“Listen to advice and accept discipline,
and at the end you will be counted among the wise.”

During Spiritfire, our family devotion time with God, we have been creating names for the different proverbs to help us classify the type of wisdom within them. I know I’ve already shared some: “Coin” proverbs, “This and More” proverbs, “If-Then”, etc. Even though some proverbs defy it, we’ve found that by placing them in their correct classification it can help us to better learn from them. Proverbs 19:20, for my family, has been placed among the “Core” proverbs. These proverbs tap directly into the theme of wisdom and knowledge taught from chapter 1:1-7.

One of the rules I have given my kids when eating apples is, “You’re not finished with your apple till I can see the core.” This rule has needed refinement over the years due to the creative ways my kids will eat one spot to the core leaving the rest of the apple untouched, but they understood the point. The “Apple-core Rule” has become a template for the type of kids I want them to become. You will learn the accurate meaning/character of something/someone when you get to the core.

Proverbs 19:20, along with others like 19:11, reveal keys for attaining the vast treasures of the fear of the Lord. By listening to advice, we shortcut the pain of learning by experience alone. By accepting discipline and living in obedience to it, we learn discernment and humility as we often need to be taught the difference between right and wrong. The result of these dual crucibles is the whole point of why Proverbs was written: to be “counted among the wise”.

Hebrews 5:8-10 reveals how this proverb was fulfilled through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, achieving for Him perfection so that He became, “the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him”. This “Core” proverb revealed the very heart of God.