Thursday, October 16, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Proverbs 26
Key Verse
Proverbs 26:15 — “The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom; it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth.”
Devotional Thought
Solomon paints a gallery of fools in Proverbs 26, and the portraits are uncomfortably familiar. There is the fool who receives honor he has not earned—as out of place as snow in summer, as jarring as rain during harvest when the grain lies cut in the field. There is the fool who cannot be trusted with a message, for sending him is like cutting off your own feet and drinking down damage. There is the fool who repeats his folly the way a dog returns to its vomit, and the man who is wise in his own conceit, of whom Solomon says there is more hope for a fool than for him. Then the chapter turns its gaze to the sluggard, who buries his hand in the dish and finds it too much trouble to lift it to his mouth, who claims a lion stalks the streets rather than rise from his bed, whose door swings on its hinges just as he turns on his mattress.
But the deepest wounds in this chapter come not from laziness or folly alone, but from the tongue. The talebearer’s words are as wounds that go down into the innermost parts. The contentious man kindles strife the way coals kindle wood. There is the enemy who speaks fair while seven abominations sit in his heart, hatred dressed in silver dross, a potsherd coated to look like treasure. And there is the deceiver who wounds his neighbor and then shrugs, “Am not I in sport?” We know these people. We have sat across the table from them. We have, if we are honest, been them.
October is a season when the trees shed what they no longer need and the air turns sharp with honesty. It is a fitting month to read a chapter so concerned with what is hidden and what is revealed. Solomon insists that nothing stays buried forever: the pit we dig for another is the pit we fall into; the stone we roll returns upon our own head; the hatred covered by deceit will be shown before the whole congregation. God is not mocked. The fire goes out where there is no wood, and strife ceases where there is no talebearer—which means the tongue that spreads the flame is not a victim of circumstance but an arsonist.
Yet the chapter is not merely a warning; it is an invitation to a different kind of life. The wise man does not answer a fool according to his folly in pride, nor does he let folly stand unchallenged in cowardice; he learns discernment. He keeps his hand out of strifes that do not belong to him, for taking a dog by the ears only earns you its teeth. He lets his yes be yes and his no be no, so that no one has to wonder whether silver dross covers his heart. In a world of burning lips and wandering curses, the man who speaks plainly and loves honestly is a rare and beautiful thing—a snow in summer that actually belongs.
Reflection
- Where in your own life have you answered a fool “according to his folly”—either by joining the quarrel in pride or by flattering it in fear—rather than speaking the truth in love?
- Is there a hidden thing in your heart, a hatred or a deceit covered with fair words, that this chapter warns will one day be shown before the whole congregation?
Prayer
Lord, You who formed all things and reward both the fool and the transgressor, search us and know us. We confess that our tongues have wounded, our flattery has deceived, and our hearts have harbored what our lips denied. Teach us to answer folly with wisdom and not with pride, to keep our hands from strifes that are not ours, and to let no talebearing kindle fire among us. Uproot the seven abominations hidden in our hearts, and make us honest before You and before men. Let the pit we would dig for others become a grave for our own malice, and let the stone we would roll return only to crush our sin. Amen.