17 ¶ Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul.
Solomon makes it clear all through Proverbs that it will delight him as a father if his son acknowledges the training he has been given and grows up into a strong but gentle king, with wisdom and understanding.
Unfortunately, as we read about Rehoboam in 1 Kings 12 we see that he was not very wise and lost a great part of his kingdom as a result of his arrogance and being the kind of king who would listen to bad advice. This is simply proof that children are independent moral agents and bad ones can be raised by good parents and good ones by bad.
Other kings gave advice to their children. King James, who did not have any part in translating the Bible that has his name attached to it but merely commanded that the work on it begin, wrote advice to one of his sons who never lived long enough to be king. The book, Basilicon Doron or ‘The Kingly Gift’ was supposed to be private with only seven copies approved to be printed and the printer sworn to secrecy but pirated copies got out and eventually he ordered it published. It became a bestseller, printed in several languages for 50 years, long after the king’s death. As it did not do Prince Henry much good in regard to kingly duties he never assumed it has been left to posterity for us to examine and to learn from. It is available free online to read if you like.
No Christian parent should shrink from their duty to raise their children in the nuture and admonition of the Lord.
Ephesians 6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Nurture and admonition here are placed together as synonymous in relation to each other. The type of care and instruction a parent is to give is explained all throughout the Bible and the verses that deal with love, instruction, tenderness, and example far exceed the few extolling physical discipline. A son who has been raised with correction, instruction, example, admonition, and nurture will in all likelihood delight his or her parents, the Rehoboams notwithstanding.
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