Who is the Fool?

Proverbs 1:20-33

Are We All Fools?

Today is the day where the internet is the least useful it will be all year.

Today is the day where pranks are plastered everywhere hoping to catch the gullible into believing things that aren’t true. So…actually not different than all of the other days.

The internet and the world is, in fact, full of false and misleading information everyday and we are all of us made fools of on a regular basis.

Macbeth said: “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.”

That is one way to respond to the chaos in the world, we are all fools and there is nothing you can do about it. Which sounds a little bit like Ecclesiastes.

But that is not the conclusion of Ecclesiastes and neither should it be our conclusion.

We don’t all HAVE to be fools.

How Not to be a Fool

It is not about learning more so you can’t be fooled.

You will never know enough to not be fooled.

So part of not being a fool is recognizing that you will be fooled sometimes.

Being wise isn’t about knowing all of the things, it is about knowing a few things, knowing them well, and living by them (Psa. 14:1; Ecc. 12:13).

So, the fool is the man or woman who hears God and ignores Him.

“It ain’t the parts of the Bible I don’t understand that bother me—it’s the parts I do understand.” - Mark Twain

The problem of the fool isn’t confusion, it’s rebellion.

“We are not merely imperfect creatures who must be improved: we are rebels who must lay down our arms.” - C. S. Lewis

Don’t leave here a fool. Leave as a wise one who knows at least one thing and lives by it.