Proverbs 30: 1-33

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Proverbs 30:1-33

“The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, even the prophecy: the man spake unto Ithiel, even unto Ithiel and Ucal, 2 Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man. 3 I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy. 4 Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell? 5 Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. 6 Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. 7 Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die: 8 Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: 9 lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? Or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain. 10 Accuse not a servant unto his master, lest he curse thee, and thou be found guilty. 11 There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother. 12 There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness. 13 There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up. 14 There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men. 15 The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough: 16 The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough. 17 The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it. 18 There are three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I knew not: 19 The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid. 20 Such is the way of an adulteress woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness. 21 For three things the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot bear: 22 for a servant when he reigneth; and a fool when he is filled with meat; 23 for an odious woman when she is married; and an handmaid that is heir to her mistress. 24 There are four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceedingly wise: 25 the ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in summer; 26 the conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks; 27 the locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands; 28 the spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings’ palaces. 29 There be three things which go well, yea, four are comely in going: 30 a lion which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any; 31 a greyhound; an he goat also; and a king, against whom there is no rising up. 32 If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon they mouth. 33 Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood: so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife.”

Introduction

Who God Is And What Is Man By Comparison

“The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, even the prophecy: the man spake unto Ithiel, even unto Ithiel and Ucal,” (verse 1) “the prophecy,” so we know this is Divine revelation. Now we don’t know who Agur is, have no idea. You can kind of go into the Hebrew and dig up the meaning for these names, but we have no idea who the people are. You don’t want to get caught there, because what they’re saying is the thing that’s so profound, you don’t have to figure out whose saying it, because we know here it’s a prophecy, so whoever they are that are saying it, they’re only saying it because they’re moved because God is saying it, they’re moved with the Holy Spirit of God. So whoever these people are, they’re speaking prophetically, and this is God talking to us. So, “The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, even the prophecy:” so this is the prophecy of Agur, this is coming through him from Almighty God, it is Divine, “the man spake unto Ithiel, even unto Ithiel and Ucal,” (verse 1) and this is what he said, “Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man.” (verse 2) He says to these young men, ‘Look, I’m like a beast, I’m a sinner saved by grace, I’ve got nothing, truly I am more brutish than any man, I have not the understanding of a man.’ “I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy.” (verse 3) and then he asks some questions to prove it. But when he asks these questions, you see where his mind is, no doubt he’s been in the presence of God, and no wonder he’s saying ‘I’m just a brutish man, it doesn’t have anything to do with me.’ Look, he says “Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth?” and the Hebrew is interesting, it’s “who” the one who has ascended, “and who” the one who has descended, and “who” the one whose gathered the wind in his palms, “and who” the one who has bound the waters in a garment, “and who” the one who has established all the ends of the earth, and look what he says. “what is his name, and what is son’s name, if thou canst tell? (verse 4) That is an incredibly remarkable verse from the Old Testament. This guy Agur says ‘I’m going to speak prophetically, it isn’t something I’ve learned, it isn’t anything I can ever take to myself,’ he said ‘in the presence of these things I just feel like a beast, I feel like a brutish man.’ You see Isaiah, he said ‘the day that king Uzziah died, I saw the LORD high, lifted up, his train filled the Temple, you know when I saw that, I said Woe is me, I’m a man of unclean lips.’ Daniel says, when he saw the LORD in his glory, he said, ‘All my comeliness, my beauty turned to ashes.’ You go through all the great men, when you finally, you really encounter the presence of the Living God, there is a crumbling of self, an incredible sense ‘LORD, I’m such a sinful man,’ that the crushing sense of his presence is that of his love and of his grace, and it becomes so heavy you can hardly breathe. This man, no doubt, had experienced something in the presence of God to ask the questions that he asks, and look he says ‘I’m more brutish than any man, it’s not because I have the understanding of a man, I haven’t learned this kind of wisdom, I don’t have the knowledge of the holy, I’m stunned by him, I’m staggered by his presence, I come in contact with him, I have a thousand unanswered questions, I’m undone, I’m overwhelmed, Who has ascended into heaven?’ when he encounters this One, he knows there’s an ascending, ‘Or who has descended, whose the One whose come down?’ Isn’t that remarkable? ‘Who hath gathered the wind, the air currents of the world, in his palm, his hands?’ ‘and who hath bound up the waters in a garment, placed them within something that holds them?’ “who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell?” (verse 4c) You know in the Old Testament we say Jehovah, Yahovah, from the YHVH, it’s the elongation of that, which is the name the Jews knew, YHVH. How do you say YHVH? That was his name. What is his name, how do you say that? What is his name, and look, “what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell?” whose son? The one who ascends, the one who descends, the one who gathers the wind in his palm, the one whose bound up the oceans of the earth to their borders like in a garment, the one who has established all the ends of the earth. ‘What is his name? His Son? What is his Son’s name, if you can tell?’ Isn’t that remarkable? And he says this, “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.” (verse 5) ‘He, this one who has this Son, is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.’ So this One, who can not be known and measured by the natural mind, who is this who has ascended, descended, how do we measure the One who controls all of the air currents of the earth, how do we measure the One whose taken the oceans and put them within borders, we can’t even say his name or his Son’s name, he can’t be known, who is he, how do we do this with the natural mind?

How Can We Know This Incredible God?

