WWUTT 1614 Answer a Fool According to His Folly... Or Not (Proverbs 26:1-28)

We've heard a lot about fools in our study of the book of Proverbs, and we're going to pay a special attention to fools today in Proverbs 26, that we would not be like Him, but we desire to be like Christ when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the

Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our

Q &A on Friday. Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. Well, we come to a new chapter in the book of Proverbs today.

Like last week, Chapter 25 was 28 verses. We made it all the way through Chapter 25.

This one is also 28 verses, and we'll see if we can get all the way through Chapter 26.

I'm reading out of the Legacy Standard Bible. This is the Word of the Lord. Like snow in summer and like rain in harvest, so glory is not fitting for a fool.

Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in flying, so a curse without cause does not come to pass.

A whip is for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools.

Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you yourself also be like him.

Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. He cuts off his own feet and drinks violence, who sends words by the hand of a fool.

Like the legs which hang limp on the lame, so is a proverb in the mouth of fools.

Like one who binds a stone in a sling, so is he who gives glory to a fool.

Like a thorn which goes up into the hand of a drunkard, so is a proverb in the mouth of fools.

Like an archer who wounds everyone, so is he who hires a fool or who hires those who pass by.

Like a dog that returns to its vomit, is a fool who repeats his folly. Do you see a man wise in his own eyes?

There is more hope for a fool than for him. The sluggard says, there is a fierce lion in the road, a lion is among the streets.

As the door turns on its hinges, so does the sluggard on his bed. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish, he is too weary to return it to his mouth.

The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can respond with a discreet answer.

Like one who seizes a dog by the ears, is he who passes by and becomes passionate about strife not belonging to him.

Like a madman who shoots firebrands, arrows and death, so is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, am

I not joking? With no wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, strife quiets down.

Like charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife.

The words of a whisperer are like dainty morsels, and they go down into the innermost parts of the stomach.

Like an earthen vessel overlaid with silver dross are fiery lips and an evil heart.

He who hates disguises it with his lips, but he sets up deceit within himself.

When he makes his voice gracious, do not believe him, for there are seven abominations in his heart.

Though his hatred covers itself with guile, his evil will be revealed in the assembly.

He who digs a pit will fall into it, and he who rolls a stone, it will turn back on him. A lying tongue hates those it crushes, and a flattering mouth works ruin.

Let's come back to the very beginning of this, probably a verse that we can somewhat associate with considering the winter weather that's going on in various parts of the country this week.

Verse 1, like snow in summer and like rain in harvest, so is glory not fitting for a fool.

Does snow belong in the summer? No. You won't ever see it in the summer.

How about rain in harvest? Well, that just ruins the harvest. You can't get to harvesting if it's raining.

So glory is not fitting for a fool. You will never see a fool glorified, first of all.

Like when we talk about in the ultimate scheme of things, God is not going to glorify the fool.

But even here on earth, where fools are glorified, we cannot accomplish wisdom.

You will not see wisdom in the place of that fool. There are probably many world leaders and politicians who have been glorified, and you would say wisdom is not in the presence of them, just as rain prevents harvest from taking place.

Verse 2, like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in flying, so a curse without cause does not come to pass.

So a curse without cause does not come to pass. Like if a person curses you, but there isn't a cause to that curse, you've not done anything worthy of that curse.

Will that curse come to pass? No, you don't have anything to worry about from that person. They speak on their own terms.

They do not speak for the Lord. I was just cursed yesterday. As a matter of fact, there was somebody online that cursed me because I was speaking out against women pastors.

The Bible does not allow a woman to be a pastor, and a woman who does so would be in sin.

She would be in rebellion against God. You know that that was even a part of my podcast yesterday, so there was somebody that was contending with that.

Well, they cursed me in the midst of that. I have nothing to fear of their curse, because I know that what

I was saying was exactly according to the word of God, and what they were cursing me according to was their own flesh.

Verse three, a whip is for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools.

In other words, how do you get a person from being foolish to being wise? They need discipline.

