Posted on 10/17/2021 2:07:50 AM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“A reproof entereth more into a wise man than an hundred stripes into a fool” (Proverbs 17:10).
That's quite a statement to make, is it not? We’ll run a few verses for you in this regard.
We have talked about the fool fairly often in our devotions because Solomon addresses the subject fairly often. Today’s verse says that a reproof enters more into a wise man than a hundred stripes into a fool. That should tell us that fools are in pretty bad shape, is he not. He can get a pretty serious whoopin’ and still not get any sense. Well, the Bible has quite a bit to say about the fool.
“Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him” (Proverbs 27:22).
This is one of those verses that has a lot of nomenclature that we may not know much about; but you know what a mortar is, right? You ground grain on a mortar—it's like a flat shallow pan—and the idea you pour wheat in there, and then you take this pestle which is a stone stick with a round end on it (kind of like the old-fashioned barbers used to mix up the shaving cream) and what they would do is just grind that wheat into flour with that rounded tool. Braying is not what a donkey does, you bray wheat: you crack it and grind it up. So, the word picture here is that you could put him in a mortar and grind him up and the real fool still doesn't get it. That is pretty much one of the characteristics of our day, I'd say.
We’re talking here in proverbs 17 about this fool getting a bunch of stripes and still not getting a handle on what's right. Another verse saying the same thing is found in Proverbs 19:29, “Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools.” Now, I realize that we don't publicly flog anybody anymore. They used to, and sometimes they flogged the wrong people; but the fact remains that there is such a thing even as a public beating—a public flogging and the fool still doesn't get it.
Indeed, fools are in pretty bad shame, aren’t they. Don’t be a fool!
If anyone would like to be added to the ping list, please let me know either by post or by p.m.
For more books on all topics of the Bible, visit my web site at:
Ditto and Amen!
How true.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.