Proverbs 26:17-28

Proverbs 26:17-28

This chapter might be entitled "The Three Kinds of People." First is the fool, then comes the slugger, but the most contemptible may be the provoker. This character is introduced and summed up in verse 17; the rest of the chapter is best read as an evaluation of this miscreant. The key word is the word "meddle" (NASB) or "argument." (NIV). It means to get excited and to take sides in a fight. In our time, we see this with people who get offended on behalf of another person. These folks are sometimes called social justice warriors. These are not people who actually serve someone else but merely agitate and excite conflict to signal their virtue. Their methods of protest, riots, and agitation of emotions accomplish nothing real or worthwhile but make matters worse while giving them a sense of moral superiority. Verses 18-28 describe their various actions, deception, gossip, whisper campaigns, and the ruin they bring with them.  If we are wise, we will reject these meddlers, not take up their protestations, and recognize them as sinful in the extreme.

“Help me, Lord, to stay in my lane and do good. "AMEN" 

Proverbs 26:1-16

Proverbs 26:1-16

Two groups of people fall under Solomon's verbal assault. In verses 1-11, Solomon levels his verbal attacks on ‘fools’. Most of the parables are fairly straightforward, but a couple have unique challenges. Verses 4-5 seem to be contradicting if we take them separately, but together they teach us it is useless to try to teach a fool. Verse 8 shows us that honor has a great use, but with the fool it is useless. Verse 9 shows us that fools actually hurt those to whom they would give advice. What is wrong with the fool? It is not a lack of knowing but rather a resistance to learning to do what is right. No one is so stupid as the person who knows it all. Add to this attitude of moral compromise, and you have a fool, as seen in verse 12.

One rung down from a fool is the slugger. versus 13 to 16. Rest is good and holy, but the slugger is not pursuing rest; there is a self-satisfied presumption of having arrived at the apex of life. It is that the world will not cooperate. Self-satisfaction is a grave moral failure.

"Lord, keep me from being a fool or a sluggard. AMEN."