Just like you would strike an animal to keep it on course, or to discipline that particular animal to do what you tell it to do, to obey your commands, so you must do with a fool.

It may not be literally strike them, but it would be to give them discipline, to rebuke them sharply, that they may know wrong for their folly, and therefore know the right way that they are to go.

Verse four, do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you yourself also be like him.

This is a couple of famous pair of verses, by the way. There are people who love to use Proverbs 26, verses four and five to say that the

Bible contradicts itself. There's actually an easy explanation for this. So verse five then is, answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.

I saw a great illustration of this one time. So let's look at the first one. Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you yourself also be like him.

So let's say a person is dressed like a clown. They look like a fool, right? How do you show that guy that he is a fool?

Well, if you dress like a clown too, to show him what he looks like, then now you both just look like fools.

You're both clowns. So you've answered him according to his folly.

You've done exactly as he does, and now you're both the same. You're just both clowns, right?

But now look at the next verse. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.

So instead of dressing like a clown, and then you become just like the clown, what if you brought him a mirror?

So you're not dressed as a clown, but you hold up a mirror, and you show him according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.

He looks in the mirror, and he sees what he looks like. Oh, I look like a clown. So there you go.

You have a good illustration of how both of those verses are actually correct. They don't contradict one another.

In fact, they give us good guidance on how we should respond to the fool.

Do not answer him according to his folly, or you're going to be like him. Answer him according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.

So don't answer just like him, but show him his fault, that he may recognize it, and hopefully he'll receive the counsel, and he will repent.

Verse six. He cuts off his own feet and drinks violence, who sends words by the hand of a fool.

You got a message that needs to be spoken, you give it to a fool, well, you cut off your own feet.

You should have delivered that message. If you were the wise one, you've cut off your own feet, handed it to a fool who's not even going to deliver the message if he delivers it wrong, and you drink violence upon yourself.

Let's say that we're applying the gospel to this. So you give the gospel to a man who is unqualified to be a pastor, and you put him in the pulpit, and you tell him to preach.

He's not going to give the gospel. He's going to give a message that doesn't save anybody, and therefore drinks violence.

He will bring judgment and destruction upon those who listen to him, and you have put him there, and have therefore brought that upon the people who won't hear the gospel and therefore know to repent and put their faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ. You've sent words by the hands of a fool. So may it be applied to us, therefore, to consider a man worthy for that particular position, and the

Bible gives us guidelines that we are to follow to test a man as to whether or not he's fit to become a pastor.

Even a person shouldn't just go out and evangelize without careful guidance and instruction, even from his own church.

A person who goes out to be a missionary, they should meet the same qualifications that a pastor has to meet.

Otherwise, you're sending them out in vain. They're not going to lead people to Christ. They'll lead people to destruction if they are not properly disciplined and do not know how to preach the true gospel.

Verse 7, like the legs which hang limp on the lame, so is a proverb in the mouth of fools.

It doesn't have legs. It doesn't carry that person anywhere. You tell them a proverb, and it just doesn't mean anything.

And the proverb in the mouth of fools, well, they'll twist it. They'll twist it to mean something that it doesn't mean. I heard a quote from Rick Warren earlier this week.

He quoted a verse from Proverbs and completely twisted it to mean something that it didn't mean. And Rick Warren does that.

If Rick Warren is quoting scripture, you're safe in assuming that he is doing it wrong. So a proverb in the mouth of a fool, it's just like the legs which hang limp on the lame.

Doesn't help anybody. Doesn't go anywhere. Verse 8, like one who binds a stone into a sling, is he who gives glory to a fool.

You elevate a guy. You give him praise. People are looking at that.

Well, that guy must be great because look, we're giving glory to this guy. Now you've bound a stone into a sling that he's just now going to injure people with because you've given glory to a fool.

Verse 9, like a thorn which goes up into the hand of a drunkard. So is a proverb in the mouth of fools.

Thorns hurt. A drunkard lacks sense. He won't even know how to pull it out.

And so that is with the proverbs in the mouths of fools. They're going to afflict people, not help them, and they won't even know how to give them relief.

