READING FOR SEPTEMBER 4, 2025: PROVERBS 26, LUKE 23, PSALM 91                                           PROVERBS 26 This chapter focusing on fools (no one reading this guide of course!) begins with two arresting similes: likening a fool to snow in the summer and a foolish curse to a sparrow having nowhere to land. Both situations are ridiculous. By contrast, in verse 3 we are given three situations that are appropriate, culminating with punishment for fools. 

Verses 4 and 5 have puzzled this writer for many years because they seem to be contradictory. The original text is included below to highlight the interpretive challenge:    

Verse 4:

אַל־     תַּ֣עַן    כְּ֭סִיל כְּאִוַּלְתּ֑וֹ    :פֶּֽן־ תִּשְׁוֶה־ לּ֥וֹ   גַם־ אָֽתָּה           Word-for-world-translation:                 “you also him be like lest according to his folly a fool do answer Not”    Or as we would read it:                     “Do not answer a fool according to his foolishness, or you will also be like him” (NIV).                   Verse 5:                                                                                                                                                                                          תַּ֣עַן      כְּ֭סִיל    כְּאִוַּלְתּ֑וֹֽן־ִ   פֶּֽן־  הְיֶ֖ה   חָכָ֣ם  בְּעֵינָֽיו׃ְ            Word-for-word-translation:                     “In his own eyes wise lest according to his folly a fool Answer”                              Or as we would read it:    

 “Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes” (NIV).

Perhaps the way to avoid the logical contradiction is to consider the motivation for the response and the intended result. If the non-fool solely engages the fool in the same manner as the fool’s approach, he/she is no better than the fool. But if the intent of the non-fool is to show the fool his/her wrong thinking for this person’s own good, then it is a good response.

Situations to avoid: allowing a fool to deliver a message (vs.6), expecting wisdom from a fool (vs.7 and 9), honoring a fool (vs. 8), and hiring a fool (10). Verses 11 and 12 show two characteristics of fools: They keep doing the same dumb things (like a dog returning to their vomit) and they have a too-lofty opinion of themselves.  The remaining verses deal with certain types of fools: sluggards (those who keep making excuses for inaction), meddlers (those who get into other people’s business), deceivers (those who pretend their meanness is only a joke), gossipers (those who do damage by stirring up strife) and flatterers (those who sound good but really intend pain).  This is quite an extensive list, and many of us likely have been guilty of such foolish behavior from time to time. What should we do if we find our- selves beingfoolish in the future? 1 John 1:9 might be the best course of action: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

LUKE 23 The Jewish Council brought Jesus to Pilate. Remember since Judea was a colony of Rome, it no longer had the authority to execute anyone. What the Council found Jesus guilty of was claiming to be the Son of God. They were right, but that wasn’t a violation of Roman

READING FOR SEPTEMBER 4, 2025 CONTINUED: LUKE 23, PSALM 91                                        law. So, what they told Pilate was different. They said Jesus forbade them to pay taxes to Caesar, which was just the opposite of what He taught. (Many people today still make false or at least misleading statements about Jesus.) To his credit, Pilate said Jesus violated no laws. Pilate then offered an olive branch to Herod by sending Jesus to him for questioning. 

Herod had heard about Jesus’s miracles and wanted to see one. Jesus did not perform any nor respond to questions, thus fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy: “He was oppressed and afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth (Isa. 53:7). Despite the fact that neither Herod nor Pilate found a violation, continual pressure from the Council and those they whipped up emotionally led to Jesus be handed over to be crucified. God was using this terrible injustice against Jesus to meet the larger demands of justice for the sins of all of us: “He was pierced for our offenses; He was crushed for our wrongdoings; the punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him” (Isa. 53:5).  There seemed to be quite a procession to the crucifixion: Jesus, Simon of Cyrene carrying the cross, a large crowd, and grieving women. Amazingly as Jesus was processing toward his own execution, he warned the women that tough times were coming for Jerusalem. This brief excerpt from Flavius Josephus describes the destruction of the city in 70 A.D.: “The multitude of carcasses that lay in heaps one upon another was a horrible sight and produced a pestilential stench.”  Luke gives at least six reactions to Jesus’s crucifixion. Below those reactions is Peter’s summary:

“You were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” 1 Pet.1 PSALM 91 This Psalm uses imagery that highlights all the risks that life presents. That’s an honest view that believers should never cover up. But God has resources to help us navigate these dangers if we deploy them. God leaves the choice up to us. If we think about it for a second, isn’t it rather foolish to face all life’s uncertainties (and the certainty of death) on our own when we can choose to trust and find refuge in the most powerful force in existence. How does one do this?  The spiritual disciplines of prayer, Bible study, and interaction with the Body of Christ could be routine or they could be practiced with fervent desire to experience God’s presence and direction. If they become the latter, we should sense God’s shelter, rest, refuge, fortress, rescue, covering, and faithfulness. As it says in verse 5, the arrows will still fly, but as promised in Ephesians 6:16 we have “the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” Does verse 7 guarantee we will never suffer injury or even death? Don’t think so, but here is something better: “Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:37-39).