Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Proverbs 23:9 NKJV

Do not speak in the hearing of a fool,
For he will despise the wisdom of your words.

Proverbs are both complex and simple. Try as you might the real sense of some Proverbs will escape you. While others have a simple meaning that none need misunderstand.

Proverbs 23:9 is just such a simple Proverb. When it is broken down the meaning becomes plain.

1. There is such a one as a fool. A fool is one who spurns God. Psalm 14:1A. The fool has said in his heart there is no God”, and will not heed God’s law, Proverbs 10:23A “To do evil is like sport to a fool”. This does not mean he is the class clown. But it does mean he is morally bankrupt.

2. The fool despises wisdom. No argument is complete or sound enough, no plea is sincere enough. No illustration is applicable enough to convince the fool.

The fool has four great loves. He loves himself. He loves his folly. He loves the attention he gets. And he loves the evil effect he has on others.

I, when I was quite young, was swimming in an irrigation canal in Texas rice lands. There were a great number of wasps floating on the water. They looked so peaceful I thought I could pick one up in my hand. I slid my hand carefully under the wasp, raised it us gently, and it stung me. You can be sure commerce with a fool will bring hurt.

3. The wise person is not to waste his time teaching an identifiable fool. There is a very simple reason for this. The fool despises wisdom. He doesn’t despise only the message, he despises the words which contain the message. He doesn’t allow any of the words to affect him in any way.

This is so graphically illustrated by the writer of Proverbs in Proverbs 27:22 NKJV. Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, Yet his foolishness will not depart from him. Whatever else this means it assures the reader of the permanency of foolishness of the fool.