Proverbs 6:22,23,  When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

This proverbs father gives good reason for his son to keep his commandments and to not forsake the law of his mother.

God never gives his word, nor should we give our word in an arbitrary, capricious or whimsical way.

God’s word is purposeful and so also should our word be.

I remember as a little child, wishing to go out and play in the snows of Chicago’s harsh winters, how my mother equipped me with the necessary clothing, galoshes, gloves, scarves, and hat in order to survive the severe weather of winter.

Most likely it took longer to get us ready to go out than the time we were able to stay out in the cold.

We were so bundled up we could hardly move but we were equipped.

To equip their children for the inevitable of life is the job of the father and the mother for this is an act of love.

And that is why the father and the mother must equip their son or daughter with commandment and law.

As the clothing to face a hard winter so protects the body, commandment and law are to be bound about the heart and tied about the neck to protect the child against the harsh winter of sin that he will find as he goes, as he sleeps, and as he awakes.

Proverbs 6:22-23,  When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

Does this passage mirror your life?

What leads you as you go? What keeps you as you sleep?

What talks to you when you awake?

Do you honestly see the commandments of God as a lamp and the law of God as a light?

Are reproofs of instruction the way of life in your life.

Do you see reproofs as a gift of God or do you stiffen up in pride and resist the correction of the scriptures?

This proverbs father intends for his commandments and the law of the mother to be prominent in every area of his son’s life.

When thou goest, when thou sleepest, when thou awakest, cover all areas of life, don’t they?

When thou goest means, when thou walkest.

It means the daily walk of his son, it is the character and the conduct that his son displays.

This father intends that commandment and law will be the son’s partner in life for he says they will lead him.

His life will not be lived without them for the father has purposed to place in his son, commandment and law such that they will be a part of him throughout life and bring blessing, direction and safety into his life.

This father operates by Proverb 22:6, that says, Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.

Training provides boundaries of safety. Training provides tools.

Give the tools of life to your son early in life and he will use the tools always and never stop using the tools.

Training up a child in the way he should go includes equipping that son with commandment and law that will hedge him about with tools to live his life for God and live a life of doing God’s will.

That is what the word "lead" indicates.

The word lead in this passage means to guide or to transport from one place to another.

Commandment and law are to transport this son from worldly passions to holy passions.

They are to bring the son to love God and his word.

They are to bring a governor into his life that desires to do God’s will and to do God’s will alone.

Paul said it this way to the Galatians in:

Galatians 3:24,  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

He was talking about the body of law given to the Jews but I believe we can extend that to what takes place in the home.

What takes place in the home regarding commandment and law is all preparation to salvation.

For this father knows that God must ultimately act on his son’s behalf, but he also knows that he has a responsibility to bring commandment and law before his son as a schoolmaster to lead him unto Christ.

Commandment and law not only operate in consciousness but they will operate in another very important third of your life, that of sleep.

How sleep can be a gift of God, or how sleep can be a curse!

But this father intends for the sleep of his son to be a blessing for he will provide him commandment and law which shall keep his son even in sleep.

If you are 30 years old you have slept almost 10 years of the thirty.

If you are 60 years old you have slept almost 20 years of the 60.

What kind of sleep do you enjoy?

Or do you just put up with sleep?

What kind of sleep you have may be a product of the commandment and law you were given as a child.

For this father attests that the commandment and law that he gives will keep his son though sleep.

This word "keep" means to hedge about, to guard, to protect.

A father that gives commandment in accordance with the Word of God, and a mother that provides law to enforce that commandment will provide a framework, a hedge, a protection to the son.

That framework, that hedge, that protection will insure the son of sweet sleep, a sleep that will give the body and soul rest and recuperation.

How important it is to the well being of the child to provide a home where commandment and law are implanted in such a way that sweet sleep results.

What a gift that a father and a mother can provide their children!

As Proverbs 3:24 says,  When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet.

Sweet sleep comes, knowing that commandment and law are hedges about.

This refers to an abrupt awakening from sleep, perhaps an abrupt awakening from a disquieting, distressing or unsettling dream.

What shall greet you but the commandment, the law, the meditations of the Psalms, the message of the Gospel, the Word of God?

This provision of commandment and law by father and mother will provide the son, upon abrupt awakening, with conversation that will provide peace to the soul.

This is what David recorded when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

Psalm 63:5,6,  My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:

Can’t you imagine David waking in his cave of hiding and in a cold sweat, remembering how Saul was bent on killing him in the wilderness.

But David instead had praise on his lips, he chose to remember the Lord and meditate on the word of the Lord.

Proverbs 6:23,  For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

What is the difference between a lamp and the light from that lamp?

The lamp is the source of the light.

The light is a result of the lamp.

Without the lamp there is no light.

The light has no existence without the lamp.

The light has no agenda without the lamp.

Where the lamp goes so goes the light.

If the lamp moves the light moves with the lamp.

The commandment is the lamp.

The law is the light from the lamp.

The light accomplishes the purpose of the lamp.

The lamp is central, the light shines all around from the lamp.

The purpose of the lamp is to provide light by which to see.

Again we see in this verse how the father and the mother are to operate in the home for the commandment comes from the father and the law, based upon the commandment, comes from the mother.

The father acts as the lamp and the mother acts as the light.

The father gives and establishes the commandment and the mother sees to it that the commandment is carried out and obeyed by being the law giver.

Laws given are to be in the same relation to the commandment as the light is to the lamp.

Never does light defy the lamp but the light is always in conformance with what the lamp produces.

The light shines in straight rays conforming to the location of the lamp and never turns corners on its own volition.

That is the biblical norm.

If this is not the case in your home then receive the reproof of scripture and seek God’s grace to get in line with scripture for scripture is not going to get in line with you.

For you are wrong and the scripture is right!

For the biblical norm concerns getting in line, it concerns reproofs.

That is how God goes about conforming you to the image of his son.

That is how you are to conform your children to your image!

That is how you conform your children to your family.

That is how each child becomes a Smith, or a Jones, or a Johnson.

As Hebrews 12:5-8 says,  And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

Commandment and law will result in reproofs.

Under this scenario it is easy to see that reproofs of instruction are to be a way of life.

This is to be established early on in the home.

The receiving and giving of reproof is to be the normal way of life and not as we see it today, an unusual or rare thing or a thing to be despised.

The reason it is so hard for people to deal with reproof is that reproof was not established in the home as a normal way of life.

For there has to be training in the receiving and giving of reproof.

This is supported by the admonition of scripture to teach precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little there a little.

There has to be in the instruction itself how to accept and how to deal with reproof.

What response or attitude is expected as the result of reproof?

What response or attitude do you expect or tolerate in your home?

This training in how to deal with reproof is probably more important than the reason for the reproof, for it has eternal consequences.

It may be important to you that your child keep his room clean but it is more important how he handles your admonition to keep his room clean.

What kind of face faces you as you see him clean his room?

The cause for which reproof is needed may be of less importance than the lessons in reproof that can be given.