PROVERBS 30 OVERVIEW

“Wisdom Using Common Sense” Part 1

I.             Proverbs 30:1-3

1.   “words of Agur” (v.1):

A.  We ended the section on Solomon’s proverbs, and finish the book with some wise sayings from other wise men.  Who is Agur?  We don’t know outside of this.  All we know is that he probably was old and close to death (v.7).  So the wisdom he shares is like his last bit of advice before he passes on.      

2.   “I am more stupid…I do not have understanding” (v.2):

A.  This could be a good life verse for some of us.  The point is Agur is trying to show he’s got nothing on Solomon and all these other wise men.  He’s just a regular guy who has made some observations over the years that can hopefully help some people. 

II.           Proverbs 30:4 (Observation # 1: God is Above All)

1.   “ascended into heaven, descended” (v.4):

A.  The answer is, nobody.  At least when this was written.  Jesus Christ is the only person to do it, but that is because He was God.  Unfair advantage.  The point is, God is on the throne completing His will, so the wisest thing is to learn His will for our lives. 

2.   “gathered the wind…bound the waters…established the Earth” (v.4):

A.  The answer is nobody.  Only God controls the wind, only God knows the boundaries of the oceans, and only God has established the boundaries of Earth in space.  Again, the point is, we need to submit to our Creator.  It’s obvious we didn’t create this universe, we were put here, so we are accountable to our Creator.    

3.   “what is His name, what is His Son’s name?” (v.4):

A.  To know someone’s name is to know them personally.  To know God’s name is the first step in having a relationship with Him.  Does anybody know His name?  (Yahweh).  Which basically means ‘I am.’  I have always been.  It’s God showing He is self-existent and eternal.

B.  Does anybody know His Son’s name?  (Jesus).  What about in Hebrew?  (Jeshua).  Which means, ‘Yahweh saves.’  Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost.  You and me. 

III.          Proverbs 30:5-6 (Observation # 2: God’s Word is Above All)

1.   “every word of God is pure (flawless)” (v.5):

A.  God never lies, He never deceives, He never exaggerates, He never stretches the truth, He never has ulterior motives, He never says something false.  Everything He says is right and true. 

2.   “do not add to His words” (v.6):

A.  To contradict God’s word is to contradict God.  Agur’s point is this, since God is our Creator, and God has given us His Word, we’d better obey it.  It’s foolish not to.  Too many people ignore God’s Word or change it to their own liking.  Let me give you an example

B.  I have an extended family member who calls herself a bible believing Christian, but a few years ago decided to leave her husband.  She said he was verbally abusive, but that was questionable.  They have two daughters, one by the both of them, and another she had by getting knocked up in high school.  So he tried to clean up his act and reconcile things, until he found out she was cheating on him.  She then filed for divorce.  It gets worse

C.  He moves on.  She, however, seeks out her daughters dad, who knocked her up in high school.  He’s married with kids of his own.  But she somehow changes his mind, so he leaves his wife and they are now together.

D.  Here’s the worst part.  She constantly posts on Facebook how God is blessing her, giving her a second chance at love.  God is so good.  Etc.  Talk about blaspheming God’s Word.  He is not blessing her.  She is in sin and in danger of judgment.  But she won’t admit that because she has twisted God’s Word.  It’s a dangerous thing to do

IV.         Proverbs 30:7-9 (Observation #3: Contentment is Above All)

1.   “two things…remove falsehood…neither poverty nor riches” (v.7-8):

A.  Agur asked for two things in his life.  Kind of like if you were given three wishes by a genie, what would you ask for?  Agur was only given two things to ask for, but this is what he wanted: to live an honest life and to be content.  Not exactly what you would expect

B.  He doesn’t ask for riches, and he explains why, he just asks for an honest and decent life.  In the grand scheme of things, that is probably the best life someone can live, neither rich nor poor, just happy and content.  Here’s why:

2.   “lest I be fully and say…who is the LORD?” (v.9):

A.  Agur didn’t want to be rich and have a lot of food because he feared he would get overly comfortable and forget God.  Doesn’t that sound like so many people when they prosper?  When things are going well for them, they forget God.  It takes a tragedy of some kind to wake them up.

