Let’s take our Bibles together and turn to the Book of Proverbs. Today we are going to cover Collection VI of Proverbs. Proverbs 30:1–33 includes all the Scriptural words written by a man named Agur. 

And to that you might ask, “Who is Agur?” We don’t know. And to that you might ask, “Who do the commentators say that Agur is?” They don’t know. And to that you might ask, “Who did the ancient Israelites say that Agur was?” They don’t know, and they don’t say. Some suggest that Agur might be an alias for Solomon. Is “Agur” Solomon’s nom-de-plume? That’s unlikely. 

And this is all very fascinating, because we have a biblical writer here that nobody knows anything about. All we know is that a guy named Agur wrote a chapter of Proverbs, and the Holy Spirit inspired him to do so. And because of that, it was canonized as Scripture and added to the book of Proverbs.

Now just a few observations before we get into the text itself. Notice if you will how different Agur’s words are from Solomon’s. They are still “proverbial” in form and content. But the writing style is quite different. So you know this is a different author. 

Notice too the extensive way the author uses numbers and animals in his writing. The numerical proverbs are fascinating. We’ll talk more about them in a second. The “three, yea four” statements are very striking in this chapter.  

And notice all the animals used in Proverbs 30. Solomon used animals in his proverbs too. But the number of animals used in this chapter is another level. There’s the ant, the rock badger, the locust, the lizard, the raven, the vulture, the eagle, the lion, the rooster, the he-goat, the snake, and the leech! 

And then, there’s also the most important animal that Agur references in this chapter—man. Man, who is a little lower than the angels (Ps 8:5; Heb 2:7), but slightly higher than the beasts! Mankind is the real emphasis of this chapter. Let’s talk about him. Let’s make a few “Observations on Man and His World,” in Proverbs 30. 

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I’ll give you eight observations. Here’s #1. Agur addresses first…

1) The Limitations of Mankind (30:1–4)

Now, there’s some debate in verse 1. You should know about this. If you have a KJV or an NASB, the verse reads something like this: “The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, the oracle. The man declares to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ucal.”

 In the ESV, it reads like this. 

1 The words of Agur son of Jakeh. The oracle. The man declares, I am weary, O God; I am weary, O God, and worn out. 

The Hebrew could go either way. But I’m inclined to agree with the other versions that see this verse addressed to somebody. The addressees are Ithiel and Ucal. “Who are they, Pastor Tony?” We don’t know. But Agur has a burden to unload on them. He’s got an oracle from the Lord. 

Look at verse 2. 

2 Surely I am too stupid to be a man. I have not the understanding of a man. 

3 I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One. 

Agur is not being falsely modest here. He’s speaking from his heart, and he’s hyperbolizing. And what he’s doing is explaining how limited he is as a man. If he truly had no wisdom or knowledge of the Holy One, then why would he be writing Scripture? 

We’ll see in a minute that he does know God. He even knows the covenant name of God, Yahweh. But even with that, there are limitations to his knowledge. “He is too stupid to be a man.” That is strong self-condemnation. 

It’s even stronger than you think. The word for “stupid” is the Hebrew בַּעַר (bǎ·ʿǎr). It means beastly or beast-like. It’s what’s called an onomatopoeia. It’s a word that sounds like it is. The word בַּעַר sounds like the sound that a cow makes when it lows. So Agur is saying something like, “I am a beast, not a man. And in comparison to God, I am a nothing-burger.”

Why is he saying this? Why is he being so self-deprecating? Well, he’s getting to a point. And that is delivered in verse 4.

4 Who has ascended to heaven and come down? 

 The questions here in verse 4 are rhetorical questions. And it’s as if Agur is meaning to answer each of them with the response, “Not me!”

4 Who has ascended to heaven and come down? 

“Not me!”

Who has gathered the wind in his fists? 

“Not me!”

Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment? 

“Not me!”

Who has established all the ends of the earth? 

“Not me!”

 Coincidently, you can answer each of these questions not only with “Not me!,” but also with “But God!” It’s as if Agur wants us to answer, “Not me, but God” to every question.

 And by the way, this language is remarkably similar to what God told Job at the end of the book of Job when God asks Job a series of questions that can only be answered with, “Not me, but God!” Maybe Agur was a contemporary of Job? We don’t know. 

So, the answer to these questions is as follows:

4 Who has ascended to heaven and come down? 

“Not me, but God!”

Who has gathered the wind in his fists? 

“Not me, but God!”

Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment? 

“Not me, but God!”

Who has established all the ends of the earth? 

“Not me, but God!”

And that answer gets you all the way to the end of verse 4. This question requires more nuance.

What is his name, and what is his son’s name? Surely you know! 

Well surely the original readers knew God’s name. It’s Yahweh. But Agur also mentions God’s son. What’s up with that? Does God have a son? If so, what’s God’s son’s name? Hold on… don’t answer that, yet. Log that away, because we’ll come back to that. 

