Talk of ambiguity

"Spare the rod and spoil the child..."

Talk of ambiguity! Is the above sentence pleading with you to please spare the rod and pamper the child, make the child feel like a prince/princess? Or is it actually a warning that if you decide to spare the rod, you would end up raising a spoilt brat (which is decidedly not what you want to do!)?

Definitely a case of context lending meaning to the prose! Did I say already that I love English? :-)