It could be worse....

Proverbs 26 is a fascinating chapter which opens by denouncing fools. They don’t deserve honor. They deserve corporal punishment. They must be ignored or answered judiciously. Don’t trust them with your correspondence. They mishandle wisdom. Again, they don’t deserve honor. Again, they mishandle wisdom. You shouldn’t hire them. And they are like vomiting dogs.

So far so good. Fools are really bad. Don’t be like them. Check. Got the message.

Then in verse 12 Solomon drops this bombshell on us. “Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” Whoa!

All this time, he’s been setting the fool as the lowest of the low in every way, and then he says that even as bad as a fool is, he’s still ahead of the self-righteous man! And as if he hadn’t quite made the point fully enough, just three chapters later, he says, “Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” (Proverbs 29:20)

Until today, I never would have guessed Solomon had heard of talk radio.