Hello ,

When I was a kid, there was a show that came on our television on Saturday evenings called “Hee Haw.”  

It was one of those country and western variety hours that had music, jokes, skits, and silliness; and my father LOVED watching it.  He’d make a roaster-pan full of popcorn, and we’d all sit around laughing as we watched that week’s episode. 

In one of the regularly scheduled situational skits on Hee Haw, Archie Campbell played a country doctor who was seeing this week’s “patient” (another participant of the show). 

No matter who the patient was, they almost always said the same line: “Doctor, it HURTS when I do THIS!” 

As they would speak those words, they would demonstrate some action that brought on the pain they were speaking of. 

Archie Campbell (the doctor) would always respond, “Well, don’t DO that!”

(Cue the laugh tracks)

I remember thinking to myself, “Why would anyone intentionally keep doing things that caused them pain, suffering, or discomfort?”

I don’t wonder that anymore. 

The Bible makes it abundantly clear that human beings have a penchant for returning to the same foolish stuff that brought pain into their lives in the first place.

Over and over. 

Again and again. 

The scriptures use such descriptive language, that it almost makes one feel queasy just reading it.  

Why?

Because we’ve all probably watched in gastronomical horror, at a pooch throwing up on the ground; walking a few steps away from it, and then turning back around and lapping at the puddle of what just came up.  

I got a “catch” in my throat just writing that. 

“Like a dog that returns to its vomit, a fool does the same foolish things again and again.” Proverbs 26:11

God chose THIS description to try to get it through our thick skulls; that doing the same foolish things over and over again, will get us the same foolish results…over and over again.  

Returning to the same foolish garbage that hurt us in the first place, is akin to a dog eating its own barf.  

I didn’t say it.

The Bible said it. 

Ever so often, we all need to ponder why a loving God would allow such a description to be placed in His word.  

Here’s my theory:

If “being gross” in a description can cause one of God’s children to stop and think about their destructive course of action (or, potential course of action), our Heavenly Father is willing to risk offending the reader. 

Us: “God, it hurts when I do this.”

God: “Well, don’t DO that!” 

Fools can learn, but only if they actually listen to what their Creator has to say in His Holy Word.

Have a great day and God bless!

Pastor Mike / The Open Word