A Fool and His Beatings
“When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the Lord” Proverbs 19: 3.
“Condemnation is ready for scoffers and beating for the backs of fools” Proverbs 19: 29.
According to verse 29, our foolishness punishes us with “beatings”. And those beatings are uncomfortable, unpleasant, or more likely, downright painful. We don’t like beatings. We chafe under them and try to get away from them.
A Fool, His Beatings and God’s Mercy
These beatings aren’t literal, of course, but painful, difficult trials that leave us feeling battered and bruised. To read the whole of Proverbs 19, click here.
Because they are a result of our foolishness, they are actually a great mercy. They are meant to be a blessing because they are sent to cause us to turn from our foolish ways. This is big, because according to vs. 3, a man’s folly (or foolishness) ruins his life.
Beatings are painful for the moment, and maybe for a while afterwards, but short-term pain is much better than a ruined life. And this is what we get if we don’t learn the lesson. If we continue to walk in foolishness, our lives will just be a series of beatings. And taken together, will ruin our lives.
Ruin His Life or Give Him Life
But if we learn from them, our foolishness will turn to wisdom. The beatings will end, and our lives will be pleasant and peaceful rather than painful and miserable (Proverbs 3: 17).
Beatings come to the fool as a result of his bad choices and foolish decisions. (Often there is a clear, discernable connection, but not always). But they are the best possible thing that could ever happen to a fool. Because that’s what needed to cause him to turn from his foolish ways.
They will either ruin his life, or give him life, depending on his response. If he doesn’t learn the lesson and see the connection between his foolishness and his pain, or worse, becomes even more rebellious, angry and/or uncontrolled, he’s in for more, and worse beatings.
The beatings are a curse to a fool because they make his life even worse. But if, in his pain, he learns the lesson and changes his ways, if he sees the relationship between his sin and suffering, and if he repents and charts a new course, the thrashings will come less frequently, be less intense, and eventually end.
His life will begin to be peaceful and pleasant. The pummeling will have changed his life for the better, and be a blessing, because he’s becoming wise.
God’s Love Revealed in the Beating of a Fool
Foolishness punishes us with beatings and wisdom rewards us with peace and pleasantness. God is love, and the fact that foolishness beats us is evidence of this. If it didn’t, we wouldn’t change and our lives wouldn’t improve. And at the end of it, we’d rage against the Lord for the ruined life our own folly caused.
We don’t have to concern ourselves with whether God is just or fair. Because He has so ordered the universe that it is really our own actions or behavior that reward or punish us. So as surely as you did the deed, you can expect a consequence, because the reward or punishment is in the act itself.
God forgives us, of course, but this has largely to do with our restored relationship with Him, when we repent.
There are still consequences on this earth, though diminished. King David didn’t die for his sin with Bathsheba, and he got to remain king. But there were still painful consequences (2 Samuel 12: 7-15). And Moses struck the rock when he should have spoken to it. And it cost him the promise land (Numbers 20: 10-13).
If We’re Going Through It, We Need It
Also, this is not to say the righteous don’t go through trials. The storm assailed both the house of the foolish and the house of the wise. David said “Many are the afflictions of the righteous. . . “ But, for the fool, those trials end badly, whereas for the wise, they end well.
And the old adage, “all is well that ends well is true”.
If we’re going through something, it’s because we need it. We need to open our eyes to our folly so we can turn from it and live.
To read another post related A Fool and His Beatings, to see A Call to Worship When it Feels Impossible.