Wisdom 3:10-19. OK, let's get this out of the way: the truth hurts, more often than not. We very frequently do not want to hear it or acknowledge it because we know it will hurt. So when we encounter harsh truth in the Bible (as we will today), remember that it is being said not to hurt us, but to teach us. We can't put our fingers in our ears and tell ourselves God didn't mean this.

All of that being said, my reading from today is from the book of Wisdom. In this book, Wisdom is supposed to be speaking to us herself, giving us the guidance that we need to get through this life. In this reading, we are told that those who are ungodly and disregard righteousness will be punished "as their reasoning deserves." Whoever despises wisdom and instruction is miserable, all they do and hope for is vain and unprofitable. Barren women and eunuchs who follow God's ways are blessed and will have fruit when God examines souls. They will have places of great delight, because "the fruit of good labors is renowned." But even the children of adulterers will be held to no account - they will perish and will be without honor. "The end of an unrighteous generation is grievous."

Again, we see the Old Testament way of describing the effects of sin as punishment. Remember, our suffering is not God withholding his love from us, he will never stop loving us, and he does not want any of his children to perish. The misery being described here is what happens, in fact, when whole generations go astray. Their children do not know the way to live, and so they suffer, the whole generation suffers, and cannot come to holiness. Eventually, it gets so bad that the entire generation (that is, the people of the time) must come to an end - they have no basis in the good and no foundation to stand on. They fall, and it is grievous, and painful, but also inevitable.

This passage uses children to denote the fruit of our works, because children were seen as the highest blessing at that time. The more children one had, the more it was thought that God was blessing you. Women who could not have children were seen as being punished in some way (this is why Sarah, Hannah, Elizabeth, etc, we're so miserable without children). But the author is saying here that a barren woman who is godly is much more blessed than an unrighteous woman with children. The sinful person's children will come to a bad end. Even if they live for a long time, they will not amount to anything in heavenly terms - they can't, they have not learned how, due to their parents' inability to teach them.

We can look at children in this reading, though, as the fruit of people's labors. What have the people brought into the world? Is it worth being remembered? Is it a testament to their goodness? Thinking of it that way, it is easier to see that God is not talking about punishing people, but he is warning us that we must follow his ways, and teach them to our children, to produce good fruit. Jesus will reiterate this in the New Testament, but he will also save us sinners and our lost children, let's never forget that!