Proverbs Chapter 26
Proverbs
Chapter 26
1. Like snow in summer or rain in harvest, honor is not fitting for a fool. The richest blessings lose their value when bestowed unsuitably. Snow is a beautiful wintry covering of the earth, preserving the seed from the killing cold. But in summer it is out of season. Rain in its season is a fruitful blessing. But in harvest it is an unsuitable interruption to the reaper's work, and often a public calamity. Just so, honor unsuitably bestowed on a fool___is not fitting. "He neither deserves it, nor knows how to use it" (Poole).
We must learn then to adorn our Christian profession with consistency. We must seek that heavenly wisdom that will make us worthy of any honor that may be given to us. For he who is faithful in very little can be trusted with a great deal (Luke 16:10).
2. Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow, an undeserved curse does not come to rest. Groundless fears are real evils and often press heavily on weak minds. An unprovoked and undeserved curse flies out of an angry mouth. "What if it should come to pass?" But we need no more fear the undeserved curse than the birds flying over our heads. The darting swallow flies up and down but never alights on us. It is like that with an undeserved curse.
But if the curse is deserved, it will come. And, reader, if you are an unconverted, unbelieving sinner, without love for your Savior, you are rightly cursed. So take refuge in him while you have time.
3. A whip for the horse, a halter for the donkey, and a rod for the backs of fools! This proverb turns our ideas upside-down. We would have said, "a halter for the horse, a whip for the donkey." But the Eastern donkeys are a very superior race, both in beauty and spirit, and are valued by their owners. The halter is needed to curb and guide them, while the horse, perhaps badly broken in, may need a whip. Every creature subdued for the service of man needs his appropriate discipline. The Lord guides his children with his eye. But let them cultivate a pliable spirit. However, the fool does not hear the voice or see the directing eye. He will be ruled neither by reason nor persuasion.
Discipline is the most probing test. What is its fruit? In the child submission and tenderness. In the fool hardness and rebellion. It is indeed sad that the child sometimes needs the rod that is intended for the backs of fools. Yet never does his loving Father use it until gentle means have been tried in vain. Oh, my God, use your own wise means to save me from my own waywardness, folly, and ruin.
4-5. We are forbidden, and yet commanded, to answer a fool. We are told to answer him, and we are told to not answer him. The following explanation resolves this apparent contradiction. Both pieces of advice are wise methods of dealing with fools, which differ according to character, time, or circumstance. If someone is taking delight in scoffing at religion with witty and profane attacks or with specious arguments against the Word of God, it would be best to follow Hezekiah's words concerning Rabshakeh's blasphemy and not to answer him.
But what may be at one time our duty to restrain, at another time and under different circumstances it may be no less our duty to do. Silence may sometimes be mistaken for defeat. Unanswered words may be deemed unanswerable. An answer may, therefore, be called for, not in folly, but to folly—"not in his foolish manner, but in the manner that his foolishness required" (Fuller). The answer would not be merely according to his folly, but according to your own wisdom. Such words would be sharp as rods. The fool's back needs them.
Oh, for wisdom to govern the tongue, to discover the right time to speak and the right time to stay silent. How instructive is the pattern of our great Master! His silence and his answers were equally worthy of himself. The former always conveyed a dignified rebuke. The latter responded to the confusion of his contentious enemies. Will not a prayerful meditative study communicate to us a large measure of his divine wisdom?
6-9. Surely this diversified exhibition of the foolishness of folly is an incentive to study heavenly wisdom. Like cutting off one's feet or drinking violence is the sending of a message by the hand of a fool. The fool makes so many mistakes, is careless, or deliberately sets out to do wrong that trusting him with a message is like asking him to run an errand for you when you have cut off his feet! Fools are either not qualified to undertake the mission they are entrusted with, or they will only look after their own interests.
Like a lame man's legs that hang limp is a proverb in the mouth of a fool. "A wise saying does as ill become a fool as dancing does a cripple" (Bishop Patrick). A proverb in his mouth becomes a joke.
