Proverbs Chapter 30
Proverbs
Chapter 30
1. The sayings of Agur son of Jakeh—an oracle: This man declared to Ithiel, to Ithiel and to Ucal. We now come to the sayings of Agur son of Jakeh. The two concluding chapters of this book are an appendix to the proverbs of Solomon. Nothing definite is known about the writers, and it is vain to speculate where God is silent. It is much better to give our full attention to the teaching than to indulge in unprofitable speculation about the writers. Our ignorance about the writers of many of the Psalms in no way stops them from being useful to us. We know their Author, though the penmen are hidden. It is enough for us to be assured that they were holy men who were moved to write by the Holy Spirit.
Agur was doubtless one of the wise men found in many ages of the Old Testament church. His words were an oracle—that is, divine instruction. This teaching was given to Ithiel and to Ucal, but especially to Ithiel. These were probably two pupils of Agur. We know nothing further about them.
2-3. "I am the most ignorant of men; I do not have a man's understanding. I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One." Stronger language could scarcely have been used. He confesses to be the most ignorant of men. Whoever knows his own heart knows that of himself and can hardly conceive of anyone else being as degraded as himself.
The following remarks of a profound divine will illustrate this subject: "He that has much grace apprehends much more than others that great height to which his love ought to ascend; and he sees better than others how little a way he has risen toward that height. And therefore, estimating his love by the whole height of his duty, hence it appears astonishingly low and little in his eyes. True grace is of that nature that the more a person has of it, with remaining corruption, the less does his goodness and holiness appear, in proportion, not only to his past but to his present deformity, in the sin that now appears in his heart and in the abominable defects of his highest and best affections" (J. Edwards).
The nearer our contemplation of God, the closer our communion with him, the deeper will be our self-abasement before him. Unless a man stoops, he can never enter the door. He must become a fool, that he may be wise. There is a fine ray of wisdom in that consciousness of ignorance that led Socrates to confess, "I only know one thing, that I know nothing." And when a person is humbled in his shame, then he can see the house of his God in its breadth and length (Ezekiel 44:5), enjoying clearer and panting still for clearer manifestations of the incomprehensible God.
4. "Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Who has gathered up the wind in the hollow of his hands? Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and the name of his son? Tell me if you know!" Can we wonder that Agur acknowledged his brutishness now that he was contemplating the majesty of God, so amazing in his deeds, so incomprehensible in his nature? The eye is blinded by the dazzling blaze of the sun. "Who has established all the ends of the earth?" There can be no doubt. The challenge is thrown out as a demonstration that it was God alone. "Show me the man who can or dares arrogate this power to himself" (Bishop Hall).
"What is his name, and the name of his son? Tell me if you know!" Many are so bewitched by their own thinking that they conceive themselves to understand this name. They think far higher of their wisdom than Agur did and are at no loss at all to explain the complete meaning of the inscrutable subject. But the genuine disciple acknowledges the nature of the Son to be as incomprehensible as that of the Father.
Yet what revelation has brought up to us from these untraceable depths are pearls of great price. Let us reverently gather them for the enriching of our souls. So far as our divine Teacher leads us by the hand, let us diligently follow him. May we have a holy eagerness to be wiser continually in that which is written. "Curiously to inquire is rashness; to believe is piety; to know indeed is life eternal" (Bernard).
5-6. Nothing is learned solidly by abstract speculation. Go to the Book. Here all is light and purity. While the secret things belong to the Lord our God, yet the things that are revealed are our holy directory. Everything is intended to influence the heart and conduct (Deuteronomy 29:29).
"Every word of God is flawless." Of what other book in the world can this be said? Where else is the gold found without alloy? The Word has been tried, and it has stood the trial, and no dross has been found in it. "Having God as its Author, it has truth without any mixture of error for its matter" (Locke).
"He is a shield to those who take refuge in him." Nothing honors God like turning to him in every time of need. Here there is rest, peaceful confidence, safekeeping. And where else can this be found? Despondency meets the poor, deluded sinner who looks for some other support. And even the child of God traces his frequent lack of protection to his feeble and uncertain use of his divine shield.
"Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar." The Word of God is not only pure and unable to deceive. It is also sufficient, and therefore, like tried gold, it needs no addition for its perfection. Hence to add to his words, stamped as they are with his divine authority, will expose us to his tremendous rebuke and cover us with shame. The Jewish church virtually added their oral law and written traditions (Mark 7:7-13). The attempt in our own day to bring tradition to a near, if not to an equal, level with the sacred testimony is a fearful approach to this sinful presumption. A new rule of faith is thus introduced, adding to the divine rule and creating coordinate authority. Never indeed was it so important to clear from all question the momentous controversy of what is and what is not the Word of God.
