Proverbs 26:1-12

Snow in July, rain on the ripe harvest you are trying to bring in — things wildly out of season — that is how wrong it is to hand honor to a fool. He neither earned it nor knows how to use it; honor only props up his folly and makes it worse. Joseph and Daniel, honored rightly, were a blessing to whole nations; Haman's promotion only displayed his pride and set up his public disgrace. The richest blessings lose their value when given to the wrong man.

A curse with no just cause behind it has no more power to land on you than a wandering bird has to perch on your head — it flutters past and flies home to the one who sent it. Moab's curse, Goliath's, Shimei's all fell harmless. So if your conscience does not condemn you, you need not fear the muttered ill-will of wicked men; under that harmless shower of stones, turn from men to God and be at peace. But hear the flip side honestly: the deserved curse is another matter. If you are an unconverted, unbelieving sinner, there is a curse that is not causeless — justly earned — and it will come. The only safety is to be under cover, hidden in the One "made a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13).

Each creature gets the discipline its nature requires — and the fool, who will not be ruled by reason or persuasion, needs the rod. There are many such fools in the church too: self-willed, full of conceit, deaf to gentle correction, so God sees they get the rod. (A loving Father never reaches for it, though, until gentler means have been tried and failed.) The wise response is simple: kiss the rod, and turn from the folly, so you never need it again.

Here is the famous "contradiction" — and it dissolves the moment you read the reason attached to each line. We are forbidden to answer, and commanded to answer, the same fool — because there are two ways to answer him. Verse 4 forbids answering in his folly: do not stoop to his level, do not trade insult for insult, do not let his nonsense drag your tone down into nonsense; Moses lost his temper with the rebels and "spake unadvisedly with his lips" (Psalm 106:33), becoming for a moment like the very men he rebuked. But verse 5 commands answering unto his folly: when silence would let him strut off thinking he won, more "wise in his own conceit" than ever, then answer — firmly, plainly, with truth sharp enough to puncture the conceit. The resolution is one of manner: answer his matter, never adopt his folly. Sometimes the wisest reply is no reply at all (Hezekiah told his men to keep silent before the railing Rabshakeh); sometimes silence is mistaken for defeat and must be broken. Christ is the model — His silences and His answers were each, in their moment, perfectly worthy of Him.

Entrust an important errand to a fool and you have crippled your own messenger before he starts — you might as well have cut off the legs you were counting on, and all you will get back is a cup of trouble to drink. The fool simply cannot be relied on to carry the thing through. Choose carefully whom you send and whom you trust with anything that matters.

A wise saying coming out of a fool's mouth hangs as useless and ungainly as the legs of a lame man — it dangles there, going nowhere. Nothing makes a fool look more ridiculous than putting on a show of wisdom. A fine proverb suits him about as well as dancing suits a cripple; his words and his life do not match, and the mismatch only exposes him.

Picture binding a stone fast into a sling so it cannot be slung — useless — or, worse, picture the stone flying loose to do harm: that is what honoring a fool comes to. The honor is wasted, and it is dangerous, like putting a loaded weapon in a madman's hand. Be very careful whom you elevate; an unfit man in a place of power damages everyone under him.

A drunk man grabs a thornbush and feels nothing — no pain, no warning, just clumsy damage to himself and whoever is near. So the fool handles holy and wise words: he quotes Scripture that ought to prick his conscience and feels no compunction at all, only wounding others with what he mishandles. The danger is multiplied in an unfaithful teacher, who recites the truth while his own unholy life contradicts every word of it.

This verse is hard to translate, but its plain sense in our Bible is solid: the great God who made everything renders to every man what his conduct deserves — He recompenses the fool and recompenses the transgressor alike. No one's sin slips past Him; ignorance excuses no man, though the one who sinned against more light will answer for more ("beaten with many stripes... beaten with few stripes," Luke 12:47–48). His providence never sleeps and never loses the account — and the greatness of the God who keeps it shows the greatness of the evil of sin. The only relief is the gospel one: He pardons no sin to any man that was not first punished in Christ.

Here is the chapter's bluntest image, and it is meant to be revolting — God chose the most disgusting picture in nature to drive home a hatred of sin into a hardened heart. The tempter's promise was "ye shall be as gods"; the result was "ye shall be as beasts." The apostle Peter took this very proverb and used it of those who escape the world's pollutions and then turn back: "the dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire" (2 Peter 2:22). And there is the whole doctrine in that second picture — the sow was washed. Her skin was cleaned, her outward behavior reformed for a while — but her nature never changed, so the instant the fence gave way she bolted for the mud, because the mud is what she loves. A lamb needs no fence around the mire; it has a different nature and simply does not want it. That is the difference between mere reformation and the new birth. A dog chained and silenced from barking is a dog still, and no chain ever got a dog into heaven. The cure is not a tighter fence; it is a new heart — "Create in me a clean heart, O God" (Psalm 51:10). Do not rest in temporary conviction that never became real conversion; give God no rest until He makes you new.

And the climax of the whole fool-gallery: there is one man worse off than the fool — the man who thinks he is wise. The plain fool has only one obstacle, his ignorance; the conceited man has two, his ignorance and his delusion that he is not ignorant. You can sometimes help a fool who knows he is a fool; you can do almost nothing for a man so sure he is wise that he feels no need of correction. This is why the Lord said the publicans and harlots were entering the kingdom ahead of the Pharisees (Matthew 21:31) — the openly broken man knew he needed a Saviour, and the respectable, self-satisfied man did not. There is real hope for you the moment you can be made to believe you are what you actually are.