Proverbs 30

Proverbs 30:1-33

The words of Agur son of Jakeh. The oracle.

The man declares, I am weary, O God;

I am weary, O God, and worn out.

Surely I am too stupid to be a man.

I have not the understanding of a man.

I have not learned wisdom,

nor have I knowledge of the Holy One.

• ​We've all been there.  Some of us are currently there.  Weary.  Worn out by life and our circumstances. 
• We feel like failures.  Stupid.  Incapable.  Self-deprecating to an illogical point, based on how we "feel".
• We've been studying James 3:13-17 where he differentiates between knowledge and wisdom, as well as God's wisdom versus the world's wisdom that is shoved down our throat daily.
• Do we know?  Or are we wise?  It's the difference between head knowledge and heart wisdom.

Who has ascended to heaven and come down?
Who has gathered the wind in his fists?

Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment?

Who has established all the ends of the earth?

What is his name, and what is his son's name?

Surely you know!

• ​Answer key:  God/Jesus, God/Jesus, God/Jesus, God/Jesus, God/Jesus.  
• This is Old Testament!  It's talking about Jesus!  The only begotten Son of God!

Every word of God proves true;

he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

• ​Do you believe that?  That every word of God proves true?  What about some scientific findings that seem to contradict scripture?  Answer:  Scientists are taking educated guesses.  Every word 

Do not add to his words,

lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.

• ​Funny how this absolutely happens every day.  We take God's word out of context to fit the way we want it to be.  
• It's like putting ketchup on a perfectly cooked and seasoned steak.  Leave it alone - let scripture rest on it's own, whether we like it at a given point in our lives or not.  It's absolute, objective Truth.

Two things I ask of you;

deny them not to me before I die:

Remove far from me falsehood and lying;

give me neither poverty nor riches;

feed me with the food that is needful for me,

lest I be full and deny you

and say, “Who is the Lord?”

or lest I be poor and steal

and profane the name of my God.

• ​God, help me to avoid lying and falsehood in my life.  And help me to discern and not be fooled by the lies of this world.  Let me rest only in your constant and unchanging truth.
• God give me ONLY what I need, not what I want.  If I have too little, I might do things (steal, etc.) that is displeasing to God.  If I have too much, I may think that I don't need God.  Either way, not good.  
• Give us this day our daily bread.  No more, no less.

Do not slander a servant to his master,

lest he curse you, and you be held guilty.

• ​Never disparage a servant (employee) to his master (a boss, parent, etc.), or he'll curse you (wish you ill, say bad things about you, actually curse at you), and you'll deserve it.
• In fact, don't say anything bad about someone.  Keep it to yourself.  Only build up, never tear down.

There are those who curse their fathers

and do not bless their mothers.

• ​There is a command for this.  Honor your father and mother.  
• It's like biting the hand that feeds you.  They may have done less than you expected, but they did what they were capable of, given their flaws.  They are sinners, fallen just like you.
• Bless them by making them proud.  Respect them.  Love them as you wish to be loved.

There are those who are clean in their own eyes

but are not washed of their filth.

• ​I just started wearing glasses.  Amazing how often everything looks fine, until I take off the glasses and see the dirt and smudges all over my glasses.  And they're right here in front of my face!
• Sometimes we just don't see our own flaws, our own filth.
• So, lean not on your own understanding of "clean", but on God's.  Only then will you see the dirt and filth you could not see on your own.

There are those—how lofty are their eyes,

how high their eyelids lift!

• I don't know how to put this, but I'm kind of a big deal.  People know me.  I'm very important.  I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany." - Ron Burgandy
• Pride is the basis of most sin.  Humble yourself as Christ did for us.

There are those whose teeth are swords,

whose fangs are knives,

to devour the poor from off the earth,

the needy from among mankind.

• ​There is evil.  No denying it.  We want to believe that people are inherently good.  I know I do.  But we aren't.  Not on our own.
• And there are those who are so evil, so perverse, so off the path that they have no compassion.  They wish the poor would just go away and stop making them feel so guilty.  Or worse, they may not care at all, building up their own store-houses of stuff, yelling "Mine!"
• Don't be that guy.  (Response:  Thanks, Captain Obvious)

The leech has two daughters:

Give and Give.

