Proverbs 17:21 He that begetteth a FOOL (kᵊsîl [pro. kes-eel’]) doeth it to his sorrow: and the father of a FOOL (nāḇāl [pro. naw-bawl’]) hath no joy.
If Possible, Lead Your Children From Foolishness
Word Study: The Hebrew has two different words for “fool”, both of which are found here. The first word translated “fool” is the Hebrew kᵊsîl [pro. kes-eel’], which means “someone who is a dullard, mentally challenged, simple of mind, born stupid or silly”. My mama used to call such people as those who “didn’t have the sense that God gave a billy goat”. These are children born without common sense, who will not receive instruction, nor will they learn from their mistakes. This type of fool is likely to die at a younger age from bad decisions made in their lives.
Psalm 49:10 (KJV) … the FOOL {kᵊsîl} and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.
Children are naturally born with little knowledge of the world around them. Good parents strive to teach their children right and wrong, good and evil, smart and stupid. Good parents will punish their children, if necessary, to take away kᵊsîl and instill good sense in the child. We are told in:
Proverbs 22:15 Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.
Proverbs 13:24 (ESV) Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.
Children are born without wisdom – and some children are born resistant to wisdom. They are kᵊsîl, liable to do foolish things. Foolish children got on the Internet back in 2018 and ate Tide pods. Those who did so suffered chemical burns on their throats, esophagus or lungs. There is intense abdominal cramping and diarrhea. The lungs can be damaged by breathing the powder, and they can have trouble breathing for the rest of their lives. Some suffered and died. All because someone they did not know challenged them to do so.
He that begetteth a FOOL (kᵊsîl [pro. kes-eel’]) doeth it to his sorrow
Parents must teach their children not to do dangerous, foolish things. Disobedient children who will not heed the Law of God, to do as …
Matthew 15:4 … God commanded, saying, Honor thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
Proverbs 17:21 He that begetteth a FOOL (kᵊsîl [pro. kes-eel’]) doeth it to his sorrow: and the father of a FOOL (nāḇāl [pro. naw-bawl’]) hath no joy.
Word Study: The second word translated “FOOL” is the Hebrew nāḇāl (pro. naw-bawl’). Whereas kᵊsîl refers to the mentally challenged, nāḇāl refers to the person who is spiritually ignorant. It is this type of person that the Psalmist spoke of in:
Psalm 14:1 The FOOL {nāḇāl} hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 53:1 The FOOL {nāḇāl} hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good.
The kᵊsîl lacks common sense,
the nāḇāl spiritual sense.
Parents are to do their best to prayerfully and Biblically raise their children in a Christ-like environment. My commentary notes:
“When a child is born, the parents rejoice. Later, if the child becomes a disobedient child, teenager, or adult, he not only disappoints his parents but also grieves them deeply. They will not—hopefully—stop loving that son or daughter. But a wayward child causes their parents tremendous pain. King David’s son Absalom’s name literally means ‘my father is peace,’ but Absalom brought David nothing but trouble. He rebelled against David, stole the hearts of the people from David, and tried to overthrow David and take his place as king (2 Samuel 15:10–14). David grieved over this betrayal and sobbed when his son was killed (2 Samuel 18:33). Many godly parents do their best to guide a son or daughter into being someone who loves and obeys the Lord, but they encounter grief when the child goes a different way.”
Love your children by intentionally discipling them, guiding them in their faith, and correcting their misconceptions. Teach them how to live carefully and successfully in this present world.
Our Heavenly Father disciplines us when we head toward foolishness and darkness. He does this from love.
Christians, children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, are “disciples”, which means “those under discipline or instruction, students”. Pastor John Piper said:
“A disciple in the New Testament is simply a Christian: “And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians” (Acts 11:26). Everybody that was converted to Jesus was a disciple. Everybody that was converted to Jesus was a Christian.”
Parents are to actively teach their children – training cannot be farmed out to godless public schools. We are under the command of God to train our children (Ephesians 6:4; Deuteronomy 6:6-7). Yet sometimes, though parents do all they can, the child pursues a way of life that is destructive, without common sense.
