Proverbs 24:7-8

Wisdom is unattainable for a fool;
in court he does not open his mouth.
The one who plans to do evil
will be called a scheming person.

I’m just a little over 6 feet tall. Almost 6′ 1″, but just a little shy of  the 1″. When I had reached that height in high school, I also enjoyed playing basketball. Of course, when you play basketball in high school, the number 1 thing you want to be able to do is dunk. Sure, you want to be able to hit the three point shot, be good a free throws and be able to drive to the basket. But, the biggest thing you want to be able to do is dunk the ball.

For our small town, this was the holy grail of basketball. We didn’t have very many guys that were tall enough to dunk. So we were all trying to do whatever we could to be able to do that. We’d jump to see how close we could get. We’d do squats in the weight room. We’d measure our vertical jump.

And I got fairly close. I could jump high enough to get my second knuckle above the rim. But, no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t jump high enough to dunk. Along with that, my hands just weren’t quite big enough to completely palm the ball like you need to be able to. The truth was, dunking the ball was just unattainable. It wasn’t going to happen.

Now I can tell you something else too. I wasn’t about to go stand in a group of guys who could dunk the ball, and brag about my ability to dunk the ball. Because, in short order, I’d have to prove my skills, and then they’d all know I was lying.

This is what this proverb is talking about. A fool is never going to be able to stand among the wise. This proverb is talking about the wise men who stand at the gate of a city and make decisions when people come to them. It’s not court like we think of court. The wise men of the city would stand at the gate, and then people would come to them with their problems and seek their advice. A fool would never go stand at the gate and solve problems for people.

Wisdom is just unattainable for the fool. He will never stand among the wise.

And some people just can’t dunk.