The trust of the wise son (vv. 5-6) comes from heeding sound teaching (vv. 1-4), and it leads to confident obedience (vv. 7-9).
"Teaching"(v. 1, Heb. torah) means "law"or, more fundamentally, "direction."Here the context suggests that the teachings of the parents are in view rather than the Mosaic Law, though in Israel their instruction would have rested on the Torah of God.
"Where it [torah] occurs unqualified (28:9; 29:18) it is clearly the divine law (it is also the Jewish term for the Pentateuch); but my law, thy mother's law' (1:8), etc., refer to the present maxims and to the home teachings, based indeed on the law, but not identical with it."47
Verse 3 pictures devotion to kindness and truth (cf. Deut. 6:8-9, which says that God's law should receive the same devotion). "Kindness"or "love"translates the Hebrew word hesed, which refers to faithfulness to obligations that arise from a relationship.48"Truth"or "faithfulness"(Heb. emet) refers to what one can rely on because it is stable.49Together they may form a hendiadys: true kindness or faithful love. "Repute"(v. 4) connotes success, as in Psalm 111:10.
"Trust"and "lean"(v. 5) are very close in meaning. Trusting means to put oneself wholly at the mercy of another (cf. Jer. 12:5b; Ps. 22:9b). Leaning is not just reclining against something but relying on it totally for support. "Acknowledge"(v. 6) means to be aware of and have fellowship with God, not just to tip one's hat to Him. It includes obeying God's moral will as He has revealed it. The promise (v. 6b) means that God will make the course of such a person's life truly successful in God's eyes. This is a promise as well as a proverb, and it refers to the totality of one's life experience. It does not guarantee that one will never make mistakes.
How can we tell if a proverb is a promise as well as a proverb? We can do so by consulting the rest of Scripture. If a proverb expresses a truth promised elsewhere in Scripture, we know it is a promise. In the case of 3:5-6 we have the repetition of a promise made numerous times in Scripture that people who trust God will experience His guidance through life (cf. Heb. 11). In our attempt to "handle accurately the word of truth"(2 Tim. 2:15) we must carefully distinguish proverbs that restate promises from those that do not and are only proverbs.
Verses 7-10 suggest some of the ways God will reward the commitment of verses 5-6. Verse 7a gives the converse of verse 5a, and 7b restates 6a (cf. Rom. 12:16). This is the act of acknowledging God in all one's ways. Verse 8 describes personal invigoration poetically.
"Scripture often uses the physical body to describe inner spiritual or psychical feelings."50
Verse 9 applies the principle of acknowledging God to the financial side of life.
"To know' God in our financial ways' is to see that these honour Him."51
The prospect of material reward (v. 10) was a promise to the godly Israelite (cf. Deut. 28:1-14; Mal. 3:10). We should take this verse more as a proverb than a promise since the Lord has revealed that as Christians we should expect persecution for our faith rather than material prosperity (2 Tim. 3:12; Heb. 12:1-11).
