Proverbs 17:25 KJV
A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bare him.
Let us now explore the mind of this 10th century B.C.E. king, King Solomon. Let us try to mine for the natural social, theological and eschatological stones that would prompt his recorded statement.
In the mind of the Israelite, contrary to the mind of the Greek, there are no purely ethereal concepts. From the creation of man to the building of the Temple, everything God put on earth is small model and a temporal replica of a greater eternal reality in the Heavenlies.
While this proverb warns a child of the grief his foolishness (foolishness: living in conscious disobedience of the Word of God) would cause to his parents, it also teaches a spiritual reality.
The mind of the Israelite equates ‘Father’ with God, and ‘Mother’ with Israel, Israel not just as a country, but as the body of the people of God. Jewish sages refer to the events as Mt Sinai as a marriage between God and the people of Israel. The son then, is the ‘fruit’ of God’s interactions with Israel.
Here is a biblical example of an Israelite son of Israel typifying this proverb. Commentators speak of Jeroboam as the dandy bad example of a foolish son who caused grief to his ‘Father’: God, and bitterness to his ‘Mother: Israel. Jeroboam is the man from the tribe of Dan who having started as Solomon’s right hand man, later took ten of the tribes and started the Northern Kingdom. Jeroboam is also the man who initiated an idolatrous counterfeit Judaism religion which provoked God’s anger. The ten tribes ended up dispersed until this day.
In Revelations chapter twelve we see another imagery of our proverb. John the disciple of Yeshua, sees a vision of Israel as a woman giving birth to a child who would become brother to many. In the vision, the devil persecutes the woman ‘Israel’, but when he sees that God secured her somewhere, he persecutes the ‘remnants of her seed’. The child is of course Yeshua who was physically born from the nation of Israel, and who would be the firstfruit of many, ‘the remnant of her seed’.
This makes everyone who is grafted unto God through Yeshua, sons (and daughters) of God our Father and of Israel our Mother. Sin is disobedience to Torah; foolishness is to know the Word of Torah while not doing It (Matthew 7:26).
Let us now pause our theological rambling for a moment and reflect. Let us take the time to meditate on the history of the grief and bitterness our conscious and purposed disobedience to Torah caused to our Father (God), and to our Mother (Israel).
NOTE: Biologically, a woman does not have ‘seed’. The text in Revelations 12 is made to make us equate Israel, the woman in the vision, with another woman in the Bible whom God referred to as having seed: Eve. Also Miriam, the biological mother of Yeshua also gave birth having God’s ‘Seed’ implanted in her through the Holy Spirit.
A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bare him.
Let us now explore the mind of this 10th century B.C.E. king, King Solomon. Let us try to mine for the natural social, theological and eschatological stones that would prompt his recorded statement.
In the mind of the Israelite, contrary to the mind of the Greek, there are no purely ethereal concepts. From the creation of man to the building of the Temple, everything God put on earth is small model and a temporal replica of a greater eternal reality in the Heavenlies.
While this proverb warns a child of the grief his foolishness (foolishness: living in conscious disobedience of the Word of God) would cause to his parents, it also teaches a spiritual reality.
The mind of the Israelite equates ‘Father’ with God, and ‘Mother’ with Israel, Israel not just as a country, but as the body of the people of God. Jewish sages refer to the events as Mt Sinai as a marriage between God and the people of Israel. The son then, is the ‘fruit’ of God’s interactions with Israel.
Here is a biblical example of an Israelite son of Israel typifying this proverb. Commentators speak of Jeroboam as the dandy bad example of a foolish son who caused grief to his ‘Father’: God, and bitterness to his ‘Mother: Israel. Jeroboam is the man from the tribe of Dan who having started as Solomon’s right hand man, later took ten of the tribes and started the Northern Kingdom. Jeroboam is also the man who initiated an idolatrous counterfeit Judaism religion which provoked God’s anger. The ten tribes ended up dispersed until this day.
In Revelations chapter twelve we see another imagery of our proverb. John the disciple of Yeshua, sees a vision of Israel as a woman giving birth to a child who would become brother to many. In the vision, the devil persecutes the woman ‘Israel’, but when he sees that God secured her somewhere, he persecutes the ‘remnants of her seed’. The child is of course Yeshua who was physically born from the nation of Israel, and who would be the firstfruit of many, ‘the remnant of her seed’.
This makes everyone who is grafted unto God through Yeshua, sons (and daughters) of God our Father and of Israel our Mother. Sin is disobedience to Torah; foolishness is to know the Word of Torah while not doing It (Matthew 7:26).
Let us now pause our theological rambling for a moment and reflect. Let us take the time to meditate on the history of the grief and bitterness our conscious and purposed disobedience to Torah caused to our Father (God), and to our Mother (Israel).
NOTE: Biologically, a woman does not have ‘seed’. The text in Revelations 12 is made to make us equate Israel, the woman in the vision, with another woman in the Bible whom God referred to as having seed: Eve. Also Miriam, the biological mother of Yeshua also gave birth having God’s ‘Seed’ implanted in her through the Holy Spirit.
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