Verse 10, like an archer who wounds everyone. So is he who hires a fool or who hires those who pass by.

So a person's just passing by. They don't even know their qualifications. They hire them to work and they do a bad job.

This is like an archer who wounds everybody. Just throwing arrows into the air. We're just doing things at random here.

Doesn't even really matter who it is that I hit. Verse 11, like a dog that returns to its vomit, is a fool who repeats his folly.

That's a pretty gross analogy, but this is the fool who doesn't learn from his error.

A dog laps up. Yeah, I'm not going to try to be too colorful with that.

You get the point. A fool doesn't learn from his error. He goes back to repeating it over and over again, just like a dog didn't learn what he barfed up.

The more I come back to this, the more colorful I'm going to get here. So let's continue on. Verse 12, do you see a man wise in his own eyes?

There is more hope for a fool than for him. We're even praising of the fool here.

Why is there more hope for the fool? Because hopefully the fool sees that he's a fool and that he needs to become wise.

But a man who sees that he is wise in his own eyes doesn't think that there's anything for him to learn.

Verse 13, the sluggard says there is a fierce lion in the road. A lion is among the streets.

Let's examine that one a little bit here. So why is this attributed to the sluggard?

Well, it's a lazy man who doesn't want to go out and do anything. Why doesn't he want to go out? He's cowering in fear and it's fear that is it's nonsense.

There's no reason for him to be afraid the way that he's afraid. So he says there's a fierce lion in the road.

There's a lion out in the streets. Yeah, there might be. But he's just making excuses to not go out.

It decides to cower in fear instead of going to do his work because he's a sluggard. OK, we see this happening in the church right now.

There are many people who are not going to church because they're scared of a virus. A virus that is deadly, sure, just like a lion is deadly, just like there might be a lion outside.

It's a virus that is deadly. It has killed people, but very, very few. It's very unlikely when you get this virus that you're actually going to die from it.

And so there are plenty of people out there not even going to church, not doing their work, not caring for one another because they think there's a fierce lion in the road.

People, we need to get over this pandemic fear. Stop listening to those voices out there that are telling you to be afraid.

You don't need to wear the mask. You don't need the vaccine. We know now we enough time has transpired.

The mask doesn't do anything. And the vaccine is not going to prevent you from getting covid. Go to church.

Go to work. Live your life. If God has it for you to die from the virus, so be it.

Trust in the Lord. You'll get promoted. You leave this body. You go to be in heaven with God. What are you afraid of?

Do not fear those things that you cannot see, that you can't control anyway, that God holds in his hand.

Fear God and nothing else. Verse 14, as the door turns on its hinges, so does the sluggard on his bed.

Yeah, that's he just doesn't go anywhere. He's just turning in the same place, right? It doesn't go and do his work.

He's just going to stay in bed all day. Verse 15. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish. He is too weary to return it to his mouth.

That's a lazy man right there. Let's say you've got a lazy guy sitting in his lazy boy and he has next to him a bowl full of M &Ms.

He's so lazy he'll stick his hand in those M &Ms and he'll never even bring it back to his mouth.

That's a lazy man right there. So he thinks only of himself. He only wants to store up things for himself, but then he doesn't even make use of those things that he has because he's just simply that lazy.

Verse 16, the sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can respond with a discreet answer.

The sluggard here doesn't even care to think a matter out. Whatever answer pops into his head, that must be the right one.

But seven men and what is seven in the Bible, Old Testament and new seven is the number of completeness.

So you're talking about men with wise counsel and they have complete wisdom here.

They can respond with a discreet answer or an answer with reason is another way of saying that it doesn't matter how many wise men you have.

The sluggard is just simply going to be convinced by his own mind.

Verse 17, like one who seizes a dog by the ears, is he who passes by and becomes passionate about a strife not belonging to him, like he gets into an argument that is none of his business.

What happens when you grab a dog by the ears? He's going to turn around and bite you. Yeah, you just made enemies with a bunch of people when you had no business in that particular quarrel.

And then it stirs up more strife. You've made even the strife between those individuals worse than it was.

