AP

Proverbs 19:3   A man’s own folly ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the LORD.

On ’April Fool’s Day’, it is good for us to reflect on this gem of wisdom as it demonstrates for us the timeless relevance of God’s Word!

“Folly” in Proverbs is the opposite of “wisdom”, and “The fear of the LORD is the BEGINNING of wisdom” (1:7; 9:10).  So “folly” is a FAILURE to acknowledge the reality of the sovereign rule of God the Creator in his world, and to submit in humble obedience to his revealed Truth in his Word.

Is not THIS ‘failure’ the defining characteristic of the culture that dominates the thinking of our world today?  Is it not the case that it is ‘politically incorrect’ throughout our educational institutions to acknowledge the truth of God’s own account of Creation-out-of-nothing (ex nihilo) in Genesis 1 in preference to Man’s own ‘scientific’ ‘theories’ that evolutionist, Sir Arthur Keith, has himself admitted are ‘neither proved nor provable’?  Is it not the case that it is ‘unacceptable’ to acknowledge the Sovereign God as the One who has full control over the weather and, instead, to get excited about ‘climate change’ as if its causes-and-effects are completely in our hands?  It doesn’t seem as if Noah saw things this way in Genesis 6-9!

In the light of today’s verse, it is not surprising that our world is in such a mess!  And yet, because we are all ‘made in God’s likeness and image’, and because we have all inherited Adam’s ‘shift-the-blame-to-someone-else’ nature, it is not surprising that we ‘rage against the LORD ’ whenever things go wrong!

So, how do we deal with this situation?  Let us continue to PRAY earnestly and urgently that God’s Holy Spirit will DO what Jesus proclaimed to his disciples: “When [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgement, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.” (John 16:8-11).  And let us be faithful in living out our lives and witness as those who ‘fear the LORD ’ in all we do and think and say!  Perhaps our gracious God will show mercy to our ‘raging’ world, as he did for us personally when we were still part of the world’s ‘Why-is-God-allowing-this-to-happen?’ ‘rage’!