Proverbs 10:17

 Proverbs 10:17 (KJV)  He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction: but he that refuseth reproof erreth.

Proverbs 10:17 (BSB)  Whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life,
but he who ignores reproof goes astray.

Proverbs 10:17 (MES)  The road to life is a disciplined life; ignore correction and you’re lost for good.

Proverbs 10:17 (NLT) People who accept discipline are on the pathway to life,
but those who ignore correction will go astray.

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance

Whoever heeds - שׁוֹמֵ֣ר (shamar, šō·w·mêr) - Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine singular
Strong's Hebrew 8104: To hedge about, guard, to protect, attend to

instruction - מוּסָ֑ר (musar, mū·sār) - Noun - masculine singular
Strong's Hebrew 4148: Chastisement, reproof, warning, instruction, restraint

is on the path - אֹ֣רַח (orach, ’ō·raḥ) - Noun - common singular
Strong's Hebrew 734: A well-trodden road, a caravan

to life - לְ֭חַיִּים (chay, lə·ḥay·yîm) - Preposition-l | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's Hebrew 2416: Alive, raw, fresh, strong, life
Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew English Lexicon adds life: as welfare and happiness in king's presence Proverbs 16:15; as consisting of earthly felicity combined (often) with spiritual blessedness

but he who ignores - וְעוֹזֵ֖ב (azab, wə·‘ō·w·zêḇ) - Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine singular
Strong's Hebrew 5800: To loosen, relinquish, permit
Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew English Lexicon adds forsake, fail to follow, obey advice, instruction, wisdom, reproof

reproof - תּוֹכַ֣חַת (towkechah, tō·w·ḵa·ḥaṯ) - Noun - feminine singular
Strong's Hebrew 8433: Chastisement, correction, refutation, proof

goes astray - מַתְעֶֽה׃ (taah, maṯ·‘eh) - Verb - Hifil - Participle - masculine singular
Strong's Hebrew 8582: To vacillate, reel, stray
Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew English Lexicon adds err; cause to wander about figuratively

We can live our life in a better way. And by so living, we will lead others in this better path. Or we can reject godly advice and lead others astray with us.

We aren't born knowing everything. We start learning as soon as we open our eyes in the delivery room. We observe others and we mimic them. Usually our parents and close family members are the ones that are our first teachers. As babies we observe their words, tone of voice, look on their faces, body language, and the things they do. As we begin to mimic them, we are learning.

This morning I saw a video that came up on one of my nieces; Facebook memories. It was their first born as a baby. She was in the crib gurgling, smiling and watching Mommy. Mommy was making faces, sticking her tongue out and baby-talking. When Mommy stuck her tongue out, baby tried to stick her tongue out! Mimicking Mommy! As they grow, our children try to do what Mommy and Daddy are doing. They watch their older siblings and try to be big girls and big boys. Then they progress to kindergarden and they learn from the teacher and students. They aren't just learning the ABC's and 123's. They are learning social skills. They are learning patriotism (or not), respect for others (or not), how to behave properly in differenst situations (or not). Then we move up into elementary, middle, junior high, high school and college.

The funny thing is, the older we get, the more we tend to resist and reject what others are trying to teach us. There is something in us that resists authority. We want to be the ones in authority; the ones in power. So we begin rebelling. And sometimes rebellion is good.

How can rebellion be good? Sometimes there are things so bad, they need to be rebelled against. Look at the American Revolution. Things got so bad under the mentally unstable King George of England, that our ancestors thought rebellion was the only answer. They tried easier ways without success.

But rebelling against all authority, even if it's for your own good, is ridiculous. It's like shooting yourself in the foot. You hurt yourself.

Let's look at a typical teenager who is in the natural stage of rebellion. They hate school and they hate Mom and Dad for making them go to school. So they play hooky, they refuse to study and do their homework. They are a distraction in class or always being disciplined. They have completely tuned out in school and their grades are showing it.