And then he says this, this God who can’t be known by the natural mind is a God who wants to be known by his people. He is a God who communicates, and he has given us his Word. What we can’t know by the natural mind of an infinite, omnipotent, omniscient God whose immeasurable, we can know him by his Word. Look, “Every word of God is pure:” the Hebrew says “Every word of God has been refined,” there isn’t a single word, this is why inerrancy is so important [as the Word was originally written in the Hebrew and Greek]. It doesn’t say ‘Most of the words of God are trustworthy,’ as some of our ‘brilliant’ professors, professing themselves to be wise, have said ‘You can trust most of the Bible, the Bible contains the Word of God.’ No, no, that’s not what the Bible says about itself, it says ‘God is unknowable to the natural mind.’ In creation we can say there’s a God, there’s a power there, it tells us in Romans 1, but we can’t know him, can’t know his Son, we can’t know the Gospel in nature [from looking at the natural around us]. So it says then, “Every word of God is pure:” “every word has been refined.” And here’s the truth, “he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.” (verse 5) the one who has revealed himself in his Word. If we believe that every word has been refined, and stepping into and living in the Scripture, it becomes a shield to us, because we put our truth in the One whose revealed there. Then we should immediately understand verse 6 where it says, “Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” ‘lest he rebuke thee, chasten thee, and you be found out to be a liar.’ God is unknowable, incredible, immeasurable, his glory is unspeakable, we get to heaven, when this corruption puts on incorruption, this mortal puts on immortality, when we see him, we will fall on our faces. The cherubim, with their four faces, face of a man, face of an eagle, face of an ox, face of a lion, he blows all of their minds, and forever they’ve been falling down saying ‘Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord God Almighty, who was, who is, and who is to come. All things are created for your pleasure,’ we never grow tired of it because it’s always new, because he’s unending, and every time we look at him in eternity there’s something we’ve never seen before. We are being conformed into his image, again, that process, we have a destiny that’s not just a place, it’s an image. But because he’s infinite and we’re finite, we will always be approaching and never arriving at the full stature throughout all of eternity. Which means every time we look at him, we will see something that makes us fall down on our faces again. It will never grow old, he fadeth not away, it never gets old, it never wears out, ever. Who can know this God? Who can measure him? Who can understand him? What is his name, what is his Son’s name? This is remarkable. We walk in so much light in the New Testament. Every word of this God has been refined. That’s how he’s revealed himself, he is a shield, a protector unto them that put their trust in him, the God who has revealed himself in his Word. So don’t add to his words then, don’t mess with it, lest he chastise you, and you be found to be a liar. Don’t add, it tells us in Deuteronomy, don’t diminish from it, which means don’t even take a little bit away from it. Scholars should read that [especially Wescott and Hort]. Don’t diminish, don’t even take a tiny weeny bit away from it. We have it the way we’re supposed to have it, it’s alive, it’s powerful, it’s sharper than any two-edged sword, you and I were born-again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, the Word of God has given life to us, keeps us, is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, it’s like the rain and snow that comes down from heaven, it always accomplishes in us what it’s set forth to do, it never returns void. Jesus said ‘Sanctify them through thy truth, thy Word is truth’ not thy word is true, but ‘Thy word is truth itself, pure, having been completely refined, come to us.’ I don’t know about you guys, but I like that. I’m gonna watch the debates on Thursday night, but whoever wins that, is not the person I’m waiting for. I’m interested, but I’m really waiting for someone else to show up, if you know what I mean. I’m not waiting for what I hear on Foxnews, I’m waiting for the sound of a Trumpet and the voice of the archangel, I’m waiting for the Son to come and to call our name, and to carry us across the threshold as his Bride. Are you with me there? Ah, read ahead, Proverbs, next week are some just remarkable things there we’ll come into…you know, we just hear these things, how do you know these things, a mystery, the way of a ship upon the sea, the way of a snake, a serpent on a rock, the way of an eagle in the air, a man with a maid, we can’t figure that out, we have some great things coming up. So, let’s stand, let’s pray…

In review from last week

Proverbs chapter 30, a prophecy, you remember by Agur the son of Jakeh, Proverbs 30, verse 1, and he realized as he was in the presence of the LORD, telling us this was prophetic, and one of the things that you can’t help realizing when you’re in his presence, is he says early, ‘I am more brutish than any man, I don’t have the understanding of a man, I haven’t learned with wisdom, the knowledge of the holy,’ God has touched his heart, he is realizing what he is in his mortality before a holy God, ‘Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists, or bound the waters in a garment? who hath established the ends of the earth?’ the idea is, how can you know these things? they’re unknowable. And wonderfully, the Old Testament, ‘What is his name?’ and amazing, ‘What is his Son’s name, if you can tell?’ This God, unknowable in his person, unsearchable, omnipotent, omniscient, yet has decided to reveal himself, he has made that decision. That which the natural mind can’t conceive, you know, he’s gathered the oceans in his hand, he’s ascended, he’s descended, he’s bounded the waters in a garment, how can you know these things, how do you know his name, Yahweh in the Old Testament. But he says this “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.” (verse 5) and this is where we left off. “is pure” the idea is ‘has been refined.’ What can you find in this world without alloy, who can you find in politics or in gold or silver or in the world we’re surrounded with something or someone without some measure of compromise or pollution? He says his Word has been refined, it is completely pure, God’s Word, and he is a shield to them that put their trust in him, through his Word, obviously, is what he’s saying here. He says “Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” (verse 6) Now, the idea is, this is the One who ascended up to heaven, he gathers the wind in his fists, bound up the waters in a garment, established the ends of the earth, what’s his name, what’s his Son’s name, we know this, every word from him is without alloy, it’s completely pure, it’s completely trustable, it’s reliable, you can lean on it, you can bet your life on it. And he’s a shield to them that put their trust in him. ‘So don’t add unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and you end up found to be a liar.’ And this is what the Bible tells us from Genesis to Revelation, not to add to it, not to take away from it, over and over again. And look, very important, because right now we live within a culture where a huge part of the Church [greater Body of Christ] is I think afraid to stand up and say ‘This is the Word of the Lord.’ I don’t care what society says, what’s legislated doesn’t take precedence over God’s eternal Word. And the point of it is, you know people are trying to it, ‘Well it needs to be made culturally relevant, it needs to be bound to the times we live in,’ no, no, what we’re saying is, this has come from the One whose unknowable, immeasurable, he’s eternal, it’s his Word. And if it’s his Word, there’s no new improved version of it, because there’s no new improved version of God. He’s the one who was, and is, and is to come, he knows the end from the beginning, and his Word is never new and improved, it is eternal, and it stands in every culture of human society, and society has been sinful throughout human history, and his Word never changes. So, as we move into these remarkable things, it’s telling us, we can listen to his Word tonight, we can trust in it. It doesn’t have to be modernized, it doesn’t have to be brought up to speed with a culture, it’s eternal, it’s powerful, it’s alive, it has its own dynamic, and it accomplishes what he sends it forth to do, and it never returns void, it gives life, it’s a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path, those things never change, in any age.

