Day 102, Year 1

The Rebuke of Life

“The ear that hears the rebukes of life will abide among the wise. He who disdains instruction despises his own soul, but he who heeds rebuke gets understanding.” (Proverbs 15:31-32 NKJV)

The word “rebuke” appears twice in today’s passage, both using the same Hebrew word tokachath, which also means “reproof, correction, chastisement, or argument.” In my understanding, the “rebukes of life” refer to the rebukes that bring life. Hence, there are two types of rebuke: one that leads to hopelessness and despair, and the other that brings hope and leads us positively toward the path of life. Of course, the rebukes that lead to despair should be assertively rejected, but God’s commands and instructions are meant to give life, prompting us to choose His life. The passage of today points out a characteristic of the wise—we heed the rebukes of life. We, aiming to be the wise, want to correct our own mistakes, eliminate our foolishness, and learn from painful experiences in the past, so as to develop greater wisdom and joyfully walk God’s path of life. But for the fools, the rebukes of life could be unpleasant, and thus they reject them. 

In affluent societies, people often value honor and reputation. They tend to fear the rebukes of others, especially public rebukes. As a result, the phenomena of focusing on appearance, seeking to save face, and tolerating problems are prevalent in many societies. Over time, this breeds a large number of people who tend to avoid dealing with their problems and are even unwilling to face their life issues. If this occurs in the faith community, more gatherings of believers would only lead to greater foolishness because they only tolerate various problems. In this situation, the wise who heed rebukes could form small groups to encourage and correct each other.

Today’s verse states that “He who disdains [others’] instruction despises his own soul.” This is because when people make mistakes but refuse to be corrected and rebuked, their problems would only be exacerbated, and likely in turn lead them and others toward destruction. The first step in disdaining discipline is refusing to face one’s problems. Conversely, the first step in heeding the rebukes of life is to confront our tendency to avoid dealing with our issues and tackle them. We can pray for the Lord Jesus to strengthen our resolve so that we have the courage to face our life issues. And we can pray for His wisdom to extinguish our unpleasant emotions or hard feelings, but heed the rebukes of life, resolve our problems with His encouragement, and thus firmly walk the path of godly wisdom.

Reflection questions:

1) Could you discern which kind of rebukes lead to life, or which lead to death? What is the key difference between them?

2) Do you tend to avoid dealing with your problems? If so, how would you rely on the Lord to overcome it?