The Futility of Arguing with a Blender Text: Proverbs 29:9
Introduction: The Rules of Engagement
We live in an age that has forgotten the rules of engagement. I do not mean the rules of warfare, though we have largely forgotten those as well. I mean the rules of basic conversation, of argument, of debate. We have become a culture of fools, which is to say, we have become a culture that despises wisdom and instruction. We have traded logic for emotivism, reason for rage, and laughter for scorn. Consequently, our public discourse, from the halls of Congress down to the comment sections on the internet, has all the intellectual rigor of a food fight in a middle school cafeteria.
The book of Proverbs is intensely practical. It is not a collection of abstract platitudes for pious needlepoint. It is a divine instruction manual for navigating the world as it actually is, a world populated by both the wise and the foolish. And a central part of that wisdom is knowing who you are talking to. Not all communication is profitable. Not all arguments are winnable. Not all debates are worth having. Jesus Himself told us not to cast our pearls before swine, lest they turn and tear us to pieces. There are some people with whom engagement is not only fruitless but also destructive.
This is a hard lesson for earnest Christians. We are commanded to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and so we should. We are to be ready in season and out of season. But readiness does not mean naivete. Wisdom is not simply about knowing what to say; it is about knowing to whom you are saying it and when it is time to stop. The Bible makes a fundamental distinction between two kinds of people: the wise, who fear the Lord, and the fool, who says in his heart, "There is no God." These are not categories of intelligence. A fool can have a Ph.D. and a wise man can be a simple carpenter. The difference is moral and spiritual. The wise man bows to God's reality. The fool tries to create his own.
Proverbs 29:9 gives us a crisp, diagnostic snapshot of what happens when these two worlds collide. It is a warning, a piece of practical wisdom that will save the godly much grief and wasted effort. It teaches us that you cannot reason a man out of a position he did not reason himself into. When a man's position is rooted in rebellion against God, no amount of clever argumentation will dislodge him. To argue with such a man is like trying to debate a blender. You will make a lot of noise, a big mess, and you will not get anywhere.
The Text
When a wise man is brought into judgment with a man who is an ignorant fool, The ignorant fool both rages and laughs, and there is no rest.
(Proverbs 29:9 LSB)
The Unwinnable Contest (v. 9a)
The proverb sets up a specific scenario:
"When a wise man is brought into judgment with a man who is an ignorant fool..." (Proverbs 29:9a)
The setting here is one of contention, a dispute. The word for "judgment" can refer to a formal lawsuit in court, but its meaning is broader. It applies to any situation where there is a controversy, a debate, an argument that needs settling. The wise man enters this arena with certain presuppositions. He believes in truth. He believes in justice. He believes that facts matter, that logic is a valid tool, and that there is a right and a wrong to the issue at hand. He operates within a framework of objective reality established by God. He comes to the table assuming the rules of evidence and reason apply to both parties.
But notice his opponent. He is not just a fool, but an "ignorant fool." This is not a man who simply lacks information. In the Bible, folly is not an intellectual deficiency; it is a moral rebellion. The fool is not someone who cannot find the truth; he is someone who hates the truth. Psalm 14:1 is the foundational definition: "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.'" This is the bedrock of his entire worldview. Because he has rejected the ultimate standard for truth, logic, and morality, he has no foundation for anything. He is a man adrift on a sea of his own subjective whims.
So, the wise man comes to the debate with a set of rules given by God. The fool comes with no rules at all, or rather, with one rule: he must win. He is not constrained by truth, because he does not believe in it. He is not constrained by logic, because his worldview is fundamentally irrational. He is not constrained by courtesy, because he scorns the moral order that produces it. The contest is rigged from the start, because one player is playing chess while the other is knocking over the pieces and setting the board on fire.
The Fool's Arsenal: Rage and Laughter (v. 9b)
Because the fool has rejected the tools of wisdom, he must rely on other weapons. The proverb identifies his two primary tactics.
"The ignorant fool both rages and laughs..." (Proverbs 29:9b LSB)
When his position is challenged by facts, when his arguments are dismantled by logic, the fool does not reconsider. He does not concede a point. He does not engage with the substance of the wise man's case. Instead, he resorts to his two go-to responses: rage and laughter. These are not tools of persuasion; they are tools of intimidation and dismissal.
