Proverbs 17:1-28

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Let’s take our Bibles together and turn to Proverbs 17:1–28. In the book of Proverbs, Solomon uses several words to describe what we broadly refer to as a “fool.” The most common word is כְּסִיל (kĕsîl), which we can loosely translate a “dullard.” He also uses the adjective אֱוִיל (ʾĕwîl), which means “foolish” and its cognate אִוֶּלֶת (ʾiwwelet) which means “folly” or “foolishness.” There is also the rare noun נָבָל (nā·ḇāl), which shows up for the first time in Proverbs 17. 

Additionally there’s the word בַּעַר (bǎ·ʿǎr), which means “stupid.” There’s the noun לֵץ (lēṣ), which means a “mocker.” And there’s the noun פֶּתִי (pě·ṯî), which means the “simpleton.” 

I’ve told you before that there is a rich variety of words that Solomon uses for wisdom and all of wisdom’s friends: discretion, prudence, insight, etc. But there is also a rich variety of words used for the fool and all of his friends. And those words show up all over the place in Proverbs 17.

And the overwhelming emphasis on this passage today, in Proverbs 17, is how not to be a fool. Now I could frame today’s message ironically as “How to be a fool!—five easy steps.” That would be fun. But let’s frame this a little more positively and a little less sarcastically as follows: “Five Exhortations to Foolproof Your Life.” 

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Here’s the first. Write this down as #1 in your notes. 

1) Put your house in order (17:1–6)



Solomon says in verse 1, 

1 Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife.

Literally what Solomon says here is “Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house [full of the sacrifices of strife].” The implication of this text is that sometimes with big money and big feasting, there is inevitably big conflict. If you prioritize consumeristic pursuits as a family, don’t be surprised if you intensify family contentions. Solomon says here, “Choose well-being over being well-fed.” Solomon grew up in a house full of strife, so he knew something about that.

Look at verse 2.

2 A servant who deals wisely will rule over a son who acts shamefully and will share the inheritance as one of the brothers. 

Solomon knew something about that too. Half of his own son’s kingdom was usurped by his servant Jeroboam. When my pastor used to do an “OT walkthrough” with us, he would always mention the two bombs that blew up the nation of Israel after Solomon. There was “Reho-bomb” and “Jero-bomb,” otherwise known as Rehoboam and Jeroboam. Rehoboam was Solomon’s son, and because of his own shameful foolishness, he allowed half of his kingdom to go to his servant Jeroboam. Unfortunately neither of these men were honorable in the eyes of the Lord. 

With all of the passages in Proverbs that deal with parents and children, there are expectations that go to the parents, and there are expectations that go to the children. That’s true in this verse. Parents need to parent well, and children need to not act shamefully. But the emphasis here is on children. The focus of this verse really isn’t on servants who deal wisely; it’s on sons who act shamefully. Servants should never share the inheritance of a father. We see from the story of Abraham in the OT how unfitting that would be. So the perlocutionary force of this verse is, “Shape up, sons, and don’t do anything that would shame your family.”

Look at verse 3, 

3 The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts. 

The Hebrew word for “tests” here is בָּחַן (bā·ḥǎn). This is the same word that Yahweh uses in Malachi 3:10 when he says, “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.” In the same way that we would “test” God’s promise in that scenario, God “tests” our hearts.

A “crucible,” by the way, is a small melting oven that would be used to smelt precious metals. Silver melts at 1,763°F and gold melts at 1,948°F, so crucibles would have to burn dangerously hot. And that smelting process would remove impurities. 

Similarly God has to turn up the heat of trials and temptations in our lives to burn off our impurities. He tests our hearts. Remember the human heart is the center of volitional, intellectual, emotional, and ethical forces in the Hebrew worldview. So God tests our hearts with pain. He tests our hearts with disappointments. He tests our hearts with temptation. He tests our hearts for sincerity, for loyalty, for longevity. And when we pass those tests, the dross is removed and we are purified. 

If you remember the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22, Abraham was asked by God to take his son, his only son, up Mount Moriah and slay him there. And what did God say at the very beginning of that story? Genesis 22:1 says, “After these things God tested Abraham…” 

Look at verse 4.

4 An evildoer listens to wicked lips, and a liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue. 

Notice that evil isn’t just perpetrated when someone speaks lies or makes mischief with their tongue. Evil is perpetrated also when someone listens to lies or listens to someone making mischief with their tongue. In other words, if you listen to lies… if you listen to slander… if you listen to a troublemaking evildoer, then you are complicit in that act of evil.

