Who a Person Truly Is (Proverbs 17:7)

There are certain character traits that you will not see in certain people. For instance, you will never see a bum drinking his tea with his pinky out. And sometimes you will see certain character traits in people that disgust because you know they do not belong. Like the televangelist who his caught with his mistress.

"Fine or arrogant speech does not become [an empty-headed] fool; much less do lying lips become a prince." Proverbs 17:7, Amplified

An educated person. a person from wealth or an aristocrat has a certain air about them. Posh speech is a dialect of the upper class. However, when a fool tries to disguise himself and talk as they do, he just may be found out quicker than he expected. It reminds me of this old show I used to watch, in it was a clip of four children doing something but one of the four was doing something different. It begged the question, "One of these kids is doing his own thing, which one is it?" What the first half of the verse is trying to depict is that there are some who cannot lift themselves up to a higher place because of the definition of who he is. The man in the first half of the verse is a fool. Nowhere are we given the information that he is trying to change his situation only that he wants others to believe he is otherwise. Think of it like a hippo who desired to be a zebra. The hippo painted black and white stripes all over his body and began acting like a zebra. How many do you expect would be fooled by his outward transformation?

And then there are others who are in that higher place who debase themselves. In the second part of the verse we hear about lying lips on a prince. We never expected our President to lie about weapons of mass destruction just to encourage a war. It was not becoming of our President because he is supposed to be a man of integrity. The higher in society we are, the clearer people can scrutinize us. Think of it like trying to find one person in a crowded room. You may have a description of the particular person that you want, but the search will take a while. Now take that same crowded room and that same person, but have him stand on a chair. How much easier is it to find him? Integrity cannot afford lying lips or any other debasing characteristic.