My son, forget not my teaching, and let thy heart observe my commandments;
Proverbs 3 opens with a father speaking to a son. The call is not to try harder but to remember — and to let that remembering reach the heart. Two questions sit behind these simple words: whose teaching is this, and why must obedience start inside?
Chapter 3 opens by naming what comes first in a life of wisdom.
Subjection and obedience are the first marks of the path of wisdom. And this guidance happens inside a known relationship. "My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments," chapter 3:1.
Two things can look like wisdom and are not.
Proverbs 3 shows that it is not human shrewdness or man's prudence that gives the wisdom spoken of here. Nor is it the eager desire for prosperity and happiness that shows itself in crooked ways. Instead, the fear of Jehovah and subjection to His word are the one guide that leads us safely through a world of wickedness that He governs.
The voice is a parent's. Yet "my teaching" and "my commandments" carry an authority no parent owns by himself. Kelly traces where that weight comes from.
They might come through a parent. No doubt that was the proper order in Israel. It was marked out from their father Abraham. Jehovah showed His pleasure in Abraham for commanding his children and his household to keep the way of Jehovah, doing justice and judgment. But what gave it divine value was that it was His teaching, and that the commandments laid down were His. This alone sanctifies: obeying God, obeying His Word. Obedience is the effect and proof of love, when anyone is in relationship with God. And we do not forget, but remember, what we love and value.
That last line explains the whole command. We do not forget what we love, so forgetting is a failure of valuing.
The verse does not say "let your hands keep." It says the heart. One commentator reads this as an appeal to something already at work inside a believer.
How vital is the need for simple, faithful obedience to the Word of God! So the path of consistency begins with this instruction: do not forget God's laws, but let the heart keep His commands. The heart of a believer leans toward obeying God, so it is only right to let the heart follow that bent.
The Lord tied this obedience to love, and added a promise.
So the Lord puts it in His matchless way to His disciples. "Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." John 14:21.
"Do not forget" fits one moment in life. A young person leaves the shelter of home and finds out what is inside him.
This is when the young man, once led as a child, goes out and his own principles are tested. What governs him inside comes to light. He still obeys what he has learned, and so far he is in subjection. But now it is his own moral character. He must trust God within, and not lean on the shelter of a parental home and its authority. How often we see people fall away at this point! Fair hopes and the lovely blossoming of a receptive youth turn to bitter fruit.
The words "my son" find their fullest answer in one life. Luke 2 tells of Jesus as a boy in Nazareth.
What a blessed picture Luke 2 sets before us of the Lord! He was obedient in the early days of His life on earth, subject to Joseph and Mary in Nazareth. Yet He knew a higher relationship, and so He was taken up with His Father's things. And the fruits were blessed. Even then, truly, as He said later, He kept His Father's commandments and remained in His love.
- Remember — forgetting is a heart problem, not a memory problem; we remember what we love and value.
- Receive — the words may reach you through a parent, but their divine value is that they are God's own.
- Obey — the verse puts obedience in the heart, where a believer's leaning toward God already lies.
- Love — Christ tied keeping His commandments to loving Him, and the Father loves whoever loves Him.
- Follow — the Lord at Nazareth is the perfect example: subject and obedient, keeping His Father's commandments and remaining in His love.
for length of days, and years of life, and peace shall they add to thee.
Verse 2 gives the reason for the appeal just before it: keep the teaching, and three things are added — length of days, years of life, and peace. But what kind of life is promised, who was it first spoken to, and does the promise still reach us?
The verse begins with "for." It gives a motive. One writer takes verses 1 and 2 together and shows where obedience starts:
How vital is the need for simple, faithful obedience to the Word of God! So the path of consistency begins with the instruction not to forget God's laws, but rather to simply let the heart keep His commands. The heart of the believer is disposed to obey God, so it is only right to let the heart follow this proper bent. Normally, such obedience will result in a long and peaceful life (v. 2).
The words come from a father to a son. What makes them binding is not the family relationship but their source:
They might come through a parent, and that was no doubt the right order in Israel. That order goes back to their father Abraham. The LORD was pleased to express His delight when Abraham commanded his children and his household to keep the way of the LORD and to do justice and judgment. But what gave divine value was that it was His teaching, and that the commandments enjoined were His. This alone sanctifies — obeying God, obeying His Word, the effect and proof of love, when any are in relationship with God. Nor do we forget but remember what we love and value.
So forgetting is a failure of love before it is a failure of memory.
The promise is not arbitrary. Sin shortens and spoils life by its own working, and God stands behind the arrangement:
We have here first the call to obedience; a law given in which is life. Naturally there can be no real question about this. Men's vices are physically their destruction, and rob human life of everything that makes it worth the name: "…fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones" (Prov. 3:7, 8). It must be so, if God is over all, and "the eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous."
Notice the terms of the promise, and who first received it:
Verses 1-10. The call to obedience is followed by promise. The promise is like all the promises to an earthly people, "for length of days and years of life."
That does not put the verse out of reach. God still governs, and He still marks out a path:
It is true that God is not mocked. What a man sows he will reap. God has attached certain consequences to certain conduct in His government. But He also watches over and directly governs His children… Then there is a path marked out by God as the path of peace in a world like this. It is not in itself simply the path of spiritual power. It is a path of quietness and peace in this world, walking peacefully through it under God's eye. And that is very precious for us.
One Person kept these commandments from the heart. Here is what that looked like:
Even a Jew was not left without blessing. He was called not to forget what he had been taught. His heart was to keep commandments which were the LORD's, even though they came through Moses or anyone else who passed them on. What a wonderful picture Luke 2 gives us of the Lord, obedient in this way in the early days of His life on earth! He was subject to Joseph and Mary in Nazareth, yet aware of a higher relationship and so taken up with His Father's things. And the fruits were blessed. Even then, truly, as He said later, He kept His Father's commandments and remained in His love. So here it is written for obedient Israelites, "length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you."
He received the promise Himself, and He will hold it in the coming kingdom:
The blessed Lord Jesus claimed no exemption from the duties of a son that belong to all mankind. Though He was the Eternal Son, He learned obedience in this relationship as in others. So He was granted length of days and years of life — yes, "the power of an endless life" — throughout the many glories of His millennial kingdom.
- Keep — the command is not just to hear but to let the heart keep. What we love, we do not forget.
- Whose — a parent may pass the words on. Their authority is that they are God's, and that alone sanctifies.
- Why — vice destroys life by its own working. Under a God who governs, obedience lengthens life and steadies it.
- Whom — God first gave the promise in earthly terms to an earthly people. His government still marks out a path of quietness and peace today.
- Christ — He kept the commandments perfectly at Nazareth, and He receives length of days in full.