Let me remind you again that the proverbs are wise sayings, not promises from God. They teach principles that are generally true, not unfailingly true. If we claim them as God’s promises to us, we do so in error. I share that again because today’s reading includes the biggie – the one principle that people most often claim as a promise from God: “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” (22:6) Then faith in God falters when the child they have trained does indeed exercise his free will and departs from the way the parents intended to train him. God will not be held to a promise He never made; we cannot force Him to by claiming it as a promise in our ignorance.
Does it disappoint you that you cannot claim that principle as a promise? I wonder if we don’t presume upon God’s faithfulness when we treat it as a promise. I suspect that when we understand this teaching as a principle, we train our children with more diligence than if we take it as a promise.