Look at verse 5.

5 Whoever mocks the poor insults his Maker; 

That “capital M” there is correct. A poor person is made in the image of God. And only a fool would mock an image-bearer. Because the image-Maker is going to take umbrage at any insult directed towards his image-bearer.

5 Whoever mocks the poor insults his Maker; he who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished. 

You might say, “Who is glad at calamity?” Answer: lots of people. “Who mocks the poor?” Answer: lots of people. You might say, “Who has a house of feasting with strife?” Answer, lots of people. There is a certain energy that comes with strife. There is a certain twisted mind that likes drama and is drawn to conflict. A little conflict gets the blood flowing. It gets the adrenaline going. The high is tremendous. But the fallout, when you fall back to earth, is devastating. 

I remember reading Martin Luther say once that he is able to write and work with tremendous energy when he’s angry. It really sharpens the mind and makes you focused. It’s like a drug. But that doesn’t always produce great work. And the latter part of Luther’s life where he was angry and erratic is proof of that.

You want to foolproof your life? Learn to control your emotions. Get your house in order. Get your heart in order.

And speaking of your house, look at verse 6.

6 Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers. 

For whatever reason, there is a segment of our population now that is growing increasingly anti-family on both the right and the left. The left has been wanting to dismantle families for decades. They’ve been in all out-attack mode towards fathers especially. And fatherlessness has been a serious problem in our world. 

But voices on the right have been increasingly speaking against marriage and family too. They talk about marriage as a kind of trap, and children as obstacles and burdens. In the marriage series, I just completed I called this the red-pill crowd. And the Bible, right here, is telling all of those anti-family individuals on the right and the left to take a hike. Actually it’s doing something better than that. It’s telling the world about the goodness and the joy that’s wrapped up in fulfilling God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” 

And I know that not everyone will get married and have children. Jesus was single and didn’t have physical offspring. But if you can get married and have children, you should. Unless you are dedicating your life strictly to the Lord’s work (see 1 Cor 7:7–8). 

There’s nothing better than to get married, stay married, have children, watch your children have children and be invested in the lives of your children and your grandchildren. Because grandchildren are a crown to the aged. They are a treasure. And when they act up and need disciplined, you can give them back to their parents.     

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Write this down as #2. Here’s a second way to foolproof your life.

2) Be a person of integrity (17:7–16)

Just broadly speaking, look at the number of times “fool” shows up in this section. 

7 Fine speech is not becoming to a fool

10 A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool. 

12 Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs rather than a fool in his folly. 

16 Why should a fool have money in his hand to buy wisdom when he has no sense? 

This is what you might call the “stupid is as stupid does” section of Proverbs. And by the way, each of those verses uses a different Hebrew word for “fool.” So Solomon is intentionally varying the vocabulary, in order to get your attention. He’s trying to help you foolproof your life by exercising a little self-control.

And also, I want you to notice something. The opposite of foolishness in this section, it’s not intelligence. It’s not even wisdom, although I could make a case for wisdom. You know what it is? It’s integrity. It’s doing the right thing. That’s the opposite of foolishness.

For example, look at verse 7.

7 Fine speech is not becoming to a fool [נָבָל]; still less is false speech to a prince. 

In other words, don’t live by lies. Tell the truth. Nobody expects a fool to speak wisely, and nobody expects a prince (i.e. a political leader) to lie. And they shouldn’t.

Just so you know, my mom tells one joke and only one joke. But to make up for that, she tells this joke all the time. And her joke goes like this. She says, “You know where liars go, don’t you?” “No, mom, where do they go?” “Washington D.C.” “Thank you, mom, I’ve heard you say that before.”

Look at verse 8.

8 A bribe is like a magic stone in the eyes of the one who gives it; wherever he turns he prospers. 

Despite what you might think, verse 8 is not encouraging you to use bribes. Exodus 23:8 states clearly, “you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.” 

Solomon admits that there’s a certain utility in bribing people. It’s a kind of “magic stone” or “magic elixir” that greases the wheels of justice. But implicit in the statement “in the eyes of” is a kind of self-delusion. This person thinks he’s opening doors for himself, but in reality, he’s compromising his own integrity. And even if that is temporarily successful, it’ll come back to bite him.