B.  Jesus said, “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”  Why?  Because the rich get self-sufficient.  They think they don’t need God.  Their pride gets in the way of realizing they are a wicked sinner before a Holy God.

3.   “lest I be poor and steal…profane the name of my God” (v.9):

A.  Agur didn’t want to be poor and not have any food because he feared he would get overly desperate and begin to steal and disobey God.  Notice on both instances Agur doesn’t want to sin against God.  His ultimate motivation for wanting to neither be rich or poor is so that he would be right with God. 

B.  That should be our motivation too.  We should seek to live a holy and honest life not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because we love Jesus so much.  He has done everything He can to cause us to love Him.  And by loving Him, we won’t be interested in what the world or our flesh has to offer.

V.          Proverbs 30:10-14 (Observation #4: Young People Think They’re Above All)

1.   “generation that curses its father…does not bless his mother” (v.11):

A.  think this was a problem during Agur’s time, but even more so now.  Kids regularly disrespect their parents, talk back to them, curse at them, etc.  I never did that with my parents, I would have gotten smacked.  But why are kids so rebellious towards their parents?  It’s called television.  TV brainwashes kids into thinking it’s ok to rebel and curse your parents. 

B.  This recently came up in the news.  On Tuesday of last week, the Supreme Court heard a case on whether TV should be censored.  If you didn’t know, television is not allowed to say the f-word, show any nudity, or show extreme violence (like rape).  There’s a lot of censors.  We’ll Hollywood is crying that it violates free speech.  So they want all censors taken off.  Basically tv would become R rated or worse.

C.  It just goes to show where this generation is headed.  Hollywood is encouraging you to curse your parents, have sex, tell lies, hurt other people, basically anything goes.

2.   “generation pure in its own eyes…lofty are their eyes” (v.12-13):

A.  This is a generation full of pride and arrogance, that doesn’t care if their words and actions are right or wrong. 

B.  We’ll, based on what’s happening in New York city, one of the worst cities as far as crime goes, this generation is about to get even worse.

C.  A law was just passed in New York City that will no longer allows churches to meet in public schools.  A typical church is first started in a home, then it outgrows it and moves into a public school, and then eventually buys property.  According to this law, over 100 churches will no longer have a place to meet.

D.  The list goes on and on about the benefits of having churches in cities.  Lower crime rates, students staying out of trouble, students getting better grades, families staying together, etc.  And the public schools get paid a rental fee by the churches.  All this law is going to do is make the younger generation of New York more prideful and more prone to wickedness.

3.   “generation whose teeth are like swords” (v.14):

A.  Just like a lion seeking its prey, so is a wicked generation seeking to be cruel to others.  As a sign of that going on today, look no further than the abortion debate.  I told you this stat already, but mothers who find out their child will have a disability, 9 times out of 10 will abort their baby.  90% of babies with disabilities are being murdered.  That’s just cruel.

B.  We’ll, recently a law was passed in Texas that requires mothers to get an ultrasound before getting an abortion, and doctors have to tell mothers how developed their babies are.  A gives the mother a chance to hear her babies heartbeat and to see her baby in her womb.  What’s the purpose of the law?  To try to prevent women from cruelly murdering their baby.  By hearing the heartbeat, seeing the baby, and hearing about how developed the baby is, hopefully it will stop women from aborting their unborn child. 

VI.         Conclusion

1.   Unfortunately, the generation that Agur is describing, has to come before Jesus returns.  And that generation sounds awfully close to our generation.  READ 2 Timothy 3:1-5.  As we are studying Revelation, we are seeing that we are getting very close to Jesus’ return.  Agur prophesied that this would happen 4,000 years ago.  And here we are today, probably living in one of the last generations before Jesus returns.