Remove From Me Vanity & Lies, Bless Me With Neither Too Much Or Too Little

Verse 7, Agur says this, “Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die:” now King James says “have I required,” now if he’s the one who holds the ends of the earth, and holds the oceans, you don’t require anything of him. The Hebrew says “Two things have I asked,” that’s much better, isn’t it? Considering what we’re doing here. “Two things have I asked of thee; deny me them not before I die: remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.” (verses 7-9) i.e. ‘this is what I want in my life,’ not just remove from me, ‘remove far from me, vanity and lies.’ Sounds like the world we live in. Doesn’t it? “remove far from vanity and lies.” The Psalmist (David) said the same thing in Psalm 119, he said “Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity,” he said, “remove from me the way of lying,” these were requests, here Agur affirming those things. He says ‘LORD, I want two things, one is, remove far from me, you have to do it, you have to remove it, because if you don’t LORD, I’m going to struggle here, remove far from me, I need you to do this, vanity, emptiness, nonsense.’ We live in a world that’s consumed with vanity. ‘Remove far from me vanity, and lies, LORD, please.’ Secondly, he says ‘Give me neither (remarkably) poverty nor riches” now there’s a lot of us willing to pray ‘Don’t give me poverty, please LORD, don’t give me poverty.’ It takes a remarkable character, and trust and faith, to say to God ‘LORD, don’t give me riches.’ No doubt Agur had observed Solomon, and in his days it says silver was so common it was like rocks on the hills, gold was immeasurable. And Solomon turned away, followed the gods of his wives. This man evidently watching that, says ‘Remove far from me vanity and lies, and give me neither poverty nor riches, but rather feed me with food convenient for me,’ the idea is, “enough,” it conveys the idea of “feed me with what’s necessary,” or “in moderation, what’s right for me.” Here’s his reasons, “Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.” (verse 9) ‘I don’t want to be so wealthy, so blessed, I forget to be dependent upon you, and I say ‘Who is the LORD?’ “deny” is “disavow, disown” is the idea. ‘Lest I deny thee, and be full, and say ‘Whose the LORD?’ or lest I be poor and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.’ Jesus said it this way, ‘Give us our daily bread, give us today our daily bread, Lord, give us what we need.’ We’re passing through, we’re not staying here, you know, sometimes we’ll be out riding around and my wife will say ‘Look at that house, look at that house!...’ and I’ll say ‘Honey, our mansion’s waiting for us, and this don’t even compare, so just be patient.’ ‘But in this world, LORD, don’t bless me so much I forget about you, that I’m not dependent on you, and don’t leave me in that place LORD where I’m so poor, I’m struggling, I’m tempted to steal, and in that bring shame to your name, and take your name in vain.’

Don’t Let Trifles Become Troubles

I’m not sure how this connects, “Accuse not a servant unto his master, lest he curse thee, and thou be found guilty.” (verse 10) Jesus would say ‘Remove the beam from your own eye before you want to take the mote out of somebody else’s eye.’ It is not saying that we should never correct someone [unless it’s a scorner, you get a blot for that. Remember?]. It’s not saying we should always remain silent to the hurt or destruction of others [“Open rebuke is better than secret love.”], that’s not what it’s saying. What it’s saying, one old Puritan said, it’s saying ‘Don’t let trifles become troubles.’ There’s a measure of grace we extend to everyone, because we’re sinners, we’re all the same. So, “Accuse not a servant unto his master, lest he curse thee, and thou be found guilty.” i.e. you’re made of the same stuff.

Four Evil Types Of Generations In Society Around Us

Now, verses 11 down to verse 14, we hear “there is a generation, there is a generation, there is a generation,” it gives us four pictures, the idea is, these generations are in every generation. There is this group in every society and every culture. He says this, “There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother.” (verse 11) there is, in every culture, an atmosphere that genders to disrespect. You know, young people treating their parents like they’re peers, like they know as much as they do. And particularly in our culture with the media, that kind of thing is always cooking. The Book of Leviticus said, “For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.” a lot of us wouldn’t be here. He that curseth his father or his mother, that shall be his punishment, because there’s divine order, when you come to the end of the chapter you see in all of these things there’s divine order. [Comment: the death penalty and punishment parts of God’s Law are no longer application, one because when God’s Law was given, it was given to the theocratic nation of Israel as it’s Constitution, for the running of a society, not a church. It was both religious and social law all rolled up into one. But it does not apply that way now, for one, because that theocratic nation of Israel no longer exists. The Israeli nation is a democracy right now. The House of Israel and the House of Judah ceased to exist as nations, one in 721BC and the other in 70AD and 135AD. Also, the Church, greater Body of Christ, has no authority found within the Bible to apply God’s OT Law as a Constitutional law of the land, it has now to be applied spiritually within the lives of believers. If a person continually breaks God’s laws in a church, the worse that can happen, as the Apostle showed in 1^st Corinthians 5, is that person can be kicked out of the church, that’s it.] You know, it says ‘Honour your mother,’ ‘Well I don’t like my mother,’ you need to pray. Because she lay somewhere screaming and squeezed you out on a table somewhere. You wouldn’t be here complaining about her if God didn’t use her as the instrument to give you physical life. Now, it says ‘Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, doesn’t stand in the way of sinners,’ now if our parents are unsaved, we’re certainly not to let them counsel us into doing sinful things and so forth. But, we are to honour them, we are to respect them, we’re to love them. And he says ‘There’s something that happens in every culture, where that gets thrown out the window.’ Listen, there was a patriarchal aspect to the culture in this day, which was wonderful. The oldest living grandpa, greatgrandpa, grandma, greatgrandma, family had a measure of clout and respect, and was able to speak to the family, from experience, from years, some of those things, those are just facts, been alive longer, been through more, older, sometimes there’s great value there. But it says, you know, in every generation of people, there’s a group that’s so disrespectful, they curse their father, they refuse to bless their mother.