Look at verse 9.

9 Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends. 

Tell me if you’ve heard this before, church. “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Cor 13:4–7). That’s so good, that should be in the Bible somewhere! The NIV says it this way, “[Love] keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Cor 13:15b, NIV).

Sanja and I have this principle we use in marital counseling. We call it, “Don’t get historical.” We stole this from Tommy Nelson. Because some couples, when they are sinned against, they like to drudge up the past. And they say, “Remember when you did that in 1995, back when Bill Clinton was president! You did it again!” When marriages do that, you know that they are in trouble. When church folk are like that towards each other, you know that they are in trouble. When everyone’s keeping tabs on each other, and there’s no such thing as forgiveness, that’s problematic.

“Why do you say that, Pastor Tony?” “Is there a better way?” Yes, there is. It’s called forgiveness. Love keeps no record of wrongs and whoever covers an offense seeks love. What if the Lord treated us like that? What if the Lord got historical with all our mistakes? What if he kept throwing our past offenses back in our face? What does the Lord do instead? 

Psalm 103 says, “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (103:10–12).

Look at verse 10.

10 A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool.

Part of what it means to have integrity is being teachable. 

11 An evil man seeks only rebellion, and a cruel messenger will be sent against him. 

12 Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs rather than a fool in his folly. 

You ever met a she-bear robbed of her cubs out in the woods? Probably not. Because if you had, you’d be dead right now. 

By the way, there were bears in ancient Israel. The Syrian brown bear (ursus arctos syriacos) could rise up to seven feet high and weighed approximately 500 pounds. Not as big as a grizzly bear, but still plenty big enough to scare the stuffing out of you. And what does Solomon use this terrifying illustration to analogize? A fool in his folly! 

He’s saying here that you’d be better off meeting an enraged mama-bear who will tear you limb from limb, then to meet with a fool who is addicted to his foolishness. Hyperbole? Maybe?

13 If anyone returns evil for good, evil will not depart from his house. 

That was true of the OT character Nabal. Nabal, by the way, is a derivative of נָבָל. David protected Nabal and his flocks, and all he asked for was provision. That was a reasonable expectation in the OT world. Plus David was a warrior and the future king of Israel. And how did Nabal (“the fool”) reward David? He insulted him. And if it weren’t for Abigail, his wife, he would have been put to death on the spot. Nevertheless evil got the best of him and he died a fool.

14 The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks out. 

Do you know what an essential part of integrity is? Self-control. In fact, it’s a fruit of the Spirit. And here’s a vivid image right here. The beginning of strife is like a crack in the dam. So quit before the water explodes out on you.

Sanja and I sometimes like watching those videos that you might call “construction worker fails.” And the best ones usually involve a waterline. A construction worker digs in the wrong spot or accidently hits a waterline. And the water pressure builds up and explodes everywhere. That’s an argument when it breaks out. So do yourself a favor—quit before the quarrel breaks out.

Look at verse 15.

15 He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord. 

Does that ever happen in our world? Do wicked people ever get exonerated? Do righteous people ever get condemned? Isaiah said about 200 years after Solomon the following, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (Isa 5:20). 

Listen, the Lord abominates injustice. He hates it. And the reality is that we can’t control all the injustices that are perpetrated in our world. I wish we could do more to eradicate the lack of integrity in our world, but that’s a big task for us. The real battle for integrity, the real fight for justice is found in our own lives. It’s found in our own church family. It’s found in our nuclear families, where we call out wickedness for what it is and we uphold righteousness where we can! 

And then, look at verse 16.

16 Why should a fool have money in his hand to buy wisdom when he has no sense? 

That is a sarcastic comment about the foolishness of a fool who lacks sense. Even if he had money, you can’t buy wisdom. And even if you could buy wisdom, the fool wouldn’t have sense enough to buy it. He’d buy something else instead. And it’s a moot point anyways because fools typically don’t have money, because they are too lazy to work. 

So back to the theme of this message. How do you foolproof your life? You work hard. You get wisdom. You live a life of integrity. You don’t chase sin. You don’t chase conflict. You don’t return evil for good. You don’t harbor resentment. You fear God and don’t do stupid.

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Here’s another thing. Write this down as #3. 

3) Keep your heart clean (17:17–22)

Solomon says in verse 17, 

17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. 