Who has that teenager hurt? Themselves! Here is a school building with comfortable chairs, desks, heat/ac, a library of books, a cafeteria with food, and scores of adults waiting on you hand and foot in order to teach you so you can be more successful in life! Adults who have gone through higher education and take their job as teacher seriously... they are at your beck and call to teach you so you can be a success. It's paid for by taxpayers so anyone can attend school. They even will provide buses to get you to and from school. But little hard head rejects all of that because they don't like being under authority. So rebellious teenager refuses to listen and learn, they barely skate by. They may not even finish high school. Now they are in the big, bad world without a good education and they have a hard time finding a job. When they do, they can be just as rebellious against their bosses as they were against their parents and teachers. That doesn't bode well for their future.

Let's look back in the old days at schools and learn a little about how children learned back then.

Students could only go to school when they weren't needed on the farm. There were jobs that they had to do during planting seasons or harvesting seasons. That's why school is usually in the winter time. It began that way because those were the months you weren't planting and harvesting!

Without cars and busing, how did children get to school? They walked! Yes, they walked in the cold or the heat, to get to school. They walked miles. This would mean getting up super early so you could get to school on time. They didn't have the luxury of sleeping in until 6:30am. They had to get up at 4-5:00am to get dressed, eat breakfast, take care of their chores and walk to school. Some children didn't have good clothes, or even shoes! So they were walking barefoot to school.

Those logs weren't too comfortable to sit on all day. Hard, no back rest and no desk. They had no paper and few books. So they used pieces of slate like a notebook. They would do their work with chalk on slate boards. Teachers had to use chalk on large slate chalkboards. They didn't have copy machines to make copies for each child. They didn't have the paper. They had few books so the children didn't have their own text books. The teacher would write things on the chalkboard for the children to memorize. They couldn't take notes because they didn't have notebooks. If the children didn't have good eyesight, there were no glasses. So the teacher had to write large enough for the children to see.

If you've ever erased a real chalkboard, you see that the chalk leaves a lot of chalk dust. Those erasers had to be cleaned every day! If you were being bad, there was a good chance you would have to take the chalk erasers outside and pound them together to get the chalk dust out of them! It got all over your clothes and made you sneeze. Then you had to take a pail of water and rag and wash down the chalkboards! Teachers would use the chalk down to the nubs. So they eventually came up with chalk holders. You could get more out of piece of chalk with a holder and it not be quite so rough and messy on your hands.

You ever notice the wood stoves or fireplaces? It was the only way to heat the classrooms back then. So someone had to bring wood in and keep the fire burning. The desks would be arranged closer to the stove during the winter. Usually the older boys would take care of the fires by bringing in the wood. Either they, or men in the community, made sure there was wood for the schools and churches which meant cutting down trees, sawing them up, splitting, transporting and stacking wood. In the warmer months, there was no air conditioning. You opened the windows.

This woman is teaching 2 little boys. You notice the newspaper on the walls? That was the only insulation they had in the winter. To keep down the drafts between the cracks in the walls, they would paste newspaper on the walls. Then, when it got warmer, they would scrape it off and wash the walls. It had to be done every year because newspaper doesn't last that long. This poor woman didn't even have a chalkboard (or shoes)! Before the War of Northern Aggression, it became illegal to teach black children. Slaveowners were afraid educated black people would rebel against white people, wreak havoc and go on murderous rampages. Some white slaveowners still allowed their slave. children to be taught, but they had to do it secretly. After the War, black students were allowed a public education but they had colored schools, separate from the white schools and they often weren't as well supplied as the white schools. I'm so thankful this has changed.

Notice how comfortable and "ergonomic" those chairs were? This school didn't even have a real woodstove! These one-room schoolhouses didn't have bathrooms. They had an outhouse. You had to haul water from a well. This all meant going outside to go to the bathroom, to draw water or bring in wood. If it was cold, you had to put up with that.

The very tall windows in schools that could be pushed up. And the ceilings were high. Heat rises so, in the warmer months of early Fall or Spring, the windows would be opened up for air flow. In the classroom above, notice the little slate school boards with their drawing lessons. These children have pencils and paper on their desks! They have oil lamps. Things are getting better around the turn of the century when my grandparents were going to school.

