Proverbs 26

Proverbs 26:1-28

Like snow in summer or rain in harvest,

so honor is not fitting for a fool.

• I talk to my boys about being a man of honor and integrity all the time.  A man without honor is like watching a clown.  
• Synonyms for “honorable” include, honest, moral, ethical, principled, righteous, right-minded.
• And a fool, lacking the wisdom and knowledge that God gives us through His Word, is as ridiculous as snow in the summer.

Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying,

a curse that is causeless does not alight.

• We all have created enemies, either intentionally or otherwise. And people vent their hatred in various ways.
• Sometimes we’re “cursed” at for doing the right thing … especially when it’s unpopular.  Example:  The guy who says he isn’t going to cheat on the test when everyone else is.  
• Sometimes we’re “cursed” at because we state (even gently and with love in our intent) God’s Truth.  We see that today with the abortion issue and the issue of homosexuality.
• A curse that comes without cause – undeserved – is as harmless as the flying around of a bird.  It’s not going to hit the recipient.   In fact, it will likely fly back home from where it came.

A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey,

and a rod for the back of fools.

• You can’t speak reason to a horse or a donkey and make it do what you need it to do, can you?  Of course not.  You need to direct it, to guide it. 
• Fools are no different.  It’s like they don’t speak English.  So they need to be treated as dumb animals to keep them in line.  
• Fools can be any color, any gender … any background.  But they are all the same in one way:  They don’t get it.  And if you don’t use the “rod” (control them physically), they will cause havoc.

Answer not a fool according to his folly,

lest you be like him yourself.

Answer a fool according to his folly,

lest he be wise in his own eyes.

• "No you are!  No you are!  No you are!”
• "Oh yeah?  If he did that to me, I’m doing it back to him!”
• One of the challenges of parenting is teaching your kids that this goes nowhere.  In fact, it makes the original fool feel justified in his or her initial action.  
• God feels the same.  He looks at us fighting fire with fire.  Doing foolish things because, “She did it first!”  What children we still are.
• What God prescribes is to realize you’re dealing with a fool and fight back the urge to return the foolishness.  

Whoever sends a message by the hand of a fool

cuts off his own feet and drinks violence.

• Send a fool to deliver the message you want conveyed and you might as well cut off your own foot or drink some poison.  It’s not going to end well.

Like a lame man's legs, which hang useless,

is a proverb in the mouth of fools.

• Words can be powerful.  They are strongly dependent, though, on the source of those words.  
• Wise words coming from the mouth of a fool can’t be taken seriously.  They’re worthless.

Like one who binds the stone in the sling

is one who gives honor to a fool.

• Lifting up a fool in honor and respect (cough-Obama!) is as silly, worthless and harmful as tying a stone to a sling shot.  

Like a thorn that goes up into the hand of a drunkard

is a proverb in the mouth of fools.

• Put simply, a wise word (a Proverb) coming from a fool just doesn’t fit.  
• It doesn’t belong there as much as a splinter doesn’t belong in your skin.

Like an archer who wounds everyone

is one who hires a passing fool or drunkard.

• It’s irresponsible to have a fool or a drunk represent you in any way.  
• If you think they’ll do the job well and not cause a lot of harm along the way, you may be as foolish as they are.

Like a dog that returns to his vomit

is a fool who repeats his folly.

• I think this says it all.  Not getting that visual out of my head.
• Foolishness becomes insanity after a while.  Doing the same foolish thing over and over is like how a dog, well, you know.  Ick.

Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes?

There is more hope for a fool than for him.

• Wisdom only based on personal experience is like saying you know what a seven-layer dip tastes like by skimming the very corner of the first layer where it’s burned.  
• Our perspectives and subsequent feelings that are attached are skewed … flawed.  Only God’s wisdom takes all into account.  
• Too many base their world on a small subset of the data.  We see this in polls.  Any worldview can be substantiated by skimming just the first layer of data, over in the corner where it’s burned.
• When we take all the data into account we get closer, even though we will never have all the data in this earthly lifetime.  

The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road!

There is a lion in the streets!”

• We hear excuses all the time. "I can’t find a job because of the economy or because someone did me wrong or [whatever].”
• Sluggards (lazy, entitlement-generation people) will always find excuses not to take responsibility to tough through it.  
• Saw “A Home of Our Own” with Kathy Bates yesterday.  Want to see a family who made no excuses?  Wow.  Everyone needs to see that one.  

As a door turns on its hinges,

so does a sluggard on his bed.

• Instead of getting up and getting to the day’s work, a sluggard just rolls over and succumbs to sloth.  

The sluggard buries his hand in the dish;

it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth.

• “Yo mama so lazy, she stick her hand in a bowl of food and don’t even pull it back to eat it."  Urban Standard Translation
• Some of us are so lazy, that we won’t even lift a hand to help ourselves.  We expect someone else to do it, making excuses why we can't.

The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes

than seven men who can answer sensibly.

• Logic doesn’t even play in the lazy man’s excuses.  He is right and there’s no convincing him otherwise.  
• He’s been done wrong, so he has no chance … so why try?  This attitude will be his end.

Whoever meddles in a quarrel not his own

is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears.

• Jumping into someone else’s argument is just asking for trouble.  
• And a tip, don’t grab a stray dog by the ears.  Unless, of course, scars will improve your appearance ;)

Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death

is the man who deceives his neighbor

and says, “I am only joking!”

• "You know this person.  He will say something that is insulting or hurtful to you.  He will trick you, leading you astray.  But, when you confront him, he will tell you that he was only joking.”  — paraphrased from "I Was Only Kidding" by Travis Peterson
• “… a person who hides his insults behind his supposed humor, that man is like a person who hurls flaming arrows.  This person is dangerous, destructive, and deadly.  Watch out for him.  Do not listen to him.  Do not tolerate his falsehood.”  — from "I Was Only Kidding" by Travis Peterson

For lack of wood the fire goes out,

and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases.

As charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire,

so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.

• Stop stoking the fire with gossip.  If you leave it alone, it will be forgotten.  
• We are asked to forgive.  Many times, though, we say we’ve forgiven, but then we carry on complaining about it.  Either it’s forgiven or not, though.  There is no middle ground.

The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels;

they go down into the inner parts of the body.

• Let’s face it.  It feels good to gossip … to talk about others unfavorably.  It’s also evil.  
• God tells us not to gossip.  Period.  He commands us because he knows it is a temptation no different than lust or greed.
• If you don’t have something uplifting to say, probably best to keep it to yourself.

Like the glaze covering an earthen vessel

are fervent lips with an evil heart.

Whoever hates disguises himself with his lips

and harbors deceit in his heart;

when he speaks graciously, believe him not,

for there are seven abominations in his heart;

though his hatred be covered with deception,

his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.

• Deception is evil.  Those who intend to deceive will do it with sweet words.  They will say what you want to hear, but their actions will be otherwise.  
• I want to pick on certain politicians, but we’ve all been guilty of this at times.  
• God knows our heart.  And even if the truth is not exposed to the public here on earth, it will be exposed on Judgement Day.

Whoever digs a pit will fall into it,

and a stone will come back on him who starts it rolling.

• You've made your bed.  Now you have to lie in it.  
• Start something with evil intentions and it will come back to bight you.  
• Indians refer to this as Karma.  What comes around goes around.  

A lying tongue hates its victims,

and a flattering mouth works ruin.

• Lying, in its very essence, is hate.  You obviously do not respect the person to whom you’re telling the lie enough to tell the truth.  Hateful.
• Flattering others to get your own way may get you some short-term gain, but it will end badly.
• Better to tell the truth and skip the deceptive flattery.