We have a few similar idioms in English. They go like this, “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” Is that true? We also say this, “Hard times reveal true friends.” True? 

And from a NT perspective, we can see the ongoing truth of this statement in the context of the church. Because in Christ Jesus, we aren’t just “fellow believers” in Christ, we are also brothers and sisters in Christ. And “a brother [or sister in Christ] is born [again] for adversity.” In other words, when opposition increases in this world and adversity comes, we can rely on one another. 

And by the way, here’s another expression that you should keep close to you: “Bad company corrupts good character.” True? Be careful with the company you keep. Choose your friends wisely.

Look at verse 18, 

18 One who lacks sense gives a pledge and puts up security in the presence of his neighbor. 

ESV’s “lacks sense” here is literally “lacks heart.” We’ve seen that several times already in the book of Proverbs. And I’ve entitled this section, “Keep your heart clean,” because “heart” (Hebrew: לֵב) is used several times in this passage. 

18 One who lacks [heart]

20 A man of crooked heart 

22 A joyful heart 

Solomon wants us to keep our hearts clean. We might say in English, “Keep your nose clean!” But that’s just an admonition to behave and mind your Ps and Qs. To keep one’s heart clean is more than that. It’s more than just behavior modification. It means be smart, be wise, be ethical, and make good decisions. 

What’s a bad decision that people sometimes make? They put up security for another person. They cosign loans. They go into business partnerships with disreputable people. Don’t do that!

Look at verse 19.

19 Whoever loves transgression loves strife; he who makes his door high seeks destruction. 

How could anyone love strife? Do people really do that? Yes! Remember what I said earlier about the adrenaline rush. Some people are hopelessly addicted to drama. That’s the first side of this proverb.

The second part has to do with making one’s door high. Some people love strife. Other people are so far removed from the world, they are so haughty and alienated from others, that they keep people out. And both of these involve a certain kind of what’s called misanthropy. A misanthrope is a person who hates other people.

One person hates people and so they are constantly involved in strife and conflict. Another person hates people and so he builds a high gate to keep people out. And he orders everything in from Amazon and Uber eats, so he doesn’t have to see people, talk to people, or bother himself with people.

And what Solomon is saying here is that you need to guard yourself from both kinds of misanthropy. You’ve got to guard your heart from both of those impulses. We are called to be in the world, but not of the world. We can’t escape this world. And neither can we act in worldly ways in the midst of this world. We’ve got to be, in Jesus’s words, salt and light to the world (Matt 5:13–16). 

Look at verse 20.

20 A man of crooked heart does not discover good, and one with a dishonest tongue falls into calamity. 

21 He who sires a fool [כְּסִיל] gets himself sorrow, and the father of a fool [נָבָל] has no joy. 

22 A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. 

You might say, “I can’t manufacture a joyful heart, Pastor Tony. I can’t do it. I can’t fake it.” I agree. And I’m not asking you to fake it. This world is full of sadness and sorrow. I get it. 

But I will say this. Even in the worst seasons of life, we have reasons to rejoice. The great example of this is Paul in the book of Philippians. Paul was stuck in chains writing to the church in Philippi. And despite that, Philippians has that repeated refrain, “Rejoice, Rejoice, Rejoice.” Some people even call that book, Philippians, Paul’s “epistle of joy.” That’s not bad, for someone who was stuck in prison.

The reality is that you have a choice every day you wake up in the morning. You have an opportunity to fixate on the things of this world that are depressing, or to fixate on the Lord and the goodness that he brings you. I’m not asking you to ignore the depressing things in this world… that’s impossible. I’m asking you to look past them. Look past them and see that God is working all things out for good for those who love him and have been called according to his purpose (Rom 8:28). And even in the most depressing seasons of life, we have reason to rejoice. And a joyful heart is good medicine. It’s better than a clinical psychiatrist, and it costs less too.

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Write this down as #4. I’ll cover these last two quickly. Here’s a fifth way to foolproof your life.

4) Don’t pervert justice (17:23–26)

Solomon says in verse 23, 

23 The wicked accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the ways of justice. 

If you thought after verse 8 that Solomon was okay with bribes, verse 23 now makes emphatically clear that he is not! What’s Solomon saying in verse 23? Well let me spell it out for you. He saying, “Don’t use bribes to pervert justice!” Full stop. And he’s also saying, if you are a judge or a politician, don’t accept bribes either. That’s a miscarriage of justice.

