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 TweetIn marriage, men and women can experience the lofty heights of love, mutual respect, and faithfulness. They can know what it is to both be wholly devoted to another and have that person’s devotion in return.
Marriage in this fashion was intended to be a picture of God’s unending love for his bride, his chosen people. However, his people Israel had become adulterous.
Israel’s sin was idolatry, or worshiping created things rather than Creator God.
Today’s verse sheds more light on this:
When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.”
Hosea 1:2 ESV
Hosea was charged with displaying the absolute horror and devastation of sin upon covenant relationship.
Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. And they said, “Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the LORD heard it.
Numbers 12:1-2 ESV
Have you ever heard that when you point at someone you have three fingers pointing back at you?
Generally speaking, we ensure others understand this euphemism very well when they attempt to point out our flaws in order to make themselves look better. Essentially, we simply point back at them!
Moses was dealing with this very issue as he was leading the Israelites through the wilderness. Miriam and Aaron were pointing to what they considered a sin or flaw in Moses’ life in order that the people would look to them as leaders rather than Moses.
He could have