Pro 30:15-31 | KingComments | STEP | The four generations mentioned above ( ) are the leeches of . The leech is the symbol of greed. It sucks blood by means of its suckers at both ends of its body. Agur here mentions the “two daughters”, one named “Give” and the other also named “Give”. The name “Give” is a ‘brand name’ you can put on any form of greed. In each case it is about nothing but the satisfaction of a desire that in reality is never satisfied. Always the desire for more or different remains. Satan is the great leech. He sucks the life out of people. The instruments he uses to do this are the “two daughters” who are also leeches. The expression “three, ... four” ( ) is a Hebrew saying indicating that it is not about something incidental, but something more common. The “three things” are satan and his ‘daughters’. This can be applied to man’s sinful lusts, for they never say “enough”. Satan and his daughters are insatiable leeches. To illustrate the dark nature of man’s sinful, insatiable lusts, Agur uses “four” examples. There is mention of two daughters, three insatiable things and four things that never say: “Enough.” The first example of what is insatiable is “Sheol” or the realm of death ( ; ). Sheol is like a house that is always open and where there is always room when someone has died. Countless have gone before us since the Fall. Never will the door close with a sign that says Full. The door of that house will not close until eternity comes and death and Hades are cast into the lake of fire ( ). This is not because the realm of death is full, but because there is no one left to enter it. The second example is “the barren womb”. The woman’s womb is always absorbing the seed, but the woman never receives the satisfaction she desires: to give life to a child ( ; ). The womb is thus equivalent to Sheol. The third example is dry earth. That “earth that is never satisfied with water”, will absorb water with the greatest eagerness and never say it is enough (cf. ). Poured out water is a symbol of the pouring out of life, which always goes on and on ( ). As a result, this example can also be connected to death. The fourth example is “fire”. Fire does not ever become satiated from what it can consume. It eats up everything it encounters in its path and continues to do so insatiably as long as there is anything that is combustible. Similarly, anything thrown into it is eaten up by the flames. Never do flames reach a point where they give back what was thrown in because they would have enough. This is reminiscent of hell, the eternal fire, a fire that never comes to an end, that burns on forever and is not satiated until eternity. Only the Creator can satiate man’s deepest desires, that is a life in fellowship with Him. Only He can fill the emptiness of the heart He created by satisfying the desire for Him.

‏ Proverbs 30:15-31

Four Insatiable Things

The four generations mentioned above (Pro 30:11-14) are the leeches of Pro 30:15. The leech is the symbol of greed. It sucks blood by means of its suckers at both ends of its body. Agur here mentions the “two daughters”, one named “Give” and the other also named “Give”. The name “Give” is a ‘brand name’ you can put on any form of greed. In each case it is about nothing but the satisfaction of a desire that in reality is never satisfied. Always the desire for more or different remains.

Satan is the great leech. He sucks the life out of people. The instruments he uses to do this are the “two daughters” who are also leeches. The expression “three, ... four” (Pro 30:18 ; 21 ; 29) is a Hebrew saying indicating that it is not about something incidental, but something more common.

The “three things” are satan and his ‘daughters’. This can be applied to man’s sinful lusts, for they never say “enough”. Satan and his daughters are insatiable leeches. To illustrate the dark nature of man’s sinful, insatiable lusts, Agur uses “four” examples. There is mention of two daughters, three insatiable things and four things that never say: “Enough.”

The first example of what is insatiable is “Sheol” or the realm of death (Pro 30:16; Hab 2:5). Sheol is like a house that is always open and where there is always room when someone has died. Countless have gone before us since the Fall. Never will the door close with a sign that says Full. The door of that house will not close until eternity comes and death and Hades are cast into the lake of fire (Rev 20:14). This is not because the realm of death is full, but because there is no one left to enter it.

The second example is “the barren womb”. The woman’s womb is always absorbing the seed, but the woman never receives the satisfaction she desires: to give life to a child (Gen 30:1; 1Sam 1:8). The womb is thus equivalent to Sheol.

The third example is dry earth. That “earth that is never satisfied with water”, will absorb water with the greatest eagerness and never say it is enough (cf. Psa 63:1-2). Poured out water is a symbol of the pouring out of life, which always goes on and on (2Sam 14:14). As a result, this example can also be connected to death.

The fourth example is “fire”. Fire does not ever become satiated from what it can consume. It eats up everything it encounters in its path and continues to do so insatiably as long as there is anything that is combustible. Similarly, anything thrown into it is eaten up by the flames. Never do flames reach a point where they give back what was thrown in because they would have enough. This is reminiscent of hell, the eternal fire, a fire that never comes to an end, that burns on forever and is not satiated until eternity.

Only the Creator can satiate man’s deepest desires, that is a life in fellowship with Him. Only He can fill the emptiness of the heart He created by satisfying the desire for Him.

