It’s that time of year again! April Fools’ Day. I’ve heard it said, “There’s no fool like an old fool,” but I’m not sure I buy that. When you get to be my age, you’ve lived through a lot of April Fools’ Day jokes, so you tend to treat fantastic statements with a measure of skepticism.
I watched a “man on the street” interview recently in which the interviewer asks an obviously less-than-informed pedestrian about his thoughts on a moon landing next week. He thought that was great until he heard the “April Fool” mantra.
There are a number of different words for “fool,” mostly in the Old Testament. The Hebrew word evil is used in Proverbs 1:7, which says, “Fools despise wisdom and instruction” (ESV). The Hebrew word kesil is used to imply self-confidence. “How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?” (Proverbs 1:22). The Hebrew word sakal is defined as thick-headed, as in Ecclesiastes 2:19, where the preacher (King Solomon) pondered the thought of the individual who would inherit all of his labors: “and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool?”
Most of us are familiar with nabal, the Hebrew word defined as “an empty person” (Young’s Concordance). In 1 Samuel 25, we find David on his way to kill a man named Nabal (who would do that to their kid?) for refusing to repay David’s servants for protecting Nabal’s servants. On the way he encountered Abigail, who went to David after hearing of Nabal’s actions:
“Let not my lord regard this worthless fellow, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. But I your servant did not see the young men of my lord, whom you sent.” (1 Samuel 25:25)
The story goes on to detail the death of Nabal, killed by God for his foolish actions.
There is one kind of fool we don’t want to be. “The fool [nabal] says in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1). This would be the ultimate fool, one who ignores all the evidence for the God who creates and sustains us. The Apostle Paul tells us:
“For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So, they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools.” (Romans 1:19-22)
The Greek word translated “fools” in our Romans passage is moraine, a verb defined as “to make foolish” or to “become foolish” (Vine’s Dictionary). That pretty much describes our current culture wherein God has been banished from the public square. Paul warns those with “foolish hearts” that there is an outcome:
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18).
Don’t listen to those fools who say, “There is no God.” To quote that famous 20th-century philosophical figure, Forrest Gump, “Stupid is as stupid does!” That is foolishness in a nutshell.
What say ye, Man of Valor?
Semper Fidelis!
