Pondering Proverbs – Discipline (12)

 

“He whose ear listens to the life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise. He who neglects discipline despises himself, but he who listens to reproof acquires understanding. The fear of Yahweh is the instruction for wisdom, and before honor comes humility.” Proverbs 15:31 – 33.

 

As we turn the kaleidoscope of discipline yet again, what facets do you see? How are the patterns defusing the light?

 

Our passage begins, “He whose ear…”

 

We all have ears, but what kind of ears do we have?

 

Some of us decorate our ears with earrings and studs, others have hearing aids; sometimes we wear protection for our ears – such as when operating loud equipment. Some men and women have jobs that require them to wear hearing-enhancing devices, such as sonar operators on submarines. When our ears are functioning well, we may pay little attention to them, but when they are infected they demand our immediate attention for earaches can be excruciating. What else can you think about regarding ears?

 

In Revelation chapters 2 and 3, Jesus speaks to seven churches regarding their condition, both correcting and encouraging; at the conclusion of each message He says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” What does Jesus mean, “He who has an ear”? Since we can assume that the people who heard Revelation read aloud to them had ears, why would Jesus say, “He who has an ear”?

 

In Matthew 13:10 – 17 Jesus talks to His disciples about those who have eyes but do not see, and ears but do not hear. What does He mean by this? Then consider John 9:39, “And Jesus said, ‘For judgment I came into the world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” What is Jesus saying?

 

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that the verse that precedes our passage in Proverbs speaks of the eyes, “Bright eyes gladden the heart; good news puts fat on the bones.” The eyes and ears are often connected in the Bible, and the heart (the inner person) is often connected to the ears and eyes – for the Bible treats us holistically. What we see and hear informs our heart, and our heart informs our speech.

 

Jesus says, “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, therefore be zealous and repent…He who has an ear” (see Rev. 3:19 – 22).

 

Do we have ears that “listen to life-giving reproof”?

 

My father-in-law drove race cars and was constantly working on them for much of his life; this exposure to loud engine noise damaged his hearing. Perhaps you have known musicians who played such loud amplified music that they became hearing – impaired and could no longer hear the nuances of the music they played.

 

The noise of the world can damage our ability to hear “what the Spirit is saying.” Furthermore, when the noise of the world is imported into the professing church and packaged in a “Christian” context, it can become especially difficult to have an ear to hear, to discern between the words of the world and the Word of God.

 

And here, I think, is where we must keep coming back to the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ – for without the Cross as our tuning fork, without the Cross as our lens through which to “see,” we will lose our seeing and our hearing, we will lose our way.

 

Consider what Paul says and why he says it in 1 Corinthians 2:2, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” If you ponder the context (1:17 – 2:16) I think you will see that it includes that Christ crucified is a stumbling block to some and foolishness to others – the temptation is to adjust our hearing to the world’s hearing and our seeing to the world’s seeing – and so we must ever glory in Christ Jesus, ever seek Him, ever see Him, ever listen to Him, ever have our hearts and minds captured by Him.

 

What kind of ears do we have?

 

We’ll return to Proverbs 15 in the next post in this series.