Mocking a Father and Scorning a Mother

It is not out of the question that he who is insatiable may fall into the lowest sin, that of mocking and despising the parents. As if they were to blame for not satisfying his insatiable desires. With this, Agur returns to the first characteristic of the generation in the midst of which he lives (Pro 30:11). Here he speaks of “the eye that mocks the father”. The eye reveals the inner attitude of the heart, and that eye is full of contempt. The contempt runs deep. It is also evident in the scorn [literally: despise to obey] there is for “the mother”. God pays attention to with what eyes a child looks at his parents.

The punishment is commensurate with the sin. The eye that so emphatically expresses scorn and contempt will first be picked out by “the ravens of the valley”. Then it will be eaten by “the young eagles”. We can take the eye picking out and eating it literally. It indicates dying an untimely death, after which the body will not be buried, but given up to the birds of prey. God ensures that these birds will feast on the eyes of this sinner. This judgment also confirms that such a person is blind to God as Creator. This severe punishment is applied to him who looks at his parents with scorn and contempt.

Four Incomprehensible Things

Agur now looks at nature, in which many things are wonderful and at the same time “too wonderful” or incomprehensible (Pro 30:18). Four times it is about “the way of” as an illustration of the ways God goes in creation and with people (Rom 11:33b). Agur cites some examples as an anthology. We know that God includes in His Word only what is important to us. Therefore, we may expect to learn lessons from these examples. Not that those lessons are always immediately clear to us, but that is peculiar to the book of Proverbs. We have to think about things, even things of which we have to say they “are too wonderful for me” and of which we have to acknowledge “I cannot understand”.

It is not easy to discover what the four things have in common (Pro 30:19). They are linked by the use of the word “way” and also by a sense of mystery and inscrutability. All four go a way that cannot be traced. Once they have shown themselves, they disappear again without leaving a trace. Of the areas where they go their way, three are geographic (sky, land and sea) and one is social (marital relationship). The first three serve as illustrations of the fourth. The fourth is also the greatest wonder.

When we observe “the way of an eagle in the sky”, we are impressed by it. Which way he goes, we cannot know in advance. And when he has gone that way, we see no trace of it. The same is true of “the way of a serpent on a rock”. We can watch the quick and purposeful movement of a reptile without feet, but we cannot predict the path he takes over the rock. If he crawls away into a crevice, he has left no trace of the way he went.

“The way of a ship in the middle of the sea” is equally unpredictable. There is no defined path by which it is predictable which way the ship goes. When it has sailed by and the water behind it has settled down again, there is no trace of the path it has taken. The movements of these three are beautiful to behold. They focus our attention on the majestic and mysterious movements in the sky, on the land and on the sea.

After covering the areas of sky, land and sea, our attention is drawn to “the way of a man with a maid”. Herein is indicated the wonder of attraction between a man and a woman and unification in the sexual intercourse. In what way a man conceives love for a girl is a wonder that cannot be described beforehand. When the time comes for him to seek contact with the girl, it is impossible to predict how it will go. Perhaps “the way of a man with a maid” is about the most intimate part of the marriage relationship in particular. That is completely closed off from any perception. It is the secret between two people that no one else knows about.

We can make another spiritual application of the four “ways” described here. We can connect the way of an eagle in the sky to the coming of the Son of God from heaven to declare God on earth. It also refers to His way back to heaven. This cannot be grasped by the natural man (Jn 6:60-63).

The way of a serpent on the rock cannot be understood either. What is the way the serpent, the devil (Rev 12:9), chose to enter the creation created by the righteous God, Who is a Rock and free from guile (Deu 32:4)? And what is the way the serpent continually goes and on which he moves in God’s creation? How is it that the evil one can continually come into God’s presence to denounce the brethren (Rev 12:10; cf. Job 1:6-12 ; Job 2:1-6)? We also see the way of a serpent on the rock in satan’s attempts to tempt the Lord Jesus, the Rock (Mt 4:1-11; 1Cor 10:4). He left no trace in Christ, for he found nothing in Him (Jn 14:30).

In a ship in the middle of the sea, we can see the church in the middle of the nations of the world. The church has now sailed through the sea of nations (Isa 17:12-13) for 2,000 years. All these years the evil one has tried to destroy the church, to cause her to be shipwrecked. But she has been preserved right through all attempts in a way that is inimitable to us (Mt 16:18), for God is leading her. God’s way with His church is in the sea (cf. Psa 77:19-20).

The way of a man with a maid brings us to the way of the Lord Jesus with His church. The way He went about to possess her is inimitable. How did He take our heart, how did we receive the new life? We cannot verify that (Jn 3:8), we can only conclude it. His love for us brought Him into the greatest suffering, into the anguish of Gethsemane and the horrors of the cross, above all into the three hours of darkness, when He was made sin and His God had to forsake Him. We can only worship Him for that.

