Proverbs 30:17 Commentary and Bible Study

The exposition of human sin continues. It is no wonder that Solomon singles out this fearful sin among the Ten Commandments, which was made a cause of death under the Mosaic law. It is the root of so many other rebellious attitudes and acts in life. God gives us parents and our relationship with them is unique among all other relationships. Setting aside wicked parents who neglect or hurt their children, fathers and mothers show a devotion to their children which is unparalleled in society. They care for them during the most vulnerable stages of life, feeding and clothing the helpless child for long years. They train the child for life and make countless sacrifices motivated by a deep instinctive love which the Lord puts in their hearts. To refuse to acknowledge the huge debt we owe to our parents and to fail to honour them is a profound wickedness. God fits the punishment to the crime. The mocking eye of the rebel child takes away all that a father has and says they are worth nothing. It refuses to obey a mother, once a certain level of self-sufficiency has been reached, because it takes advantage of the relative weakness of the mother and does not fear to disobey and to deny the rightful authority that she has over her child. What will happen to that child’s mocking eye? It will be plucked out as something that does not deserve to have the gift of sight any longer. God will send a creature that is as disrespectful for that child’s eye and their gift of sight, as the child was for his father’s honour or his mother’s peace of mind. The raven will pluck out the eye and the eagles will feed it to their young to put it to a better use than the rebellious youth put it to.God has innumerable ways of bringing the rebellious to their knees. To make him our enemy by transgressing his law is to invite him to be against us, and who can cope with the sea of adverse providences that overwhelm the ungodly. It is vain for them to think that they can avoid what he sends into their lives, that they can prepare a refuge from his invading armies. Every creature is at his disposal to deploy against us, for he can turn the world which was made to a benevolent home to man, into a source of danger and destruction.