And who is the man—not just God, but a man too—who established the ends of the earth? Who ascended to heaven and came down, not just as a man, but as God in the flesh? Don’t answer that question just yet. We’ll come back to it. I promise you we’ll come back to it.

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 Write this down as #2. After addressing the limitations of mankind, including his own limitations, Agur writes next about…

2) The Authority of God’s Word (30:5–6) 

Agur writes in verse 4, 

5 Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. 

6 Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.

I don’t know who this guy Agur is, but I like him. He thinks humbly about himself. He thinks highly about God. And he honors God’s Word. I like that! Someday in eternity, I want to shake this guys hand. 

In fact, Agur reinforces something here that is written in the torah of Moses. Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 12:32: “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.” The Apostle John wrote something similar in the book of Revelation. Paul said similarly that we should not go beyond what is written (1 Cor 4:6). These are important warnings in Scripture that we should heed.

Agur’s parallels with Deuteronomy here may suggest that he had access to the five books of Moses. Perhaps he was a contemporary of Solomon in his day? Maybe Solomon told Agur about the God of the Israelites? Again, we don’t know. 

Some of you might wonder, “Why do we preach God’s Word verse by verse, even really long books like Proverbs?” Well here’s as good a reason as any in the Scriptures. Because verse 5 says,  

5 Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

I want God as my shield. Don’t you?

And why do we reject the writings of the Muslims, the Mormons, and even the Catholics who try to add to God’s Word? Because, we have this warning from the mysterious Agur in Proverbs, who echoes the words of Moses in the Pentateuch, 

6 Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.

I don’t want to be found a liar. Do you? 

Notice too, if you will, the wording of verse 5. Not only is every word of God true. That’s true enough. But he says, “Every word of God proves true.” In other words, God’s Word isn’t something abstract and ethereal that you can’t ever evaluate or use practically in your life. It proves true. 

The language here is the language of precious metals that are refined in fire. God’s Word is true. God’s Word proves true. And God is a shield to those who take refuge in him. 

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 Write this down as #3. Agur is going to shift gears now and talk about… 

3) The Danger of Riches (30:7–9)

In verse 7, Agur starts reciting a prayer to the God that he has just been magnifying. Coincidently, this is the only prayer in the entire book of Proverbs. That’s interesting to me. We have 29 chapters of Solomonic writing in the book of Proverbs, but no prayers… no explicit prayers anyway. We have to wait until chapter 30 to find a prayer. 

And here it is. 

7 Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: 

8 Remove far from me falsehood and lying; 

give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, 

9 lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” 

or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.

Now it’s possible that Agur is a king. And kings are typically wealthy, although the torah does warn against excessive wealth arrogated to the Kings of Israel (see Deut 17:16–20). 

What Agur prays for instead is neither poverty nor riches. If Agur is a king, then he’s asking God, “Allow me to be a middle-class king.” That feels almost like an oxymoron—a middle-class king.

When I was in India earlier this year, I went to see the Taj Mahal. And it’s a magnificent, impressive edifice. It’s one of the great wonders of the world. But the history behind that great structure is beyond ludicrous. Basically an ancient Muslim king taxed his people mercilessly to build this gigantic structure that is nothing more than a mausoleum for his dead wife. She’s buried on the inside of the main structure. So he built this elaborate, ornate structure, even as his people languished away in poverty. The Taj Mahal took approximately 22 years to complete, and something like $1 Billion in today’s money.   

And therein lies the danger of too much money entrusted into the hands of someone who doesn’t have the best interest of the people at heart. And that’s why Agur says, “Keep me in the middle. Give me neither poverty nor riches!”

And actually the stakes are greater than that. Part of the reason he wants to be in the middle-class is because he doesn’t want his heart to turn away from the Lord. Look at verse 9. “Give me neither poverty nor riches...”

9 lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” 

“If I have all I need, I might forget that I need you.” That’s what Agur says here. I think Agur is on to something. Why do we have sickness in this world? Why do Christians contract cancer? Why do Christians suffer persecution? Why do Christians deal with financial difficulties? Why do Christians struggle? Why when we become Christians doesn’t God just back up a Brinks Truck full of financial blessings for us? 

Yes, it’s a fallen world. And yes, Satan is actively persecuting and terrorizing Christians. But God is sovereign over all of that. And sometimes Christians suffer, under the auspices of God’s divine sovereignty, in order to remind us that we desperately need God. And that’s good. That’s secretly a blessing in disguise. 

And I’m not trying to romanticize poverty. Agur doesn’t romanticize poverty. Agur prays against poverty. Look at the end of verse 9.    

or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.

The moral of this story is that riches are dangerous, but so is poverty. For my part, as your pastor, I have tried to be equally outspoken against both prosperity theology and poverty theology. I think both of those are dangerous. 

What’s the cure for materialism? It’s not poverty! It’s generosity. Give it away as fast as you reasonably can, so that riches don’t take hold of your heart. 

“What’s the cure for poverty, Tony?” Work hard. Pray hard. And in our world today, don’t elect bad government officials. 

