God's Foolishness

"For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength." 1 Corinthians 1:25

The word "foolishness" here has always bothered me a bit. I've had no problem understanding it as hyperbolic contrast, denigrating man's wisdom--IF God were to be foolish, even that depth is far above any sort of wisdom that humanity could hope to achieve. And of course, it should be taken as the conclusion of a longer thought. Is there anything else here, though?

I'm about halfway through a book called And God Created Laughter: The Bible as Divine Comedy by Conrad Hyers. (Good book; get it.) Early on, Hyers suggests that perhaps God does, in fact, behave foolishly. OK, Mr. Hyers, I am slightly offended, but you have my attention. How is God foolish? Well, he explains, God behaves in a manner that humans would consider counter-intuitive. He bets on us losers, rather than the odds-on favorites; He put all his Easter eggs in one basket, then invited people to jump up and down on the basket; His big win is death. All right, I can buy that explanation. In fact, I have no problem whatsoever with the whole concept of the book, which is an exploration of God's sense of humor. I love God's sense of humor; I see it in my life all the time. But the idea of God as a contrarian (at least in human terms) doesn't quite explain away that idea of God as foolish to me.

Perhaps it's the word itself. The Amplified Bible renders the verse thusly: "[This is] because the foolish thing [that has its source in] God is wiser than men, and the weak thing [that springs] from God is stronger than men." That does put a different complexion on it, as does the Weymouth New Testament: "Because that which the world deems foolish in God is wiser than men's wisdom, and that which it deems feeble in God is mightier than men's might." In these, it's not God who is being called foolish, but rather certain actions or aspects of His, which would seem foolish from a worldly POV. OK, fine, again, I follow that. Looks foolish to us, but isn't. But... there's still this concept in front of me, that of God as foolish, and it bothers me.

So, I look at the original word used, which apparently is a form of the word "raca," and according to Charles B. Williams means "empty headed idiot." Yow. Now I am more offended. But, ok. Paul is answering the arguments of those who see God's actions as being completely devoid of worldly wisdom, and Paul, using the accuser's own words and POV, is telling them that worldly wisdom doesn't mean jack. He's playing devil's advocate, in other words. "Even if God is foolish like you say He is..." It's not Paul who is calling God foolish, nor is it God calling himself foolish, but rather God's (and Paul's) accusers.

To take this beyond the scope of that verse but closer to the point of Hyers' book--exploring God's sense of humor--there is another sense of the word "fool" which keeps popping into my mind as I ponder the word. I'm interested in history, particularly that of western Europe c1350-1530, so inevitably the medieval idea of the king's fool springs to mind. The court jester is generally remembered as a clown, but that's only a tiny slice of what he was. In theory at least, the jester--often drawn from the lowest classes of society--was the one person who was not required to take anything seriously, including the king. (If the king farted, the jester was the only one who smelled it.) Instead of seeing only the king's position and power, he was allowed to see and react to the king as a fallible human; he was able to describe things as they were, rather than in a politically correct manner. His job was to give the king a sense of perspective, not just about himself but about the world around him. Of course in practice, sometimes fools lost their heads, but I'm dealing with the theory here.

Picture the king as immeasurably below the lowest peasant, and the peasant fool as immeasurably above the highest king, and you might have something vaguely approaching a facet of God. Why on earth would God take us seriously? He sees beyond our position, dignity, power, and opinion of ourselves to what's actually there, and deals with us based on that rather than what we try to persuade other humans to focus on.

And going in a slightly different direction, foolishness--both medievally and modernly--can be silliness. Could God possibly be silly? Oh, I think He most certainly can. But that's a whole 'nother long post.

Taking all of this into account, I no longer find myself bothered by the verse, but I can't help but search my mental concordance. Are there any examples of God behaving foolishly? Was it foolish, for example, for God to grant Abraham's request and bless Ishmael? I mean, we are still feeling the repercussions of that one, aren't we? God knew what would happen; He knew that this was the beginning of thousands of years of hatred. Did God choose to do as His friend asked, rather than to do what He knew to be wise--in other words, did He choose to behave foolishly?

By default, I would never have thought it was possible, and yet 1 Corinthians 1:25 makes a part of me wonder. I know that if He were to choose to behave foolishly, it would be far wiser than anything I could possibly imagine; I do truly know that. I know that His choice was premeditated, and that He knew what would come of it, and that He planned for the repercussions, and wrapped the whole world around them from beginning to end. I know that if He chose to make a decision He considered foolish, He did so because He considered something else more important than wisdom.

What I don't know is whether or not He considered that choice an example of God's foolishness. For that matter, are we an example of God's foolishness? Do we exist in spite of His wisdom, or because of it?