Verse 18, like a madman who shoots firebrands, arrows and death, so is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, am

I not joking? And pretty self -explanatory, right, like somebody leads you astray with with lies or gets you stirred up about something and and then instead of apologizing for the wrong thing that he just said, he goes,

I was just joking anyway, stirring up emotions and then not even taking any fault, asking for an apology or trying to reconcile with those whom he stirred up.

Verse 20, with no wood, the fire goes out and where there is no whisperer, strife quiets down.

If you don't feed the conflict, then it will it will it will quiet down.

Simply what the proverb says, verse 21, like charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife, a guy who loves conflict.

He's going to feed it. Be careful with that company that you keep. Don't keep company with those people who just love to stir things up.

Boy, that's social media in a nutshell as well. Be careful about those things that you engage in on social media.

Don't stir up strife where you don't need to stir up strife. Don't grab dogs by the ears in conflicts that don't even concern you.

Verse 22, the words of a whisperer are like dainty morsels. So you're talking about somebody who's spreading gossip.

Oh, we love this little bit of gossip, right? They go down into the innermost parts of the stomach.

Well, this proverb seems like a good thing. So what are we supposed to learn from this? Well, remember that what comes out of your mouth is what's from within, right?

So if you're listening to gossip, what are you going to become? You're going to become a gossiper.

If you love the information, you love to be the person that has that info and you can pass it on to somebody else.

You listen to gossip. You'll become a gossiper. Verse 23, like an earthen vessel overlaid with silver dross are fiery lips and an evil heart.

Basically, this is taking an ugly pot and making it look good. And that's what that's what an evil heart, the fiery lips are on the person of an evil heart.

They might look good. The speech sounds good, but inside that person stirs evil.

Verse 24, he who hates disguises. I'm sorry. He who hates pause disguises it with his lips, but he sets up deceit within himself.

That's just like the previous proverb. And you'll notice these next several proverbs all seem to deal with hypocrisy.

A person looks one way, but they do something else. They may give an appearance, but in their heart, they are conniving and deceitful.

Verse 25, when he makes his voice gracious, do not believe him, for there are seven abominations in his heart.

This is explaining verses 23 and 24. And then 25 just continues on with that. You've got a guy who sounds gracious.

He's got evil in his heart. Don't believe him. There are seven abominations where, again, seven being the number of completeness.

So he is completely corrupt. You think back also to Proverbs chapter six, where it says there are six things the

Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him. We're talking about a corrupt person might look good on the outside, but on the inside,

God is not with him. He is not filled with the spirit of the Lord. Verse 26, though his hatred covers itself with guile, his evil will be revealed in the assembly.

Paul also saying to the Ephesians, that which is hidden will be brought to light. Verse 27, he who digs a pit will fall into it, and he who rolls a stone, it will turn back on him.

So he devises things against other people. But ultimately, this thing that he's trying to do to others, this destruction will come upon him.

It will be in the judgment of God to bring upon this person who did such wicked things.

He who searches mind and heart and will render to each person according to their works, as Jesus says in Revelation three.

Verse 28, a lying tongue hates those it crushes and a flattering mouth works ruin.

So we must take heed of these Proverbs that we have read here, lest we become foolish and be like the fool that was described in Proverbs chapter 26.

And we also must be careful with those we keep that we make friends with.

As the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, bad company corrupts good character. We read that in first Corinthians 15, which, by the way,

I get to chapter 15 next week. We're moving on in our study of first Corinthians. But bad company corrupts good morals.

So we must keep company with those who love the Lord and desire to grow in Christ likeness, that we may grow one another in this way as well.

We have all been brought into the family of God by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the grave so that all who believe in him will not perish.

But we have everlasting life. And as Paul says in Colossians 2, in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

So let us grow in wisdom by looking to Christ. Heavenly Father, thank you for this time in the book of Proverbs.

And may we learn wisdom from you any time we open the word of God. We have not only heard these words, teach us how to live according to them.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen. This has been When We Understand the Text of Pastor Gabriel Hughes.

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