Proverbs Thematic Sermon - Humble Observations of Reality and Morality (Erik Veerman)

We are winding down our Proverbs study. Today, we do not have a Proverbs insert. That is because we are covering all of chapter 30. Next week, we’ll be in the last half of chapter 31, and we’ll have a couple of concluding sermons.

The author of chapter 30 identifies himself as Agur. We don’t know who he is, but he is a man of great wisdom. He tells us these words are an oracle – they are the wisdom of God for us.

You can find Proverbs 30 on page 653 in the pew Bible.

As you are listening, you will hear a lot of numbers. Over and over he says there are three thing… no there’s four. It’s a way to emphasize a point by escalating the number.

But also, a big theme in these verses is humility. Be listening to how these words call us to humility in different ways.

-Reading of Proverbs 30 and prayer

A few years ago we were on a family trip and came across a hall of mirrors. I don’t know if you’ve been in one, but you walk through different rooms and passageways, and there are mirrors all over the place. Mirrors that are angled... and mirrors that reflect off of other mirrors. At times, you don’t know if the other person you are seeing is reality or a reflection in the mirror. At other times, you are not sure where to go, or you bump into the mirrors. And then there’s the room with the funny warped mirrors. When you look in the mirror, sometimes your body is really big and your head is really small, or your head is big and the rest of you is small. Or your legs are super short and the rest of you looks like a giraffe.

It's kind of fun, but it’s also very disorienting. After a while, your brain is not sure what to make of it all. There’s the reality and then there’s the distortion of reality.

We all live in the same world. But each person has a particular view of the world. What I mean is that we each have understandings of why things happen; what governs order; what should happen; where meaning and life come from, and what is right and wrong.

Some people can tell you what they think in each of those areas, but for others it’s just an underlying assumption they are not even aware of.

The problem happens when someone’s view of meaning or life or morality doesn’t line up with what is real and true. It’s like living in a hall or mirrors. That person’s world is distorted and inconsistent and they can’t find a way out. It can be very disconcerting or depressing. You can lose your way.

What Proverbs 30 does is it gives us wisdom to see the real world clearly. In essence, it takes the roof off of the hall of mirrors so that (1) we can see ourselves and God clearly, (2) so we can see how the world can be distorted, and (3) so we can actually see the amazing world that God has made. And Agur tells us, in order to see and understand anything, we need humility.

So, three things there. Three things that orient us to see clearly. Actually, there are four things! Did you see what I was doing there. There are three things, no there are four!

Three things that give us wisdom. Let me give them to you and then we’ll work through them.

·      First, verses 1-9: Humbly know God’s divine order

·      Second, verses 10-23: Humbly submit to God’s moral order

·      And, third, verses 24-31: Humbly observe God’s creation order

1. Humbly know God’s divine order

That is where we are headed.

Let me ask…  What is the first thing we need in order to understand God, ourselves, and the world? We need to humbly know God’s divine order. Again, that is point number 1.

Notice how Agur opens, “I am too stupid… I have not understanding….” That word “stupid” means ignorant or senseless. Now, to our modern ears, that may sound a little disingenuous or even contradictory. “I do not know anything, but let me tell you about wisdom.” That’s how it may come across, but actually there is a profound truth here.

What Agur is saying is that in and of himself, he cannot know or have wisdom. Look at verses 2 and 3. Notice the personal pronoun, “I” over and over. “I have not the understanding” “I have not learned wisdom” “nor have I aknowledge of the Holy One.”

Agur is saying that knowledge does not and cannot be derived from within ourselves. To know requires, at the very start, a humble acknowledgement that we are not the source of knowledge. Man is not the measure of all things.

Instead, Agur redirects our attention away from ourselves and toward God. Look at what he says next in verse 4… After stating his lack of knowledge and wisdom, look where he turns:

“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…?”

Isn’t that like the book of Job? “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?”

In order to understand anything, you first have to know and understand God and who you are in comparison to him. This is part of what it means to fear the Lord. We’ll be coming back to that again in a couple of weeks.

The more you know God and his creation, the more you realize how much you do not know. And the more you realize how much you do not know, it’s then that you will know more of God and his creation.

The bottom line is that humility is required to know anything. And when you see God for who he is and you see yourself and his world for what it is, then through that humble perspective of divine order, you will be given the eyes of wisdom.

Some of you will know of John Calvin, the 16th century French reformer. As some have said, if Martin Luther was the heart of the Protestant Reformation, John Calvin was the head. The depth of his understanding of God and the Scriptures was and is unparalleled. And Calvin’s seminal work was his Institutes – the Institutes of the Christian Religion. Two very thick volumes – 1200 pages total. In fact, Calvin refined it over his entire life.

Let me read to you the very first words of Calvin’s Institutes. Book 1, chapter 1, paragraph 1 – this is what Calvin writes:

“Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.” And he goes on 1 sentence later, “…no man can survey himself without first turning his thoughts towards the God in whom he lives and moves.” And Calvin goes on to talk about the humility required to know God, which includes knowing the “miserable ruin,” as he puts it, into which Adam plunged the world.

