(remember, these are unedited/draft show notes, not a transcript — listening is always better…and if you listen AND follow along below, you’ll see why)
Focus Question:
Should you “answer a fool?”
Intro:
I know you’ve probably, at some point, thought about one of Christianity’s bigger ponderables…Should you, or should you not, answer a fool?
Happy Monday, and oo-oo, we’ve had some beautiful autumn days here in Oregon. I’ve got this 3-mile loop that I walk, and was thinking about that recently, and voila! Here it is in today’s passage of Proverbs where you hear two different proverbs seemingly contradict each other saying you should and shouldn’t.
So…I know you’ve got some fools in your life that you sure wish you could set straight, and this week is going to be a crazy one culturally given the presidential election, so today we are going to set the record straight on talking to fools and fool’s talk. Coming up in the Bottom Line segment of the program.
New Testament segment:
In our NT segment we’re in this little section about the final judgment of Babylon who represents, both literally and figuratively, many different pagan forces and religions which have “opposed the faith of Israel as well as the faith of the church.”(1)
A couple days ago in ch 17 we saw it “in its religious character climaxing in a world religion which seems to fit the first half of the last seven years preceding Christ’s second coming,” while today
by contrast, seems to refer to Babylon as a political power and as a great city and as the seat of power of the great world empire which will dominate the second half of the last seven years before Christ’s return.
Babylon, referred to about 300 times in the Bible, is occasionally viewed as a satanic religious program opposing the true worship of God, but primarily it is viewed as a political power with a great city bearing the name Babylon as its capital. The end times bring together these two major lines of truth about Babylon and indicate God’s final judgment on it.(1)
Passage: Revelation 18
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 24
Words: ~547
Old Testament segment:
Today in our OT segment we’re going to hear God address the mountains. And I want to be clear and careful here with what I am about to say. There’s the likely biblical interpretation of what today’s reading is about, and then I’m going to share one bit of my own dot-connecting afterward.
Our passage begins by calling out Mount Seir where Edom resides, and you might wonder why this wasn’t part of the calling out of the “other” nations earlier. But remember, Edom is the descendants of Esay (of Jacob and Esau), and there’s been this millennim-long grudge match wherein Edom’s been nasty to his brother…and gets called out with special condemnation. Family is supposed to have been treated differently than strangers. Then you’ll hear about Israel’s mountains, and I’ll save my dot-connecting for after.
Passage: Ezekiel 35-36:15
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 30
Words: ~876
Notice one thing — and this is all me and my dot connecting — but God here is promising to restore the land that’s been polluted by the people. Remember after the fall back in Genesis 3, God curses the serpent, but then does he curse Adam and Eve? No, he curses the ground…the earth bears their junk, and now childbirth and work will be marked with pain and weeds.
So…when a contemporary environmental movement wants to blame people for the state of the earth, in a way they are right. But what is implied if you think people can therefore fix it? What is implied is nothing short of salvation. We can save ourselves. And is that biblical?
Wisdom segment:
Our wisdom segment’s going to be a little longer today because there’s this whole section that relates to interpersonal relations and dealing with difficult people.
Passage: Proverbs 25:15-26:5
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 18
Words: ~286
The bottom line:
What’s a fool? And when should we respond?
fools, characteristics of
Scripture portrays fools as those who have rejected God and his ways and are unable or unwilling to appreciate the wisdom of knowing and obeying him.(2)
4 Don’t answer a fool according to his foolishness or you’ll be like him yourself. 5 Answer a fool according to his foolishness or he’ll become wise in his own eyes. Pr 26:4–5, CSB
This would be contradictory if it were not qualified by the accompanying phrases. We should answer a foo according to his folly if not doing so will leave him '“wise in his own eyes” (v5). But, we should not …if in so doing we will “also be like him."(3)
So…as James says, “Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him,” (Jas 1:5, CSB), and like a lot of the rest of life, discerning whether or not to respond to a fool is an “it depends” answer.
ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.
Sources and resources:
(1) John F. Walvoord, “Revelation,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 969–970.
(2) Martin H. Manser, Dictionary of Bible Themes: The Accessible and Comprehensive Tool for Topical Studies (London: Martin Manser, 2009).
(3) Norman L. Geisler and Thomas Howe, The Big Book of Bible Difficulties: Clear and Concise Answers from Genesis to Revelation, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1992), 250-251.