A Wise Reproof Demands A Listening Ear (Proverbs 25:12)

“Like a gold ring or an ornament of gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear.”

[Proverbs 25:12, ESV]

In the essay about Proverbs 19:20, we learned about how we can become wise by listening to advice and accepting instruction. In this essay, we will learn about the value of having a “wise reprover”, and how we can be blessed by their wisdom.

First, let us examine the way that Proverbs 25:12 describes the value of a wise reprover, to a listening ear:

“Like a gold ring or an ornament of gold…”

I am sure that you know how valuable gold is. After all, gold is beautiful to look at, and it has been sought after throughout history. Its beauty is responsible for most of its value, but not all of it. When I began to learn more about electricity, how computers work, and how much effort goes into designing every aspect of the devices that our world is becoming increasingly dependent on, I began to see a theme: gold is everywhere. Why?

I will try not to bore you with the sciency, geeky stuff. Gold is classified as a noble metal, which is a classification used for only a handful of metals, all of which have the ability to withstand almost anything that you could think of. One of the most interesting projects that I worked on while I was in college was recovering the gold that was on the circuit-boards of all sorts of devices. People would throw away remotes, old computer parts, charging cables, and all sorts of other things. I would ask for as many of these devices as I could, I would take them to my workshop, and I would tear them apart. The circuit boards would be cleaned of the parts that were attached to it, and the cleaned circuit-boards would be stored together. Why? Because those circuit-boards are covered in gold. More specifically, they are covered in gold plating. Gold plating is, simply, a tiny amount of gold that covers the metal that is underneath (usually copper). This is done for two reasons: (1) gold is excellent at conducting electricity, and (2) gold does not get destroyed by oxygen, water, rust, acid, or anything else, really.

I spent countless hours, after my classes, trying to figure out how to salvage the tiny amount of gold that I had. During this process, I realized how amazing gold is. There are two methods I could use to effectively recover the gold that I had collected. The first was to use cyanide leeching, and I do not know where I could by cyanide, it would be too expensive, cyanide is very dangerous, and I would not be shocked to have the police visit me if they saw I had a bunch of cyanide showing up to my house. The second method was to use a combination of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid, which, when combined according to a specific ratio, could dissolve gold. This acid could be filtered, and then I could retrieve the gold out of the solution, which I could filter again to purify it further, or I could melt it into a gold bead. Even a tiny amount of gold is very, very expensive. All those hours would be worth it when I had a bit of gold, which I could easily sell and make some money from, while learning all sorts of things about chemistry. The only issue for me is that, as much as I tried, I never really got the process to work. The gold would not dissolve, or I could not recover it, or I would spill the solution (this happened once, and it was very upsetting). Why go through all that trouble? Because I am kind of weird, and because gold is that valuable.

Gold is not only great to use with electricity, it is easy to work with. Gold is incredibly soft, making it easy to shape. Did you know that the device that you are using has gold throughout it? Did you know that if you were to break open the chips in your computer, you would find tiny gold wires, connecting different parts of the chip to different pins? Gold is everywhere, and it needs to be. Leave a hammer outside for a week and you will find it covered in rust. Leave a gold necklace outside for a week, and you will probably never find it (it is very valuable and somebody would probably take it). If you did find it, however, you would see that it is identical to the way it looked when you first put it there. Leave it there for a year, two years, ten years, or however long you want, the gold will be in the same condition as it was.

I pray that all of this information helps make the value of gold make more sense, and I pray that this information makes the rest of Proverbs 25:12 resonate with you in a way that it may not have resonated before.

“Like a gold ring or an ornament of gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear.”

As valuable as gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear. What is a “wise reprover”, anyway? A reprover is somebody who gives correction. A parent reproves a child when the child misbehaves. I am not the first to say it, but it does not take a genius to find problems. It does, however, take wisdom to offer correction that is wise. This wise reprover, however, need to be reproving a “listening ear” in order for his reproof to be as valuable as “a gold ring or an ornament of gold”. This is the part that we have to apply to our lives.

Be a listener, be open to criticism, be open to being incorrect, and be willing to change when you are presented with the reproof of somebody who is wise. I do not always agree with my parents, for example, but I know that they are far wiser than I am, so if my mother or father tells me to do something, I listen. I trust that God has given wisdom to my parents, and I trust that my parents are offering correction that comes from that wisdom. Of course, they are not always correct, but when they tell me that I said something that I should not have said, that I behaved in a way that I should not have behaved, or that I failed to do something that I should have done, I trust that they know better, and I listen to their correction.

I pray that this essay encourages you to pursue wisdom, to see the Holy Spirit sanctify you, and to become more like the man or woman that He has called you to be.