24 The discerning sets his face toward wisdom, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth. 

In other words, foolishness is ubiquitous. It’s everywhere and it goes nowhere. You stumble into it without even trying. But “wisdom” takes intentionality. You set your face towards it. You set your course towards it and you can’t veer off from it.

25 A foolish son is a grief to his father and bitterness to her who bore him. 

26 To impose a fine on a righteous man is not good, nor to strike the noble for their uprightness. 

This verse is similar to verse 15, “He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord.” Both of these verses are conveying the same theme: God hates injustice. 

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Finally, write this down as fifth way to foolproof your life.

5) Choose your words carefully (17:27–28)

Look at verse 27. 

27 Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. 

Full disclosure, I’ve prayed for this. I’ve prayed for this repeatedly throughout my life. “Lord, give me a cool spirit. Make me a cool-headed person.” And I’ve also prayed, “Help me to restrain my words, Lord. Help me to insert a better filter.” 

“Why, Tony? Why?” Because…

28 Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent. 

I told you a few weeks ago about that famous Mark Twain quote, “It is better to keep your mouth shut and let them think you a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.” But I read this last week that it wasn’t Twain who said that first, it was Abraham Lincoln. But whoever said it first (Twain or Lincoln) wasn’t really being original. They were just paraphrasing Proverbs 17:28.

You know what’s even better than a fool keeping silent? You know what’s better than a wise person who is constantly talking even when nobody’s listening? What’s better is for a wise person to restrain his words and use them for maximum effect! Not that we shouldn’t have a good amount of social interaction with one another. I’m not advocating for that. Some of you have the gift of gab, and I don’t want you to feel bad about that. Gab away!

But there are times when words cause more harm than good. There are times when silence is better than gab. There are times when we need to be judicious with our speech. And a man or woman who is able to use wise words and a disciplined tongue to edify others, that person is a gift to the church. That person is a blessing. 

The Apostle James said it best, “For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body” (Jas 3:2).

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Now here’s how I want to close this passage. And I’ll be honest, I’m going to close it in a way that probably none of you expected. I want to close by asking this question: “Is there a good kind of foolishness?” I’ve spent the last forty minutes or so telling you to not be a fool. But I want to close this message by telling you to be a certain kind of fool. I want to close by encouraging you to embrace what some people call the “folly of the cross.” 

And that’s because there’s some provocative language used by the Apostle Paul in the NT. The Apostle Paul was one of the most brilliant men to ever live. He had a wide and varied vocabulary and could have used any number of words in human language to describe the cross of Jesus Christ. But paradoxically, and I think ironically, he uses the word “foolishness” or “folly” to describe the cross of Christ. 

Here’s what Paul says in 1 Corinthians: “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God... [Paul writes] Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1:18–25).

If I could, let me just paraphrase two foolishnesses that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians. 1) First of all there’s the “foolishness of God.” Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:18, “If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.” Paul says, “the foolishness of God is wiser than men” (1:25). 

And what is this foolishness? It’s the foolishness of sending God’s Son to earth to live and die as a human being for the sins of fallen creatures. The wise thing for God to do would be to let us die! The wise thing for God to do would be to let us all die in our sins and be condemned to hell. But God, in his love and in his mercy, chose instead to take on human flesh. God chose to empty himself “by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men…” (Phil 2:7).

2) And the second foolishness is what Paul calls the “foolishness of the cross.” Paul said, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor 1:18). 

So back to my original question, “Is there a good kind of foolishness?” You bet there is! The foolishness of the cross! It is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.   

Some of you may have heard of the evangelist Brother Andrew, the man who smuggled Bibles into the former Soviet Union for decades. He wrote about it in his book God’s Smuggler, which from a worldly perspective is one of the craziest books ever written and told by one of the craziest people you’ll ever meet. 

Even I, when reading that book started to think, man this guy is nuts, constantly putting himself in harm’s way, constantly dodging authorities in order to smuggle Bibles into Communist countries. Some of his actions in that book were a little — dare I say — foolish. And speaking to that, here’s what Brother Andrew said. He said, “I am a fool for Christ...whose fool are you?” I don’t know about you, but I’m with Brother Andrew. “I am a fool for Christ...whose fool are you?” Whose fool are you?

Taught by Tony Caffey

Senior Pastor of Verse By Verse Fellowship

Proverbs