The Bible speaks much about a fool or those who act foolishly. The first time the word fool is used in the Bible was in I Samuel 26:21 where Saul calls himself a fool. Saul was so jealous of David that he was hunting David down to kill him. In this passage, David had the opportunity to kill Saul but he did not. Saul has a glimmer of wisdom and says he was playing the fool and will no longer seek to harm David. However, unless the heart is changed by God the fool will return back to his former thoughts and actions. The life of this fool never changed. There is no evidence that Saul ever turned back to God. Was he sorry for the way he treated David? I think he was for the moment but there is no evidence he was truly repentant. True repentance turns away from sin to God.
I Samuel 26:21 “Then said Saul, I have sinned: return, my son David: for I will no more do thee harm, because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day: behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly.”
The fool also hates knowledge. In Proverbs 1:22 the fool is described as simple, a scorner, and also a hater of knowledge. The word simple in this verse means they are open to evil and they love it. They gain pleasure from doing wrong. They are self-absorbed and seek whatever pleases them. They are a scorner meaning they mock God and all that is good. They hate knowledge because it is against what they desire. They are obstinate and perverse. Their understanding has been darkened because they chose their sin above the knowledge of God.
Proverbs 1:22 “How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
A fool in Proverbs 12:15 is right in his own eyes. You can’t tell a fool anything. They are void of understanding, not because they are born that way but because they have lived a life apart from God. They enjoy the pleasures of this world thinking nothing about the consequences to come. In Proverbs 28:26 he trusts his own heart. Jeremiah 17:9 teaches us we cannot trust our hearts when they are not yielded to God because they are deceitful and wicked. We can and do deceive ourselves when we lean to our own understanding and not God’s.
Proverbs 12:15 “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkened unto counsel is wise”
Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
In Proverbs chapter 1 the description of a fool continues as the writer teaches us that a fool has chosen this path of hating knowledge and despising reproof. It is not that they do not hear, they are just unwilling to obey. This truth is stated in Matthew 7:26. Here Jesus is contrasting the foolish and the wise. One built his house on the sand, and it was destroyed when the rain came. The other man listened and obeyed and built his house on the rock. His house stood through the storms and his life was spared.
Proverbs 1:29-30 “For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.”
Matthew 7:26 “And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:”
The foolish man does not start out to be a fool. He becomes a fool as his life yields more and more to his own desires. He ignores the voice of God and the convicting of the Holy Spirit. He becomes his own god as he lives his life as if this is all there is. He thinks not about eternity or the consequences of his sin. In Isaiah 22:13 the life of a fool’s thinking is revealed. When the people of Judah should have been doing what they had been taught that honored God they were acting like the pagan people around them. Because of this, they would be judged by God. In verse 13 Isaiah says they have an attitude of “eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.” The fool lives this way because he believes there is no God. In Psalms 14:1 and 53:1 David tells us “The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.”
Isaiah 22:13 “And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die.”
This is the life of a fool. It leads to total destruction, but there is a way to avoid becoming a fool. It starts with surrendering your life to Jesus as your Savior and Lord. It then continues with obedience until the day we die.
We all have a choice to become wise or foolish. Which path are you choosing?