A nicer school had big classrooms. Still had the wood stove. They have electric lights! The teacher was on a platform so she could be seen better. The windows were up high for air flow but so as not to "distract" children. This classroom had a large chalkboard, a piano for music lessons, bookcases full of books, a world globe. It had an anteroom (or cloakroom) for the children to leave their coats and lunches.

My Dad remembered going to school in the 1940's. They took their own lunches back then. It wasn't provided for by the school. I asked him what he took and he said it was usually a cold biscuit leftover from a big breakfast. His mother would put a slice of tomato (if they were still in season) in it or some sausage. In the Fall they had apples (which is one reason an apple is a symbol for school, school started when the apple season was in). He would take some peanuts they had dried for a snack.

When I started to school in the 1960's, I attended both modern and old, leftover schools. During my elementary school years I attended 4 different schools. So I experienced a couple of years in OLD schools. I remember the blackened wood floors that creaked and were loud. I remember not having air conditioning and how hot it got (in SC!). I remember the old slate chalkboards. I remember the cafeterias that were added much later after schools were originally built. They were usually in basements or add-ons. The old wooden desks and chairs which were so hard. But I also experienced the new schools built in the 1960's. They had better desks and chairs. They were on concrete terrazzo floors that didn't swag or creak. They had new chalkboards. They had large, open cafeterias. I remember the modern bathrooms with actual locker rooms for the gym. I attended the 5th and 6th grades in a brand new school. It had just opened up and I did my 5th grade in that school. But by the next year, we were already overcapacity and they had to haul in temporary classroom trailers so my 6th grade was spent in that classroom trailer.

By the 1960's children had their own individual textbooks. They were handed out at the beginning of the year and we were responsible for covering them and keeping them in good shape because they would be passed to the next round of students coming in next year. We were not allowed to write, underline or highlight our textbooks because they would be re-used. We didn't have laptops or tablets. We used notebooks with notebook paper. We used dividers to divide our notebooks into math, english, and other subjects. Later, in high school, we used the spiral notebooks. The school provided big crayons in primary colors (about 6-8 crayons) for each student along with a big pencil and the elementary lined school paper in pads.