Proverbs 17:25 A FOOLISH {kᵊsîl} son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bare him.
We love the child anyway, and continue to model Christ so as to draw them from destruction and toward Christ.
Everyone Has Two Hearts, One Physical
And One Spiritual
Proverbs 17:22 A MERRY {śāmēaḥ, joyful} HEART doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
The PHYSICAL heart is that pump in your chest that circulates your blood, keeping the various organs and limbs of your body in good condition. A diseased physical heart will have an impact on your breathing, your strength, your whole body.
The SPIRITUAL heart is the control center of your soul, that part of you that is inside your body. In the Old Testament, God gave Israel the Mosaic Law to show them how broken they were spiritually. Israel promised to live by God’s Laws, but inevitably failed, just as God knew that they would. Our Lord Jesus said that we are all born with a broken spiritual heart. He said:
Mark 7:21-23 (ESV) For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.
Godless people make a god out of the law, believing that more laws will make better civilization. People do not need new laws, but new hearts, God focused hearts.
Where does the evil among us come from? The unrestrained and unspiritual heart in the soul of humanity. Humanity has a heart problem, and needs a heart transplant. This is what God promises us in His New Covenant:
Ezekiel 36:26-27 (ESV) And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Under the Old Covenant God gave His Law, but not the indwelling Holy Spirit. People had spiritually atrophied hearts. Though they meant well initially, in time they drifted back into stony living. Under the New Covenant, purchased by the Blood of Christ on the Cross:
Hebrews 12:24 (KJV) to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling …
Matthew 26:28 (ESV) … for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Luke 22:20 (ESV) … This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
When Jesus died on the Cross, this brought in the New Covenant. Those who receive Jesus as Lord and Savior are BORN AGAIN, indwelt by the Spirit of God. God gives them a NEW HEART, and writes desire to follow His Laws in our new hearts, to the glory of God.
Those who are saved by Grace in Christ should have a heart responsive to God. Pastor John Gill noted that the Christian should have …
“a heart full of spiritual joy, peace of conscience, flowing from the blood of Christ, joy in the Holy Ghost, a rejoicing in Christ Jesus and his righteousness, and in hope of the glory of God, much affect even the outward man.”
Watch your heart. Don’t let anyone
or anything infect it.
The Bible warns us to “guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23). What your heart believes, your body will do. I have heard it said:
Sow a thought, reap a deed.
Sow a deed, reap a habit.
Sow a habit, reap a character.
Sow a character, reap a destiny.
When the heart is unrestrained and unspiritual, it can lead to the destruction of a nation, or even to the destruction of the world itself. When “God saw that the wickedness of man was great, that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was evil” (Genesis 6:5), at that point God destroyed all but eight by great flood.
Proverbs 17:22 A merry HEART doeth good like a medicine
Illustrate: Have you ever driven your car in a FOG? If you turn up your lights it does not help. What is the safe thing to do? Slow down. Keep your lights focused on the ground in front of you. FOCUS. When bad stuff comes, remember:
F – FOCUS
O – ON
G – GOD
The Christian protects his heart by directing the heart toward the Biblically positive. We focus on the promises of God, on the light and not the darkness. Slow down. Look to the Savior. Believe that “God is able to make you stand” (Romans 14:4). He will take you through the trial. Believe that “God is able to make all grace abound toward you” (2 Corinthians 9:8). Be like the Hebrew children confronted by an angry king. Do not worry about the threats of the darkness, but look to Jesus.
Or you can rob yourself of victory and peace by focusing on what you don’t have.
Proverbs 17:22 … a broken spirit drieth the bones.
If your focus is on the darkness, it will suck the life out of your time on this earth. This is a common theme throughout Proverbs:
Proverbs 15:13 (ESV) A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed.
Proverbs 12:25 (ESV) Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.
Proverbs 18:14 (ESV) A man’s spirit will endure sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?