7-9. Although Agur has confessed his brutishness before his God, yet his prayers (the most accurate test of a man of God) prove him to possess deep spiritual understanding. Agur's heart must have been taught by God, for he directs his prayers by a primary regard for his best interests and by a spiritual discernment of what would probably be harmful and what would be beneficial to those interests.
"Two things I ask of you, O Lord; do not refuse me before I die." His prayers are short but comprehensive. Although little is said, that little is full of meaning. Spiritual blessings occupy the first place; temporal blessings are secondary and subservient to them.
"Keep falsehood and lies far from me." Is not this the atmosphere of the world? Falsehood is its character, lies its delusion, promising happiness, only to disappoint its weary and restless victims. Everything deadens the heart and eclipses the glory of the Savior. A soul that knows its dangers and its besetting temptations will live in the spirit of this prayer of the godly Agur.
"Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread." "If Agur be the master of a family, then that is his competency which is sufficient to maintain his wife, children, and household. If Agur is a public person, a ruler of the people, then that is Agur's sufficiency which will conveniently maintain him in that condition" (Mede). Let us seek God's grace to glorify him in either state. Or, if it seems right to pray for a change in our condition, let us not forget to pray for a single eye to his glory, that his will, not ours, may be done in us. "Whatever God gives," said the pious Bishop Hall, "I am both thankful and indifferent; so as, while I am rich in estate, I may be poor in spirit; and while I am poor in estate, I may be rich in grace."
10. "Do not slander a servant to his master, or he will curse you, and you will pay for it." Do not allow this proverb to be a shelter for unfaithfulness. We owe it alike to master and to servant not to wink at sin. But beware of the busy wantonness of the talebearer (Leviticus 19:16). Never cause trouble over trifles or slander a servant when he may not have the full freedom and power to defend himself. When conscience does not constrain us to speak, the law of love always supplies a reason for silence. The Jewish servants were normally slaves, most of whom were crushed by their master's oppression. Cruel, therefore, would it be without good reason to heap degradation on a lowly fellow creature, for whom the Mosaic law prescribed kindness and protection (Deuteronomy 23:15).
11-14. Agur here gives in artificial order (as in some of the Psalms) his observations, probably in answer to his disciples' inquiries. He describes four different groups of people. These different types of people have always existed, and always will, to the end of time.
"There are those who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers." What a disgrace to human nature this first group is! They curse their parents. Solon, when asked why he had made no law against parricide, replied that he could not conceive of anyone so impious and cruel. The divine Lawgiver knew man better, recognizing that his heart was capable of wickedness beyond conception (Jeremiah 17:9). Many are the forms in which this proud abomination shows itself: resistance to a parent's authority, contempt of his reproof, shamelessly defiling his name, needlessly exposing his sin, coveting his substance, denying his obligation. Every village bears sad testimony to this crying sin that brings many a parent with sorrow to the grave and spreads anarchy throughout the whole land.
In what church do we not find the next group of people? "Those who are pure in their own eyes and yet are not cleansed of their filth." We often see this self-deceiver in the spiritual church, exhibiting a full and clean profession to his fellowmen, while himself living at an infinite distance from God.
The next group of people provokes our sorrowful amazement. "Those whose eyes are ever so haughty, whose glances are so disdainful." Such intolerable arrogance! What greater anomaly does the conscience afford than that of a proud sinner? Their eyes are ever so haughty, instead of being cast down to the ground. Such is his self-confidence even in the presence of God (Luke 18:11-12).
The last group of people appears before us as monsters of iniquity. We can scarcely draw the picture in its full colors. "Those whose teeth are swords and whose jaws are set with knives to devour the poor from the earth, the needy from among mankind." Imagine brutes with iron teeth, a wild beast opening his mouth and displaying, instead of teeth, swords and knives, sharpened and ready for their murderous work. Yet withal, these cruel oppressors are marked by pitiful cowardice. They vent their wantonness only where there is little or no power of resistance as they devour the poor. God thus shows us a picture of man left to himself. When the reins are loosened or given up, is there any length of wickedness to which he will not proceed?
Indeed these four groups of people teach us a lesson that is most valuable, yet most humbling thoroughly to know. So depraved is man that he does not understand his own depravity. Nothing is as hidden from him as himself. He keeps a good opinion of himself by keeping the light out of his heart and conscience.
Adored indeed be the grace of God if we are not among these groups of people! However, let us remember that we used to be like them, but we have been washed from our filthiness. So it is most profitable to reflect from what we have been raised, and to whom we owe all that we have and are for God's service.
