[Biblemat] A>The Fool (Kent Heaton)

[Kent Heaton]

The Fool

(Kent Heaton)

 

The English word "fool" is a derivative of the Latin meaning of "bellows, bag, to blow" and suggests a person lacking in judgment or prudence [Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary]. A fool may be perceived as a stupid person or one who entertains in a silly way for laughs. There is a fool spoken of by God that is neither stupid; full of air nor entertaining. "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God'"(Psalms 14:1; 53:1). Sadly, without acknowledging it, most people fall under this definition.

 

To say that one does not believe in God makes him a fool but this is not all that makes a person a fool. Denying the existence of God believes that life is about the pursuit of self and self alone. Jesus told the multitude in Luke 12 that life is not about the abundance of things one possesses. The folly of covetousness is looking at the stuff of this world as lasting and eternal. The Lord tells the story of a man who was rich and increasing in wealth as his crops yielded plenty. The man was so possessed by his affluence that he decided to tear down his existing barns and build larger barns for all his crops. The spirit of the man was satisfied with his own worth but failed to realize that his breath was held in the hand of the Almighty God (Daniel 5:23). That night he died. God called him a "fool" because he denied God and lived for self.

 

The Psalmists describe the confidence of the foolish to their own destruction. "Wise men die; the fool and the brutish alike perish, and leave their wealth to others. Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling-places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names" (Psalms 49:10-11). The fool is one who believes what is right is what is in his own eyes (Proverbs 12:15). He "rages and is self confident" (Proverbs 14:16); "has no delight in understanding, but in expressing his own heart" (Proverbs 18:2); "trusts in his own heart" (Proverbs 28:26).

 

The fool is one who does not know God because he does not see God. He has no desire to neither serve God nor acknowledge the will of God in his life. His life is about himself. A fool does not see the glory of God in works of creation (Psalm 92; 19:1-6) but walks in darkness (Ecclesiastes 2:14). He rejects the counsel of God for his own counsel. "Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the LORD. For he will be like a bush in the desert and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitant" (Jeremiah 17:5-6).

 

The sadness of the fool is that in death there is no joy. The fool has lived his life without God pursuing all the follies of material gain to leave behind for others. Life is vain. Life is a waste. Death brings nothing but sorrow. What the fool attained in life is lost in death; what he attains in death is lost in the eternal ages of suffering without God. He lived without God in this life and will live without God in death. "Without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek after him" (Hebrews 11:6). Hope in death can only come to those who believe in God and accept His will as guide for their lives. Without this faith there is no hope; only the hope of a fool. 

 

"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man" (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

 

 



Kent Heaton
207 NE Fourth Avenue
Trenton, Florida 32693
352-463-6916
kerux at bellsouth.net
www.trentonchurchofchrist.com
www.northfloridabiblecamp.com
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