• ​Many feel entitled.  Parents have created these monsters.  Our government has not helped either.
• Think if you give when they don't really need that that will be the end of it?  Don't count on it.  They just found one of their "marks".
• That said, give the first time anyway.  What?  Yes - give.  Let God worry about the rest.  Greg's thoughts (not necessarily God's):  When they come again, don't give.  That is the loving thing to do.  Hand UPs, not hand OUTs.

Three things are never satisfied;

four never say, “Enough”:

Sheol, the barren womb,

the land never satisfied with water,

and the fire that never says, “Enough.”

• ​"Enough is Never Enough"  - Spuddy-Buddies tagline
• Our hunger - we feed it, it comes back three ours later.
• Our lustful desires - quench them and we want more.  
• Our desire for wealth - it never ends.
• "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoeve drinks the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become a well of water springing up to eternal life." John 4:13-14

The eye that mocks a father

and scorns to obey a mother

will be picked out by the ravens of the valley

and eaten by the vultures.

• ​Tough truth, but true none-the-less.  Without Jesus, you will pay for your sins.  Every roll of the eye, every disrespectful word to your parents ... God sees and hears and will "re-pay".
• He is a good Judge.  He can not let sin pass without judgement.  That would not be right, would it?

Three things are too wonderful for me;

four I do not understand:

the way of an eagle in the sky,

the way of a serpent on a rock,

the way of a ship on the high seas,

and the way of a man with a virgin.

• ​Some things from God are just too wonderful to comprehend.  We don't fully appreciate them because we've become used to them.  But they are amazing.  
• How the human eye works with light and images and focus and color and motion ... wow.
• How the trees give us what we need and we give them what they need ... precision.
• Just how far the stars are from us - light years.  That means most of the stars we see right now actually burnt out thousands or even millions of years ago ... wrap your head around that.  
• God is bigger and more amazing that we can possibly fathom with our tiny little brains.

This is the way of an adulteress:

she eats and wipes her mouth

and says, “I have done no wrong.”

• ​Unrepentant.  That's the word for it.  As a young Christian (not young in age, but in maturity), I did not know what "repent" meant really.  It means to realize and acknowledge that something is wrong, displeasing to God, then to turn away from it.  
• The God can forgive a repentant heart ... one that is actually sorry for what they've done and is trying to turn and run from it.
• But for the person who sins, knows that it is sin, and does not repent of it?  What is God to do with that?

Under three things the earth trembles;

under four it cannot bear up:

a slave when he becomes king,

and a fool when he is filled with food;

an unloved woman when she gets a husband,

and a maidservant when she displaces her mistress.

• ​The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.  Psalm 118:22
• Jesus has become "the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone." Acts 4:11
• He without sin became sin for us.
• The first shall be last.
• The meek shall inherit the earth.
• When I am weak, I am strong.

Four things on earth are small,

but they are exceedingly wise:

the ants are a people not strong,

yet they provide their food in the summer;

the rock badgers are a people not mighty,

yet they make their homes in the cliffs;

the locusts have no king,

yet all of them march in rank;

the lizard you can take in your hands,

yet it is in kings' palaces.

• ​Size means nothing.  Strength is meaningless.  Height - who cares?  We're all minuscule in comparison to our infinite God and his massive creation.
• What matters is wisdom.  Do we have God's wisdom in us?  In our hearts?  That is what can move mountains.

Three things are stately in their tread;

four are stately in their stride:

the lion, which is mightiest among beasts

and does not turn back before any;

the strutting rooster, the he- goat,

and a king whose army is with him.

• ​Are we (God's army) with Him?  Or will we cower when the world throws arrows at us?
• Do we trust Him, or do we waver with what the world wants to tell us?
• When it comes down to it, do we fear God?  Or do we fear man?

If you have been foolish, exalting yourself,

or if you have been devising evil,

put your hand on your mouth.

• ​Acknowledge it, stop, repent.  Repeat.

For pressing milk produces curds,

pressing the nose produces blood,

and pressing anger produces strife.

• ​Stop poking the hornets' nest.  What are you trying to prove?  What do you expect will happen?
• Be kind.  Don't cause others to stumble.  Choose love over being "right".  God could have said, "forget these guys ... they're never going to get it."  But He didn't.  He chose to put aside righteous judgement and pay our debt FOR us.  We own Him everything for that.