Long before sunrise, an old man lights a lamp and sits across from his son. He does not begin with instruction. He pours a cup of water for the boy, looks at him for a long moment, and then says, “My child.” What follows is one of the quietest and most important lessons a father can pass on — and Proverbs 24 has been waiting three thousand years to give it to us.
Core Message
The reflection teaches that true wisdom begins with reverence for God and respectful honour toward rightful authority, while never surrendering one’s conscience or ultimate loyalty to the Lord. It emphasizes that obedience becomes dangerous when authority replaces God, but rebellion becomes destructive when reverence for God and moral order is lost.
At its heart, the reflection says:
Fear God above all, honour lawful authority with humility, and let a conscience formed by truth guide every act of obedience.
It also highlights a deeper spiritual journey:
- reverence matures into love,
- obedience matures into peace,
- and a life rooted in God and moral order remains steady even in a chaotic world.
RISE & INSPIRE · WAKE-UP CALLS
Reflection 128 of 2026 · Post Streak 1024 · 13 May 2026
A LETTER TO MY CHILD,
On Fearing the Lord and the King
“My child, fear the Lord and the king, and do not disobey either of them, for disaster comes from them suddenly, and who knows the ruin that both can bring?”
Proverbs 24:21–22
മകനേ, കര്ത്താവിനെയും രാജാവിനെയും ഭയപ്പെടുക, അവരെ ധിക്കരിക്കരുത്. എന്തെന്നാല്, അവരില്നിന്നുള്ള ശിക്ഷ പെട്ടെന്നായിരിക്കും; അതില്നിന്നുണ്ടാകുന്ന നാശത്തിന്റെ വലുപ്പം ആര്ക്കാണ്ഊഹിക്കാന് കഴിയുക?
സുഭാഷിതങ്ങള് 24:21–22
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It is still dark when the old man rises. The lamp throws a thin gold light against the wall, and the boy, only half awake, sits across from him at the low wooden table. The boy is twelve, perhaps thirteen — old enough to ask questions, young enough that the answers still shape him.
The father does not open with instruction. He pours a cup of water for the boy, then for himself. He looks at his son for a long moment in that soft yellow light. And then, gently, the way a man speaks who has lived long enough to be afraid of the right things and unafraid of the wrong ones, he begins.
“My child,” he says,
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fear the Lord, and fear the king, and do not disobey either of them.
I have waited a long time before saying this to you, because I wanted you to be old enough to hear it without flinching. The word fear is a word the world has soured. When you hear it, you will think of trembling, of cowering, of small things hiding from large ones. But that is not the fear I am asking of you. The fear I am asking of you is older than that, and warmer, and more honest. It is the fear a son has of breaking the heart of a father who has only ever been kind to him. It is the fear of standing one day before the One who made you, and realising that you spent your years living as though He were not there.
That is the fear of the Lord. It is not the fear of a slave before a tyrant. It is the fear of a beloved child before the only love that will never fail him. And, my child, it is the beginning of wisdom. Without it, you may grow clever, but you will never grow wise. You may grow successful, but you will never grow whole.
And then there is the second fear, which the world finds even stranger. Fear the king. Honour the authority that has been placed over you. I do not say this because every king is good — you and I both know they are not. I do not say this because every law is just — you will live long enough to see laws that are not. I say this because there is an order in the world that holds the world together, and a man who tears at that order with his own hands will, in the end, tear at himself. The home has its order. The school has its order. The land has its order. The Church has her order. To despise these orders is to imagine that you alone are wise enough to live without them. No man is that wise. Not you. Not me. Not any man who has ever lived.
Now listen carefully, because here is where many stumble. To fear the king is not to worship the king. To honour authority is not to surrender your conscience. There is only One you worship, and that One is the Lord. The king is under the Lord, and the law is under the Lord, and your conscience, formed in the Lord, is the silent witness that keeps you upright when no one is watching. If ever a king should command you to do what the Lord forbids, you will gently, firmly, and without anger refuse him — as the apostles refused, as the martyrs refused, as every honest soul has refused since the world began. But if he commands you only what is lawful and good, then obey him not grudgingly but as a son of order, a son of peace, a son of the Most High who has put a measure of His own authority into every just hand on earth.
Do you see, my child, why these two fears are joined in one breath? Because the man who fears the Lord rightly will honour the king rightly, and the man who fears no Lord will eventually honour no one — not the king, not the law, not his neighbour, not his own wife, not his own soul. The first fear teaches him every other reverence. Without it he is a wind that blows nowhere.
And then the Proverb ends with a warning I want you to hear without softening it. Disaster comes from them suddenly, and who knows the ruin that both can bring? My child, this is not a threat. It is the kindness of an old voice telling a young one the truth. Ruin does come suddenly. It does not announce itself. It does not knock. The man who has spent his life despising the Lord and despising lawful authority will one day wake to find the ground gone from beneath him, and he will not understand how it happened. But it will have been happening for years. A thousand small contempts, a thousand small disobediences, a thousand quiet hardenings of the heart — and then one day, the breaking. Suddenly. As Scripture says.
I do not want this for you. No father wants this for his son. So I am giving you, in this one small Proverb, the two posts on which a good life is built. Reverence above. Order around. Hold to these two and you will not be shaken when the world tries to shake you. Lose either of them and the other will not save you for long.
There is one more thing I want you to know before the light grows full. The fear of the Lord, when you have it for long enough, stops feeling like fear at all. It begins to feel like love. The trembling becomes tenderness. The reverence becomes intimacy. You will find, as the years go by, that the same God you once feared as a far-off King has become the Father who sits with you in the dark and pours your water for you. And the obedience that once felt like a yoke will feel, on that day, like the gentle hand of a Father walking you home.
That is the secret the Proverb does not say aloud, but every wise man eventually learns. Begin in fear. End in love. Both are the same road. Both are walked on the same two feet — reverence for the Lord, and reverence for the order He has placed around you.
Now drink your water, my child. The day is beginning. Go, and walk softly before the Lord, and walk honestly before men. And when you are an old man yourself, sitting across from your own son in a thin gold light, you will know what to say to him.
Because someone, once, said it to you.
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If a wise father were sitting across from you in the lamplight this morning, which of his two counsels would land hardest — the call to reverence the Lord, or the call to honour the order He has placed around you? I would be quietly glad to read your answer in the comments.
If today’s letter found you at the right hour, you may like to receive these reflections quietly in your inbox each morning. Subscribing is simple and free, and it is, in its own small way, a kind of friendship across the miles.
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May the fear of the Lord be your wisdom,
and the love of the Lord be your peace.
Laudetur Jesus Christus.
Today’s reflection is written by Johnbritto Kurusumuthu, inspired by the verse shared this morning
(13 May 2026) by His Excellency, the Rt. Rev. Dr Selvister Ponnumuthan,
Bishop of the Diocese of Punalur —
a cherished practice he has faithfully continued for over three years.
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