In junior high school, the civil rights movement had de-segregated schools. My junior high school was right across the street from a project which was mostly black. That meant a lot of black students flooded into the school with white students and it was a HUGE culture change. My first year in junior high school was the first year it was integrated. Unless you lived it, you don't have a clue. I'm so thankful that black and white children don't have a clue any more because they are comfortable with each other being in the same room. But, during the middle to late 1960's, it wasn't the case. We weren't used to using the same restrooms, water coolers, eating at the same table, riding on the same buses. And it wasn't an easy transition. There were bullies on both sides. The black children were defensive and a core were particularly mean in order to prove they wouldn't take anything. The white children were defensive and a core were particularly mean in order to preserve their social standing. A lot of fights occurred. My own personal experience was very hard. I was a timid, sensitive, shy, introverted student who was a rule-follower. So I didn't get in trouble and I ran from any conflicts. I was scared of all the violence that was occurring. It made me a target to the black students who were bullies (not all were, as I said, a core of them were and same with the white students). My mother had made me a hand-knitted sweater (a lot of work). One of the black girls broke into my gym locker and stole it during gym. She made fun of my clothes and being white. She picked on me so bad that I talked to my Mother. I was a nervous wreck, terrified. She didn't know what to do, so she talked to my doctor (I was sick a LOT and had major surgery during the 6th grade) and he gave me an excuse so that I didn't have to go to gym classes based on my health. I used that excuse all during junior and senior high school. That's the only way I think I could have faced the rest of school. Locker rooms, for some reason, are brutal. I don't know why, but it was a place the teachers or coaches didn't oversee so a lot of teasing, bullying, ridiculing went on. The black group that was terrorizing the school would stand in the hallways in a group and make fun of students as they passed by. They took straight pins and jabbed students as they had to push past the jam they created. If white students fought back, they were expelled for politically correct reasons. Therefore, there was no protection for the white students. Even the principals were afraid of the meanest black bullies and refused to confront them. They knew the project was just across the street which meant the black children had reinforcements in an all-on fight. They knew de-segregation had to work for political reasons. So, in my experience, white students were the victims in my school during that time. (I thoroughly realize that power shifts back and forth between people groups, no matter what color, gender, age and power often is abused no matter who has it at the time.) Black students had the power for once and they didn't use it any better than white people had. High school in the mid-1970s wasn't any better. Black students tried to bully in our brand new high school. They had sit-ins and stopped all the classes for the rest of us. Their demands were change our school colors to black, red and green (we were blue and gold), the mascot (Viking), and to add more black cheerleaders. Back in my day, you tried out for cheerleading and you were selected on skill and popularity. It made for a pretty exclusive group of girls. I was never a cheerleader! I didn't have a chance because I wasn't physical or popular. But when black girls tried out, they might have been discriminated against just as much as I was (despite being white). Only popular girls, whether white or black, got to be cheerleaders. If I had tried out, I wouldn't have made it because I wasn't in their group. Black girls probably were discriminated against because they also weren't in the popular girls group. So the school administration forced the cheerleading squad to integrate. Black girls tried out and were selected. But that wasn't enough. The black student body insisted there be more black girls on the squad. So now they were selected for being black NOT for being skilled or popular. None of these "demands" were important by then. They had nothing to do with fairness, equality, equal access in education or social life. Bullies like the feeling of power they get when they get what they want. So they keep going back for more and the demands get sillier and more frivolous. We are experiencing much the same today. It ends with spoiled brats making frivolous, nonsensical demands just to feel power. Fortunately, the school administration had enough commonsense back then not give in to the silliest of the demands and they kept the mascot and school colors, but gave in to the quota of black girls on the cheerleading squad. I don't think there's been another sit-in since then.

So now you have a little history lesson on education in America. When you see how hard it was to get an education in the old days, black or white, it makes less sense for rebellious children to refuse to take advantage of what they have today in order to learn. But it seems, the easier we've made it for children to learn, the less they take advantage of learning. Maybe it's too easy?!?

Back to our verse, it doesn't just mean book learning. Remember, true wisdom is godly wisdom that begins and ends with God. If we are learning about God and learning from the Great Teacher (the Holy Spirit) and God's very own Word, we are getting godly wisdom. But as easy as it is to learn here in America, we aren't always taking advantage of these benefits. We are spiritually lazy and taking it for granted.

And godly wisdom can make us a good example for others to follow. We can encourage others to learn from the Great Teacher. We can share what we learn. We can point others to the classroom of Bible study, prayer, praise. But the converse is true. You can be a bad example. You can lead others astray. If you aren't practicing godly wisdom, then you are teaching others, who are watching you, a bad example. You could be teaching them all the wrong things. If you are saved but you aren't praying, you may be teaching your children they don't need prayer. If you aren't going to church, you may be showing others they don't have to go to church. If you don't teach them Bible stories, they won't learn them or see the need for them. If you don't read the Bible, they won't see how valuable and precious it is. Our school can no longer teach it, so it's up to parents, family members, and churches.

• If you are older, what do you remember about school that is very different today? Is it easier for children today in school? Do you think we are turning out more educated young people considering all the benefits, technology and blessings they have available to them? Why or why not?
• If you are younger, did you ever realize how hard it was to get an education in the old days? How your ancestors, or, grandparents and parents had a harder time? Did you take advantage of the blessing of school or did you take it for granted? How do you feel now?
• If this has opened your eyes to free, public education, can you now apply it to your spiritual education. In America, we are so blessed to have the resources to study the Bible at the tip of our fingers. In America we can go to church, pray and worship. Have you been spiritually lazy?
• Do you think you've been a good example that leads to salvation through Jesus Christ, blessing and eternal life? Or a bad example that leads to destruction, separation from God and judgment? It's never too late. As long as you are alive and breathing, you can repent and lead others to the feet of Jesus Christ!

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