Last time we looked at the portrait of the wicked man who is consumed with allegiance to evil. In this devotional, Solomon points again to the teaching of the Shema as the godly answer to the way of wickedness so vividly described in the verses prior. Solomon took up this mandate from Deuteronomy and wrote Proverbs to be the teaching program for applying the Shema. For your reference, here is the text on the Shema to the command to diligently teach it to our children and grandchildren:
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 [Therefore,] you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates (Deut. 6:4-9).
(See Bedrock of Proverbs article 5: With All Your Heart, to review how Proverbs interacts with the Shema).
Look at the parallels between the above passage and today’s text from Proverbs:
20 My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching. 21 Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck. 22 When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you. 23 For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life, 24 to preserve you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress (Prov. 6:20-24).
First, note that Proverbs was written for children and youth to apply the mandate given from parents, while the mandate in Deuteronomy was written for parents. Proverbs makes the mandate given in Deuteronomy more practical for parents to implement for their children by being written as instruction for them. Second, remember that the parents of Proverbs stand in the place of God as those relaying the commands of God to their children. Hence, “your father’s commandment” refers to the same commandment as Deuteronomy (“the commandment” to love God in Deut. 6:5), and “your mother’s teaching” (literally, “torah”) to the whole Torah, each conveying total obedience to all God desires from His Word. Third, verse 6 in Deuteronomy is like verse 21 in Proverbs, in that the command to love God is to be what characterizes one’s heart (their whole person). Fourth, since parents are to teach their children diligently (Deut. 6:7), Solomon has parents deliver this text to their children as something core to their parental identity. The parents represented in Proverbs are portrayed as those who wisely teach and practice the Shema, and who can thus also pass it down to their children. Fifth, in Deuteronomy, parents are commanded to teach their children to love God whether sitting or walking, lying down or rising. In Proverbs, this same idea is taught as instruction for children, but focusing on its benefits: “When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you.” The same idea is taught in both: obedience to God is to include every aspect of life and to be from the heart.
In verse 23, the father’s commandment and the mother’s instruction are spoken of again in parallel terms: the father’s commandment as a lamp, and the mother’s instruction as a light. Both the commandment and the instruction share a common source, and both parents are responsible for passing this down to their children (Deut. 6:7). This lamp and light from both parents are also connected to the way of life taught in both Deuteronomy and Proverbs, setting their instruction at odds with the way of death followed by the wicked man of Belial in the verses prior to our passage. In this, it is the “reproofs of discipline” from parents, teaching their children the commandment of God, that are then used by God to lead their children to “the way of life.” And since this is the case, their children are being offered divine provision to resist the seductive and evil adulterous woman (verse 24). All throughout Proverbs is an appeal from godly parents to their children to follow the whole teaching of God with their whole heart. Ultimately, this provision only comes through Christ, but it is to no less obedience than this (Jesus Himself re-established the Greatest Commandment—the Shema—in the Gospels, and teaches its principles in the Sermon on the Mount).
Today’s devotional serves to illustrate not only God’s design for parents to their children, but also shows that Solomon’s teaching is for all. Regardless of our age, we are all students of God’s wisdom. We all need to be taught how to apply God’s wisdom to every area of our lives, and we all need to see this lived out in others. Today’s text helps to show how the command to love God is to be applied, and it is meant for us to use for explicit use in every teaching in Proverbs—and from that to all of life. May our ongoing pursuit of God’s wisdom through Christ serve as the antidote to the way of wickedness, equipping us by the Spirit for all godliness to the pleasure and glory of God.
Next time we will be concluding Proverbs 6.