Text: Prov 26:8-11 ESV

8 Like one who binds the stone in the sling is one who gives honor to a fool.

9 Like a thorn that goes up into the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of fools.

10 Like an archer who wounds everyone is one who hires a passing fool or drunkard.

11 Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly..

-Prov 26:8-11 ESV

POINTLESS

The purpose of placing a stone in a sling is to make it ready to be thrown. If the stone is tangled in the sling, or tied in so it cannot come out, it defeats the purpose of the sling. Not only is such a thing pointless, but it can also be dangerous and wasteful. Another interpretation suggested by some commentators is that the stone placed in the sling is soon thrown and lost. That is, putting a stone in a sling is temporary. The sling will naturally throw the stone away.

In the same way, it's senseless to give authority, power or trust to someone lacking godly common sense. (Prov 26:1) At best, they might fail and accomplish little. At worst, that choice may lead to harm or unintended consequences. It can certainly lead others to question the sense of the person who gives "honor" to a fool. Moreover, giving trust or power to a fool can only be temporary; they will naturally cast that honor aside.

When someone resists truth, they become numb to wisdom. Verse 9 is a metaphor of someone so drunk they don't feel a thorn stabbing into their hand. The encounter makes no difference; it's as if it's never happened. Definitely, a drunk person is clumsy and mentally distracted

The lesson in verse 10 is giving fools responsibility is as silly and dangerous as an archer blindly firing into a crowd. In verse 11, they are fools who are nauseating as a dog eating its own vomit. The apostle Peter applies this proverb to those who are warned about godly truth and turn back towards sin (2 Pet 2:21). He writes: "What the true proverbs say has happened to them: 'The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire'" (2 Pet 2:22). Even when actions lead to consequences, fools may repeat the exact same mistakes. People rightly find that disgusting, and wise people should be repelled at the idea of learning nothing from a mistake, only to repeat it.

Somehow, a fool keeps doing the very thing that harms him. This leads to addiction and dependency which are then even harder to overcome. Worst, they don't learn, they simply mock what they don't grasp. The apostle Peter writes about people who fail to accept the hard teachings in Paul's letters. Peter writes that "the ignorant and unstable twist [those things] to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures" (2 Pet 3:16).

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