John Calvin is saying what Proverbs 30 is saying. Any and all knowledge must begin with a humble recognition of who we are as creatures… and who God is, as the one who created all things. Even though Calvin did not quote Proverbs 30, he begins his entire treatise with the very same point.

That is what the first 4 verses are saying. It is a profound truth that we have to recognize in order to correctly understand anything.

And then for the next 5 verses, Agur explains and demonstrates the implications of that truth.

Verses 5 and 6 – God is true. His Word, therefore, proves true, as it says. We dare not add to his words, it says. There’s both a promise and a warning. The promise is that “he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.” But if you add to his words, he will rebuke you. It’s a scary thing to be in the hands of God.

And underlying all of it… is humility. We humbly see ourselves as weak and finite. We humbly see God as infinite. And we therefore need to humbly recognize his Word and his way.

And in verses 7-9, Agur shows us how to do that!

We humbly come to him in prayer. Verses 7-9 is a prayer. Actually, this whole first section is a prayer. Did you notice that? Agur addresses God in verse 1. He takes an interlude in the middle to talk about God and his word. And then in verse 7, he comes back to his prayer.

He’s demonstrating how to submit ourselves to God. And actually, it is very similar to the Lord’s prayer.

In the Lord’s prayer, we pray, “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”  Agur prays, “Remove far from me falsehood and lying.”

In the Lord’s prayer, “Give us this day, our daily bread.”  And here, “feed me with the food that is needful for me.” Do you see the parallels?

In the Lord’s prayer, “Lead me not into temptation.” Agur similarly prays, “give me neither poverty nor riches… lest I deny you… or lest I be poor and steal”

You see, prayer is a humble recognition of our dependance on God and our need to submit to him. It’s a beautiful way for Agur to not just communicate the transcendence of God compared to the weakness of of man, but how we humbly surrender to him

To summarize point number 1: the very first step to understand the world clearly, is to humbly recognize our vastly limited knowledge compared to God’s eternal wisdom, and to therefore humbly submit to him and his word.

All knowledge and understanding begins there.

Humbly know God’s divine order

2. Humbly submit to God’s moral order.

And next. What is the second thing we need in order to see clearly? We need to humbly submit to God’s moral order.

There’s a big change starting in verse 10. Agur began with himself. He began by looking in and looking up. And you can see that in all the first-person self-references as well as all the references to God. But when we get to verse 10, he looks out. He observes the world.

In verses 10-23, Agur observes those who reject point number 1. They don’t see the transcendent God nor who we are in him. Because of that, they are the opposite of humble. That’s most clearly seen in verses 12 and 13.

“There are those who are clean in their own eyes but are not washed of their filth. There are those—how lofty are their eyes, how high their eyelids lift!” They see themselves as the measure of all things. They see their own way as the right way. Instead of the humble disposition that Agur demonstrated in the opening verses, turning to God and his word, they see themselves as pure and right in their own eyes.

And wow, it is quite the contrast. Some have teeth like swords, meaning their words. Others hate and devour the poor. There are those who slander and others curse their mothers and fathers. He describes some as leeches - self-absorbed and never satisfied.

When someone denies God and his word, they will turn his moral order into disorder. When you begin with an exalted view of yourself, not recognizing God and his ways, look at the result. You will deny God and his standard.

The truth is, we do not want to believe there’s a moral standard because we do not want to be accountable to it or accountable to God who defines the standard.

Part of the message here is that you can try to deny the moral order all you want, but in the end it is undeniable.

And if you don’t see that in verses 10-17, Agur makes it clear in verses 18-23.

Look down at verse 20. It says, “This is the way of an adulteress: she eats and wipes her mouth and says, ‘I have done no wrong.’” You see, she’s denying that her way goes against God’s way of what is right and wrong.

Her way is contrasted with the way that God made the world. In the previous two verses, Agur highlights the way of the eagle and serpent and ship. And he includes the way of a man with a virgin. That is referring to a newlywed couple in the marriage bed. You see, God made all of creation with order. We’ll see that more in the next point. And part of that creation order is his moral order. When the adulteress breaks that order, she’s distorting what God has established as good and right and true.

It’s a grave thing to go against God and his standard. That’s the graphic warning in 17 – the eye that mocks and scorns will be plucked out by the ravens… and eaten by the vultures

You see, God has revealed a moral order in his book of creation. Even if you do not believe God’s written word, Agur testifies that God’s standard of right and wrong is undeniable.

Ok, to summarize so far. First, to have true wisdom, you need to begin by acknowledging God in all his glory as the eternal creator and your humble estate as a finite and limited creature. That is God’s divine order.

And second, you need to acknowledge that the categories of right and wrong are built into the very fabric of our being. That standard is revealed through both God’s written word as well as in creation itself. That is God’s moral order.

Without these understandings, you will be lost in a hall of mirrors, not knowing what is real nor what is right and wrong nor where to turn… But when you humbly recognize these things, God will give you eyes to see clearly.

