The Stiffened Neck

For Monday, February 11, 2008
Proverbs 29:1

He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck,
will suddenly be broken beyond healing.



It is the stiffening that produces the break. As painful as reproof may be, it should make the person stronger; it should condition the spirit and train the mind, molding the individual to be a person of perseverance and wisdom. If received properly, reproof will shape a mind that is foolish and give that mind discernment; it will turn a rebellious spirit into one that blesses and builds up others. Reproof is healing.

Stiffening - resisting reproof - is destructive. Like the arm that stiffens and refuses the healing medicine of a doctor's syringe, so the stiffening person of reproof denies what is for his good. Like the neck that stiffens against pressure, it will suddenly break. The very reproof intended to heal can be made destructive. Or more likely, the rebellious spirit learns to become deaf to it and deny its healing intention. He trains himself so well to be deaf that he misses the warnings leading to his sudden calamity.

Reproof is never pleasant to receive. But if we will learn to learn from it, however it may be painful to take, then it will have the effect that God intends. For he does intend that every experience, every reproof, regardless of how it comes and from whom, to make us stronger, to make us wiser, to sanctify us for godliness. Will we bend and receive such reproof or will we stiffen?