Proverbs 19:26, Abused Parents!

December 19, Proverbs 19:26

Mark 7:6-13 “Honour thy father and thy mother; which is the first commandment with promise.”

Abused Parents!

Solomon often touches on family life, and on the virtues or vices of the home. The strength or weakness of a nation is in its homes. We hear much today about “abused children,” and that is a tragedy indeed! We seldom hear of “abused parents,” however. Yet how many such there must be who are left in the wreckage of disobedient, rebellious children! A disobedient child:

1. Drags Down: He that wastes his father. This verb is very strong, meaning assaults, maltreats! They are without natural affection (Rom. 1:30-31)! What a picture of man’s sinful depravity! Peel away the modern veneer of progress and and we find man still the debased slave of his sinful lusts. Many a son has wasted, violently ruined his father’s property (Lk. 15:12-16), his father’s health, his father’s hopes, and brought down his gray hairs in sorrow to the grave (Gen. 42:38). Do such sons (and daughters) really exist? Yes, they were a reality in Solomon’s time, and are a tragic reality now. Such “monsters” have indeed been found in every generation, a sad but fitting commentary on our fallen human nature. “Recklessness soon wrecks an estate. Be our estate little or great, we don’t want it wrecked” (CHS). The one who doesn’t grace his father must bear the disgrace!

2. Drives Away: … and chases away his mother. Again, the verb is very graphic. He causes his mother to flee, drives her away! See her, even with tears of loving anguish running down her wearied face, pleading with her son to break off his evil habits, but all to no avail. Alas, her “idol” has become her “curse”! Profane Esau had enough regard for his father to seek, with tears, his blessing. Yet,he showed no such regard for his mother, and resolved to kill her beloved son when the time was right. Has not such selfish, hateful behaviour driven many a mother virtually from her own home? It was well said, “Mother’s love is the cream of love, for a mother’s heart is always with her children” (CHS).

3. Depraves All: He is a son that causes shame and brings reproach. Bringing reproach means literally spreading shame. Thus there is multiplied shame inflicted on his whole kindred. How many families have been disgraced by the cruel shame of even one of its members? That there are such “great moral monsters” as are described here, who could deny? “When the sins of youth lie in a man’s bones in his later years, he has bitter cause to mourn his folly; but his mourning cannot remove the consequences of those early faults. Wild oats make an awful harvest in the autumn of life” (CHS). His parents’ and family’s sorrows go before him to his Day of reckoning! Has not God enshrined in His Law the Debt we owe our Parents next to the Duty we owe to Him (Ex. 20:12; Eph. 6:1)?

Thought: Children! A parent’s sorrows carry a heavy account before the bar of God.

Prayer: For families where God’s Word is the law of life for every member.