The Generation That’s Pure In Their Own Eyes But Covered In Filth

“There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.” (verse 12) very interesting, it’s not just talking about the self-righteous, there’s certainly hypocritical people that are like this, but it’s says ‘There’s a generation that are pure in their own eyes,’ ah, the Hebrew says “not washed from their excrement, they remain in their filthiness.” those of you who are Biblical, hang with me, those of you who are rookies, I’m not gonna elaborate on that. It’s the same word used in Zechariah chapter 3, where Joshua, the high priest, it says ‘he was clothed with filthy garments, he stood before the angel, and he answered and spake unto those who stood by, saying, Take away the filthy garments, excrement-stained garments, from him. And unto him he said Behold I cause your iniquity to pass away…’ it’s a picture of that, here again, this is somebody whose messed themselves, somebody who needs their diaper changed is the idea. There’s a generation, they’re pure in their own eyes, but there’s great disparity and irony here, it says, ‘but they’re still in their own excrement and they’ve not been washed.’ so you can smell that person from a mile away. You just know who it is when they’re coming.

There Is The Proud, Arrogant, ‘They’re Always Right’ Generation

“There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up.” (verse 13) Arrogance, pride, truth dwells with them, you can never tell them anything, always have to have the last answer.

There Are Always Tyrants, Dictators

“There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.” (verse 14) the reason, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men, there are always tyrants, and there are always oppressors. There are always Adolf Hitler’s in every age, there are always those people. And no doubt Satan would have put a Napoleon in or a Hitler in, or he would have installed an antichrist if God wasn’t restraining him until the proper times. There are always those, sadly, because of the fallen nature of man, and man’s inability to minister to his fellow man, mankind, that are devourers and tyrants.

Four Things That Say ‘It Is Not Enough’

Now, picture, verses 15-16, “The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough: the grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough.” Horseleach has two daughters, twins, and they say the same thing, Give, give. Ah, the horseleach, for your own information, in Israel, the alucah, there was one leach that people in ancient times would put on, and it would suck blood, they were superstitious, but they felt it did certain things, I guess if you got enough of them it would lower your blood pressure. But this was a specific leach that was disdained, because the horse would bow down to drink out of the pond of water, and it would get inside of his nose, inside of his mouth, and the bite of it was painful. The ancient translators gave it the name “Vampire,” so this is a bloodsucker. And burn ‘em off it you get them on there. Have a friend that smokes a cigarette and have him burn it off. “The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give.” I want you to keep that picture of something sucking inside of your nose, just to keep you paying attention. “There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough: the grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough.” (verses 15b-16) the horseleach is leading him into these things. Yea, there are four things that say It is enough, they’re never satisfied. Number one, he says, the grave or sheol, the unseen realm, never full, never satisfied. The human race has been the longest funeral procession in history, never satisfied. For every 100 people born, 100 people die, they’ve never beaten the odds. The barren womb, is never satisfied, you think of Hannah and Sarah in the Scripture, we read, sometimes in our own church, just the heartache of it, fertility and the doctors and the money that’s spent, it’s a dissatisfaction. The earth that is not filled with water, during drought, the earth being dried up. And the fire that saith not, it is enough, fire consumes, it never says it’s enough. So he gives us these four pictures here. Two of them give life, two of them take away, the land and the womb are made by God to give, to produce, to yield. And the grave and fire take away, consume. And in the natural order of things, something that’s made to give, something that’s made to provide, if it isn’t doing what God made it to do, is never satisfied, never happy. I would take that to heart, sometimes we think getting is going to make us happy. The truth is, sometimes, that’s why Jesus said ‘It’s more blessed to give than to receive,’ there is a part of us, not content unless it gives, there is a part of life that is never satisfied, and is always taking away, these four things. Observations here.

Watch Out For Those Dirty Looks You Give Your Parents

And then he says, “The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.” (verse 17) Look, this is funny, this is just the eye that mocketh his father, despises to obey his mother, this is just a dirty look, you know, your mom says ‘Do this.’ Your father says ‘You know what, we’re gonna have to have a talk,’ there’s that look. Listen, don’t laugh, listen to what it says, “The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.” (verse 17) just in case you’re wondering how God feels about somebody that does that to their parents. I’d get sunglasses or something if I was you.

