Are you a list-maker? You know, one of those people who produces to-do lists so perfect they look like they need to be framed instead of checked?
Apparently, so was Agur, who wrote Proverbs chapter 30. He is a list guy. And they are no ordinary lists! There is wisdom and instruction packed in them so tightly that we are better off reading them a few at a time than to try to fly through them in a matter of minutes.
Take your time with this chapter. Spread it out over hours. Are there any of the lists that really hit home with you? Any sayings that made you stop in your tracks?
I know this is just my opinion, but I think Agur needs some Proverb writing lessons from Solomon...
ReplyDeleteThe one that I felt applicable to me was another instance of needing to give something to get something:
5 "Every word of God is flawless;
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
I find myself asking God from time to time why He didn't defend me. Why didn't He take care of me? Why wasn't He my shield?
The last 6 words remind me. Often I have not taken refuge in him. I struck out on my own and expected for Him to protect me, even when I venture outside His will. That is not His promise.
"Stay with me. Dwell with me. Camp out HERE. Beneath the shadow of my wing is my protection."
Bless me to be not only content there, but to THRIVE there.
“You don’t believe in me,” observed the Ghost.
ReplyDelete“I don’t,” said Scrooge.
“What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of your senses?”
”I don’t know,” said Scrooge.
“Why do you doubt your senses?”
”Because,” said Scrooge, “a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than grave about you, whatever you are.”
--A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens.
Many of the observations in Proverbs, rather than comprising a list of fail-safe methods of operation, run to the pragmatic… things that just seem to “make sense” (and can’t we all remember when some “tried-and-true” axiom didn’t seem to work?!). So this verse, long a favorite of mine (great minds think alike, Matt!), stands out: "Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.” Proverbs 30:5
Refuge… among the definitions in an online dictionary, I found (and loved!) this phrase: a place inaccessible to an enemy. I think of famous fortresses of the world, many of them in locations remote and difficult to access… each fortified to withstand assault, siege, and other tactics employed by an enemy. When circumstances are unsettling or confusing, instinct tells us to retreat to solid ground - to what we “know.” Often, this takes the form of what we can see, hear, smell, touch, taste. In the excerpt above, Ebenezer Scrooge (even before his change of heart) recognizes the distressingly-unreliable nature of these criteria.
Satan maintains an all-out assault on our senses. He will use every distraction at his disposal to keep us from taking refuge in the only place inaccessible to him, the place where his assault is neutralized before it ever begins. While our physical senses are gifts from God and have many uses as we accomplish our tasks here on earth, determining absolute truth is not among them. So, in the words of the Apostle Paul, “we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18) Open our eyes, Lord… we want to see Jesus…