No Need For Just For Men

“The glory of young men is their strength: and the beauty of old men is the gray head.” (Pr 20:29 AV)

 

The most interesting nugget about this verse is the appearance of the colon between the young man and the old man.  Solomon is comparing what others observe as admirable.  The young man is recognized for what he can accomplish through his own efforts.  His strength is his glory.  We admire an athlete who can do things no normal person can do.  As we should.  He works hard and trains equally hard to accomplish the things that he does.  His strength is a manifestation of the discipline to be strong.  On the other hand, the old man is extolled for his wisdom.  That is the analogy to the gray head.  The gray head is often a symbol of wisdom garnered by experience.  The word ‘and’ along with the colon joins the two.  As much as we might appreciate a world record of some physical feat, the same appreciation should be had for those who have lived a life and learned from the LORD and His word coupled with experience.  The grey head should be appreciated even more than the strength of the young man for strength cannot continue to mature and increase while wisdom can.  Solomon is trying to tell his children even though you may admire the accomplishments of the young, the wisdom of the old is of equal or greater value.

I have been thinking of my father a lot lately.  I miss him.  He passed away almost two years ago.  My father was an extremely smart man.  There isn’t a time when I don’t remember him without grey hair.  I’m sure he had another hair color at one time, but I don’t know what that might have been because there was no color photography back then.  All I remember is grey hair.  He also had a certain style that screamed ‘50s scientist.  He had the tight crew cut and plastic horn-rimmed glasses.  He used a pocket protector as well.  My father and Einstein could have been friends.  However, as throwback as that was, we know if we had a question, he had an answer.  He may have not been right one hundred percent of the time, but it was pretty close.  He learned by personal experience the right and wrong way.  When we had an issue, it was dad whom we asked.  Mom was smart in her own way.  College-educated and very smart, my mom could probably solve most problems.  But it was dad who had all the answers.  It was that gray head that I remember the most.

This is something his son soon forgot.  Reheboam, the son of Solomon who took his place on the throne, ignored the advice of his father’s counselors and contemporaries and went with the advice of his young friends.  This resulted in a bloodless civil war.  Jereboam, given the ten northern tribes by God, ceded from the two southern tribes and established his own government.  All because Reheboam would not heed the advice of those with grey heads.  Grey heads come at a cost.  I know.  I am quickly getting one.  There is an old wives tale that equates white hair to the stress of life.  There is something to that.  Mostly, I am sure it is genetics, but stress does play a part.  Stress is the emotion one feels while learning life-altering lessons.  This instruction is also an encouragement to those of us with grey heads.  We may not be able to accomplish physically what much younger men can, but that does not mean we are void of purpose and profit.  There is a place for the gray head.  Those hairs got there because of experience and the voice of experience can often help the strength of youth to be better focused and more effective.