Proverbs 26:7 Commentary and Bible Study

A lame man has legs; they have not been cut off, but they might as well be, for they hang limply, and serve no purpose at all. If he tries to walk on them they will not bear his weight for a moment and he will collapse, so he never makes the experiment and instead leans permanently on a crutch. They have become an embarrassing appendage, for their presence hanging so unnaturally from his body draws attention to their uselessness.This, says Solomon, is similar to the situation when a fool tries to make use of a proverb. As the lame man’s legs hang useless, so the fool’s faculty of understanding hangs useless and cannot bear the weight of proverb which is applied to it. A man cannot handle wisdom without already having wisdom, so what will he do with the wise saying? The proverb takes its part in a chain of wise reasoning, but the proverb is out of place in the normal conversation of the fool. How can he understand it himself if he lacks wisdom, but without understanding it how can he let it come out of his mouth in harmony with the truth? He is like someone who picks up a carpenter’s tools never having used them before and expects to make a piece of furniture. These things can only be done with practice. The fool appears ridiculous when he attempts to make serious use of wisdom, when it matters to him to be able to handle it properly. When he attempts to speak wisely in the presence of the wise, all know immediately that he is out of his depth. Just as in the previous proverb he cannot receive wisdom, so he cannot speak it either, for to speak wisdom it must first have found a place in his heart. So is the man who attempts to teach anything from the Bible without knowing the Lord through an evangelical conversion experience. When the cults or when Roman Catholics presume to teach others from the Scripture they make such elementary mistakes and show that they have never grasped the ABC of God’s word. They are trying to build God’s wisdom on a foundation of their own making not on Christ Jesus and the two things do not fit together.