Four Mysteries

“There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not: the way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.” (verses 18-19) these are mysterious things. The way of an eagle, I love eagles, and I can talk right now easy for a half hour about eagles [I could do the same about Turkey Vultures, who are even better gliders than eagles]. I’m just an eagle guy. I love eagles. I won’t bore you, but I can tell you some things about eagles that would blow your mind, but I won’t do it. I could. [laughter] But Agur’s making an observation in regards to their height, in regards to the way they move, they have five different kinds of feathers, their bones are lighter than their feathers, their meat is their weight, their muscle is their strength, but many of them, particularly in this part of the world, would build their nest on a rock or ledge, they get up in the morning, they preen their feathers, they clean their feathers. And as the rock heats up there starts to be an updraft, they wait till there’s on updraft [Turkey Vultures do the same, they very seldom fly on cloudy days unless it’s windy]. And their vision is 8 times stronger than a human being’s, they can read a newspaper from a block away, they can see a rabbit from a half mile. So, they’re looking at their breakfast while they’re getting their feathers ready, they’re just doing that, and when the updraft is there they just step off the edge, they don’t have to flap, the updraft just takes them and they go [same with Turkey Vultures], and they can go up above 10,000 feet, and there are some very remarkable things about them. To see the way they dive, their home, they’ll mate for life, remarkable things about them. But, he’s saying, there’s a way, it’s the way of all of that he says, you can’t measure it, he’s going to make a point. Then he says, it’s the same thing, the way of a serpent on a rock, there’s no kind of path before them, there’s no trail behind it. The eagle moves, nothing’s mapped out, there’s no particular way behind it, and once it’s gone, it doesn’t leave a trail behind it. The serpent on the sand, you can actually see the trail on the sand, and say that’s a snake. But the way of a serpent on a rock, how do you know that? It’s like trying to know the way of an eagle’s way in the air, the serpent’s way on the rock, you can’t know it, they can move across the rock, but you can’t know the path that was before them, and they left no trail behind them. The way of a ship in the midst of the sea, in the heart of the sea, it moves, it leaves a wake, but within several minutes it’s gone, there’s nothing, no trail, no trace of it. There’s a way to nail down it’s way, the way it does the things it does. And the way of a man with a maid, who ever could figure that out? We always have two disparities at church, you have to say to the single girls, ‘Look, you have to have, get a Christian guy,’ ‘But all the Christian guys in church are weird,’ we have 20 wedding on the book, it can’t be true, people are meeting people. Or the guy, ‘Well there’s no Christian girls,’ what are you talking about? But then this thing happens, where two people look at each other, and zzzzzap!, the music, you know, lights, then they start to wear deodorant, you can tell [laughter]. Fingernails get cleaned, just remarkable things just start to happen, and it’s mysterious, how do you measure that, how could you aim the connection, how can you measure the results of that when it comes out? How do you do that? [and the mystery continues throughout the marriage too, how do you figure that woman out? Pastor Joe is still trying to do that.] Now look, he’s saying all that for a reason, it’s the Word of God [God created all the hormones, in both men and women, different ones, and something called “chemistry” a man and woman will feel toward each other, and no one else. Science has never been able to figure that one out, probably never will, what triggers that chemistry.] Look at verse 20, it’s where he’s headed, “Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.” like the way of an eagle in the air, you can’t trace it, it leaves no trail, the way of a serpent upon a rock, there’s no path before it, no trail behind it, a ship in the midst of the sea, there’s a way of a man with a maid that’s proper, but such is the way of an adulteress, she eateth, she partakes of adultery, then she’s like somebody who just wipes her mouth, there’s no trail, says ‘I haven’t done anything wrong.’ And what it’s saying to us, all of us, in regards to sexual sin, pornography, the things that would draw us in, we have to take heed to God’s Word, because that temptation, and the way the enemy can work behind the scenes, the way things can be arranged in our lives, it’s like the way of an eagle in the air, you can’t know that. It’s like the way of a serpent on a rock, there’s no clue to where it was going, there’s no trail left behind, the way of a ship in the sea and so forth, this person who may arise in your life, a guy, a gal, a secretary, a helper, somebody who pats you on your back, your spouse isn’t listening, she tells you how smart you are, there’s a way to that. It’s not knowable. And the person who gets involved in that, when shame ceases, ruin then will sit in. It’s just all there is to it. When shame ceases, ruin becomes the ending. When someone can just wipe their mouth and say ‘Didn’t happen,’ sneak out, sneak back. So David said, ‘Before thee, and thee only have I sinned, I’ve done this great evil in thy sight, but when I didn’t confess it, it ate me up, my bones were dry, I was consumed.’ Remarkable pictures to present a lesson in these things.

Four Things That Disturb Human Existence

Verses 21-23, says “For three things the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot bear: for a servant when he reigneth; and a fool when he is filled with meat; for an odious woman when she is married; and an handmaid that is heir to her mistress.” ‘Three things that disturb human existence, and for four which it can not bear.’ The first thing it says is ‘for a servant when he reigneth.’ The Hebrew says “when a slave becomes a king.” (verse 22a) Obviously, when he becomes a king, the earth becomes disquieted, you have a king, the idea is here, it doesn’t say there are people who don’t work themselves up from their bootstraps, there are people that do that, it doesn’t say that it isn’t good to move yourself forward [there have been owners or editors of newspapers, who started out as paperboys, errand boys in a large newspaper, that’s good, that person knows the ropes from one end of the business to the other.] The idea is so typically if someone who was a slave, who has a different mindset, when they become in total authority, a king, monarchy, that they’re tyrants, the earth is disquieted, they can’t handle power, they don’t belong there. But sometimes through one means or another, they end up in that place, it isn’t the place they belong. Now look, there is a power that works behind the scenes, Isaiah 14 describes Satan, Satan saying ‘I’ll be like the Most High God, I’m gonna sit on the side of the north, the congregation, I’m going to be like the Most High, I’m gonna do this,’ so there’s something of this type of promotion that’s wrong. And the wrong person ending up in the wrong place by the wrong means, it says that kind of thing can disquiet a entire nation, an entire culture. It can happen. It happened to Hitler’s Germany. He says “and a fool when he is filled with meat;” (verse 22b) now everybody come in Saturday, this is a wise men meat fellowship, you don’t have to worry about any of that. But the idea is, when a fool’s filled with meat, he’s prospering, in this culture, you weren’t typically filled with meat, you might have had a belly full of dates, or figs, but you have a picture here, this is a fool living a life of luxury, filled with meat, it’s trouble [like a Dumb & Dumber coming into wealth, or the Beverly Hillbillies], Luke tells us in the last days, Jesus says in Luke’s Gospel that we should look out that our hearts are not overcharged with drunkenness and surfeiting, with indulgence, so that day that is coming on this world doesn’t come upon us like a snare. There’s something wrong with that, it says, when a fool is sitting around full of meat. “For an odious woman when she is married;” (verse 23a) that’s not odorous, that’s a different kind of problem, that’s a problem in and of itself, an odorous woman when she’s married. But this is odious, the Hebrew word has the idea ‘she’s hated or she’s despised,’ that can be wrongly, or that can be rightly, I mean, obviously Jezebel had disquieted the earth in her influence of Ahab [Ahab had married a Sidonian priestess of Baal], she was a hated woman, she was odious. You think of Herodias, she got John the Baptist’s head on a platter, Salome the daughter of Herodias, Herodias got her daughter to do that. It could be in this culture, when a man had a barren wife, she was despised, she was looked down on, and we see those pictures sadly through Scriptures sometimes also. Sometimes the husband is trapped in that marriage, she is a hated woman for one reason or another, it could be rightly it could be wrongly. “and an handmaid that is heir to her mistress.” (verse 23b) the Hebrew says “a handmaid when she disposes her mistress.” it doesn’t even say the mistress dies. The handmaid, slave-girl disposes the mistress, that could be related to Hagar, Sarah and Hagar, it says when Hagar got pregnant, Sarah saw she was despised in her eyes. That can be trouble, it can be disquieting, it can cause all kinds of problems [watch Downton Abbey, the series]. But the same thing, you can have a slave-girl [in that society] through immorality, through one practice or another, then this is talking about the wrong way, obviously, she ends up to disposes her mistress, breaks up a marriage, it’s disquieting, it’s wrong [modern application, when the husband runs off with the babysitter], it shouldn’t happen.

