Proverbs 17:10

A reproof enters more into a wise man than an hundred stripes into a fool.

This is another wonderful illustration of the foolish scoffer, the teenage rebel who is so characterized by scoffing that he cannot be corrected. Biblically, nobody should ever receive more than forty stripes. This means that if you have a scoffer on your hands, no amount of beating will ever change the heart of that man. He is a fool, and he simply cannot be taught wisdom. May God help all of us, that we may never be so foolish that we cannot receive wisdom!

Please note that these warnings concerning foolish scoffing are dispersed throughout the Book of Proverbs just in case our children might at any point be falling into this trap. If you have a persistent scoffer on your hands, whatever you are teaching during these times in the Word is just a waste of time.

Proverbs 17:11

An evil man seeks only rebellion: therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him.

Sadly, there are some who fit the category of a “total rebel,” and these men are described by the holy law of God in Deuteronomy 21:18–21 and Matthew 15:4 as the rebellious son who gets drunk, strikes his mother or father, and curses at them. At the point where a man casts off all honor of father and mother, he becomes unmanageable by family, church, and state. If he will not honor his own father, of course he will not honor the civil magistrate. Inevitably, these men will go on to plunder, rape, and kill others. Follow the careers of most criminals, and you will note that they almost always begin with an unrestrained rebellion against their mothers and fathers. It would have been better had the magistrate obeyed Deuteronomy 21. How many murders might have been prevented, and how much more stability would society enjoy if men would respect God’s laws?

Yet most of the time the civil magistrate is not interested in containing rebellious sons until the society degrades into substantial anarchy. So whether the young man is killed in a gunfight with a police officer or at the hands of some rival gang, his rebellion will surely destroy him. There is always sufficient cruelty to meet whatever cruelty he has mustered in his rebellion. Those who live by the sword die by the sword (Matt. 26:52).

Proverbs 17:12

Let a bear robbed of her whelps [cubs] meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly.

How would you like to wander into the path of a mother bear just a few seconds after someone had snatched her cubs and driven away with them? It would be hard to come up with a more dreadful, frightening circumstance! But here the wise sage presents an even worse possible scenario—you enter into a business relationship with a fool. Or you begin to spend time with a cadre of drunkards on the weekends. Or you get tangled up in an online relationship with a foolish young man or woman on the Internet. (By the way, with 12% of young men pathologically addicted to computer games, you will most certainly be likely to meet some fools in this medium.) You should really prefer a run-in with the mother bear than to be taken by a fool. The lesson here is clear: stay far away from fools! These folks may be winsome and persuasive. They may be very sure of themselves, their success at computer games, and their ability to ignore God in their philosophy classrooms. But do not be taken by them! Just as a mother bear can gnaw on your head and scrape your skin off, these people will take your soul apart and destroy your reputation and your life.

Family Discussion Questions:

1. Is discipline effective for a fool? Why or why not?

2. What happens to teenage rebels who harden themselves in their rebellion?

3. What kind of relationship might you want to maintain with a fool? Would you ever speak to him? Would you have him over for dinner? Would you enter into a business partnership with him?