Proverbs 26:6
Sending a message by the hands of a fool
is like cutting off one’s feet or drinking poison.
This is graphic imagery, to say the least. It gives a clue about the message. This is not a message about remembering to take the shirts by the cleaners. It is of great import. Perhaps it is a message to an enemy about reconciliation. Perhaps two friends are at odds, and one friend is sending a message confessing his sin. Perhaps the message is from a military officer to another, giving vital news about the enemy’s position, or of one general trying to set terms for surrender to another general.
The list, of course, can go on. The point is that the import of a message is not to be entrusted to someone known to be foolish. He may lose the message. He may distort the message. He may arrive too late. He has earned a reputation for not being trustworthy. The fool never understands this. It does not occur to him that he has established such a pattern. He is eager to volunteer for the job without thinking of how to carry out the job or what the consequences may be. And as such, he is most dangerous.
It was through trustworthy men that God sent his own messages. It was through the most trustworthy of all that he sent his greatest message. Indeed, the Messenger was the Message. Ironically, he was regarded the fool. Just as ironically, this Messenger would send out his own messengers with the same valuable Message, and they also would be regarded as fools, even as we today are so regarded.
Psalm 129
“They have greatly oppressed me from my youth,”
let Israel say;
2 “they have greatly oppressed me from my youth,
but they have not gained the victory over me.
3 Plowmen have plowed my back
and made their furrows long.
4 But the Lord is righteous;
he has cut me free from the cords of the wicked.”5 May all who hate Zion
be turned back in shame.
6 May they be like grass on the roof,
which withers before it can grow;
7 a reaper cannot fill his hands with it,
nor one who gathers fill his arms.
8 May those who pass by not say to them,
“The blessing of the Lord be on you;
we bless you in the name of the Lord.”