10 Like an archer who shoots at random and injures everyone,
so is a person who hires a fool or someone off the street. Proverbs 26 VOICE
10 Hire a fool or a drunk
and you shoot yourself in the foot. Proverbs 26 MSG
10 [a]The great God who formed everything
Gives the fool his hire and the transgressor his wages. Proverbs 26 NKJV
Footnotes, [a]
- Proverbs 26:10 Heb. difficult in v. 10; ancient and modern translators differ greatly.
We had someone coming today to price some work at the house, before the arrival of some visitors, fortunately we prayed for wisdom before they came. In the past I have not always been wise in hiring people to do work, but as an old builder foreman once said, ‘We pay for our learning’! On one occasion the Lord gave me the verse above from Proverbs as a warning before engaging someone to do work.
The contractor referred to an architect whom he supposedly did work for, but when I checked the name he couldn’t be found. (The Greek word for Apostle, or master builder is ’architekton’, from which we get our word ‘architect’). It pays to CHECK REFERENCES! The second thing was that he didn’t have any name on the side of his work van and only a mobile number and first name on a business leaflet. The deciding factor was that his price was more than triple what we’d expected.
16 ‘I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Matthew 10
We live in a fallen world and Jesus told the disciples to be wise as He sent them out into it.
6 If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people? 2 Or do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!
7 The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? 8 Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters. 1 Corinthians 6
Surely things are different within the Church? Sadly not always. Derek Prince once spoke about being swindled out of some money by a Spirit filled lawyer. When he consulted another imminent Christian lawyer he was told he would likely win the case in a court of law. He knew the words of Paul in Corinthians and after praying about it he decided to bear the loss himself rather than take another believer to court.
We do learn through living as the older building foreman said but the Lord can keep us from painful losses IF WE ARE WILLING TO LISTEN TO HIM.
God bless and keep you today.