Nor can we verify the wisdom of His constant work with and for His church. We know that He does so through His Word (Eph 5:25-27), but not in a way that is discernible to us. Perhaps He will tell us and show us when we are with Him. Then we will know as we too are known (1Cor 13:12).

In Pro 30:20, one more way is described. This way is in stark contrast to the way of love of the previous verse. It is “the way of an adulterous woman”. Of her unfaithfulness she also leaves no trace. Here again we find the contrast that runs through the whole book of Proverbs, the contrast between Wisdom and foolishness, between the faithful woman and the unfaithful woman. We also find this contrast in Revelation, between the Lamb’s wife, the church, and Babylon the great, the great harlot, the mother of harlots (Rev 17:1-6 ; Rev 19:1-8).

This latter points out that we can also apply this verse spiritually. The verse portrays that the love Christ has revealed for the church is answered by the church with unfaithfulness. We see that professing Christianity is becoming increasingly blatantly unfaithful to Him Whom she professes as her Lord. She connects with the world in the most intimate way by bringing in all kinds of worldly methods and adapting God’s Word to the vision of modern man.

That this verse is placed immediately after Pro 30:19 gives support to the idea that the previous verse is focused on sexual intimacy in marriage. The pictures of her eating and wiping her mouth are a veiled indication of sexual activity (cf. Pro 9:17). What she does in her unfaithfulness is no more than a meal for her. She removes all traces of the sin she has committed and goes back to her daily activities as if nothing had happened.

It is mind-boggling that people can sin and then very easily shake off a sense of guilt or responsibility. This is only possible because there is a callous indifference to the Lord’s will regarding sexuality.

Four Things That Are Not to Bear

The common element in Pro 30:21-23 is the unbearable. Agur gives four examples of this, divided equally between the two sexes. Each example indicates the abuse of power and prosperity obtained by persons who come to occupy or receive a position that is inappropriate for them. They go against the order that God has established. When God’s order is reversed, it brings quaking of the earth (Pro 30:21). It cannot bear that. It makes the whole society unstable. Maintaining God’s order works stability and peace. Thus He wants everything in the church to be done “properly and in an orderly manner”, that is, in His order (1Cor 14:40).

The first example is that of “a slave when he becomes king” (Pro 30:22a). For a slave, a place of ruling is not reserved. If he does get that place, it will be a mess in the land, for he simply has no understanding of it. He who is suddenly elevated in his status becomes an unbearable person. Everything begins to quake, for there is no longer a clear government. Such a change shakes the order of life. In the church, everything also shudders when someone who should be serving begins to rule (3Jn 1:9-10).

The second example is that of “a fool when he is satisfied with food” (Pro 30:22b). It is a lazy fool. The fool, by definition, excludes God. That makes him a fool. Giving such a man food until he is completely full of it turns God’s order upside down. One who does not want to work will not eat either (2Thes 3:10). If you do give such a person food, he will not only sit with a satisfied feeling in his belly, but also with a full feeling of arrogant self-satisfaction. Because he is satisfied, he is not thinking about going to work. He spends his time preaching and performing follies. With such a person, chaos only increases.

The third person under whom the earth quakes is “an unloved woman when she gets a husband” (Pro 30:23a). An unloved woman means a woman on whom there is nothing attractive; she has an evil character. This becomes apparent as soon as she is married. Then she takes control within the family. The power she has, she uses not for good, but for evil. The relationships in the family are disturbed. Underneath it, the earth quakes.

The fourth person is “a maidservant when she supplants her mistress” (Pro 30:23b). She is similar to the slave who becomes king in Pro 30:22a. The possessions she inherits suddenly give her a completely different life. She was a maidservant, but suddenly she feels she is a mistress because of the inheritance. Instead of obeying, she now gives orders. This cannot be borne by those with whom she used to serve her mistress.

Four Little but Wise Animals

What the “four things” who are “small on earth” have in common is wisdom (Pro 30:24). The four small animals mentioned by Agur know how to deal with their natural disadvantages or limitations in order to survive. This instinct has been put into these small animals by the Creator. He has made them “exceedingly wise”. How great is His wisdom! Man is naturally inclined to admire what is big, strong and impressive. Here we see that this is not so for God, even in creation. We should not despise the weak things in creation, but learn from them. In God’s creation, God’s wisdom manifests itself in various ways. Humans can thereby learn the value of wisdom (Job 12:7).

These creatures are “not a strong people” (Pro 30:25), “not mighty people” (Pro 30:26), without “king” (Pro 30:27) and without defense (Pro 30:28). The same is true of the church in the world. The church is weak, but all wisdom is available to it in Christ (1Cor 1:26-29 ; 30).