15-16. "The leech has two daughters. 'Give! Give!' they cry. There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, 'Enough!': the grave, the barren womb, land, which is never satisfied with water, and fire, which never says, 'Enough!'" Agur describes in an artificial expression (see verses 21, 24, 29; compare 6:16), but with forcible imagery, the cravings of human evil desires. If viewed with reference to the last group of people in the previous verse, they make an admirably finished picture of the merciless and avaricious tyrant.
Every indulgence provokes the appetite. "'The leech has two daughters.' But we have," says Bishop Sanderson, "I know not how many craving lusts, no less importunately clamorous than they, till they be served, incessantly crying 'Give! Give!' but much more unsatisfied than they. For they will be filled in time, and when they are filled, they tumble off, and there is an end. But our lusts will never be satisfied. Like Pharaoh's cattle when they have eaten up all the fat ones, they are still as hungry and as whining as they were before."
How blessed, then, is the state to which the Gospel brings us. Having food and clothes, let us be content.
17. "The eye that mocks a father, that scorns obedience to a mother, will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley, will be eaten by the vultures." Agur here returns to the first group of people he had described in verse 11. He had previously described their character. Now he links it with the punishment. Observe the guilt of even a scornful look or the mocking eye, with perhaps not a word spoken. Certainly if the fifth commandment is the first with promise (Ephesians 6:2), it is also the first with judgment. No breached commandment is visited with more tremendous threatenings. What a picture of infamy!
18-20. "There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a maiden. This is the way of an adulteress: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, 'I've done nothing wrong.'" The kingdom of nature is full of wonder, and these wonders are full of instruction. Where the philosopher cannot give a reason, the humble disciple may learn a lesson. The depths of nature are figures of the depths of sin, of the unsearchable, deceitful heart.
Eminently practiced is the seducer in the depths of Satan, and a thousand arts does he use to allure the affections of his unwary victim. And it is often as difficult to penetrate his designs and to escape his snares as to trace the way of an eagle, the way of a snake, or the way of a ship. Let this be a warning to young and inexperienced females not to trust their own purity or the strength of their own resolutions or to place themselves in unprotected situations.
Equally unfathomable are the devices of the adulteress. "She eats and wipes her mouth and says, 'I've done nothing wrong.'" Solomon too described the picture with striking and minute accuracy (chapter 7; 5:3-6). Such a course of abomination, wickedness, and hypocrisy is scarcely to be conceived—indulging her sin as a sweet morsel under her tongue, feasting greedily on her stolen waters and secret bread, yet keeping up the appearance of innocence and purity. She___wipes her mouth to prevent all suspicion, allowing no sign of the action to remain. A woman must be advanced very far in the way of sin before she can present such an unblushing front. Let, then, the first step be shunned, and the most distant path that may lead to temptation. When shame ceases, the ruin of the victim is accomplished. Abundant warning is given—solemn instruction, many beacons in the path to show the certain end of this flowery road.
21-23. "Under three things the earth trembles, under four it cannot bear up: a servant who becomes king, a fool who is full of food, an unloved woman who is married, and a maidservant who displaces her mistress." Next to things that are unsearchable, Agur now mentions some things that are intolerable, things under which the earth trembles, which bring confusion wherever they are found. Who does not naturally condemn things out of place as unsuitable and unseemly? The law of the works of God are in the world no less than in the church, and any breach of order is to be deprecated. Four such evils are here mentioned—two connected with men, two with women.
The first evil mentioned is "a servant who becomes king." This is a serious evil in the family, whether it arises from the mismanagement of the master or from the servant's own intrigue. He is obviously out of place; ruling where he ought to serve, he will certainly bring disorder.
Then look at the fool (not an idiot, but a willful sinner) who is full of food. Can we wonder that he causes trouble and is a curse, since he gives full rein to his appetite and becomes even more devoid of understanding than before?
Look again into the inner room of the family. We are told about an unloved woman who is [becomes] married. Some wed out of desire and not love; marriage is then the ordinance of lust and not of godliness.
The last evil noticed is a frequent source of family trouble—a maidservant who displaces her mistress. Lack of discipline or integrity leads to waywardness and self-indulgence. So the house, instead of being under wholesome rule, becomes prey to envy and strife. Our own history presents sad illustrations of this intolerable evil. Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour were maidservants who unhappily displaced their respective mistresses while living in the affections of the sovereign. The royal example of selfishness and lust was a national grievance, in which the maidservants were not wholly guiltless.
How necessary it is to be consistent in every part of our Christian lives. Oh, let us be careful that no lack of wisdom, godly contentment, or self-denial brings reproach on that worthy name by which we are called.
