Click or tap book name
Use <control> drag to
scroll
Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
About
Links
Home
"
Navigator
Proverbs 27:3
Comments
Two things are wrong with a fool’s wrath at the same time. As many point out, even a righteous man can overreact, and his anger can be a form of madness which is had to bear without losing respect for the man, but at least we can see some justification for his strong reaction, but a fool has no such mitigation. It is wrong that the fool has become angry for his anger is an overreaction, and he is angry about something he has no cause to be angry about, for that cause is an evil cause, and deserves rather to have others angry with him. The net result is confusion, and the correction of this confusion requires an earthquake to overturn the whole situation and put it back the right way up again. But what if the fool has authority and no one can remove him from his position of power. If a stone is heavy and we cannot struggle too far without having to put it down, and if sand though necessary for work is hard to move around, how much worse is it to have to live under the anger of a fool. Our response to other people’s anger is naturally to ask serious questions about whether we have caused that anger and it is difficult of the honest man to dismiss those questions altogether, but in this case there is no cure. The fool is angry; let the world tremble! And yet there is nothing any righteous person can do to alleviate that anger. The fool’s anger warps all around him, and creates a distorted world where true values are derided, and false values are exalted. The righteous man living in such a world finds that in pleasing God, he has angered the fool, and vice versa. The fool may be angered because his will is thwarted, his values are challenged, his wickedness is exposed. When he has made progress in his sin, he is particularly angry at having that progressed checked, and his conscience awakened against his own evil ways. This however is the situation of believers living in the kingdom of this world and this is one of the burdens that every follower of Christ faces in this life. How good will be the day when ‘the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever’ (Revelation 11:15).
Application
Let believers not be intimidated by unrighteous anger, as if it gave any evidence that the fool had a righteous cause. Though the fool uses anger as a way of justifying himself, his anger is a false construction, which God will tear down by a much great and more final righteous anger. Let the righteous man not be shifted from his righteous stance, or made to doubt the truth of his cause by the fool’s anger. It is a smokescreen designed to hide his sin. God’s true standards must prevail and every argument that lifts itself up against the knowledge of God will be cast down.
Questions
Outline
Purpose
Introduction