“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
Growing Dominion, Part 155
He that sendeth a message by the hand of a fool Cutteth off the feet, and drinketh damage (Pr 26:6).
Other proverbs have addressed the difficulty of getting good help. This addresses the same principle, but with a twist. In this place, we are not talking about competence employers afflicted by incompetent help. Rather, we are talking about a peculiar kind of employer incompetence. The fool who is entrusted with a message certainly has his own issues, and he ought not to be that way. But this proverb places the responsibility for the problems that follow with the one who entrusted the fool with the message in the first place. He is doing something that is counterproductive. He wants something done, and yet he asks a person to do it who, in fact, will not do it. The employer, not the messenger, is therefore in the position of one who cuts off his own feet, expecting that it will help him run faster, or who thinks that drinking poison as a pick-me-up will somehow work out for the best. The fool running with the message is therefore not the only one.