Like tying a stone in a sling is the giving of honor to a fool. The sling makes the stone tied in it an instrument of death. The honor given to a fool makes him a curse to his fellow creatures. The prime favorite of a despot, had not God restrained him, would have been the murderer of the chosen nation (Esther 3:1-5). It is dangerous indeed to place unqualified people in places of authority. "It is like putting a sword or a loaded pistol into a madman's hand" (Scott).
Like a thornbush in a drunkard's hand is a proverb in the mouth of a fool. "It is no more fit for a fool to meddle with a wise speech than for a drunken man to handle a thornbush" (Bishop Hall). When a thorn goes into his hand, a drunkard only makes the wound worse. Such is the fool. May he be rebuked and restrained.
10. The great God that formed all things both rewardeth the fool, and rewardeth transgressors [kjv]. It is difficult to fix with certainty the interpretation of this proverb. Our venerable translators have filled in with some doubtfulness the meaning of the principal term. The word in the original may mean either the Great God or the great man. Nor does the construction clearly determine either meaning. All, however, expound from it the divine government, direct or permissive.
11. As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly. Is this a picture of a man who has been made a little lower than the angels, even in the likeness of God? The most vile comparisons are made to show man's loathsomeness in the sight of God. "Do any feel disgusted at the allusion? Let them remember that the emblem is far less filthy than the thing denoted by it. Let them remember that the whole race of animals does not afford anything so debasing as not to be far outdone by the excesses of libertines, drunkards, and gluttons" (Scott). We naturally turn away from this sight. Would that we had the same disgust at the sin that it so graphically portrays. If only we abhorred in ourselves that which God infinitely abhors in us!
12. Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. Regarding do you see a man... ? God means to point at him. There is something to be learned from him. He struts around in his own conceit. He is wise in his own eyes. The false persuasion that he has gained wisdom utterly precludes him from gaining it. He thinks himself to be wise because he does not know what it is to be wise.
Lord, preserve me from this hopeless delusion. Pull down all my pride and imagined wisdom. Take the blindness from my eyes, that I may know what I am in your sight. Clothe me with humility from the sole of my foot to my head.
13-16. The counterpart to these illustrations may be seen in the man dozing away his life in guilty idleness. But let us look at the pictures of the sluggard as they meet our eye in the church. The gradation shows the almost incredible increase of this evil. And it is not resisted.
The lazy man is totally reluctant to work. When therefore his indolence is disturbed, he is ingenious in inventing excuses and imagines dangers that do not really exist. "He who has no mind to work never lacks pretenses for idleness" (Bishop Patrick). His insincerity lulls his conscience to sleep in his false excuses. Were it as easy to be spiritual as to wish to be so, who would not be a Christian? But to see no end of the toil, duty on duty, trouble following trouble, no time to catch one's breath, is an appalling hindrance. And so "the lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets" is all such a person needs to excuse himself.
Laziness is presented in many striking ways in this book. Do I not think about it too lightly? Let me consider carefully to what respect I am influenced by laziness bodily, mentally, or spiritually. Does it ever follow me throughout my work, when I am on my knees, in my Bible reading? Do I not excuse myself from work when great exertion is required? May God enable me to resist this paralysis in every shape!
17. Like one who seizes a dog by the ears is a passer-by who meddles in a quarrel not his own. If we want to honor God in our Christian walk, we must take time at every step for prayer and for the exercise of sound judgment. Or else we will rush in, uninvited, to our own loss. To seize a dog by the ears will bring good reason to repent of our folly. To meddle in a quarrel that is not [our] own will surely bring trouble.
There is a world of difference between suffering as a Christian and suffering as a busybody. Even with Christian intentions, many of us are too fond of meddling in other peoples' affairs. Uninvited interference seldom avails with the contending parties. The true peacemaker, while he deplores quarrels, knows that interference at the moment of irritation will kindle rather than extinguish the fire. So his self-control is not indifference. He commits the matter to him whose wisdom he so greatly needs. He will take the first appropriate moment for favorable remonstrance.