Lessons From Four Things That Are Little Upon The Earth

Verse 24, “There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceedingly wise: the ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in summer; the conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks; the locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them in bands; the spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings palaces.” (verses 24-28) conies, hyraces, we see them when we’re in Israel. King James says “the spider” it’s a hard text, it’s probably the lizard, many scholars feel that way, because when you try to get the sense of it, it sometimes seems like a saying, the lizard that you can take hold of with your hand, now that wouldn’t be a spider, can’t grab a spider by the hands, so that lends itself to the lizard. If we’re talking about the animal that takes hold with her hands, the gecko seems to be the Hebrew word here. The idea here is, there are lizards that can walk up glass, they have little suction things, these tiny ridges, remarkable. So this fourth one here, I’m going to stick with the lizard if you don’t mind. “the lizard taketh hold with her hands, and is in the kings palaces.” So here are these four things, they’re small, and yet they accomplish these remarkable things. What the exhortation is here, as we look at these things, look, physical limitations can be compensated for. Whatever limitation you have, physically, mentally, our limitations can be compensated for, because God’s design always protects and it provides. The ants prepare, the conies take refuge, the locusts unify, the lizard takes hold, even in Solomon’s palace, in the king’s palace. And he’s putting these things before us.

The Lesson Of The Ants

The ants, they say there are 15,000 species of ants. And I’m sure there’s some they haven’t found yet, it’s just my conviction. I’m sure there’s 15,035. But they say there’s 15,000 species of ants, they all have one thing in common, they all prepare. They know less about the future than you and I do, but they all prepare for it. For the ants, the State is king, they’re Communists, they’re Socialists, everybody does their job, everybody functions in their place, nobody complains, there’s no strikes, there’s no unions, they all do what they do, and they prepare. And what it’s saying to us here is, look, and there are sermons being preached all around us [by the ants], and the God that created Leviathan and the elephants, the great whales, who controls the planets in their orbits, that does things that are beyond our comprehension, the huge things, is the same God that manages the world where the ant and the lizard and the locusts are, so that remarkable things go on there. And the ants are saying to us, ‘Look, we’re not strong, we lack strength. But our limitations are compensated for, because we function the way God made us to function, and we are industrious about preparing.’ As we go through these, one of the old Puritans has said, “This is the place where instinct gives blush to reason.” You get me there? Instinct gives blush to, embarrasses human reasoning, which is much higher. Because God didn’t make you and I to function by instinct, he gave us the ability to reason, created in his image and likeness [i.e. by our reasoning and higher levels of thought, we as a race are creators, creating new things out of the chemicals of the ground, cars, radios, computers, highways, aircraft, trains, ships, things that didn’t exist before. God is a creator, and we were created in his image as creators as well]. And God is saying to us that can reason, reason about this, look at the ants. Intuitively they know, and they’re industrious, that then need to prepare, because something’s coming [i.e. winter]. How many times in our lives do we think, ‘You know, I just know it, I need to stop this, I know I need to do this,’ and yet we don’t cooperate. We’ve been given freedom, we’ve been given the ability of reason [and what do we do with it, create atomic and hydrogen bombs]. And here he’s saying, look at the ants, they have no strength, and yet they compensate, they’re industrious, they get things done, and the future is prepared for, consider them. Just think about them, he says.

The Lesson Of The Conies

He says the conies, hyraces, we see them in Israel, they’re like the groundhogs that live in bushes and high ground, he says they’re feeble folk, they don’t move in community, like the ants do. He said they’re feeble, and yet here’s what we learn from them, they make their houses in the rock, they take refuge, they understand because of their lack, because of their limitations, that through instinct that they need to take refuge, they can’t trust in their own strength, they’re feeble folk. If you look around this room, you know what you see? A bunch of feeble folk. Are we wise enough to know that we need to take refuge in the Rock? They do it by instinct, is instinct giving blush to reasoning? ‘I know I need to trust the Lord, I know I need to spend time with him in the morning, I know I need to read his Word, I know I shouldn’t be dating this girl…’ no, run to him, take refuge in him, take refuge in him. We don’t know what this world is bringing on us tomorrow. We don’t know what tomorrow holds, but we do know who holds tomorrow. The conies, let them speak to us, they’re feeble folk, yet they make their house in the rock, they understand, so there’s preparation, there’s taking refuge.