First, he rages. He gets angry. He shouts. He insults. He engages in ad hominem attacks. This is the response of a man whose worldview has been exposed as bankrupt. When you cannot attack the argument, you attack the man. Rage is a smokescreen. It is an attempt to bully the wise man into silence, to make the emotional cost of continuing the discussion too high. We see this everywhere in our culture. Present a biological argument for the distinction between male and female, and you will not be met with a counter-argument. You will be met with rage. You will be called a bigot, a hater, a phobe. This is the fool's rage.
Second, he laughs. This is the laughter of scorn, of mockery, of ridicule. If rage is the club, laughter is the poison dart. It is an attempt to delegitimize the wise man and his position without ever having to engage with it. By laughing, the fool communicates that the wise man's argument is not even worthy of a serious response. It is so absurd, so antiquated, so contemptible, that all one can do is mock it. This is the default posture of the modern secularist toward biblical faith. He does not refute it; he scoffs at it. He treats the Christian worldview as a silly superstition to be ridiculed, not a truth claim to be debated.
Rage and laughter are two sides of the same coin. Both are tactics for avoiding the argument. Both are ways of shutting down debate. The fool uses them because they are all he has. He cannot fight on the battlefield of reason, so he tries to burn the whole field down.
The Inevitable Outcome: No Rest (v. 9c)
The proverb concludes with the predictable result of this encounter.
"...and there is no rest." (Proverbs 29:9c LSB)
The Hebrew word for "rest" here means resolution, quiet, or satisfaction. When a wise man contends with a fool, there can be no resolution. There is no meeting of the minds. There is no peaceful conclusion. The issue is not settled. Nothing is accomplished. The wise man walks away frustrated, and the fool walks away confirmed in his folly, convinced he has "won" by shouting the loudest or mocking the most effectively.
This is crucial for us to understand. The goal of engaging with a fool is not to win the argument in his eyes. You will not. The goal is not to bring him to a quiet, reasoned conclusion. You cannot. The proverb is telling us that such an outcome is impossible because the fool's entire operating system is designed to prevent it. He is not open to being persuaded. His will is set against the truth. To continue arguing past a certain point is to become complicit in his game. It is to legitimize his tactics of rage and scorn.
This is why Proverbs gives us what appears to be a contradictory piece of advice in Proverbs 26:4-5: "Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes." This is not a contradiction; it is a two-step strategy. First, do not adopt his foolish premises or his foolish tactics (rage and laughter). Do not get down in the mud with him. But second, you must answer him. You must expose the internal contradictions of his own foolish worldview. You show him how, on his own terms, his position leads to absurdity. This is the essence of presuppositional apologetics. You are not trying to build a bridge from his worldview to yours. You are demonstrating that his worldview is a bridge to nowhere, and then you are pointing him to the only foundation that can hold any weight at all: the triune God of Scripture.
Conclusion: Speaking to the Audience
So what is the practical takeaway? Does this mean we never share the gospel with unbelievers? Does it mean we retreat into a silent monastery and never engage the culture? Not at all. We are commanded to be salt and light. But we must be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
First, we must learn to identify the fool. Is the person you are talking to asking honest questions, or are they just setting traps? Are they open to reason, or do they respond to every point with rage or mockery? Once you have identified a fool, you must adjust your strategy. You are no longer trying to persuade him. He has demonstrated that he is not persuadable.
Second, your focus must shift from the fool himself to the audience. In any debate, there are more than just two people involved. There are the silent onlookers, the people who are listening in. Paul did not debate the Stoics and Epicureans on Mars Hill to convert them all on the spot. He was preaching the gospel in the public square, and some mocked, while others said, "We will hear you again on this matter," and a few believed. Your goal in contending with a fool is to make the truth plain for the sake of those who are watching. You expose the fool's folly not for his sake, but for theirs.
Finally, we must entrust the results to God. Our job is faithfulness, not successful outcomes as the world measures them. We plant seeds, we water, but God gives the increase. We cannot, by our clever arguments, raise the spiritually dead. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. Our task is to speak the truth in love, without compromise, and without being drawn into the fool's game. We present the truth of God's Word, which is the only true wisdom, and we let that Word do its work. It is a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces and a light that shines in the darkness. And when we have done that, we can walk away with "rest," not because the fool has been satisfied, but because our God has been honored.