The 1st of April is a day you need to have your wits about you! It’s April Fool’s Day. No one is exactly sure how and when it began, and there are many ideas about that. People play pranks and jokes on each other and when you are finally let in on it the cry is “April Fools!”
It got me thinking about what the bible says about being a fool. 1 Samuel 26v21 is the first mention of it in scripture:
“I have played the fool and have erred exceedingly.”
It’s King Saul who comes to that realisation after intentionally going against God’s will in his personal life and in governing the nation.
It’s a sad verse and we should take note from it and follow God’s revealed will for our own lives to avoid ever saying similar.
Psalm 14v1: “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”
Another great folly of our age is atheism. The denial of a creator in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Charles Spurgeon once said, “Atheism is a strange thing, even the devils did not fall into that vice.”
Proverbs 26v12: “Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him.” Again, we find to be wise in our own conceit is folly.
The opposite of foolishness is wisdom. Proverbs 1v7 teaches us:
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
The fear of God, an awareness of who He is. A need to get to Him through His Son The Lord Jesus. He is wisdom, and a search for God is beginning of a journey that can ultimately change in our lives.
I finish with this quote from famous missionary Jim Elliot who was martyred for his desire to share the gospel. “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”
Love and blessings- Pastor John