Let the Courts Decide
He who withholds his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently. Proverbs 13:24 NASB
Rod – God’s idea of training involves correction, sometimes correction that stings. We, of course, are more civilized. Who would ever consider punishing a child with a rod these days? Probably only those who risk being taken to jail for physical abuse. But notice what God says. If you don’t take this step when necessary, you hate your child. How is that possible? I would think that those who punish with the rod are the ones who hate. Why is the biblical instruction so completely reversed?
Like most of God’s instructions, this Proverb has an eschatological point of view. It does not consider the immediate consequence of the action. The instruction is focused on the future result. In other words, what God sees is the ramification over the temporal horizon. If a child is not corrected now, the eventual outcome will be the ruin of the child and that is as if the parent did not care for the child at all. Discipline today produces character tomorrow and God is interested in tomorrow. Any parent who foregoes discipline today in order to avoid conflict will contribute to the ruin of the child. From the biblical perspective, that is the equivalent of hatred.
In Hebrew, the verb “to hate” is sane. “The hating that is usually referred to in the ot is the opposition, ill-will, and aversion men have for fellowmen. The extent and perversity of the depravity of the human heart is expressed by the hatred of a husband for a wife (Gen 29:31, 33) among brothers (Gen 37:4), of a brother for a sister (II Sam 13:15), among neighbors (Deut 19:11), among poor people (Prov 19:7), by a parent for his son (Prov 13:24), among nations (Isa 66:5).”[1] Did you notice that the use of sane in all of these circumstances is relational? I am quite sure we would not use the same word in Hebrew to say, “I hate this lousy weather.” Sane is about personal relationships. It is measured by the outcome seen in the behavior. If I tell you that I love you, but in the end my behavior contributes to your misery and pain, then my words are a lie no matter how I protest about my “feelings.” The behavior is the true measure. Contributing to your sorrow, pain and despair is a sign of detesting you, not loving you. What matters is the end of the matter.
Now we know why the Proverb seems so upside down to us. We don’t have long-term views of life. We think in the moment. That must be corrected. And perhaps we have learned that God thinks eschatologically too. He sees our end result, not our immediate choice. Perhaps that’s why He is so patient with us. He sees what He knows we can become, not what we are now. His view is parental. Ours must be the same.
Topical Index: hate, sane, rod, shebet, Proverbs 13:24
[1] 2272 שָׂנֵא. (1999). In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. 1999 (R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke, Ed.) (electronic ed.) (880). Chicago: Moody Press.
CONFERENCE NOTES: Ah, 4th of July. The perfect time to plan to be in Virginia Beach next weekend for the 3rd conference of the year. TOPIC: The Ten Commandments in Paleo-Hebrew. WHAT A TREAT TO SEE ALL THE HIDDEN MEANINGS! This is for all of you who can’t make it to Phoenix the following week. I thought East Coast people deserved the same insights. So please come. All the information is on my CALENDAR PAGE.
What is the hebrew/paleo for the word ROD ~ like one that a sheperd employed in guiding the flock/sheep?
Paleo-Hebrew consonants would be Shin-Bet-Tet. The picture is “Consuming/Destroying + House/Family + to Surround.” So we might read this as, “What surrounds the activity of the family” where “consume/destroy” is seen as the normal creative processes of men (see my work on the 10 Commandments to be released shortly, I hope). In other words, the rod or staff as guiding tool or as a weapon is employed by the family to surround the family’s activities with protection, instruction or defense.
I studied Genesis 49:10 from the Paleo-Hebrew perspective a few years ago and the same word “shebet” is translated sceptre. Based on the other translations of this word in the Tanakh (which include rod, pen, and tribe), I came to a similar conclusion that the word has the connotation of something sharp used to press in and control the actions of the family. I also came to the conclusion that Gen 49:10 could also be translated in such a way that it speaks to the task of Torah reproduction that Yehudah has maintained throughout its history and how this will end upon the return of YHWH (when the Torah will be finally written on our hearts after heaven and earth pass away), more than the commonly accepted “kingship” translation, with associated Messianic significance. My reason for this is that Genesis 49:10 is not placed within any context. The context has to be created, and in fact, the context appears to have been created by someone (Yehudah) with a vested interest in what it means. It is also significant that Yehudah does not recognize the information provided by YHWH and Yeshua in the B’rit Hadasha regarding end time events, and so they wouldn’t take this into account in their translation.
Very interesting. Thanks. Are you going to be at the conference in Virginia Beach or Phoenix where I will discuss a lot about the Paleo-Hebrew approach?
Actually, I have been a part of Lee Miller’s fellowship in Richmond for the past several years, but I have not had an opportunity to get to Virginia Beach with Lee and the others. They all enjoy their fellowship with you. They introduced me to your work through “Guardian Angel” which I greatly enjoyed. Hebrew is such a fascinating language. My daughter and I studied it for about a year from an Orthodox Jewish teacher at the local JCC. For various reasons we discontinued formal study, but have continued informally in our home. Thank you for your work.
Do all Paleo-Semitic languages that share an alphabet with Hebrew have hidden meanings? Is the Bible the only document where hidden meanings can be found?
There are several languages that use ideographs or pictographs. As a result, the meaning of any particular word may contain other interpretations or meanings. You might think of the way Chinese character languages are constructed. The meanings of the images are by convention. So, we could say that the other possible interpretations of the images are “hidden,” but in reality the meanings of the terms are what the ordinary user understands by the terms. It’s not as if the terms deliberately contain hidden codes (as some would argue about the numerical values of these kinds of alphabets). It is that the arrangement of the symbols in the pictograph are not one-to-one correspondences with reality, so we are able to use the same picture to draw different conclusions.
Skip, an interesting book on Chinese pictographs in the language reflecting “knowledge of the first events of human history in the Book of Genesis”, and startling revelations of YHWH’s “fingerprints” throughout China’s long history.
Faith of our Fathers- Finding God in Ancient China. by Dr. Chan-Kei Thong.
I will have to look at that one.
I have an old book in my library of Genesis in Chinese pictographs. The one that has stuck with me is the pic for salvation/deliverance, 8 people in a boat.
Luis R. Santos, Yes, that was very exciting for me too, discovering that more than 20 years ago.
Then someone brought this book, above mentioned, to my attention some years ago. It is an eye-opener comparing it to Hebrew, with the same root system of the language. Amazing.
Some folks I know will not discipline their kids knowing well how misbehaved they are, but claiming they “love” them too much to do it!! They grow up as juvenile adults, irresponsible, immatured like wild horses, untamed, unrestrained, of no purpose.
חָשַׂךְ chasak
to withhold, restrain, hold back, keep in check, refrain, to withhold, keep back, keep for oneself, keep from, hold in check, refrain, spare, reserve, to restrain, check.
שֵׁבֶט shebet
rod, staff, branch, offshoot, club, sceptre, tribe
Clearly, the rod is for correction as standing in authority as a parent to a kid’s disobedience/rebellion, and protection from going the wrong path, as straying from YHWH’s fold.