Insight for Today 24 January 2022 By Chuck Swindoll || Monday Message
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll
Read Previous Chuck Swindoll Insight for Today
TOPIC:Â Intelligent Fools
SCRIPTURE: Proverbs 1
Insight for Today 24 January 2022 By Chuck Swindoll MESSAGE
Before we close this week’s study, let’s revisit the sages’ fool. The English language defines a fool as someone who’s a little mischievous or who makes foolish decisions. Hebrew culture, however, took the term fool far more seriously. We have considered three different kinds of internal opposition to divine leading, opposition that the Hebrew language describes using no less than four terms. Each term quantifies the level of foolishness in a person, and each successive term on the list reflects greater opposition than the previous one:
Peti: Undiscerning, unable, or unwilling to distinguish between truth and falsehood
Kasal: Lacking knowledge or practical experience; mentally sluggish
Nabal: Willfully closed to wisdom and brutishly destructive to self and others
Letz: Incorrigibly and willfully rebellious against God
You may notice that moral culpability increases with intellectual capacity. In other words, those who possessed the least intelligence were the least to blame for their opposition. For the Hebrews, the greatest fool of all was the opposer who possessed the greatest mental capacity. Solomon and the wise men of Israel didn’t measure wisdom and foolishness in terms of IQ; for them, prudence is a measure of one’s obedience to God.
Insight for Today 24 January 2022 By Chuck Swindoll is taken from Living the Proverbs by Charles R. Swindoll, copyright © 2012. Reprinted by permission of Worthy Inspired., an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Charles R. Swindoll has devoted his life to the accurate, practical teaching and application of God’s Word and His grace. A pastor at heart, Chuck has served as senior pastor to congregations in Texas, Massachusetts, and California. Since 1998, he has served as the founder and senior pastor-teacher of Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas, but Chuck’s listening audience extends far beyond a local church body.