To reprove means to gently criticize or correct. So, a reprover challenges and corrects people whom they love.
And today’s verse shows us just how much a wise reprover is worth:
Like a gold ring or an ornament of gold
is a wise reprover to a listening ear.
Proverbs 25:12 ESV
There are two big ideas we should take away.
One:
Wise reprovers are worth their weight in gold. Click To TweetTwo:
Those who listen to a wise reprover gain something as valuable as gold. Click To Tweet
It was nearly 11 p.m. at a rental car place. I’d been standing in line with about 30 other people for over half an hour, and my wife was with the leadership team we’d brought for a conference.
The people next to me grumbled impatiently. Ahead, one customer at the counter shouted curse words into his phone while his company credit card kept declining. No one was having a good time!
Finally, a manager came out of the back room and the line started moving. When it was my turn, all I wanted to do was swipe my card, grab the keys, and get our team to the hotel.
When it was my turn, the manager asked me a few quick questions and then said, “Thanks for waiting. I can do this rental for cheaper…”
“Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the LORD.”
Haggai 1:7–8 ESV
Haggai was about 70 when he delivered this message to God’s people.
But over the course of just four months, he reinvigorated Israel to return to God and build his Kingdom instead of their own.
This is absolutely remarkable; especially when we zoom out and look at what the state of Israel was.