3. Humbly observe God’s creation order

That brings us to number 3, which is related. What is the third thing we need to see clearly? We need to humbly observe God’s creation order – the fulness of it. This is also looking out. God’s eternal wisdom is displayed in his creation all around us.

By the way, did anyone stay up and see the Northern lights a couple weeks ago? I missed them but I’ve seen them in the past. It’s amazing how God has formed and fashioned the universe to display his glory. Now, in verses 24-31, Agur is not talking about inanimate objects like stars and electrons that light up the sky and other displays of beauty that we see all around. Rather, he is highlighting the wisdom of God found in the smallest and largest creatures. The industrious wisdom of the ant. The instincts of the rock badger hiding in the cliffs. The formations of locust swarms. Lizards found in the palaces of kings. The mighty lion, the strutting rooster and the he-goat, all given rule over their dominions.

We could add to that. Schools of fish, all turning at the same time. Isn’t that amazing. Humming birds, whose wings flit up to 80 times a second, whose hearts beat up to 10 times a second… and who travel 1-2000 miles during migration. Or consider the 400,000 pound blue whales – the biggest creatures on earth. Their songs can be heard by other whales 1,000 miles away.

Yet some believe there is no God. Instead, they believe that all of reality came about through an evolutionary process. The wisdom that we observe in life is not fashioned and formed by a God of infinite wisdom, they say,  but rather, through chance and evolution. And back to point number 2, they say that the morality we observe is not morality at all but merely behavior traits learned through the same evolutionary process.

That thinking is an example of what this entire chapter is addressing. It’s the height of pride and arrogance. It assumes an exhaustive understanding the universe that goes back in time.

In other words, to reject God as he has revealed in his creation order is to put oneself in the place of God. It is the epitome of arrogance. No, God alone has an exhaustive understanding of all things because he is the creator of all things. The order and wisdom of creation all around us testifies to the inexhaustible wisdom and glory of God.

That brings us back to the very beginning of the chapter. Any and all knowledge has to begin with a humble recognition of God and who we are in relationship to him. If we don’t see that divine order, we will not recognize his moral order, nor will we see clearly his amazing creation order.

Let me put it this way - in order to see things clearly, you need to see God clearly, see yourself clearly, see his way clearly, and see his creation clearly. Anything else is merely a hall of mirrors - distorting divinity, morality, and reality.

In fact chapter 30 comes to a close where it began, humility. Verse 32. “If you have been foolish, exalting yourself, or if you have been devising evil, put your hand on your mouth.” In other words, if your whole life you have followed this foolish self-exalting thinking or evil living, then speak no more. Submit yourself, like Agur, to the one in whom all wisdom and authority and all things find their meaning.

Conclusion

So, three things! Yet even four! Actually, there is a fourth. Maybe I should call this one “Salvation Order?” Divine order, moral order, creation order, and salvation order.

Speaking of 4. Let’s go back up to verse 4. Agur asks the question, “who has ascended to heaven and come back down?” When he asks that, he is saying that the only one who can have knowledge is one who has ascended to heaven and has seen the glory and work of God – and has come back down to reveal it.

Jesus himself quotes that very phrase in John chapter 3. Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus about knowledge. About knowledge of the things of earth and the things of heaven. And Jesus said, “no one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the son of Man.” Jesus was confirming to Nicodemus that he is the one with the full knowledge of God. By the way, that title Son of Man is a reference to his divinity. Jesus’ knowledge comes from his divine nature as God’s Son. That is why the apostle Paul can say in Colossians 2 that in Christ are “hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

So in Proverbs 30, when Agur asks, “what is his name, and what is his sons name?” He is speaking about the eternal Father and the eternal son of God, who would descend from heaven and whose knowledge and wisdom is ours through him.

In fact, John Calvin, in his Institutes quotes this very verse. Proverbs 30:4. He uses it as one of many verses which speak to the eternal nature of God the Son, before he was incarnate, before he descended to earth and became man. That nature caried over into the person of Jesus – truly God. As Calvin put it in reference to Proverbs 30. “He who was afterwards visibly manifested was the invisible Son of God.”

Our humility and knowledge comes through him, comes through the son, who descended from heaven, who humbled himself that we may humble ourselves. And in that humility, we can know God, his divine order, his moral order, his creation order, and his salvation order. Ultimate humility is submitting your life to him, and when you do, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge will be yours.

In closing, I think I could probably take another 15 minutes and show all the other ways that Christ fulfills this chapter. I won’t do that, instead, let me just highlight them:

·      Christ is the Holy One of verse 3 whose holiness reveals what is true and right and good.

·      He also fulfills verse 5. He is the word of God and  a shield to those who take refuge in him

·      In verse 12, we can say we are clean, because we have been washed of our filth through his blood

·      And Christ is the agent of creation’s order, through whom God fashioned and formed his amazing world.

May we humble ourselves before him, so that we may see ourselves, God, his ways, and his world clearly.