More Hope for a Fool...

“Like snow in summer or rain in harvest, honor is not fitting for a fool. 

Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow,

    an undeserved curse does not come to rest.

A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the backs of fools!

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.

Sending a message by the hands of a fool

    is like cutting off one’s feet or drinking poison.

Like the useless legs of one who is lame is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.

Like tying a stone in a sling is the giving of honor to a fool.

Like a thornbush in a drunkard’s hand is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.

Like an archer who wounds at random is one who hires a fool or any passer-by.

As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly.

Proverbs 26:1-11

Let me apologize in advance that this post is a bit longer than most but I felt it was necessary to the message.

You see, it is as if the first eleven verses of Proverbs 26 build up to verse 12.

All of the verses speak of the characteristics of a fool or of the person who trusts in a fool.

Then...along comes verse 12 which says:

“Do you see a person wise in their own eyes?

There is more hope for a fool than for them.”

We learn in the first eleven verses how bad it is to be a fool but then verse 12 tells us that there is a greater likelihood of reforming a fool than there is in reforming a man filled with pride.

Pride is destructive and it is not an easy thing to turn from it...

...but God!

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.

    And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Micah 6:8