Pro 26:7 | KingComments | STEP | He who uses a fool as a messenger causes himself great trouble ( ; cf. ). In the first place, it is equivalent to cutting off his own feet. Sending a messenger is like having another pair of feet. The feet of the messenger are the feet of the sender. Nothing comes of the message with which the fool is sent on a mission. He does not arrive at the address or he delivers the wrong message. The consequences are that the sender has to deal with the violence of the addressee. The addressee has not received the message he was waiting for or he has received it mutilated, causing him to draw wrong conclusions. That damages existing good relationships. The lesson is that it is better not to send a message than to use a fool. We can apply this to religious organizations that use unbelievers to spread the message of the gospel through them. Those organizations see themselves as a business to be run by skilled ‘businessmen’ who are good at selling a message, in this case the gospel. The annual spectacle called The Passion, a God-dishonoring display of the suffering and crucifixion of Christ, is a case in point. DC’s (Dutch Celebrities) are hired to sell the ‘product’ as successfully as possible. The effect is that nothing is left of the gospel and it damages the testimony of the biblical gospel. complements . A paralytic has legs, but they are useless to him because he cannot use them. He cannot move a step with them. Thus, a fool can utter a proverb, but he does not know what it means. The proverb hangs there as limp as the legs of a cripple; it is without power in his mouth. Such is the case with all those wicked fools – people who don’t want to know anything about the fear of the LORD – hired to play in The Passion. They parrot the Bible, but they don’t know what they are saying.

‏ Proverbs 26:7

To Cut Off Feet – Lamed Legs

He who uses a fool as a messenger causes himself great trouble (Pro 26:6; cf. Pro 25:13). In the first place, it is equivalent to cutting off his own feet. Sending a messenger is like having another pair of feet. The feet of the messenger are the feet of the sender. Nothing comes of the message with which the fool is sent on a mission. He does not arrive at the address or he delivers the wrong message.

The consequences are that the sender has to deal with the violence of the addressee. The addressee has not received the message he was waiting for or he has received it mutilated, causing him to draw wrong conclusions. That damages existing good relationships. The lesson is that it is better not to send a message than to use a fool.

We can apply this to religious organizations that use unbelievers to spread the message of the gospel through them. Those organizations see themselves as a business to be run by skilled ‘businessmen’ who are good at selling a message, in this case the gospel. The annual spectacle called The Passion, a God-dishonoring display of the suffering and crucifixion of Christ, is a case in point. DC’s (Dutch Celebrities) are hired to sell the ‘product’ as successfully as possible. The effect is that nothing is left of the gospel and it damages the testimony of the biblical gospel.

Pro 26:7 complements Pro 26:6. A paralytic has legs, but they are useless to him because he cannot use them. He cannot move a step with them. Thus, a fool can utter a proverb, but he does not know what it means. The proverb hangs there as limp as the legs of a cripple; it is without power in his mouth. Such is the case with all those wicked fools – people who don’t want to know anything about the fear of the LORD – hired to play in The Passion. They parrot the Bible, but they don’t know what they are saying.