Scripture presents us with many examples of foolishness, including the fool who denies God, the fool who despises God, and the fool who disregards God. These examples are provided not to drive us into despair but to draw us toward wisdom. God provides us with examples of foolishness because He is a loving Father who desires His children to pursue the wisdom that leads to abundant life.
One of the ways that Scripture teaches us about wisdom is by providing us with examples of foolishness. Scripture calls us to look not only to the ant but also to the sluggard to understand the wisdom of planning and labor as opposed to the foolishness of slothfulness (Prov. 6:6–11). We learn the wisdom of giving thanks to God not only by looking at the one leper who returned to Jesus to express gratitude for being healed but also by considering the other nine who foolishly failed to do so (Luke 17:11–19). Sometimes the best way to see wisdom is through the lens of foolishness. Accordingly, a wise Christian pays attention to the fools described in Scripture. Let’s examine three different types of fools presented in the Bible.
Fool #1: Denies God
The most egregious and deadly form of foolishness is defined by the psalmist in Psalm 14:1: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” Those who deny the existence of God are, according to Scripture, the ultimate fools. After all, what could be more foolish than rejecting the God who made you and everything else?
The opening of Psalm 14 gives us the heavenly perspective on the nature of humanity. It speaks not only of the heart of the atheist but ultimately of all of us. All people (except Christ) are born with hearts that declare that there is no God. In the Hebrew mind, the heart was not the muscle that pumps blood through our circulatory system. Instead, it represented the very seat of human understanding. We moderns tend to divide mind and heart, but this was not so for the ancient Hebrew. To say in one’s heart that there is no God is to say with one’s entire emotional, psychological, and rational faculties that there is no God.
The Scriptures tell us that we are all born with hearts that say that there is no God. For example, consider Romans 3:10–11, “As it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.’” The Apostle Paul, drawing on the Old Testament, makes a universal declaration about the nature of humanity apart from God’s redeeming grace, and what he says, essentially, is that we are all born saying in our hearts, “There is no God.” In other words, we are all born fools.
In Reformed theology, we refer to this phenomenon as total depravity or, as R.C. Sproul put it, radical corruption. This idea does not mean that humanity is as bad as it could be or is incapable of doing any kind of good for others. Instead, it refers to a radical corruption of our minds, hearts, and wills that renders sinners incapable of self-help when it comes to knowing God and receiving His salvation. In other words, without God’s intervening grace, we are doomed to continue to say in our hearts, “There is no God.”
Our radical corruption began when our first parents foolishly chose to disobey God in the garden. In essence, through their act of disobedience, they said in their hearts, “There is no God.” Human history is merely a chronicle of the repetition of that foolishness in subsequent generations. We see it all around us. Our culture is not just saying in its heart that there is no God; it is screaming it from the rooftops and encoding it in social policies. This is an alarming and perilous trend. As we know from Scripture, foolishness does not end well. But as we appropriately critique our culture for its foolish rejection of God, let us not forget that we too were born fools.
Fool #2: Despises God
A second type of fool that we encounter in Scripture is the fool who despises the prerogatives, privileges, and gifts of God. Whereas the first type of fool is generally found outside the visible church, this second type of fool can also reside within its ranks. This type of fool is described in Hebrews 6:4–6:
For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.
This type of fool has “been enlightened,” “tasted the heavenly gift,” “shared in the Holy Spirit,” and “tasted the goodness of the word of God,” but despite having been exposed to these benefits and blessings, he has chosen to reject them.
The book of Hebrews draws heavily on the wilderness experience of Old Testament Israel. This was the period after the exodus but before the conquest of Canaan. During this period, all Israel was exposed to many blessings, including light from the pillar of fire, manna to eat, the spiritual leadership of God’s appointed mediator (Moses), and the very presence of God. Though all Israel was exposed to these privileges, not all Israel embraced them. Instead, some despised and rejected them. This was the generation that died in the wilderness. The writer to the Hebrews draws on this Old Testament imagery and applies it to a new covenant context. Essentially, Hebrews 6:4–6 reminds us that not all who are raised with the covenant privileges of the church will embrace those privileges. Just like some in Old Testament Israel, some in New Testament Israel (the church) will be exposed to the light of God’s presence, partake of the bread He provides, hear the proclamation regarding the Mediator of the new covenant, Jesus Christ, and yet foolishly choose to despise and reject these good gifts.
The classic example of this type of fool is Esau, the twin brother of Jacob and son of the patriarch Isaac.
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