Contemporary Church: A House of Foolishness

Foolishness in the House of God - Part 1

Believers cannot break away from the Harlot’s grip over their lives until they begin to embrace Wisdom. See Prov.2:cf 12 with 16, and 7:4-5. Only wisdom can save and deliver you out of her clutches.

The first step in gaining wisdom is to put away Foolishness from our lives & our faith. Remember, foolishness characterises the house of the Harlot, while wisdom characterises the Bride (the true church) – Prov.9:1f, cf 13 (“undisciplined/simple[Heb: naive, foolish] & knows nothing[Heb: to have no knowledge, understanding or learning]”). Wisdom asks us to put away our simple/foolish ways so that we can live (9:6).

It is obvious then that those who become enchanted with the Harlot’s spell are the simple-minded, gullible believers that lack wisdom & knowledge (Prov.6:32 “lacks judgement/understanding”). The people who become her victims, or faithful stalwarts, are always the spiritually immature ones (Prov.7:7).

The Manifestations of Foolishness in the House of God.

1. The believer’s refusal to be disciplined or corrected.

- Those who hate being disciplined are generally those that are cohabitating with the Harlot. It is only later, when the life of God has been drained from them, will they realise that discipline/correction was not a bad thing after all (Prov.5:11-12). This hatred for discipline/ correction is synonymous with foolishness (v.23).
- Discipline & correction are Kingdom mechanisms put in place by God to counter-act the Harlot’s advances (Prov.6:23-24).
- Correction & discipline are administered by the authority structures(“fathers”) over our lives (Prov.15:5 “A fool spurns his father’s discipline, but whoever heeds correction shows prudence”).

2. The believer’s self-righteous spirit.

- Prov.12:15 “The way of a fool seems right to him/in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.”

3. The believers that unashamedly accommodate evil

- Prov.13:19 “..fools detest turning from evil.”
- Prov.14:10 “Fools mock at making amends for sin…”

4. The believer’s uncanny ability to break rather than build the Church

- Prov.14:1 “A wise woman builds her house but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.”
- Most believers are unaware of the need for the church to be built. They view the church as the end in itself – not a means to an end. So they don’t co-operate with God to build His church. If they are not building, they indirectly & directly contribute to its breaking.

5. The believer’s inability to bring his emotions/feelings under control
- Prov.29:11 “A fool gives full vent to his anger/vents all his feelings”
- This speaks of the intensity of emotions & its effects on the believer’s mind, life, decisions. Also, the continuity of emotional outbursts, and one’s inability to restrain oneself emotionally.

6. The believer & the church does not have a voice in society

- Prov.24:7 “Wisdom is too high for a fool; in the assembly at the gate he has nothing to say.” He has no voice with all who assemble at the ‘gate’. There are 3 images associated with the city gates in the OT:

i. A controlled access point – the city could monitor & regulate all persons & things that wanted access into it. Spiritually, this task is given to the church in a city or region. God has given us the keys to bind & loose.
The fool is a believer/leader who has the opportunity to articulate God’s Word but he is void of revelation & understanding.

ii. A place where city leaders sat to administrate & make judicial decisions. The gate is also governmental in character. Here the leaders or elders handed down decisions. It was a place for public deliberation. It was also where the king or rulers would have an audience(Josh.20:4; Est.3:2-3)

God wants His church to have a voice in the governmental structures of society. It is foolish for a church to exist in a community & not govern it (spiritually, at first, and practically thereafter). The church in Stanger stands before society as a fool because we have no answers.

iii. A place for business transactions It was at the gates that business contracts were made & witnessed (Ruth 4:11; 2 Kings 7:1). It housed the cities commerce chambers. It was the place where public economy was administrated. The marketplace was also set up near the city gates.
Again, the church remains clueless about the economics of the city and nation. God is raising up a Joseph generation, a church that will infiltrate & influence the economy of nations. Foolish churches, pastors, and members will shy away from such mammoth tasks.


Conclusion: The church must move from being a house of foolishness & become a house of strength a power, a force to be reckoned with. in the earth!



Foolishness in the House of God - Part 2
1 Sam.25:1f

Nabal & Abigail are types/ symbols of the two types of churches/ Christian in the earth today. Abigail represents Wisdom i.e. the house of wisdom, the true church that God is building in the earth. Nabal represents the house of Foolishness, the harlot church in the earth.

