Christian Women Online

If you haven’t read Part 1 of this posting on Proverbs 22:15 click here.  Part 2 will make more sense if you read Part 1 first.

Let’s take a closer look at Proverbs 22:15.

‘Foolishness …’

We are born into foolishness because we are born sinners.  For a long time, when I read the word ‘foolishness’ my mind would interpret that as being ‘naughtiness, disobedience, rebellion, argumentativeness’.  Certainly it includes those things, but isn’t just those things.

Foolishness won’t receive wisdom, it mocks authority, doesn’t like being corrected, it creates problems, it takes offence.  Foolishness behaves as if it isn’t accountable to God, but pleases itself.

So when God instructs us to use the Rod of Correction to drive foolishness out of our child’s heart, He is requiring that we use it even when the child hasn’t been ‘naughty’ as such.  Instead the child may, for example, have taken offence at something, or hadn’t listened to some wise instruction.  This is foolishness and still requires the application of the rod.

I struggled with this when I first saw it.  My mind was so conditioned to thinking ‘you smack naughty children’ - that is, children who have been disobedient in some way - that I found it very hard to use the rod when my child simply acted foolishly.

‘ … is bound in the heart …’

Notice that God says that foolishness is ‘bound’ in the heart?

Picture a scene in one of those ‘who dun it’ movies.  The baddie has ‘bound and gagged’ the goody.  The reason they are ‘bound’ is to make escape impossible.   They are tied up in such a way that they themselves cannot undo it (except of course in the movies, the goody always manages to escape anyway!).

That’s the idea with foolishness being ‘bound’ in the heart.  It’s tied into the heart so much so that of themselves a person cannot get rid of it.

Notice also, that the foolishness is not bound in the mind of the child.  It is bound in the heart. Proverbs 4:23 instructs us to “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it flow the issues of life.”  In Matthew 12:34 Jesus said, “… out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”  Whatever comes out of our mouth does so because it is in our heart, not our mind, so it is vitally important that our hearts be trained.

Left to themselves, the foolishness will not be extricated from a child’s heart and that’s why God gave parents the mandate to do that job by the use of the rod.

‘….. heart of a child’

Years ago, a couple of older ladies assured me that those gorgeous little babes couldn’t possibly have sin in them.  They told me that they aren’t born sinners, but that they learn to sin because of bad examples around them.

Sure, babies are cute, and bad examples aren’t going to help, but, like it or not, every baby is born with sin already bound in their heart.

Some people want to argue about the meaning of the word ‘child’, hoping to escape any duty to use the rod outside of certain ages.  One person said to me, ‘A child is aged 2-8′.  I don’t know where they got that from, but it certainly wasn’t the Bible.

According to Strong’s Concordance the Hebrew word for ‘child’ means ‘a boy (or, by implication, a girl) from the age of infancy to adolescence’.  In other words it encompasses the age span of zero to teens.  I have spanked my children under 1 and I have spanked one of my sons when he was 15.

‘..the Rod of Correction ….’

Notice the name given to the rod?  ‘Of Correction’.  It isn’t just ‘a rod’.  The Bible talks of at least three kinds of rods - of correction, of anger and of pride - so we must be sure we are applying the correct rod.

In fact, this is where the use of the rod gets its ‘abuse’ reputation.  Quite simply, a lot of people do use it an implement of abuse.  They use it to vent their frustration and anger, or to soothe their hurt pride, or to get even etc, and they hit out indiscriminately.  They are concerned about making themselves feel better, not about the good of the child.  This kind of rod is a ‘rod of anger‘, not ‘of correction’.  Proverbs 22:8 assures us that the rod of our anger will fail.

So if you use the rod but it doesn’t seem to be making a difference, take an honest look at yourself when you are using it.  What is your emotional state?  What is your real motive in using the rod?  I know it works.  I’ve seen it work in my seven children and I’ve seen the change it makes when people begin to use it correctly.

Contented, obedient children and peaceful homes are not an impossible dream.  They are God’s will for your family.

‘…Rod of Correction will drive it (foolishness) far from them.’

I truly don’t understand how a piece of timber applied to the backside can change the heart.  I just know that it does.  The foolishness that is in a child’s heart from before birth can be driven away by the wise application of the Rod of Correction.  Notice the verse doesn’t say it will ‘diminish’ the foolishness, but that it will drive it ‘far’ away.  It won’t be able to linger on the periphery of your child’s life, but will be completely gone.

Obey God and He will take care of the results.

This is the best advice I can give you.  We don’t understand God’s ways.  They are far above our ways, but they work.  Just do it.  Learn how to properly chastise your child and God will take care of the results.

In Jeremiah 1:12, God says, “I watch over My Word to perform it.”  God is the same today.  He is delighted to ‘perform’ His Word in our children.  He’s just looking for parents who are bold enough to step out in faith and obey Him.