So Deep
Can you wrap your mind and heart around this Word?
Proverbs 26:4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself 5 Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.
When reading Proverbs, I get into a rhythm. Most of them are “If, then” statements. Verse 4 basically says “don’t stoop to his level”. However, verse 5 takes it to a whole ‘notha level. The writer changes from telling you how you are affected to telling you how the other person is affected.
My version of Verse 5 = Answer a fool according to his way and he will continue to think he is right.
Is this what you get?
=pastor
Posted on October 24, 2007, in Daily Word. Bookmark the permalink. 6 Comments.
Robin Steele 
Pastor, you could have quoted Forrest Gump after that,
“That’s all I have to say about thayt” ; )
When in doubt, check another translation (my motto). This is good…here is what the Message says.
Don’t respond to the stupidity of a fool;
you’ll only look foolish yourself.
Answer a fool in simple terms
so he doesn’t get a swelled head.
Have you ever met anyone who was very intelligent but foolish because they put their faith in their own knowledge? Try talking to them on their terms…it makes you feel foolish and they get a big head. But if your approach is more simplistic, they end up looking foolish. They are found out…they were just trying to look “smart”.
This is a good verse for me right now because of what we are going through with Dusty (Mark’s mom). Not because she’s a fool. She has the onset of dimentia.
She has these dillusions and we can’t convince her that they’re not real. She’s very strong willed and will just argue with us.
I have to remember that we can’t reason with her. Her reasoning is gone when she gets dillusional. It just is what it is to her. We have to just enter her world and help her cope. After all, it’s like Mark says “It’s crazy to argue with an insane person.”
I know a lot of people that I have worked with and they have made statements about God.
That was far from the truth. I learn to not to say anything at all.
Proverbs is a great Book.
The New American Standard says for verse 5: “Answer a fool as his folly {deserves,} That he not be wise in his own eyes.” Like Lora, I too usually walk off rather than try correcting a fool as it is time consuming and wasted effort. But if wisdom is applied in gentle doses sometimes even a fool can see the error of his ways.
I was that fool in Proverbs, conceited and wise in my own eyes. I would rail and many would rail back, except one. One lady bent under the Lord’s hand and carried the burden for my soul.