Abigail’s name means “my father rejoices”. Prov.10:1 says: “A wise son brings joy to his father/ makes glad his father”. Abigail therefore represents wisdom either in the form of a wise son or a wise house i.e. a church built by wisdom. Moreover, in v.3, Abigail is said to be “intelligent/a woman of good understanding”. The Hebrew word means “understanding, wisdom or knowledge”. She is a type of the house of wisdom.

Nabal’s name means “fool” (v.25). It also means a vile or disgraceful person, a foolish man, a foolish woman!(cf Prov.9:13; 14:1) He represents the house of foolishness/ the harlot church. His character is also described for us. It is an accurate description of the character of believers who succumb to the harlot’s advances. He was “surly/harsh(hard, stubborn, stiff-necked) and mean/evil(a bad person, an evildoer) in his doings”.
- Nabal was wealthy (v.2). He had much livestock. The financial success of Christians & the numerical growth of churches are not signs that foolishness is absent.

The irony here is that Abigail was married to Nabal. It is absurd for Wisdom to covenant with Foolishness. But sometimes even true sons of God cohabitate with the harlot and they find it difficult to shake off or escape from the harlot’s grip on their lives.

However, the true nature of Abigail & Nabal manifests when David confronts their house. When confronted by David, they stand distinct from each other, diametrically opposed to each other. David is a type of the Christ. When the church moves from its own agenda & embraces the divine demand to become a dwelling place for God & a grace supplier for the nations, judgement begins in the house. Every member of that church has to decide where he stands in regard to that demand.

1. A fool cannot recognise & embrace a new prophetic season or a new move of God(v.10a).

- Nabal views David as an absconder and a renegade. He treats David like a runaway slave.
- How many believers refuse to transition to a new day in God? Their understanding of God & His doings has not changed over the years; their attitudes & behaviour patterns have not been impacted or drastically altered either.

2. A fool is a patriot of the old order/ old move of God (v.10b).

- Nabal speaks in defence of King Saul. Nabal sees King Saul as the master & David as a runaway servant.
- Some believers are very patriotic adherents of old seasons of God. They remain ignorant about the new manoeuvrings of God’s Spirit, or they just gullibly follow the religion of the masses.

3. Abigail represents the church that knows how to accurately retaliate in a season of divine demand (v.18-19).
- Abigail recognises Nabal’s error & compensated for it immediately. Her understanding of the situation & her response to it are a clear indications that she operated on a totally different frequency from Nabal.
- God is raising up an Abigail-generation in His church today. This is a generation that will not respond with foolishness especially to the promptings of heaven. They will operate on a totally distinct frequency. They will identify the voice of God & respond appropriately. They will also recognise & cast out the foolish woman & her son (foolish ways).

4. Abigail recognises & submits herself to God’s prophetic purposes (v.23-24).
- She bows down on the ground before David. In doing so, she not only placed herself at his mercy but also showed that she esteemed him & his authority.
- This is the church/ believer that knows how to engage a new move or prophetic season in God. They allow their lives to become fully compliant with the divine standard.

5. Abigail was a patriot of the new order/ new move of God (v.29-31).
- Unlike Nabal, she calls David her “master/lord” & she refers to King Saul as “someone/ a man” (v.29). She also believed the prophetic promises & Word of the Lord concerning David – that he would be Israel’s next ruler.
- These are the believers that choose to embrace the new things that God is doing. They inform themselves well and adjust their paradigms to live according to the higher demands of a new season. They are wise men that ascend the mountains of the Lord & scan new horizons in the spirit. When they receive the vision of the Lord, they write it, preach it & run with it – not looking back.

6. Abigail gains David’s favour (v.35).
- He receives her gifts, he heeds her voice, and he respects her person
- A church that is received & respected in the heavens. A house of stature in the land.

Conclusion: Nabal suffers either a stroke or heart failure. He enters into a state of paralysis, immobility & stiffness or deadness(v.37). Within a day, his heart moves from being merry(v.36) to being dead (v.37). Within a day, the tide can turn for believers & churches that accommodate foolishness. Ultimately, haphazard Christianity will lead to spiritual tragedy.
Abigail becomes David’s wife (v.40-42) and a future queen of Israel because she chose to operate on a frequency that would not accommodate Foolishness - but operate contrary to it.