Have you ever played the fool? The opposite of wisdom is foolishness, so we want to avoid the role of the fool at all costs. A study of Proverbs gives us five stages of fools from the Hebrew language. The list represents a cycle of increasing hardness of heart, from gullible to godless. A good analogy of this pride is cement. When it is poured, it is wet and formable, but afterward it begins a hardening process that culminates as cured concrete requiring heavy equipment to be moved. The gullible fool is still formable, but the godless fool has no hope unless he repents. Let’s examine the five progressive stages of being a fool.
Proverb’s five stages of a fool: simple (gullible), stupid, stubborn, scorning, and secular (godless).