The Lesson Of The Locusts, Unity

Now the locusts, interesting, they have no king, so the ants, and the bees are monarchial, they have a monarch, there’s a queen bee, even with the ants, there’s an order [and a queen ant as well]. Here, it says the locusts, they don’t have anything like that, it’s not like the queen locust or the king locust or anything. In fact, there’s stages of the locusts, some of it is still mysterious to entomologists and scientists, because some of the transformation in the life of the locusts from the hopper, like a grasshopper, some of them die like that, depending on conditions, sometimes they climb up into trees, and they hang upside down, and they hang there, this little spindle, they attach themselves, and then within a certain number of days, all of a sudden the outside skin has dried out, and they’re breaking out and spreading wings, and they turn into locusts. And scientists and entomologists still don’t understand, are they doing this, are they sensing currents in the wind, is it something to do with the weather, why all of a sudden do they have this capacity, some just die as grasshoppers, some actually go through this transformation, they don’t know why. Nobody’s giving orders, there’s no king, it says, in the process here, and it says, yet, they all go forth in order, there’s unity, there’s not diversity. The Church could learn a lot from locusts, besides eating meat on Saturday. [Comment: In fact, the pre-Incarnate Christ, Yahweh, gave marching orders for the end-time Church to come together in unity. This prophetic command is found in Zephaniah 2:1-3, and is discussed at: http://www.unityinchrist.com/prophets/Zephaniah/Zephaniah1.htm and scroll the Zephaniah 2:1-3 and read from there.] The things they do, look, I pulled this up, because I love this kind of stuff, the largest swarm of locusts ever recorded was more than 300 billion locusts, it was in South Africa in 1784, they covered 2,000 square miles. They devoured 600,000 tons of food every day. And of course, it was only God’s grace that stopped them, they were finally blown by a storm out to sea, which stopped the plague. But there were so many of them when they washed up on the beach, there was a dead pile of locusts four foot high and fifty miles long. You know that smelled great. But the idea is, they all move in unity, they all move together. They have no king. We have a King, we do have a King. By instinct, they do what they do, and instinct again can give blush to reason, because you should be able to say, ‘Lord, I know this is what you want me to do. I do have a King, you’re the King of kings, you’re my King, I know I should be doing this.’ Can’t we just feel that in our heart? He says there are these things that give lessons.

The Lesson Of The Lizard

Finally he says, ‘and the spider, the gecko, the little lizard, if you want it to be a spider that’s fine, depends on when you go home tonight would you rather think about spiders in your bedroom or lizards?’ “the lizard taketh hold with her hands, and is in the king’s palaces.” Do we take hold of the things in the King’s palace? Have we taken hold of those things, do we set our affections on things above, not on things of the earth, but where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God? Are we cognizant of the fact that we have an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us? The little lizard wants to teach us something. ok? We’ve looked through here, there’s preparation, there’s taking refuge, there’s unity and order, and there’s laying hold on certain things we’re told, to lay hold of certain things pertaining to the promises of God. So, you go through this order and these things that are set before us.

People Notice Your Walk, How You Move

Verses 29-31 says, “There be three things which go well, yea, four are comely in going: a lion which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any; a greyhound; an he goat also; and a king, against whom there is no rising up.” “comely in their going” the way they walk, the way they move. And he’s going to challenge us about ‘people notice your walk, they notice how you move, they notice how you talk, and then does your walk match your talk.’ He says, in the natural realm, where God speaks to us, he says, there are four things, he brings out here.

The Lion’s Walk

He says, there’s the lion, the strongest among the beasts, and he doesn’t turn away for anything. That’s the way we’re supposed to be in our walk with Christ. Any man who looks back after putting his hand to the plow is not fit for the Kingdom, God has given us a course, we can move forward with great confidence, and he is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, we’re following him. So he says, in going, you look in nature, there’s wisdom in these smallest of creatures, there’s provision, there’s sustenance, God rules over that, and they’re preaching to us every day. Then he said, there’s others, just look at the way they carry themselves, you know, that’s a lion. I’m glad when there’s bars between me and a lion, or glass. The kids from church are going over to Zambee, the Game Reserve, you know, talking about riding in the jeep, and the lions, there’s nothing to keep the lion from jumping on you and eating you for lunch. And the guide convinces him, ‘Well, he sees the jeep and thinks it’s a bigger animal than he is.’ Well that’s good, as long as you’re around dumb lions, I’m just afraid one of these days you run into a really smart lion, ‘They think the jeep is a larger animal, I’m hungry…’ but just the way they go, the way they move, there is the lion, it doesn’t turn. We should be unapologetic and uncompromising in our walk.

The Rooster’s Walk

And then it says the greyhound, it does not at all match up with the Hebrew, the idea is, “a strutting bird, or a rooster,’ foghorn-leghorn, just the way a cock-bird carries himself, they walk, and certainly in ancient Israel they would have taken notice, there’s a strut, there’s a certain walk, they walk a particular way, interesting. Again, Wilder-Smith when he was here, spent the day with him. He said, “See the difference between a rooster when he walks, he walks vertically,” and he said, “a duck walks horizontally.” And he said, “That’s because of the shape of their cerebellum,” and he explained the whole brain of the duck, I’m such a birdman, I could hardly understand what he was talking about. But the idea is, with the rooster, there’s a strut, you’ve seen it, peacocks, go to the zoo, there’s a strut, there’s a certain way they walk, you can see that.

