Proverbs 17:2 ESV
A servant who deals wisely will rule over a son who acts shamefully and will share the inheritance as one of the brothers.
[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+17%3A2&version=ESV]
Family loyalty, degraded as it is in modernity, is a virtue. Just as children are to honor their parents (Ex. 20:12), parents are to care for their children (Matt. 6:9-13). Paul declares more generally, in a command the welfare state has rejected, that “anyone [who] does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Tim. 5:8). Clearly we are to care for our families, to honor our parents and our elders, to love and care for the weak among us, to receive the aid of the strong (in God) with gratitude. So much is clear, but today’s verse in Proverbs hints at a different sort of situation: what are the limits of familial loyalty?
First, we must interrogate an assumption we’re making here about the Bible’s understanding of the household. Simply put, Scripture does not limit the household to the biological (or adoptive-formal) family. Prior to Ishmael and Isaac, Abraham’s heir seems to have been Eliezer, likely his steward (chief servant, in a sense) (Gen. 15:2, 24:2). In Acts 10, meanwhile, the baptism of Cornelius’s household clearly includes not just himself and his nuclear family but also his servants, who like him loved God (v1-2,7-8,44-48). In this way, the ‘servant’ is as much a part of the household Paul spoke of as a blood-relative, albeit in a relationship not as deep and much more easily severed. The household for which we are to care includes the constant companion (who lives with the family) as well as the cousin.
Still, for the servant to inherit over the son is a contravention of the standard order, as Abraham in Genesis 15 and 17 shows, and so this verse is not really solved by noting the slightly more expansive understanding of the household community in Scripture. The next principle we need to remember is that of stewardship. God gave man dominion over the earth (Gen. 1:28) and in that dominion is a commission: to cultivate its potential to His glory (Mark 12:2). One of the prime means of perpetuating this cultivation is familial inheritance (Ex. 32:13; Lev. 20:24; 1 Kings 21:3). However, the son who is a fool is not suited to this task. He is a wastrel, no inheritance tax needed to destroy his heritage. He will make a mockery of it himself.
The servant who acts wisely, therefore, though he may not be the son-by-law of the wise father, is more suited to carry forward the mission given to God’s people, to be fruitful upon the earth. Were the son suited, of course, the son would be the inheritor, at least of the main body of the inheritance, possibly also of the relationship to the servant. As he is not, however, he is cursed by the results of his foolishness to lose his inheritance, as did the Israel of blood (Rom. 9:1-5) in refusing to be Abraham’s children in spirit (John 8:39; Rom. 9:7-8). One thing we must emphasize: this is a curse to the father, that his son is reprobate to the extent of disinheritance (Ps. 144:12), and a shame to the son, that he is such a fool. Nevertheless, at times obedience to God’s commission of dominion includes this sort of painful measure.
There exists another dimension to this, though. In the grace of God, this disinheritance can be a blessing to the disinherited. Consider the situation without it. The wastrel fool would receive a sudden influx of wastable material, stuff to apply to his foolishness, whether it is an immoral crusade or a hedonist’s pursuit. To him, the blessing of an inheritance would become a curse, an enabling of sin. To be barred from this, then, to be forced to rely more upon his own labor, this discipline can be to the fool a blessing, something which alerts him to his sin and turns him back towards God.
This dimension of the problem, actually, can provide terminology to help us understand God’s discipline towards us. See, the inheritance of the Christian as His child (Rom. 8:17) is joy, peace, and happiness in Him (Is. 55:12). Yet we are so often disturbed, so often sinful, so often disgruntled with God. Why do we not have this inheritance now? Simply put: God withdraws this part of the inheritance for a time (Heb. 12:3-6) that His children may receive it in full for eternity (Heb. 12:18-29). This, then, is the great hope of the Christian in distress, that God means this for his good (Rom. 8:28) and therefore it cannot but lead to an inheritance beyond our imagining (John 14:2).
God bless.
Written by Colson Potter
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