24-28. "Four things on earth are small, yet they are extremely wise: Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer; coneys are creatures of little power, yet they make their home in the crags; locusts have no king, yet they advance together in ranks; a lizard can be caught with the hand, yet it is found in kings' palaces." The mind of man spreads over the length and breadth of creation and draws instruction from every part of the universe presented to his senses. Everywhere God teaches us by his works as well as by his Word. The stupid beasts reprove our ingratitude (Isaiah 1:3). The birds of the air rebuke our inattention (Jeremiah 8:7) and our unbelieving anxieties (Matthew 6:26), and lilies rebuke our anxious fears (Matthew 6:29-31).
Agur had before mentioned four things that seemed to be great but were really despicable. Here he produces four things on earth that are small, yet they are extremely wise. Therefore, do not despise them because of their size, but admire the wonder-working hand that has made these little creatures with such sufficient means of provision, defense, and safety. As has been beautifully remarked, "God reigns in a community of ants and ichneumons [flies] as visibly as among living men or mighty seraphim" (McCheyne). Truly nothing was made for no purpose. The world of instinct shows that which will put to shame our higher world of reason. Yes, these four remarkable instances of almighty skill, the natures and habits of these four little animals, teach many useful and important lessons, to which the greatest philosopher might attend with profit.
"Industry is commended to us by all sorts of examples, deserving our regard and imitation. All nature is a copy thereof, and the whole world a glass [mirror], wherein we may behold this duty represented to us. Every creature about us is incessantly working toward the ends for which it was designed, indefatigably exercising the powers with which it is endued, diligently observing the laws of its creation" (Barrow). The ants have already brought the lesson before us (6:6-8). They indeed have little strength. Thousands are crushed by one tread of the foot; yet they store up their food in the summer. A quickening sermon do these little insects preach to us as they prepare for the coming winter. What must be the thoughtlessness of men who make no provision for the coming eternity!
"Coneys are creatures of little power, yet they make their home in the crags." Although they have little power, coneys secure themselves from impending danger by making their home in the crags, holes in inaccessible rocks. Thus what they lack in strength, they make up in wisdom. Is not our refuge, like theirs, in the "mountain fortress" (Isaiah 33:16)? And are we, like them, making our home there?
Observe again the instinct of the locusts. Some insects, like the bee, are under monarchical government. But locusts have no king. Yet how wonderful is their order as they advance together in ranks, like an army under the strictest discipline. Do not these little insects give us a lesson on the importance of unity and unanimous movement?
The lizard is found in kings' palaces as well as in the cottages of the poor, as if God would instruct even the great ones of the earth by its pattern of diligence.
The general lesson to learn from these diminutive teachers is the importance of acting wisely according to the principles of their nature as the best means to secure the greatest amount of happiness of which they are capable. God has provided for every creature and for its own happiness. How many of us stand condemned by the sermons of these little insects! Let us not be too proud to learn or too careless to attend to the humbling but most valuable lessons taught in this school of instruction. Let the wise listen and add to their learning (1:5).
29-31. "There are three things that are stately in their stride, four that move with stately bearing: a lion, mighty among beasts, who retreats before nothing; a strutting rooster, a he-goat, and a king with his army around him. Agur naturally lingers on this vast field of natural wonders. They are such a splendid exhibition of divine perfections. They are the source of so much light to the world, before the book of revelation was fully opened (Job 12:7-10). After mentioning some striking instances of wisdom, he now singles out a few objects that appeared to him marvelous for their stately bearing: a lion___a rooster, a he-goat, and a king.
Let us take note not only about the various duties of the Christian life, but also about the manner and spirit of their performance. Cultivate not only the integrity but the beauty of Christian character. Christians should be attractive and engaging by the courtesy of their general demeanor. Any obvious lack of such beauty repels the world from the Gospel of Christ. "If we desire to reign in heaven, we must present ourselves there with this beautiful crown, from whence radiate all kinds of virtue and praise" (Daille).
32-33. "If you have played the fool and exalted yourself, or if you have planned evil, clap your hand over your mouth! For as churning the milk produces butter, and as twisting the nose produces blood, so stirring up anger produces strife." A humble heart will repress the sparks of this unholy fire. A spirit sorrowing for the evil of our thoughts is an essential part of the cure (Ecclesiastes 7:4). We should not readily indulge the sin for which we have been truly humbled before our God. When we lack this genuine spirit, how reluctant we are to acknowledge our offense toward each other! How difficult it is for us with our proud tempers to be the first to put a hand over our mouths! We are quicker to open our mouths in self-justification than in self-abasement. Oh, hasten the blessed time when the church will be fully transformed into the image of her divine Lord, when it will be a church of perfect love in a world of love.