Proverbs 26:18 Commentary and Bible Study

The subject is still strife and the kind of behaviour that creates conflict between people. The illustration is extreme, and the behaviour being illustrated is extremely bizarre, and yet the kind of cruel manipulation involved is not so uncommon. All right relationships between human beings must be based on trust and on truth spoken to each other. We dare not treat each other as objects of amusement or personal entertainment which takes no thought for the effect we have on each other. Those who use and abuse other people for their pleasure are acting as if no one else in the world matters apart from themselves. There are of course lesser and greater forms of deception, but what is in view here is the more serious kind – what which causes considerable pain, shame, fear, embarrassment, or harm to others. We are thinking perhaps of a false threat, a false promise, or a false alarm. The deceiver may pick on the inexperienced or the gullible and makes sport out of exposing their response to this mistreatment. The unusual feature of this deception is the attempted justification at the end ‘I was only joking.’ It is this peculiarity that prompts the illustration of the madman. To the one who is being deceived, what is being done to them is anything but a joke, a matter of lightness. The deception has caused them to be greatly troubled. Are they suddenly to be required to look upon all they have suffered as a joke, and laugh at themselves with the other as if they should have seen the funny side all along? The explanation is a lie just as the initial treatment was a lie, for the deceiver would not have enjoyed his cruel behaviour if the other had not been taken in by it. Perhaps he never intended to follow through with his deceitful threat, but he certainly wanted his victim to believe he would, at least for a time. Is he then excused because he stopped short of carrying out his word? There are more forms of suffering than the actual carrying out of a threat. The internal turmoil that the threat has caused is suffering in itself which no true friend would ever inflict.The illustration puts the act in it true light. It is like a madman whose behaviour is unpredictable, dangerous, and extreme. Here he comes, out of touch with reality and about to spread mayhem to all those around him. He has no thought for others or how they will cope with his madness, but hurls out destruction in all directions as if he was simply handing out presents. What it is like to be on the receiving end of his outrages is not something he thinks much about. Others exist for his amusement and he cares little about whether they are hurt. The right way to handle such a man would be to arrest him, to stop him doing any further damage. In the case of the illustration it is obvious that this is how he should be treated, but the deceiver gets away with his behaviour for much longer than he should.