2026.07.06 Hopewell @Home ▫ Proverbs 26:1–12

Read Proverbs 26:1–12

Questions from the Scripture text: What are not fitting at what times (Proverbs 26:1a)? What else is not fitting for whom (verse 1b)? What do not land long (Proverbs 26:2a)? What else does not land (verse 2b)? What are designed/destined for which particular objects (Proverbs 26:3)? What mustn’t be done to a fool (Proverbs 26:4a)? Why not (verse 4b)? What must be done to a fool (Proverbs 26:5a)? Why (verse 5b)? What does the person in Proverbs 26:6a do? What is he essentially doing to himself (verse 6b)? What are ineffective in Proverbs 26:7a? What else is ineffective (verse 7b)? What is rendered pointless in Proverbs 26:8a? What else is pointless (verse 8b)? What mishandling causes pain in Proverbs 26:9a? Who else painfully mishandles what (verse 9b)? Who is the One Who makes sure that fools and transgressors get what’s coming to them (Proverbs 26:10)? To what does a dog return (Proverbs 26:11a)? Who is like this, in repeating what (verse 11b)? Who is even more hopeless than a fool (Proverbs 26:12)?

What should be done for the fool? Proverbs 26:1–12 looks forward to the midweek sermon. In these twelve verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the fool must not be treated as if he were as wise as others, but rather warned and answered wisely.

Fools make many things ineffective or pointless. It is very out of place to honor a fool (Proverbs 26:1). And one hallmark of foolishness is to be careless with cursing (Proverbs 26:2); it is God Who executes the curse (Proverbs 26:10), so a causeless one does not land. What does land is the rod upon the fool’s own back. 

Another hallmark of the fool is that he projects himself as wise. Others even treat a fool as wise, when there are proverbs in his mouth. But both come to no effect. Those who speak by a fool do great harm to themselves (Proverbs 26:6). Wise sayings have no leg to stand upon in the mouth a fool (Proverbs 26:7). Giving weight to a fool is self-crippling (Proverbs 26:8). Fools handle proverbs in the way that drunks handle a thorned stick—to their own harm (Proverbs 26:9). And they lack the sense not to repeat this (Proverbs 26:11). 

Ultimately, there is one very advanced case of folly: the man who is wise in his own eyes. After all of this caution that a wise proverb may end up, useless and harmfully, in the mouth of a fool, the section concludes with a zinger: as hopeless as the fool is, there is more hope for him than one who is wise in his own eyes.

This is why one ought to answer the fool’s foolish content (Proverbs 26:4), without getting dragged into the fool’s own manner of speech (Proverbs 26:3). It is a mercy at least to lay the truth before his eyes.

What are you doing, in dependence upon grace, to keep from being foolish, or even wise in your own eyes? To what fools have you been assigned to give a wise answer? What honors are you tempted to give them?

Sample prayer: Lord, have mercy upon us, because we are so easily foolish, or even wise in our own eyes. Give us to be quick to listen and slow to speak. And, when You assign us to the help of fools, grant that we would be careful not to honor them, or entrust them with messaging. Please help us in this thorny area of life, we ask through Christ, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP15 “Within Your Tent, Who Will Reside?” or TPH400 “Gracious Spirit, Dwell with Me”