Day 226 – Wisdom

Proverbs 26:1 As snow in summer and rain in harvest, so honor is not fitting for a fool. 2 Like a flitting sparrow, like a flying swallow, so a curse without cause will not alight. 3 A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the fool’s back. 4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him. 5 Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. 6 He who sends a message by the hand of a fool cuts off his own feet and drinks violence. 7 Like the legs of the lame that hang limp is a proverb in the mouth of fools. 8 Like one who binds a stone in a sling is he who gives honor to a fool. 9 Like a thorn that goes into the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of fools. 10 The great Elohiym who formed everything gives the fool his hire and the transgressor his wages. 11 As a dog returns to his own vomit, so a fool repeats his folly. 12 Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

• God’s names:
• Elohiym – Supreme God
• Yeshuwa/Iesous – Jesus
• YAHWEH/JEHOVAH – Self-existent, Eternal
• Soter – Savior
• Kurios/KURIOS – Supreme Authority, LORD

• God’s character:
• Wise

Fools live everywhere. They leave their calling card wherever they go by their actions.

Strong’s Hebrew definition for fool is stupid and silly. That could describe all of us at some point in our lives. The difference between a known fool and a wise person is that a wise person isn’t inherently foolish. Those things a person does or says that they are immediately sorry about don’t make him foolish. It’s when the person isn’t sorry about their actions that makes him a fool and someone who cannot be trusted.

Solomon said you could try to correct a fool, but nothing you do would bring about a change in their heart or their behavior. He recognized that Elohiym gave the fool and transgressor their wages.

What are the wages of a fool? They keep doing the same thing over and over. They never learn from their actions.

Were you wise or foolish before you accepted Yeshuwa as Soter and Kurios? Have you changed your foolish behavior and become wise? Foolish people believe they are wise, which makes them dangerous.

Matthew 16:1 Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; 3 and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. 4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed. (NKJV)

Yeshuwa showed the scribes and Pharisees what kind of people they were. They did not recognize the signs they wanted Him to show them. He called them hypocrites because they taught the people but didn’t live their lives according to their teachings but burdened the people with more laws than YAHWEH gave to Moses in the Law.

Matthew 23:13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. 14 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore, you will receive greater condemnation. 15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. 16 Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’ 17 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? 18 And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’ 19 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? 20 Therefore, he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it. 21 He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it. 22 And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of Theos and by Him who sits on it. 23 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. 24 Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! 25 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, so that the outside of them may be clean also. 27 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. 29 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30 and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ 31 Therefore, you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. 33 Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? 34 Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, 35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. 37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 38 See! Your house is left to you desolate; 39 for I say to you, you will see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of KURIOS!’”

Do you see yourself in any of those accusations Yeshuwa made to the scribes and Pharisees? If you do, it isn’t too late to change and become wise instead of foolish. Then people will no longer see you as foolish, but wise.

Let’s pray: Father, forgive me for my foolish actions that speak louder than my actions that show I belong to You. Show me my foolish ways and help me change into a person of faith, mercy, and love. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

Copyright © 2 September 2026 by Valerie Routhieaux

May God bless you today as you display mercy, faith, and forgiveness to everyone you meet.