Rest, Delight, and the Father’s Discipline (Proverbs 29:17)
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Proverbs 29:17
Discipline your son, and he will give you rest;
he will give delight to your heart.
As we’ve seen so far this year in Proverbs, it provides a lot of parenting advice. And this shouldn’t come as a surprise given that Solomon, a father, is writing this to his own sons. If you hear and read this verse again through the lens of a father instructing and raising his child, you can almost feel the weight of this future parental advice – because raising kids well is hard.
And this is good parental advice. Discipline. Your. Children. It’s a simple instruction, and it takes after the Lord, who disciplines us, not to chastise, but to correct and draw us nearer to Him. He disciplines for our good, for the purpose of holiness, and He does so out of love.
And Solomon presents the result or the fruit of disciplining children as those who will “give you rest” and “give delight to your heart.”
Now I’m childless, so I can’t comment on if that is true or not. Parents listening, do your kids give you rest?
I assume the gut reaction – even a generous one – is “sometimes.” Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don’t. I’m sure my parents would say that about me, hahaha.
But I’ll say it’s a verse like this that doesn’t necessarily have me thinking about my own kids or questioning whether or not I as a son bring my parents this rest and delight. I think that’s true and a worthy line of thinking to go down when applying this verse, but I also think of another son, the Son of God, who truly delivers rest and delight.
After all, Jesus took the discipline we deserved so that we could have rest in Him. He bore the weight of our sin so that our hearts could find delight in God, and praise Him for that.
Proverbs 29:17 gives me a great practical lesson that I can store for later one day if I have kids. But for now, for me and for you, the bigger takeaway is this: The Father disciplined His Son Jesus on our behalf, not because Jesus deserved it, but because He was to bear our iniquities. He took what we earned so that in Him, we might have rest. So that He might give delight to our hearts – not through temporary relief, but through the eternal joy of restored relationship with God.
2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Jesus gives us rest. Jesus gives delight to our hearts. In Him we’re forgiven and made righteous. That’s the heart of the Gospel.
So today – whether you’re a parent or not – ask yourself:
Are you resting in that truth? Are you trusting that His discipline leads to peace?
Let’s pray.
