My Daily Pause

 ³ Whips are for horses, and harnesses are for donkeys,
so paddles are good for fools.
⁴ Don’t answer fools when they speak foolishly,
or you will be just like them.
⁵ Answer fools when they speak foolishly,
or they will think they are really wise.
⁶ Sending a message by a foolish person
is like cutting off your feet or drinking poison.
⁷ A wise saying spoken by a fool
is as useless as the legs of a crippled person.
⁸ Giving honor to a foolish person
is like tying a stone in a slingshot.
⁹ A wise saying spoken by a fool
is like a thorn stuck in the hand of a drunk.
¹⁰ Hiring a foolish person or anyone just passing by
is like an archer shooting at just anything.
¹¹ A fool who repeats his foolishness
is like a dog that goes back to what it has thrown up.
¹² There is more hope for a foolish person
than for those who think they are wise. – Proverbs 26:2-10

The discussion of wisdom and foolishness in the Proverbs is usually a discussion of godliness versus sin or evil. It is rare that foolishness is referring to intellectual deficiencies as we would use the term today.

In Peter’s passage on false teachers (2 Peter 2) we see him quote verse 11 – a vivid simile about a Christian returning to sin.

Paul refers to verse 12 as he discusses giving over our lives to God in Romans 12.

Can you see how relevant the Proverbs are when we equate foolishness with sin?

 ¹ My son, pay attention to my wisdom;
listen to my words of understanding.
² Be careful to use good sense,
and watch what you say.
³ The words of another man’s wife may seem sweet as honey;
they may be as smooth as olive oil.
⁴ But in the end she will bring you sorrow,
causing you pain like a two-edged sword.
⁵ She is on the way to death;
her steps are headed straight to the grave.
⁶ She gives little thought to life.
She doesn’t even know that her ways are wrong. – Proverbs 5:1-6 NCV

Proverbs 5 contrasts the rewards of straying and the rewards of working on ones marriage. The lure of sin – any sin, is so convincing, so reasonable, that we often find ways to justify following it.

For those unable to resist, the results are clear. Reread verses 5 and 6 and compare to Romans 6:23 to find an alternative.

²¹ By her clever words she made him give in;
by her pleasing words she led him into doing wrong.
²² All at once he followed her,
like an ox led to the butcher,
like a deer caught in a trap
²³ and shot through the liver with an arrow.
Like a bird caught in a trap,
he didn’t know what he did would kill him. – Proverbs 7:21-23 NCV

Proverbs 7 is again a warning to avoid the adulteress. The spiritual desolation this sin leaves is described in these verses.