This past week we discussed Proverbs 26:17

Whoever meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears.
Proverbs 26:17

Often when using Proverbs I find I don’t need to dig all that deeply in order to understand. This Proverb is pretty clear. What a word picture!

When you butt into an issue, [argument, quarrel, fight, etc] that is none of your business it is like grabbing a mad dog by the ears as you walk by.

Grabbing my Archeological Bible I noticed that it had a section on Dogs in the Ancient World. In ancient Israel dogs were generally not domesticated and ran in wild scavenging packs. They are depicted as roaming carnivores that hunted in packs, even inside cities. To have one’s corpse devoured by dogs was a dreadful fate, the epithet “dog” was extremely insulting and humiliating… implying that a human being was either worthless or evil. Some other cultures viewed dogs more favourably but we do not know how the ancient Israelites viewed dogs (or cats for that matter). What we can say however, is that the dogs this Proverb is referring to are not the cute puppies or Labradors that we have as common house pets. Grabbing one by the ears would be inviting serious harm.

I then asked the children to imagine an ancient Israelite scene. Could they imagine wild, carnivorous dogs roaming the city? Would they reach out and grab such an animal by the ears? Could they see the folly/stupidity in such an action? That’s exactly what we do when we add our 2c worth to an argument or quarrel in which we have no business.

  • Do we have any responsibility in the matter?
  • Do we have any authority in the area?
  • Will my words be ones of encouragement, bringing comfort, peace, grace or will they be ones that cause unnecessary grief and concern and cause hurt?

I reminded the children of the THINK principle. How do we know what is our business or affair?

  • Do we have any responsibility in the matter?
  • Do we have any authority in the area?
  • Will my words be ones of encouragement, bringing comfort, peace, grace or will they be ones that cause unnecessary grief and concern and cause hurt?

The proverbs are fantastic for instilling life principles in our little ones. They are literary and filled with vivid word pictures which also help keep them open to hearing to God’s word. Even resistant teens respond to this type of lesson! In fact, I’ve learned that I can teach my proverb principles to [biblically] resistant people by learning to speak in a proverbs way, quoting straight from the Scriptures without pointing out the references. After learning about this proverb that contains such word pictures it is then easy to reinforce this lesson as we live our days side by side: walking down the street, sitting down and and working and resting.