The Fool

Well, good evening, good evening. Welcome to Coffee and Devotion. This is where every day we get together, we get into God's Word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2021, we'll make it through all the wisdom literature. So glad for you to join me here tonight for Proverbs 26, verses 7 through verse 18.
Why don't we go ahead and pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this day, and we thank you for your Word. We pray that as we read your word that you would teach us and care for us. We pray that we would follow after you in Jesus' name. Amen. Just spoke there. Proverbs chapter 26 verses 8 through 17. Let's go ahead and get into God's word.
Like one who binds a stone in a sling is he who gives honor to a fool. like a thorn that goes into the hand of a drunkard, is a proverb in the mouth of fools. The great God, who formed everything, gives the fool his hire and the transgressor his wages. As a dog returns to his own vomit, so a fool repeats his folly. Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. So let's go ahead and look at those first four verses in front of us at first.
Verse eight, like one who binds a stone in a sling is he who gives honor to a fool. If you're one who's given over to honoring a fool, you're like one who ties up a stone inside of a sling and swings, swings, swings, swings, swings. It's not going to go anywhere. You're just going to hurt people with it. Don't give honor to a fool.
Like a thorn that goes into the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of fools. When a drunkard walks around and they have a thorn in their hand, what does it say? Like a thorn that goes into the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of a fool. So the drunkard stumbles along and puts their hand into a bush and they don't know what to do about it.
They don't have any wisdom to be able to get it out or feel that it hurts them or whatever. It's not actually any good for them. The same thing like a proverb in their mouth. They don't know what to do with it. It's not any good for them. It just hurts them.
The great God who formed everything gives the fool his hire and the transgressor his wages. We might look at a fool and think, How does he get what he gets? Don't worry, the Lord's gonna give him what he's gonna get. Oh, this one's hard. Verse 11. As a dog returns to his own vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.
I don't know about you, but this is convicting to me. When I think about sin as foolishness, and I think about how often I look and I'm like, man, Lord, I have prayed that you would help me with gluttony. I know that I shouldn't eat so much Nutella. I know that I shouldn't go back for seconds at the church potluck And I do it again. And this is what a fool does. It's like a dog returning to its vomit. This gross picture, right? This is what a fool does, going back to their sin again and again and again and again. And the Lord says, it's meant to be. But it's not until we recognize that that's us, that we realize we need to wise up, turn away from sin, and walk in righteousness.
Verse 12, do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There's more hope for a fool than for him. If you see somebody who thinks they're wise, and they think they're wise because they're so smart and they got it all together and everything is all about them. I'd rather actually be the friend of a fool. And that's the shocking part. Verses 3 through 11 have all been about the foolishness of a fool, what they're like. But verse 12 says, if you think you're wise in your own eyes, it's better to be friends with a fool than with him. Don't be wise in your own eyes. Don't be wise in your own understanding, but trust in the Lord. Listen to him.
Verse 13, the lazy man says, oh, I love this one. The lazy man says, there's a lion in the road, a fierce lion in the streets. All right, these next few proverbs are about the sluggard. And so the sluggard doesn't want to go out, you know, and then make this crazy excuse. Oh, there's a lion out there. I love this. There's always an excuse for the slugger.
And I won't say it's any one particular child, but I've noticed this pattern with children. Children have to learn how to work. It is like the second You try to teach a child how to do a chore, all of a sudden they have to go to the bathroom. You notice kids rarely ever have to go to the bathroom when they're watching a television show or they're doing something fun that they like. But the moment you try to tell them to go, you know, hey, sit down, we're gonna do this chore together, all of a sudden it's, I really gotta go potty.
It's like, come on, all these crazy excuses. This next one, as a door turns on its hinges, so does a lazy man on his bed, the sluggard. just likes to keep his bed warm. Just stay in bed all day, turn to this side, turn to that side, and just lazes around throughout the day. As I was talking to one of my friends down in Topeka, Kansas at Presbyterian, we were talking about some of the difficulties it is to be an elder in the church, and this is a hardworking man, and he was saying, you know, sometimes, sometimes you just gotta dig down deep, and you just gotta do what you gotta do. It's true.
Verse 15, the lazy man buries his hand in the bowl, it wearies him to bring it back to his mouth. The lazy man is so lazy, he won't actually bring it to his mouth. The lazy man is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can be answered sensibly. The lazy person thinks that they're just gonna get all the wisdom in the world. They're just gonna be able to do whatever they want, but they're not actually willing to go listen to the seven wise men.
This is the way a lot of people treat the scriptures. This is how a lot of people treat their knowledge of religion and things like that. They don't want to actually mine the depths of the scriptures. They don't actually want to get to the heart of being pious by being on their knees in prayer. They don't actually want to know the things of God by searching out, understanding God's word, but take shortcuts or just assume that they know it already. This is one of the things that God's word humbles us by. saying we're not all that wise. Actually we're the fool in the Proverbs. Verse 17 is our last verse for the night. He who passes by and meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a dog by the ears.
It's a pretty smart thing that parents teach their kids. Our kids love to ask people when they walk by with their dogs, Oh, can we pet your puppy? Can we pet your puppy? But I've had to tell my kids multiple times, don't put your face right in that dog's face. But you know, if you're, if you're scratching their ears and your face is right in their face and all of a sudden you just, you know, if it thinks you're going to grab him by the ears, what's it going to do?
It's going to bite you. You got to be careful. What does this say? It says, he who passes by and meddles in a quarrel, not his own. If you're not minding your own business, if you're not taking care of your own house, but you wanna go meddle in your neighbor's affairs, you might as well go put your face, nose to snout with a dog and grab it by the ears and see how much it likes it as you get bit.
It was Benjamin Franklin always dropping his little tidbits of wisdom. He said, three things always stink. or two things always stink after three days. Fish and house guests. When people start meddling in your business and sticking around too long in your stuff, they start to stink. Be busy about your own house. Let other people's houses be their own.
Well, let's go ahead and pray. Father, we thank you so much that you have given us your wisdom. Lord, we pray that you would give us fear in reverence of you, that we might sit and hear from you and learn from you. Lord, we pray that you would turn us from our foolish ways, our busy body, meddling in other people's affairs, our laziness, as well as our pride, thinking that we have and know all the answers. Please, Lord, let us learn from Christ.
In Jesus' name, amen. Well, may you have a great night's sleep tonight. May you enjoy the rest of the Lord's gifts. Psalm 127 says, the Lord gives his loved ones sleep. May you sleep well tonight and may you wake in the morning and be ready for all the work he gives your hands to do. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.