The Incorrigible Fool: Folly's Bedrock Text: Proverbs 27:22
Introduction: The Limits of a Therapeutic Gospel
We live in an age that has traded the robust, sinewy doctrines of Scripture for a soft, therapeutic deism. Our generation believes that every man is basically good, that every problem can be solved with enough education, enough therapy, or enough government programs. We have convinced ourselves that the human heart is a fundamentally decent place that just needs a bit of encouragement and a few life hacks to get it straightened out. We believe that with the right techniques, the right five-step plan, we can fix what is wrong with the world. This is the central lie of secular humanism, and it is a lie that has crept into the church, producing a gospel that is a mile wide and an inch deep.
This sentimental view of man runs headlong into the granite wall of Proverbs. The book of Proverbs is not sentimental. It is not a collection of inspirational quotes for your coffee mug. It is a book of gritty, earthy, covenantal wisdom, grounded in the fear of the Lord. And it has a very sober and realistic doctrine of sin. Proverbs divides humanity into two basic categories: the wise and the fool. And it tells us that the difference between them is not a matter of IQ or education, but a matter of the heart's posture toward God.
The fool is not simply someone who makes a mistake. The fool, in biblical terms, is a moral category. He is the man who has said in his heart, "There is no God," or, which amounts to the same thing, "There is no God who has any claim on me." He is the man whose life is oriented around himself, his appetites, his pride. And because his problem is at the very center of his being, it is not a problem that can be fixed with superficial remedies. Our text today is a stark, almost brutal, statement about the sheer stubbornness of this folly. It is a necessary dose of smelling salts for a church that has become drowsy from the sweet opiates of therapeutic moralism.
This verse teaches us about the nature of radical depravity. It shows us the limits of all human attempts at reformation that do not begin with a supernatural work of God. It forces us to confront the fact that some problems cannot be pounded out of a man, because the problem is the man. And in doing so, it forces us to look away from our own efforts and to cast ourselves entirely upon the grace of a God who does not pound the folly out of us, but who crucifies the old man and raises a new one in his place.
The Text
Though you pound an ignorant fool in a mortar with a pestle in the midst of crushed grain,
His folly will not turn aside from him.
(Proverbs 27:22 LSB)
The Anatomy of Folly
Before we can understand the action of the verse, we must understand the subject. The text speaks of an "ignorant fool." The Hebrew word for fool here is ewil, which describes a specific kind of fool. This is not the simpleton, but the arrogant, morally insolent fool. This is the person who despises wisdom and instruction (Proverbs 1:7). He is quarrelsome, quick-tempered, and his mouth spouts folly (Proverbs 12:16, 15:2). He is not foolish because he lacks information; he is a fool because he has rejected the foundational principle of all knowledge, which is the fear of the Lord.
His problem is not a software issue; it is a hardware issue. His operating system is corrupt. The Bible teaches that this is the natural state of every man born since the fall. We are born in Adam, and this means we are born fools. We are born with a heart that is "deceitful above all things, and desperately sick" (Jeremiah 17:9). We are, by nature, children of wrath, following the course of this world, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind (Ephesians 2:1-3). This is the doctrine of total depravity. It doesn't mean that every unbeliever is as wicked as he could possibly be. It means that sin has corrupted every part of him, his mind, his will, his affections, so that he is utterly unable, apart from divine grace, to please God or to turn to Him for salvation.
Folly, then, is not an external stain that can be washed off. It is not a bad habit that can be broken with enough willpower. It is woven into the very fabric of the unregenerate heart. It is, as the text says, his folly. It belongs to him. It is part of his identity. It is the very grain of his being. And this is why the proposed remedy, no matter how severe, is doomed to fail.
The Futility of Extreme Correction (v. 22a)
The proverb presents us with a vivid and violent image.
"Though you pound an ignorant fool in a mortar with a pestle in the midst of crushed grain..." (Proverbs 27:22a LSB)
A mortar and pestle were used to crush grain, to separate the husk from the kernel. It was a brutal, pulverizing process. The image here is of taking a fool, putting him in this large stone bowl along with the grain, and beating him with a heavy club. This is not a light spanking. This is the most extreme form of physical correction imaginable. It is an attempt to literally beat the folly out of him, to separate the man from his foolishness as one separates chaff from wheat.
