WHAT A FOOL BELIEVES
Proverbs 29:9, 11, and 20
9 If a wise man contends with a foolish man,
Whether the fool rages or laughs, there is no peace.
11 A fool vents all his feelings,
But a wise man holds them back.
20 Do you see a man hasty in his words?
There is more hope for a fool than for him.
Okay, I could not resist on the title. Fans of Michael McDonald and the Doobie Brothers will catch it—simply part of the last great decade of music. But lest I digress into 70s nostalgia, this devotional is about the behavior of a foolish person.
The Book of Proverbs does not mince words when it comes to people who act foolishly. The old adage does not suffer fools gladly describes the book well. In our verses for today, we find the contrast between foolish and wise people and a particularly blunt assessment of the person who speaks too quickly.
Verse nine says if the wise person contends with a foolish person, there will be no peace. If the foolish one laughs, even in laughter, there is no peace. If the foolish person rages, there is no peace. So what is the point? It appears that if you are contending with a foolish person, there is no win. There is no resolve. Things will not turn out well. The reasoning of a foolish person is beyond the reach of the wise. I will spare you some of the situations we have experienced over the years as a church. With some people, there is no winning, no peace, and no resolve.
Verse eleven says that a foolish person vents all his feelings. And typically, this infers all his negative feelings. The NLT says that "fools vent their anger." But wise people hold back from venting all their anger and feelings, especially the negative ones. If you ever want to see some foolish behavior, hang out at the airport. My sister works for TSA on the security checkpoint, and she has some stories to tell. But the stories are not about people who hold back their anger and feelings. The stories are about the people who choose to vent. A wise person knows they will rarely have to defend all the things they did not say.
And speaking of words. Verse twenty is another verse that does not spare anyone's feelings. Someone who is hasty in their words is worse off than a fool. The verse says there is more hope for a fool than the hasty speaker. Keep in mind that the Bible looks at words in a very different light than our current culture. The Scriptures liken words to seeds. And seeds produce a harvest. Bad seeds produce a bad harvest, and good seeds produce a good harvest. Although it sounds as if I am stating the obvious, the importance of our words is not to be underestimated. If we are quick to speak, we will usually be quicker to say the wrong thing. Hasty means we did not think before we spoke, and that is a sure recipe for problems.
There is so much wisdom in the Book of Proverbs. But often, the wisdom does not come packaged softly.