Long before the age of fake news,
which actually began about a century ago with the Spanish Civil War, there were those who thought it their
calling to distort the truth. You could
go back 2000 years to when the chief priests and elders concocted a story for the Roman soldiers to tell about what
happened to the body of Jesus. That was
fake news, but it began in earnest in this time about 100 years ago.
Solomon and those others who wrote the
proverbs labeled those who spread fake news as fools and as you can see in this
chapter, we are cut no slack in dealing with them. We believe that Solomon is
responsible for this chapter.
Does a fool deserve any honor or
standing or anything else that would give us cause to listen to him? About as
much as snow in July or a rainstorm for wheat harvest.
Like snow in summer or rain in
harvest,
honor is not fitting for a fool.
I lived in Texas long ago and it
snowed on the first day of May. They
were huge snowflakes. By noon they were
gone and it was eighty degrees. Snow and
summer just don’t go together just as honor and a fool don’t keep company.
Go a little farther into this chapter
and we get more along these lines.
Like tying a stone in a sling
is the giving of honor to a fool.
If you tie the stone in the sling, you
will never hit anything. The stone won’t
fall out, fly out, or otherwise proceed to the target. You will never hit a target with a stone tied
to your sling. A fool has no honor and we are to give him no honor. Solomon has no reservation as he parcels our
counsel on fools. Consider this third
verse.
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the
donkey,
and a rod for the backs of fools!
Now that’s some stuff right
there. What does it take to keep an
animal in line? A bridle or a whip
usually do the trick, but to keep the fool in line, it takes the rod. It doesn’t say if the fool does this or
doesn’t do that. It just says the rod is
the appropriate tool for the fool.
Ouch!
Only the wise can discern these
seemingly contradictory instructions.
Do not answer a fool according to his
folly,
or you yourself will be just like him.
Answer a fool according to his folly,
or he will be wise in his own eyes.
So, do we answer the fool or ignore
him? The answer is yes. Most of the time our counsel is not to waste
time arguing with fools. They claim
victory if they can bring you down to their level of nonsense. Don’t play their game.
But sometimes, a rebuke—not a
discussion or conversation—is in order.
Sometimes God’s word needs to trump the comments of the fool, not so
much for the benefit of the fool, but for those who might still be influenced
into the everything else.
Consider how Jesus handled the Pharisees. He
would engage in some conversation, but mostly he issued reprimands. The Pharisees were not considered fools, but
Jesus never had a discussion with them where both were on the same level. Jesus was always one, two, or twenty steps
ahead of them.
Many of the remarks given to the
Pharisees were for the benefit of the people.
The Pharisees like the fool just needed to be put in their places from time to time.
Here’s some harsh but precise
counsel. Don’t send a message by way of
a fool. He will botch it so badly that
you will think you amputated a limb or drank poison. Think of the worst possible thing that could
happen if you sent an important message with a fool. Now multiply that worst-case scenario by ten
or twenty or one hundred.
Sending a message by the hands of a
fool
is like cutting off one’s feet or drinking poison.
In a similar vein, don’t trust any job
to a fool or to someone without references for they may just be a fool.
Like an archer who wounds at random
is one who hires a fool or any passer-by.
Imagine someone firing haphazardly
into a crowd. They have no target except
mayhem. Solomon tells us that it is the
same thing as hiring a fool for any job.
He will make a mess of it. He has
no focus. He has no purpose. He has no pride of workmanship. More than
that, he will cause damage to any in the vicinity.
Don’t trust important things to
fools. They are not worthy of your
trust, and as it turns out, they are not worthy of your counsel.
Like the useless legs of one who is
lame
is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.
In a similar vein we see:
Like a thornbush in a drunkard’s hand
is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.
Go back to answering or not answering
a fool. Your answer or lack of it is
never for the fool’s benefit. It was for
the education of those who were witness.
The fool will not learn from knowledge, wisdom, instruction, or discipline.
Solomon gives us a memorable graphic
for how resistant a fool is to learning or gaining wisdom. Think about this one over lunch.
As a dog returns to its vomit,
so fools repeat their folly.
The fool not only makes stupid
decisions, he is inclined to repeat them.
It’s no wonder Solomon declares the rod for the fool.
Solomon continues to dispense some
harsh counsel to sluggards and gossips.
Actually, the counsel is for the wise.
Fools, sluggards, and gossips have this in common—they neither seek nor
learn from wisdom.
These are words of warning for the
wise.
So, let’s save the sluggards and
gossips for another time and consider our counsel on dealing with fools.
The fool has no purpose in life. You do.
The fool does not value time. You do.
The fool does not know what to do with
knowledge or wisdom. You do.
The fool will receive neither
instruction nor disciple. You will.
The fool does have a goal. He desires to consume your time, your
resources, and to discredit you. The
fool wants to bring you down to his own level. He won’t do anything to improve
himself, but he longs to bring you down.
You just have to play his game.
Most of the time you can ignore a fool
as irrelevant and stay on course.
Sometimes, you must rebuke the
fool. This does not mean have a
discussion with him and shake hands at the end.
This means to dismiss him quickly and effectively with the truth and
move on pursuing the purposeful things that God has given you to accomplish.
You may think Solomon to be heartless
as he dismisses fools as people to be ignored most of the time and reprimanded
the rest of the time, but Solomon’s love and mercy are for you.
The fool longs to entice you into the
everything else known as folly. He understands full well that misery loves
company and he wants you to keep him company in his misery of foolishness.
God wants you firmly in the boundaries
of God’s way and not lured into the everything else.
How
do you recognize a fool in today’s world?
He is one who seeks argument for
argument’s sake. The wise will discuss,
debate, and even argue in search of the truth.
The fool does not want the truth to enter into the
argument.
How do you recognize a fool in today’s
world? They are always right and will
resort to distraction tactics when proven wrong. Today they will depart from the topic and
start name-calling. Hater, racist,
privileged are common. The fool does
not want the truth to enter into the argument and will do what he has to do to keep
it out.
How do you recognize a fool in today’s
world? They are the ones baiting the
traps. They want arguments without
resolution. They want dissent without
solutions. They just want to keep the
pot stirred so nobody ever notices that they are fools.
You can spot them. Solomon tells us not to fall for their
traps. If they are causing damage, give
them an effective rebuke and get back on course doing purposeful things.
You have purposeful things to do from
now until our Master comes to claim us.
Stay on course. Press on towards the goal. Be known by your love. Be known by your
wisdom. Be known as a child of God who
lives God’s way in spite of the everything else.
You might think, well, that was a
harsh message. What happened to love?
Let’s see who remembers last week’s
message. We are to:
Bring glory to God.
Grow in his grace.
Enjoy God very much.
How can we do that if we are
constantly sucked into useless discussion and argument that has no productive
goal?
How can we bring glory to God if we
use our best efforts for those things that are least productive—if we cast our pearls before swine?
How can we grow in his grace if we are
not willing to learn from him instead of venturing into foolish endeavors?
How can we enjoy God if we continue to
take the bait that the fool sets before us?
What happened to love? God is pouring out his love on you in guiding
you in his way and out of the everything else.
Amen.
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