The Foolish Messenger

For Thursday, October 4, 2007
Proverbs 26:6

Whoever sends a message by the hand of a fool
cuts off his own feet and drinks violence.

This is graphic imagery, to say the least. It gives a clue about the message. This is not a message about remembering to take the shirts by the cleaners. It is of great import. Perhaps it is a message to an enemy about reconciliation. Perhaps two friends are at odds, and one friend is sending a message confessing his sin. Perhaps the message is from a military officer to another giving vital news about the enemy's position, or of one general trying to set terms for surrender to another general.

The list, of course, can go on. The point is that the import of a message is not to be entrusted to someone known to be foolish. He may lose the message. He may distort the message. He may arrive too late. He has earned a reputation for not being trustworthy. The fool never understands this. It does not occur to him that he has established such a pattern. He is eager to volunteer for the job without thinking of how to carry out the job or what the consequences may be. And as such, he is most dangerous.

It was through trustworthy men that God sent his own messages. It was through the most trustworthy of all that he sent his greatest message. Indeed, the Messenger was the Message. Ironically, he was regarded the fool. Just as ironically, this Messenger would send out his own messengers with the same valuable Message, and they also would be regarded as fools, even as we today are so regarded.