The Lord of Fools

This good hymn allows us to do the two things that a nation refuses to do when it is in rebellion against the Lord.  In this hymn we acknowledge God as God, maker of all, sovereign over all, ruler over all; and in this hymn we give thanks for all His wonderful blessings and mercies we enjoy.

This is the key to protecting oneself and one’s nation from falling away from Christ.  Acknowledge Christ in everything and give thanks in all things.  Note that He is Lord in whatever circumstance you find yourself in and give thanks in everything, even in the hardest trials, even as you cry out to Him for deliverance.

Jesus Christ died for fools and sinners like you and me.  He died for those who, lost in themselves would find the declaration of the deity of Jesus and His bodily resurrection after His shameful death a myth, a lie, an exaggeration, or a useless piece of information as far as our individual lives go.  He died for sinners who hated His law.  He rose again to bring those who died with Him by faith into a new resurrected life with Him by His Spirit, empowered to love and obey that same law – the law to love God with everything and to love one’s neighbor – with the love of Christ.

The world calls us fools for believing this.  And they always have.  Paul writes, “For the message of the cross is foolishness ot those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved  it is the power of God…and…we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness.”  To believe in Jesus is to give oneself over to being called a fool by the world.

But, as we will see later, a fool, defined by the Word of God, is actually someone who refuses to believe that God is the Lord, that He has rights over our bodies and our lives, that He has ordained every day we will live and the day we will die, that He will judge us, each one, on the last day according to our works.  A fool is one who hates God’s ways and refuses to fear the Lord.  And that fool will fall into the traps he has set for himself.  That foolish nation will fall into its own traps as well.

But we have come to worship the God who saves fools and foolish nations.  Come and worship the Lord of fools.  Come and acknowledge Him; come and give thanks to Him – and you will find wisdom.