My son, if your heart is wise,
my heart too will be glad.
My inmost being will exult
when your lips speak what is right….The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice;
he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.
Let your father and mother be glad;
let her who bore you rejoice.
via Passage: Proverbs 23 (ESV Bible Online).
Why does God give so many rules?
Many unbelieving portrayals of God and his Law make him look like a mad scientist who is creating an army of robots. And if we don’t obey he is not happy because he wants submission to all his whims.
Proverbs (in the context of the whole Bible) addresses this portrayal in two ways.
In the first place, it back’s up Paul’s point that the Law is for childhood. While the moral commands are always binding, learning and memorizing such commands is only the “beginning of wisdom.” The point is that, once internalized, a person can grow to become something altogether greater than he was.
A glorious Temple sits on a concealed foundation.
So we mature from merely hearing an obeying orders to a confirmed character that can create harmony and beauty in the world.
This leads to the second point. God loves seeing us transformed. He doesn’t want robots. He doesn’t want perpetual children. He wants a company of gods.
Yes we will always be finite and God isn’t. There will always be a difference between God and humanity. But the point of being made in God’s image is to grow to more closely match God’s image. We are meant to be transformed and glorified. And God loves to see that happen. He exults in our exaltation. He rejoices as we come into our inheritance.
Hebrews 12 makes it clear that, when the Proverbs refer to “my son” that is God talking to us. God is waiting to rejoice as he sees us become wise. His inmost being will revel in our attainment.
There is a not so pleasant side to this fact. Again, as Hebrews 12 indicates, this means that God might think tribulations and afflictions are worth the result. And we may not agree.
But we have to trust God.
He is cheering for us.