teaching from your mother. For they will be like an elegant garland on your head, and like pendants around your neck” (1:8-9). We can choose to walk through life without that adornment if we want to, but if we make that choice, everything else we choose is going to be influenced. If we choose to be stupid, we will probably gain stupid friends. We will marry stupidly and raise our children in stupidity and do our jobs without wisdom and vote without wisdom and make thousands of wrong choices.
The fact that both parents and children must be involved in the wisdom education process means that bad choices will most likely produce more bad choices in the next generation. Wisdom is passed on but so is the lack of wisdom. That means that every person must come to grips with his or her own situation. Each person must ask whether he or she has learned wisdom, and if the answer to that question is no, then he or she must come to the scriptures to get it.
You don’t necessarily get this wisdom from Sunday School, and you don’t get it from Bible college or church camp or even listening to a preacher. God gave us his wisdom in his word, and we all must get it from there. But some children are very fortunate because their parents learn God’s wisdom from his word and choose to pass it on to their children. Those children are more likely to pass that wisdom on to their children, but not necessarily so. That’s why today’s text encourages children to listen and assumes that parents will be saying something worth listening to.
Father’s Day is not the same as Christmas Day. On Christmas day, we get our joy by seeing what our loved ones have given to us, as a sign of their appreciation. We may get gifts on Father’s Day too, but the joy that this passage speaks of is not the joy of gifts received.
Father’s Day joy comes from giving, not getting (23-24).
The command of today’s text is for the children to acquire something. Fathers will experience joy not when they acquire a new tie or handkerchief, but when their children acquire what they have passed on. No gift can take the place of a life molded and shaped.
Parents get joy when children get truth (23).
Our culture wants our children to learn all the facts. They want them to fill their minds with data and know history, math, and science and to learn all this knowledge. But modern society is afraid of that word truth. The word truth suggests that some things are true, and by admitting that these things are true then we are denying the truth of other things. Our culture wants us to affirm everyone’s beliefs as equal. We cannot allow our children to fall for that because it is a denial of truth.
We can teach our children to respect other people’s belief. We can even teach them the value of tolerating other people’s backgrounds and values and differences. But we cannot allow our children to be taught that truth is relative. We want our children to be able to make value judgments based on things that are surely true. We want them to acquire truth. There is no such thing as my truth and your truth. There is only God’s truth. He is the standard of what is true and what is false.
Ultimately, there is a standard of truth, and the Bible tells us who that standard is. Jesus Christ said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to Father except by me.” Anyone can speak the truth, but only Jesus is the Truth. Anyone can lead us the right way, but only Jesus is the Way. Anyone can enhance our life, but only Jesus Christ is the Life.
Parents get joy when children get wisdom (23).
Wisdom is not the same thing as knowledge. You know something when you can express a fact. But you are wise when can make the right choice. Wisdom is knowledge applied to a moral situation. Wisdom is the ability to look at a case study and determine what choices you should make ifd you are presented with a moral problem.
In Proverbs, we find that a wise person avoids taking advantage of others. A wise person stays away from sexual temptation. A wise person works hard and gains money honestly. A wise person stays committed even when it gets hard to be faithful.
When our children manifest this kind of moral integrity in their personal lives, that’s when we rejoice on Father’s Day and every day. We are proud of the choices they are making. We are not just proud because they look like us. We are proud because they make choices that reflect our commitment to doing God’s will.
Parents get joy when children get discipline (23).
Proverbs tells us “My child, do not despise discipline from the LORD, and do not loathe his rebuke. For the LORD disciplines those he loves, just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights” (3:11-12). Discipline is corrective. It comes from a heart of love that does not want harmful acts to become ingrained and produce failure in life.
It is gratitude that says “I used to act this way, but my parents taught me not to, and I love them for it. Sometimes it is the grace of God that we can point to as the reason we have not wasted our lives. Sometimes it is the love of faithful parents who would not tolerate our foolishness.
Parents get joy when children get understanding (23).
The Hebrew word בִּינָה means insight. It is understanding gained by obedience. Discipline is how you learn to not be disobedient. Understanding is how you learn to be obedient by discovering its benefits. Parents do not want to be harsh to their children. It gives them the most joy when their children willingly obey their instructions.
Parents get joy when children get righteousness (24).
In this context, a righteous person is a son or daughter who has learned to live right and have right relationships with others. Such a person is a joy to his or her parents.
But sometimes the Bible uses this word for the righteousness that is imputed to us by God’s grace when we put our faith in Christ. Truly wise parents will seek to impart righteous behavior to their children. But they will not stop there. Because all our righteousness is not enough in God’s sight. Even our attempts at being good are evil compared to God’s standard of holiness. That is why we all need Jesus Christ. If we really want to give our parents joy, we will accept God’s gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. A wise choice like that brings joy not just to our earthly fathers, but to our heavenly Father as well.
jeffersonvann 