Proverbs 10:1 The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. The first proverb is a characteristic specimen of its kind. It is in your power to make your father glad, and God expects you to do it. Here is one of the sweetest fruits of wisdom — a son's wisdom is his father's joy. A son who breaks his mother's heart — can this earth have any more irksome load to bear? Foolish son! it is not your mother only with whom you have to deal. God put it into her heart to love you, to watch over you night and day, to bear with all your waywardness, to labour for you to the wasting of her own life. All this is God's law in her being. Her Maker and yours knew that by putting these instincts into her nature for your good He was laying on her a heavy burden. But He is just. He intended that she should be repaid. His system provides compensation for outlay. There are two frailties — a frailty of infancy and a frailty of age. God has undertaken, in the constitution of His creatures, to provide for both. Where are His laws of compensation written? One on the fleshy table of the heart, the other on the table of the ten commandments. He who knows what is in man would not confide to instinct the care of an aged parent. For that He gave distinct command. There is the mother's title to her turn of cherishing. You dare not dispute her right, and you cannot withstand her Avenger. (W. Arnot, D.D.) Parallel Verses KJV: The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. |
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