Proverbs Experiment: Day Thirty

Now we move out of the proverbs attributed to Solomon and into proverbs by two other men: Agur son of Jakeh, and King Lemuel. Today, we look at Agur.

Proverbs Chapter 30:

Every word of God proves true. He defends all who come to him for protection. (vs. 5)

Hmm, these are interesting already. They don't feel like they belong in the book of Proverbs; or actually, they feel more like the early proverbs rather than the last several chapters of one verse proverbs.

Every word of God proves true - Every once in awhile, I have a time of deep doubt in Christianity, in God, in the church. I have to admit that a lot of times the spark of this doubt is something that happens in the church that makes me cringe or that has hurt me. I have a hard time accepting the above verse, because there are many different interpretations of what God's word really says about certain things, and you have to wade through all the muck of denominationalism and theology and the like to really know what God intended in His word.

Verse 5 does kind of reassure me, however - because if every word of God proves true, and I can believe that, then that means that the promises of God are true, and there are some great promises to us if we continue to press on and hope.

O God, I beg two favors from you before I die. First, help me never to tell a lie. Second, give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs. For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, "Who is the Lord?" And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God's holy name. (vs. 7-9)

I'm really liking this guy. The first favor that he asks of God reminds me of the fable concerning George Washington, when he chopped down the cherry tree and said, "I cannot tell a lie." The second one is a great prayer to pray, I think. I like that he asked for just enough to satisfy his needs, not his wants. In our culture today, wants and needs can be pretty subjective. I may want a car, but do I really need a car? And if I need a car, does it need to be a Hummer, or is that a want? (seems kind of obvious to me)

Never slander a person to his employer. If you do, the person will curse you, and you will pay for it. (vs. 10)

Does this include slandering a person to a possible employer? Because I had that happen a couple of times. When I was looking for a ministry position, I almost lost two possible jobs because a former employer slandered me. At one point, I had actually thought of suing this person because he could have cost me employment (one church I turned down; I ended up working for the other church). But I decided not to, especially because I was able to refute what he had told them.

There are three things that amaze me - no, four things I do not understand:
how an eagle glides through the sky,
how a snake slithers on a rock,
how a ship navigates the ocean,
how a man loves a woman. (vs. 18-19)

I'm glad he didn't say "when a man loves a woman."

"I'll be honest with you, I love his music, I do, I'm a Michael Bolton fan. For my money, I don't know if it gets any better than when he sings "When a Man Loves a Woman."

"I celebrate the man's entire catalog."

Yeah, I'm in a goofy mood today. This isn't going well.