I hope that none of us is this blind. But, I would say, from my experience as a minister, that it is possible that we can be what David described here as a fool. You might say, Well, since I have been converted, I have never said that there is no God. Maybe you have said it and do not even realize that you have!
Let me explain. Fool here is nabal. Remember David and Abigail? Abigail's husband was named Nabal. He was a fool. It means someone who is contemptible, someone who is empty. It does not mean an atheist. It does not mean someone who has no contact with God at all. It does not mean that this person does not see God in His creation. The fool that is being described here may readily, quickly admit that there is a God of creation - and ascribe that as a part of his life. He may clearly admit it.
This person, this fool, is not an atheist; but he lives as if he is persuaded that there is no God, either to bless with reward or to curse with punishment. A nabal is not stupid. He is not a person who does not reason at all, but a person who reasons wrongly. A nabal is a person who chooses - notice that word, or I might say, assumes (an assumption is a choice) - to ignore the fact of God's authority over his life. And, basically, he sees God as an absentee landlord who may be safely disregarded because the fool assumes that God is not really active in His creation. Now that is foolishness!
Foolishness, in biblical contexts, can be sin! The fool's problem is not with his brain but his heart. The fool is capable of grasping the things of God; but there is no real fear or reverence for God and the things of God. What this results in is nothing less than a practical atheism. Even though he will readily admit that God is Creator, he lives his life as though God is nowhere around. He has produced a dichotomy - between what he intellectually knows and the way that he lives. God says that person is a fool. And he is, in reality, saying in his heart, There is no God.
That is sobering, because any one of us can fall into that use of the word. I can tell you, by Psalm 14:5, that what I just said is true. The fool is aware of God. When the punishment, the curse, comes - when God begins to reveal Himself - then there is great fear. If he did not think, There is a God, the fear would not be there. He knows that there is a God; but he lives as if there is not.
Do we see God in His activities? Do we see God in His works? In the manifestation that Jesus spoke about there in John 6:29? Do we see God in His work? Do we see God in the physical creation? Romans 1 tells us very clearly that God's very power and authority - His very deity - is shown by His creation. All of that is nothing more than a type to help us to understand that by the physical works we can identify with this God and know that He is at work within His spiritual creation as well.
Brethren, a Christian goes through an educational process designed to help him to see what is important and what is of lesser value - what is reality and what is vanity. But we are responsible for admitting that evidence into our minds and humbly submitting to it, or in rejecting it, being guilty of denying God, even though plainly seeing the evidence.