You control the direction of your heart. Not your situation, but YOU. Look unto Jesus. Look unto the Word of God. Focus on the Promises of God. The Apostle said:
Romans 12:2 Be not conformed to this world; but be transformed by the renewing of your mind
Don’t follow the paths of this world, but the Promises that the God Who made the world has given you. Read the Book! Study the Book!
Psalm 119:11 (ESV) I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
Psalm 119:9 (NKJV) How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.
Direct your thoughts not toward the negative, but to what God has said and promised you.
Philippians 4:4-8 (ESV) Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
If you think negative, and let your heart be filled with darkness, your life on earth will be miserable. But if you control your thoughts, and focus on the Word of God, rejoicing that “all things work together for good to those who love the Lord, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). The Bridges Commentary notes:
“A broken spirit in an evangelical sense is God’s precious gift. It is stamped with his special honor. But here a crushed spirit describes a brooding spirit of despondency that always looks on the dark side of things. If this is linked to religion, it flows from a narrow and perverted view and a spurious humility centered on the self. It has the effect of drying up the bones”.
Those Who Foolishly Twist Justice Will Suffer
Proverbs 17:23 A wicked man taketh a GIFT {šōḥaḏ, bribe} out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment.
Pastor Bruce Waltke notes:
“The corrupt official defies God who has placed him over the community to protect the poor. He shows he is conscious of his guilt by accepting the sly bribe, which is concealed from public scrutiny and opprobrium, but it is not concealed from God.”
Sometimes bribery is not in the form of money, but of favor. The Prophet Samuel was raised up in the Tabernacle by Eli the Priest. When Eli became older, he appointed his two sons Hophni and Phinehas as priests. The sons of Eli were unqualified and uncalled. They did evil to the people of Israel, and God told Samuel:
1 Samuel 3:13 (ESV) … declare to {Eli} that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them
This eventually happened when Israel went to battle with the Philistines. The Ark of God was captured, and Eli’s sons Hophni and Phinehas died (1 Samuel 4:17). When Eli heard this, he fell backward, broke his neck, and died (1 Samuel 4:18).
What Eli did when Samuel was a child growing up in his household, Samuel later duplicates. He appoints his sons – though unqualified – to be judges in Israel.
1 Samuel 8:1-6 (ESV) When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. 2 The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. 3 Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice. 4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah 5 and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord.
Samuel was a mighty Prophet of God, dedicated to serve the Lord from his mother’s womb. But when Samuel became too old to be effective at serving God and overseeing Israel, “he made his sons judges over Israel”. In the days before there were Kings in Israel (for only God was the King of Israel), “Judges” were men of God who oversaw the people and maintained stability in the land. The only problem was that Samuel did not choose his sons as Judges because they were qualified or called by God, but because they were HIS SONS.
Nepotism is a form of bribery. It is the appointment of the unqualified and uncalled because it suits YOUR will, not God’s.
We are told that “his sons did not walk in Samuel’s (or God’s) ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice”. When justice is perverted and God’s laws are not followed, civilization becomes unstable. Up to this time Israel followed God as King. But now Godly leadership is gone. The Elders of Israel came to Samuel and said, “you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations”.
This displeased Samuel. But part of the problem was what Samuel did. He should have NEVER made his sons to be Judges. Samuel’s bad appointments led to the people demanding:
1 Samuel 8:19-20 … there shall be a king over us, 20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.
Israel became like the rest of the world! The THEOCRACY became a MONARCHY.
The Fool Looks Everywhere For Wisdom
Which Is Nearby, In God’s Word
Proverbs 17:24 Wisdom is before him that hath understanding; but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.
Fools are constantly casting about, looking all over the earth for wisdom. Yet “Wisdom is before him that hath understanding”. Those who are born again of the Spirit know that wisdom comes from God and His Word.
Proverbs 2:6 the Lord gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding
James 1:5 if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
God is everywhere. You need only seek Him through Jesus Christ. God’s Holy Bible gives us wisdom for life. Seek Him. Don’t be a nāḇāl, a godless fool. May Jesus speak to your hearts through the mighty Spirit of God! Amen.
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