This speaks to the limits of all earthly discipline when it is applied to a heart that is set in its rebellion. This includes parental discipline, civil discipline, and the natural consequences of a foolish life. A father can discipline his son, and the rod is indeed a means of grace to drive out foolishness (Proverbs 22:15). The magistrate can punish the evildoer, bearing the sword as God's minister of wrath (Romans 13:4). A man's foolish choices can lead him to bankruptcy, divorce, and prison. These are all forms of "pounding." And for the one whose heart is open to wisdom, whom God is drawing to Himself, such correction can be effective. It can be the very tool God uses to bring a person to their senses.
But for the hardened fool, the ewil, it is all for nothing. You can see this in our modern prison system. Our secular society believes that if you just punish a man, or "rehabilitate" him with job training and therapy, you can fix him. But what is the result? A revolving door of recidivism. Why? Because you can lock a man in a cage for twenty years, but you cannot change his heart. You can pound him with the consequences of his sin, but you cannot make him hate his sin. The problem is deeper than his behavior. The folly is baked in.
The Indomitable Nature of Folly (v. 22b)
The conclusion of the matter is stark and absolute.
"His folly will not turn aside from him." (Proverbs 27:22b LSB)
After all that pounding, after all that crushing, the folly remains. It clings to him. It is inseparable from him. You can crush his bones, but you cannot crush his pride. You can break his body, but you cannot break his rebellious will. Why? Because his folly is his god. He is worshiping at the altar of self, and a man will endure almost anything for the sake of his god.
This is a direct assault on every form of self-salvation. It tells us that man cannot fix himself. No amount of education, legislation, medication, or flagellation can solve the fundamental problem of the human heart. The folly is not a detachable part. It is the essence of the fallen man. To remove the folly would be to annihilate the man himself.
This is a hard word, but it is a necessary one. We must understand the depth of the disease before we can appreciate the power of the cure. If you think sin is just a minor skin condition, then a little bit of religious ointment will seem sufficient. But if you understand that sin is a terminal cancer that has metastasized into every cell of your being, then you will see your desperate need for a radical, supernatural cure. You need more than a beating; you need a resurrection.
The Gospel for Fools
So, is the fool a lost cause? If you cannot beat the folly out of him, what hope is there? The hope is found not in pounding the old man, but in God creating a new one. This proverb, in showing us the absolute bankruptcy of human effort, points us to the absolute necessity of divine grace.
The gospel is not a program for improving the old Adam. It is the announcement that the old Adam has been crucified with Christ, and a new man has been raised in his place. God does not take the fool and try to pound the folly out of him. He takes the fool, unites him to Christ by faith, and puts him to death on the cross. "We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin" (Romans 6:6).
God's method is far more violent and far more gracious than a mortar and pestle. He does not separate the folly from the fool; He separates the fool from his life. And then, by the power of the Holy Spirit, He raises him to newness of life. He gives him a new heart, a new nature, a new identity. The folly that was once integral to his being is now an alien presence, a remnant of the old life that is being progressively put to death through the process of sanctification.
This is why the cross is foolishness to the world (1 Corinthians 1:18). The world thinks it can pound itself into righteousness. It believes in the power of self-improvement. The gospel says, "You are beyond improvement. You must die." The world says, "Let me fix myself." The gospel says, "Let me kill you and make you anew."
This proverb, then, should drive us to our knees. For the unbeliever, it should be a terrifying diagnosis. Your condition is terminal. Your efforts are futile. You must abandon all hope in yourself and cast yourself upon the mercy of Jesus Christ, the only one who can give you a new heart. For the believer, this proverb should be a source of profound gratitude and humility. We must remember that we were all such fools. We were the ones in the mortar, and no amount of pounding could have saved us. It was only the sovereign, regenerating grace of God that called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. And for parents, pastors, and all who deal with the foolishness of others, this is a call to realism and dependence. We are to be faithful in our use of discipline and correction, but we must never place our ultimate hope in those tools. Our hope is in the God who raises the dead. We plant, we water, we pound if we must, but it is God, and God alone, who gives the growth.