0 views
A brief bit of encouragement for the journey from God’s Word.
Today’s Scripture reading: Proverbs 25-28
To support this devotional ministry:
https://www.faithbaptiststerling.com/...
Music: “Awaken the Dawn” by Stanton Lanier
https://www.stantonlanier.com
CCLI #1760549
- 00:16
- Well good Tuesday morning to you. I hope your week got off to a good start yesterday. Today in our
- 00:22
- Bible reading we're in the book of Proverbs, back in the book of Proverbs chapters 25 through 28.
- 00:29
- I'm going to zero in on a couple of verses in chapter 26 and I've seen the explanation of this paradoxical couple of verses in vivid color on a
- 00:45
- YouTube video. Let me explain. When you read chapter 26 verses 4 & 5 it sounds like maybe the
- 00:52
- Bible is contradicting itself, but you know that's not the case. So you think a little more and you think well maybe maybe this is just dealing with you know a no -win type of situation.
- 01:07
- Well let me read the verses and you'll see what I'm saying. So Proverbs 26 4 says, Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him.
- 01:18
- Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. So I can see where you might read this couple of verses and draw the conclusion that this is just a way of saying you know sometimes in life there's a no -win situation.
- 01:34
- If you answer a fool according to his folly, then you'll be thought a fool. If you don't answer him, then he'll think he's right.
- 01:41
- But really the explanation for this is a little more nuanced, if you will.
- 01:48
- So the first verse is talking about responding to a fool in the manner of his foolishness, and the second verse is talking about responding to the substance of what the fool is having has to say.
- 02:03
- So here's an illustration of that. I don't I don't watch too much of this kind of thing on YouTube, but I have seen a guy
- 02:11
- Charlie Kirk, I think is his name, from time to time. I watch a video or two of his every once in a while.
- 02:19
- But this guy has a knack for... well I've seen a couple. One for example, he'll set up a little table with a little covering awning or whatever, gazebo sort of thing, on a college campus.
- 02:35
- And he'll set up a table with some literature or whatever, and a chair, and he just sits there. And he waits for the kids, college kids, to come by and attack him.
- 02:44
- And it doesn't take long. And I've seen videos where, you know, he's just sitting there, he doesn't say anything, and a kid will come up and just start blasting him, you know, accusing him of being a racist, and all kinds of things.
- 02:59
- He's just a, he's just a, he's a, he's a covert Nazi, if you will. Just do all kinds of ad hominem attacks against this guy, and no substance whatsoever.
- 03:13
- But take, for example, the accusation, you're just a racist. And if if he were to answer that fool according to his folly, in the manner of his folly, he would respond in anger, blasting him, or being a stupid sophomore, or whatever the case may be.
- 03:33
- But I've never seen him do that. He doesn't respond that way. Instead, what
- 03:39
- Kirk will do is, he doesn't answer him according to his folly, he just sits there, he listens patiently, and you know, as soon as there's a break in the tirade, he might go, well, wait a minute now, okay, what have
- 03:53
- I said that is racist? What have I said that is racist?
- 03:59
- So what he's doing is applying the second part, the second verse here. He's answering the fool according to the substance of his folly.
- 04:09
- The fool is accusing him and blasting him for being a racist, and he just says, well, wait a minute, what have
- 04:16
- I said that's racist? What have I done that's racist? And, you know,
- 04:21
- I've seen him in a couple of occasions doing this very kind of thing, where fools will come and blast him for being something, and instead of responding in kind, with anger and hostility and, you know, hatred even, for those who are so attacking him, he just very calmly replies, answering the substance of what they're trying to accuse him of being, or doing, or saying.
- 04:51
- And it's been very effective, because in the end, they don't have an answer, and they just turn away, and finally, you know, they curse at him, they do obscene gestures toward him, or whatever, wish he was dead, and you know, that kind of stuff.
- 05:09
- But in the end, they can't reply, so they just turn around and walk away. So, don't answer a fool in the manner of his folly, but if he's going to be saying something that, if you don't respond to the substance of it, he walks away.
- 05:27
- See, I told him, I'm right and he's wrong. No, you deal with the substance of what he's saying, okay?
- 05:35
- So that's how you solve those two verses, and I hope that's helpful to you. Well, let's have a word of prayer, ask
- 05:43
- God to give us the wisdom of knowing how to respond to the fool. So, our
- 05:48
- Father and our God, we do thank you for this insight into human nature.
- 05:54
- It is easy to answer a fool according to the manner of his folly, because we too get upset and angry.
- 06:03
- Deliver us from that, help us to be wise, we pray, and we ask this in Jesus' name, and for his sake, amen.