Proverbs 17:2 Commentary and Bible Study

Here is a man living with his children and his servants in the same house. Surely the servants must remain servants all their lives and none can ever rise to the status of children, for the children have a blood relationship by birth and nothing can change the past history of the servants who were born outside of the family. But this is not always the case. The servant may love his master and have his master’s interests at heart so that he defends his master’s honour and works for his master’s advance. He is behaving like a son in many respects. The son however may be rebellious or sullen, constantly complaining about his father’s authority, and actually undermining the family honour with his bad behaviour, or simply disinterested. Behaviour and attitude will count more than any family relationship, and, though this is rare, the servant may be elevated over the son. Similarly, the natural blood relationship may be overtaken by the relationship of grace. Applying this to Israel, the descendants of Abraham through Jacob formed the nation with which God made a covenant. He called them his people and treated them as his sons and daughters, providing for their earthly needs by leading them into the promised land and protecting them from their enemies. But when Israel persistently rebelled, the Gentiles who were excluded from the covenant of promise were adopted even though they were not the natural sons, and were grafted in even though they were not the natural branches. A believer may have ties much stronger with his fellow believers than with those in his own earthly family. He has left behind the slave family into which he was born and has been taken into the family of God where he is now treated like a son. God’s grace has lifted him up above the natural state in which he was born and opened up a whole new future to him that was formerly unimaginable.