18-19. Like a madman shooting firebrands or deadly arrows is a man who deceives his neighbor and says, "I was only joking!" How little does the thoughtless man consider the misery that his wantonness occasions to others. He bears no malice. He indulges only the pure love of mischief. He carries on a scheme of imposition as harmless play. His companions compliment him on his adroitness and join in the laugh of triumph over the victim of his cruel jest. What are sometimes called "practical jokes" come under this awful charge. "There is little difference in this case between fraud and fury. He who deliberately deceives his neighbor, under the pretext of a joke, is no less prejudicial to him than a lunatic who does wrong out of frenzy and distemper" (Bishop Hall). A man who deceives is accountable to God and his fellow creatures. "He who sins in jest, must repent in earnest; or his sin will be his ruin" (Henry). "What has a Christian," says Bernard, "to do with jesting?"
20-22. The busy tongue makes work where it does not find it. Such is the despicable trade of the gossip. He spends his time prying into other people's business, ferreting out secrets, diving into family histories, meddling with their concerns. Thus in every way where he can please himself, "man is naturally his own grand idol. He would be esteemed and honored by any means; and to magnify that idol self, he kills the name and esteem of others in sacrifice to it" (Leighton). Real virtue runs from this base selfishness.
Are we closely watching against these sins ? Do we carefully squelch the rising flame of a desire to incite quarrels? Do we resist the temptation to speak needlessly about the faults of other people? Do we dread the character of a polished, well-educated, amusing slanderer? We may feel indignant at being accused of being a gossip. Yet it requires no ordinary exercise of Christian discipline to maintain the silence of love and to regulate both the tongue and the ear within its well-advised limits.
23-27. Like a coating of glaze over earthenware are fervent lips with an evil heart. A malicious man disguises himself with his lips, but in his heart he harbors deceit. Though his speech is charming, do not believe him, for seven abominations fill his heart. His malice may be concealed by deception, but his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly. If a man digs a pit, he will fall into it; if a man rolls a stone, it will roll back on him. The sin described here is a disgrace to society. Yet it is often concealed with flattering clothes, just as a worthless pot is painted with a thin coat of silver. "Hypocrisy is spun often of a very fine thread; and the heart of man, abounding with so much hypocrisy as it does, is the most deceitful thing, yes, and the most easy to deceive too, actively and passively both, of anything in the world" (Bishop Sanderson).
Christian prudence will guard against credulity, which is in fact the harmlessness of the dove without the wisdom of the snake. This weakness cost Gedaliah his life. A sounder spirit saved Nehemiah from the snare of his malignant adversaries. The source of this wickedness gives good reason for distrust. The seven abominations speak of a great variety of abominations. And here lies the root of the disease: "A guileful heart makes guileful tongue and lips. It is the workhouse, where is the forge of deceit and slander; and the tongue is only the outer shop, where they are mended; and the lips its door. So only the goods that are made inside can be sold outside. For evil thoughts, evil words, come from a deceitful heart that is lined with rottenness" (Leighton). Oh, let this despicable character be a beacon to us to shun all approaches to false dealings. Better to risk giving offense by faithfulness, though let this, so far as conscience allows, be avoided, rather than conceal our hatred by flattering words.
28. A lying tongue hates those it hurts, and a flattering mouth works ruin. Rarely do we see a solitary sin. One sin breeds another. Lying and malice are linked together here. But again and again watch out for a flattering mouth. Alas, where is this type of man not welcomed as a friend? From some favorable position he presents an attractive face. But a closer view reveals him to be a subtle, murderous enemy who works ruin.
So how should we deal with a flatterer? Homer puts it into his hero's heart to regard him as a fiend of hell. Our safety, then, is in flight, or at least in frowning resistance. We should be "as much troubled," said a godly man, "by unjust praises as by unjust slanderers" (Philip Henry). We must show clearly that those who praise us most please us least. Pray for wisdom to discover the snare, for gracious principles to raise us up above vain praises, for self-denial, for the capacity to be content and even thankful without such flatteries. This will be our security.