The rod

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

THE ROD

Prov 23:13-14

13 Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die. 14 Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death.  

NIV

Well, here it is the spare the rod spoil the child concept. Except the reason we should not spare the rod is that in spoiling the child we might well be the reason they would not be going to heaven, but to hell instead. The Hebrew word translated as death is Sheol which is also used for Hades. Here the idea is that we are to discipline our children in the ways of God. By not doing so we by default allow them to be influenced by the ways of the world which lead strange into the pits of hell.

Matt 7:13-14

13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

NIV

Here is where the rod is used. To keep them on the narrow road. Allowing them to stray off the path that leads to life, sends them on the broad road that leads to destruction. This gives us another reason to consider Sheol and a place of destruction as in the last day it and all its inhabitants will be cast into the lake of burning sulfur. What parent would willfully allow their child to experience that fate? It is true that each person must make their own choice in life and once the child is of the age of choice the parents have done what they can. Then it is up to that grown child to decide their own path. But in the meantime while they are young and in the protection and authority of parents they should experience a godly discipline. It is also interesting the rod in the time of Solomon was used as a means of measurement. Today we used a rod as a surveyor’s tool. It measures in length, 5 ½ yards. So in a sense we use a rod as to measure the child’s activity, physically but more importantly, spiritually. If we do not keep measure of our children they will not walk in the right path. The rod is used to measure a straight path, a narrow path. So while our children are young let us measure them and not find them short or wanting, but find them walking in the path of righteousness. When or if we are old and gray and our children are grown adults with children of their own, we no longer can use that rod. But our hopes and prayer are that rod was used rightly and that we trained them up in the ways of the Lord and in their adult years they will not depart from him.