The Way Of The He-Goat

Ah, “an he goat also;” goats are smarter than sheep, in case you’re wondering, the way the he-goat will go, the other goats lead the females, there’s a way they move. Certainly, well known to them, because there are so many shepherds in the culture, I went to, in 1964, 1965, to what is now WB Saul, it was the Philadelphia High School of Agriculture, horticulture back then when we were there. You had to take your four majors, academics, and then some type of farm course, and I took animal husbandry then. And in the fields across the street we had sheep and we had goats. And the ram, the goat and the male sheep, they’d hang out together. And if you got too close to the field they’d come charging at you. And the remarkable thing is, you could jump up, grab hold of the tree, pull yourself up, the sheep, the ram would run right by, looking around, he’d just keep going. The goat would sit underneath and look up, waiting for you. You had a problem with him. You had to jump down and grab his horns, one person held him while everybody else ran. But there’s a big difference, you watch those two animals, there was a way that that goat carried himself, particularly if he was agitated. Just pointing things out, probably meant more to them than to you and I sitting, ‘Get past the goats, tell us something else.’ [Something else about the difference between goats and sheep. 75 percent of all people are followers, like sheep, 25 percent of all people are wired mentally to be leaders, just like goats. Sheep and goats display the mental traits found in human beings. God had Moses tending sheep for 40 years, knowing he’d be tending over and leading the sheep of Israel, the children of Israel for 40 years in the Wilderness. That was Moses’ training from God for that task.]

The Way Of A King

“and a king, against whom there is no rising up.” So, finally, there is a certain way the king goes forth. And we’re to take note of, in the natural, you know, people watch our walk, they watch how we move, what happens inside of us determines the way we live outwardly. And as Christians we should move differently, we should respond to pressure differently, we should respond to hatred and act differently, we should respond to temptation differently, it’s just these different things. He’s saying there are sermons in all of these things, putting them in front of us.

Agur’s Closing Statement

And then verse 32, he says this, “If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thy hand upon thy mouth.” the idea, not reflecting, tremendous pride, lifting yourself up, or if you have thought evil, lay your hand upon your mouth. So here’s the best thing to do, if you got in a mess, if you ain’t learned nothing from all of us, and you should, God takes care, there are certain things in this world, never satisfied, you can ask God not to give you over to vanity and lying, he cares. You can serve him and know that his Word says, other people shouldn’t be accusing another person’s servant, it tells us that in Romans 14. And you can know there’s temptation around us, and there’s a way to it, it isn’t that easily discerned, we have to trust and do what’s right, because some people who get to that point, and they’re like somebody just wiping their mouth, saying, wiping away the crumb, they didn’t notice it, no biggie. And then there are things in this life that are just not fair, tyrants, people who should never be in the positions they’re in, and terribly it can effect our lives sometimes, and destroy our marriages even [or millions of people killed, as when Adolf Hitler and Tojo were ruling over Germany and Japan, respectively]. But even in the weakest, even in the feeble, even amongst those that have no leader, you can prepare, you can take refuge, we can move together as a family in unity, and we can take hold of the things of God. And if we do that, the way that we present ourselves will be different. We don’t have to be like worldly men and women. There should be something in our strut and in our step and in the way we present ourselves. If pride causes us to turn from those things, to be puffed up, to be arrogant, to forget that a king, there’s no rising up against a king, there’s no rising up against our King. Rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft, stubbornness is like idolatry. So “If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth.” “lifting yourself up,” instead of letting him, promotion comes from the LORD, “or if you have thought evil, do us a favour and put your hand across your mouth,” don’t you wish people that are really bugging you, they’re arrogant, you wish it was instinct (putting their hand across their mouths), like the ant or like the cony, they just have to go…you know, put your hand on your mouth, because this is what he’s going to say, he’s saying “Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood: so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife.” (verse 33) “so the forcing of wrath” the Hebrew is “provocation lends itself to strife.” If someone is so arrogant that they think they can upset the Divine order of things, and they’re not inclined to take these lessons to heart, this is the Word of God, you can’t add to it, that’s where we started, if they’re that arrogant, and they lift themselves up instead of letting the LORD lift them up, and they think that they are going to start to say something, [God is saying to them] ‘put your hand on your mouth.’ It’s just like provoking causes strife, just like churning milk makes butter, just like twisting someone’s nose makes it bleed. This is a Book for the wise and not the proud, and it tells us much about both of them as we go through. That transgressing Divine wisdom, it says, brings forth trouble, brings forth strife. If you’re confused, go watch a bunch of ants tomorrow, let ‘em talk to you. You won’t find any colonies around here, you know the 17-year locusts, you’ve seen when they were around, you hear them buzzing everywhere, they’re around…great lessons here for us, the Word of God speaking to us, saying to us, saying to us, look, you don’t have any limitations, don’t say ‘I’m too tired, I’m weak, I can’t do it, I don’t have enough strength, I don’t have enough friends,’ no, no, listen to all of these things preach to you. And they don’t know what you know about the future, about the King’s palace, about his strength, about his beauty, about his Word. The world around us is preaching to us every way in all sorts of ways in God’s creation, bearing witness to his Divine power and his God-head, it’s just there, God’s creation. And I love to sit in the yard in the morning when the sky is bristling and blue, and I just get bummed when cars start and it gets noisy, I like to do that. Proverbs 31, the first part of, we’ve gotta get to verses 10 and 11 before we get to the virtuous woman, we’re going to take our time and go through that. We’ve seen a lot of the contentious woman, all the way through the Book of Proverbs, tonight we got to the adulterous woman who just wipes her mouth, then finally to the godly woman, this is what she is, this is how she functions, it’s a great exhortation. By the way, it seems, and all the ancient rabbis feel, ‘O king Lemuel’ is for Solomon, they said he had four names. And it’s his mother instructing him, which would be Bathsheba. And imagine her saying to Solomon, ‘Don’t give your strength to women, as your father did.’ Solomon didn’t listen, ‘Hey mom I got 700 wives and 300 concubines, I’ve still got some strength left.’ Don’t give your strength to women, alcohol, don’t do that, and then Bathsheba describes a woman for her son that she herself never was. He was born out of adultery. It’s a very remarkable passage, so I encourage you, we’ll get there if the Rapture doesn’t happen first, but if it doesn’t, Lord willing we’ll be there next Wednesday night. Let’s stand, let’s pray…[transcript of a connective expository sermon on Proverbs 30:1-33, given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116]