The Wrong Person as a Courier. Proverbs 26:6

He cuts off his own feet and drinks violence Who sends a message by the hand of a fool. Proverbs 26:6

There are certain things you do not ever give to a fool.  One of these things is any message that you want given to another.  The fool, who is ultimately concerned with himself, will do a bad job of doing anything given to him.  Here we have two amazing statements made about the man who gives the job of communicating a message through the means of a fool. 

The first is that sending a message through a fool is akin to cutting off your own feet.  One expects a fool to take a message and use his own two lets to get the message to another.  Seeing that a fool is lazy and undisciplined, this is a very unwise choice.  When we send a message through a messenger - we are supplementing the use of our own legs with the legs of the one who carries the message.  Here though, the fool is utterly unreliable in this task.  Therefore sending a message with him is like cutting off your own two feet.  Your chances are if the messages is communicated at all, it is communicated badly. 

The second picture is of a man who drinks violence.  The reason you send a message with another is so that you will be refreshed by their work on your behalf.  A message sent by a faithful envoy is like a cool drink - it refreshes you and it lessens your own work load in the time being.  Unfortunately, when you send a message by the hands of a fool, that is not going to happen.  When you do this it is like drinking violence.  You will have to deal with the damage and the scorn of those who have either not received the message at all - or they have not heard what you meant for them to hear.  When this happens, you are facing a situation where someone is offended and angry over the "messing-up of the message."  Rather than your work being lessened, it is increased - and that with a new problem of someone who is angry with you. 

Those by whom we send messages to others ned to be those with the highest levels of responsibility and trustworthiness.  The communication of that message can either be a delight or a debacle.  The wise man makes sure that his messages are carried by those who are wise like him.  Better to take the message yourself than to have a fool take it and create a very bad situation.  Even better than this is to cultivate good messengers who will truly and selflessly take any message given to them and faithfully transmit it to those to whom it is sent.