The biblical fool

Proverbs 26:1-11 (NLT)

Honor is no more associated with fools
than snow with summer or rain with harvest.  Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow,
an undeserved curse will not land on its intended victim.  Guide a horse with a whip, a donkey with a bridle,
and a fool with a rod to his back!  Don’t answer the foolish arguments of fools,
or you will become as foolish as they are.  Be sure to answer the foolish arguments of fools,
or they will become wise in their own estimation.  Trusting a fool to convey a message is like cutting off one’s feet or drinking poison!  A proverb in the mouth of a fool is as useless as a paralyzed leg.  Honoring a fool is as foolish as tying a stone to a slingshot.  A proverb in the mouth of a fool
is like a thorny branch brandished by a drunk.  An employer who hires a fool or a bystander
is like an archer who shoots at random.  As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his foolishness.

When you hear the word “fool” what comes to mind?  You think of a kid in the corner wearing a dunce hat.  You think of a jester or clown.  You think of silly actors like The Three Stooges.  Maybe you think of the classic Beatles song, “The Fool on the Hill”.  You think of someone who has no common sense, makes poor decisions, and has little intelligence.  Whatever thoughts you have about the word “fool”, they are negative, derogatory, and even vicious.  Indeed, the Bible has a lot of derogatory things to say about a fool.   

The Hebrew word for fool (kĕciyl) means “stupid fellow, dullard, simpleton, arrogant one”.  Proverbs and Ecclesiastes (both written by King Solomon) uses this word for fool 67 times.  Each of these verses describes a fool very negatively, e.g. loves to do evil (13:19), has no wisdom nor even capable of becoming wise (17:16), unteachable/despises wisdom (1:7), proud (21:24), undisciplined (21:30), loses his temper (29:11), talks folly (15:2), unreliable/dishonest (26:6,10), lies (10:18), deceitful (14:8), perverse in speech (19:1), and many other disagreeable and dislikable personality traits.

The first eleven verses of Proverbs 26 describe a fool.  Note the writer’s use of similes, e.g. comparing two different things that use the words “like” or “as”.  For example verse 6---Trusting a fool to convey a message is like cutting off one’s feet or drinking poison.  To be labeled as a fool is a very bad thing to happen to anyone.  No one wants to associate with a fool, work with him, or give him any responsibility.        

Verses 4 and 5----what’s the deal here?  Verse 4 states don’t answer the foolish arguments of fools while verse 5 writes be sure to answer the foolish arguments of fools!  The Bible contradicts itself here, right?  Well, I had to do some searching about this possibility as I believe that the Bible is inerrant and cannot contradict itself.  What I found is that these seemingly contradictory statements are actually a common form of parallelism found in the Old Testament.  Parallelism is presenting one idea in one verse, then building on that idea in a subsequent verse.  Verse 4 warns against arguing with a fool on his own terms because doing so will cause you to be just like him.  You ignore him when he’s talking about relatively minor topics that are readily forgettable.  However, verse 5 indicates that there may be more serious situations where you need to respond to foolish words that reprove/rebuke the fool in the hope that the fool sees the stupidity of his words.  Otherwise the fool will continue to spout off and spread his foolish ideas to innocent others.  The fool needs to be rebuked when he/she is speaking lies about God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit or the Bible or salvation or other major doctrines of Christian faith.

Who becomes a fool?  I think that a major answer is found in Psalm 14:1 “The fool says in his heart ‘there is no God’”.  Anyone who decides to turn his/her back on God, deny Him, and instead follow his/her own ways (Proverbs 12:15) is the fool that is described by so many verses in Proverbs.   And because people choose to be fools, those who choose to be wise by following the Lord are to have nothing to do with fools.   However, you should always pray for those you know and love who have chosen to be foolish that one day he/she might turn from foolish ways and be saved in Christ.   And always be careful that you, as a Christian, do not revert to foolish ways as the enemy, Satan himself, is always on the lookout to cause you to do something foolish.