The wisdom exhibited in “the ants” concerns their forward thinking and organizational ability to build a food supply for later (Pro 30:25). That the ants are not a strong people is no excuse for them to be lazy. They know how to physically survive in the future. Diligently they are preparing food in the summer so they will have food to eat in the winter.

They teach us that we must live a future-oriented life (Pro 6:6). Just as the ants gather food in view of their future needs, so we should read God’s Word as our spiritual food not only for today, but also for the future. Then the Holy Spirit can use from it what is needed at any given time.

The rich fool had also had laid up many goods for many years, but on earth. He never saw the future years for which he had accumulated so much, because his future for him was only earth (Lk 12:16-21).

We see the wisdom of “the shephanim” [badgers] in their ingenuity in finding a place of safety in the rocks and building their houses there (Pro 30:26). They know how to survive in a hostile environment (Ps 104:18b). They seek their safety in the rocks. Their condition is extremely weak, but their position is very strong. It teaches us that our awareness of weakness and inability should bring us to the rock, that is Christ (1Cor 10:4), to build our house there (Mt 7:24-25).

The wisdom of “the locusts” consists in the orderly cooperation among them that makes them march like a massive military division (Pro 30:27). They know how to organize; they have a remarkable organizational talent. There is spontaneous unity and order. They do not have a king or queen like the bees, “yet all of them go out in ranks” like a well-organized army. A single locust has no strength; you just trample it to death. But in swarms locusts are invincible and all-destroying (Exo 10:13-15; Isa 33:4; Joel 2:25; Rev 9:11).

God has put that collective advancing in them. The lesson for us is that the sense of weakness should keep us together as members of the church and that we should strengthen each other. We can experience that in a local church if the invisible Person, the Holy Spirit, can govern it. With the Colossians that was the case. Paul could say to them: “For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ” (Col 2:5). Are there any local churches today that He can say that to?

The wisdom of “the lizard” is his ability to enter even the palaces of kings (Pro 30:28). The weak, defenseless lizard who can be grasped at will knows how to get into the best-secured, as well as into the most important, dwellings, such as “into the palaces of the king”.

Countless Christians throughout church history have been seized and slaughtered without defending themselves, but they have a dwelling with God. He who is weak may know that he has a distinguished and secure place in Christ. Believers have royal dignity and “are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household” (Eph 2:19). With its suction cups, the lizard can move about on the smoothest surfaces. It sticks to them, as it were. This is how faith may cling itself to the dwelling place of God.

Four With a Stately March

To keep us from thinking that the small of the previous verses is always better than the big, Agur gives four illustrations of stately creatures. They are all leaders (Pro 30:29). The contrast with the previous four is clear. They are not powerless beings with whom you can do whatever you want, but they impress. They possess leadership qualities. There is something majestic about the way they move around. They “are stately in [their] march” and “are stately when they walk”. First we are given three examples from the animal world. They are the prelude to the fourth, the king who has his army with him. The army enhances the impression of his majesty.

The first animal with a royal appearance is “the lion”, the king among beasts (Pro 30:30). He “does not retreat before any”. On the contrary, everyone avoids him and gives him wide latitude. His way of moving around commands awe. Power radiates from it. He will not quicken his pace to flee, for he knows no fear of anyone. By his strength and majesty he illustrates Christ, “the ruler of the kings of the earth”, “the Lion from the tribe of Judah” (Rev 1:5 ; Rev 5:5).

We also see in “a strutting rooster” (Pro 30:31) a royal appearance as he parades among the chickens. We find something of this in the Dutch saying “his rooster crows king” (= he achieves victory). The rooster crows when the sun rises, at the beginning of a new day. It is a sign of a new beginning. We see this in Peter’s denial of the Lord Jesus. When the rooster crowed, Peter woke up, as it were, and repented of what he had done (Mt 26:75). That was the beginning of the way back.

We can therefore see the rooster as a symbol of the announcement of the coming of the King. Christ will appear in majesty as Judge to judge the world and establish His kingdom of peace.

The walk of “the male goat” is also stately. With his head proudly raised, he walks before the flock (Jer 50:8), he goes at the head of it. The male goat is pre-eminently the animal that was used as a sin offering. It recalls the Lord Jesus Who went with royal dignity to Jerusalem to die as the sin offering. He had purposed to go that way and do that work and no one could stop Him in that (Lk 9:51). That work is the basis for His return to earth, for by that work He regained the right to creation.

Christ comes back to earth as “a king” and his “army is with Him”. A king with an army with him makes a great impression. No one dares oppose him and no one can stand against him. That will happen when Christ returns as King with all His people with Him (Rev 19:11-21). It is the people He has sanctified for Himself, for whom He has offered the sacrifice. That people may reign with Him.