Proverbs 26:9-12 (ESV)

[9] Like a thorn that goes up into the hand of a drunkard

is a proverb in the mouth of fools.

[10] Like an archer who wounds everyone

is one who hires a passing fool or drunkard.

[11] Like a dog that returns to his vomit

is a fool who repeats his folly.

[12] Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes?

There is more hope for a fool than for him.

Proverbs 26 is filled with warnings and instructions. There are warnings about fools, drunkards, the lazy, gossips, etc. Sermons could be written on almost every verse. The verse I find most interesting today is verse 12. After eleven verses of warnings about fools the author suddenly switches gears and drops these words on us, “Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him” (Pro 26:12). For all the warnings about fools, this person is worse. Wow!

What is worse than a fool? Those who are wise in their own eyes. That pretty much sums us everyone. Youth, in particular, seem to think that they know everything. When I was a young college student I thought I knew everything. I knew more than my parents. I knew more than some of my teachers. I certainly knew more than the rest of the people sitting in the pews. Such arrogance leads only to failure. It fails to love others. It thinks more highly of self than is appropriate. It distances people from us, leaves wounded people in our wake, undermines effective ministry, and sets us up for failures of all kinds. “Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him” (Pro 26:12).

Thankfully, God is gracious. The Apostle Paul warned, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned” (Rom 12:3). My guess is that he wrote those words our of his own experience. From all external appearances, Paul was a righteous man. Then he met Jesus and became a broken man. But it was in his brokenness, not out of his self-righteousness that God used him powerfully for the Kingdom. Thank God for the grace he has to faithfully break us in order to make us into a vessel for his use, glory, and good.

When I was a young preacher I wondered at those elderly preachers who were still learning. I thought, “Haven’t they learned everything there is to know by now? What’s wrong with them?” But it is the wise individual who knows what he/she does not yet know. Humility is the key to holiness. Not false humility that seeks for affirmation through self-deprecation, but true humility. The humility that knows that one has much yet to learn. The humility that recognizes that all I am is by the grace of God. The humility that understands Jesus words, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5).

As dangerous as it is to be a fool, it is even more dangerous to be arrogant. Thinking too highly of ourselves makes us useless and destructive. Humility is the means to greatness in God’s eyes. The only cure for arrogance is brokenness. It is s painful journey, but it is well worth the pain. “But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (Jas 4:6). That is a lesson worth learning, whatever it takes.