Prov 25-26 The Fool and the Lazy Sluggard

Wouldn’t it have been fun to be a fly on the wall in the Palace when Solomon faced both the fools and the lazy? Solomon wrote these chapters on what he gleaned, and we have those before us in these chapters. He observed, then interpreted, and then made applications. We are far richer from what he saw and experienced.

He left us with three very valid questions: (1) Why would you take counsel from the fool? To do so is your folly. (2) Why would you try to train the fool by trying to lead him or counsel him? He only learns the hard way (by whip or rod). [Seems to me that I heard that refrain more often in my childhood than any other as my mother often shook her head at me and said you only learn the hard way. Maybe she was right; I don’t know. but her words ring forth from eternity to me even today.] (3) Why would you send the fool on a journey with a message when you know that it will either be lost or rehearsed incorrectly? The bottom line is that we can learn much about fools in these chapters so that we do not become a fool.

Then there is the sluggard or the lazy. They are lazy and refuse to work! Paul later said that he who is lazy and won’t work should not benefit from the toil of others. These people are habitually lazy! Hard work never hurt anyone and, in fact, teaches us much about character development. There will always be the workers and the shirkers. Which are you?

So today, look at your decisions and then determine if you are wise or foolish busy about work, or lazy.