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 Write this down as #4. Here’s another thing that Agur denounces. 

4) The Shame of Insolence (30:10–17)

 He writes in verse 10, 

10 Do not slander a servant to his master, lest he curse you, and you be held guilty.

This is another instance of poetic justice in the book of Proverbs. Sometimes we’ve called it “comeuppance.” If you try to stir up trouble for someone else, don’t be surprised when that trouble falls back on you. “Those who make trouble get into trouble.”

Look at verse 11.

11 There are those who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers. 

Insolence towards parents is always denounced in the Proverbs. And that harks back to the Pentateuch where Moses told us to honor our fathers and mothers (see Exod 20:12). That’s not always easy, especially when fathers and mothers aren’t worthy of honor. But even when that’s the case, we should never curse them. 

In a perfectly ordered society, parents parent well, and children respect their parents. That’s the ideal that is set forth in the OT, and affirmed for Christians in the NT. We should always be striving for that. 

Look at verse 12. 

12 There are those who are clean in their own eyes but are not washed of their filth. 

The word for “filth” here could be translated “excrement.” To be clean in your own eyes is just as self-deceptive as being wise in your own eyes. It’s an expression of pride. And it’s the opposite of humility. 

Speaking of pride, look at verse 13.

13 There are those—how lofty are their eyes, how high their eyelids lift! 

To have lofty eyes in Hebrew thought is like having a stuck up nose in modern English. This is the epitome of hubris and conceit. It’s not only obnoxious, it’s delusional. Agur has already told us how lowly we should view ourselves before God.  

Look at verse 14.

14 There are those whose teeth are swords, whose fangs are knives, 

Humans have teeth, but they don’t have “fangs.” So this is a vivid metaphor right here. Some people are beastly in the use of their mouths. That’s not a complement. 

And what do they use their “fangs” to do?

14 … whose fangs are knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, the needy from among mankind. 

Are these people rich or poor who devour the poor and needy? The text doesn’t say. We’ve seen examples of unrighteous rich and unrighteous poor in the book of Proverbs. And both can be guilty of oppressing the poor. Either way, it’s shameful to use leverage to oppress the poor.  

Look at verse 15.

15 The leech has two daughters: Give and Give. 

Here’s another expression of insolence—the taker! Agur compares a greedy taker to a leech. Again, that’s not a complement.  

By the way, just a little bit of zoology for you. A leech is technically a worm that has two suckers on both sides of its body. It attaches to the flesh of another animal, typically a mammal, and it uses its two suckers to suck blood and nutrients out of its victim’s body. The horseleech is probably what this passage refers to. The horseleech would attach itself to the inside of an animal’s nostrils at a watering hole. And a four-legged animal with no fingers or opposable thumbs would agonizingly struggle to remove it. Charming, right? 

And Agur sarcastically gives two names to these suckers on the leech: Give and Give!  

15 The leech has two daughters: Give and Give. Three things are never satisfied; four never say, “Enough”: 

16 Sheol, the barren womb, the land never satisfied with water, and the fire that never says, “Enough.” 

This is a cryptic saying. What’s this all about? And this is the first of our “three, yea, four” statements. What’s the point of those? Well, typically, these numerical statements emphasize the final thing said. So if it’s a “three, yea, four” statement, then the fourth statement is the one you should key on. That’s not always the case. But that’s usually how this is used. 

In this case, the fourth statement is about fire. And all four of the statements illustrate the insatiability of a leech-like mentality on life—give, give! Gimmee, gimmee, gimmee. That is a horrible way to live your life. And if you live your life like that, as a rich or a poor person, you will be perpetually unsatisfied. 

I learned in my microeconomics class years ago that man has an insatiable number of wants. We are like Sheol. The grave is insatiable. 

We are like the barren womb. We are like desert land that never gets its fill of water. We are like fire that never stops consuming. And the trick in life is to learn when to say, “Enough!” I don’t need more stuff. I need more of God. Rich Mullins said it this way, years ago, “The stuff of earth competes for the allegiance, I owe only to the Giver of all good things.” 

And as a final caution against insolence, look at verse 17. 

17 The eye that mocks a father and scorns to obey a mother will be picked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by the vultures. 

Yikes! That’s macabre. I’ve done a lot of baby dedications over the years. I’ve never had a mom and dad choose that verse as their theme verse for baby dedication!

You should know though that in the OT world, insolence towards parents was a capital offense (see Exod 21:17). There’s corporal punishment in the Bible, but there was also capital punishment. And children had a moral obligation to honor their parents. 

Do parents screw up sometimes? Yes. Are all parents worthy of respect and honor? No. But is our society better ordered when children, as a rule of thumb, obey their parents and submit to them? Yes. 

Here’s a modern day proverb for you. Keep this one in your back pocket: “Hard cases make for bad law.” Remember that. We shouldn’t derive principles from bad cases. We should derive principles from God’s ideals. And parents, as a rule of thumb, are worthy of their children’s respect.   

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 Write this down as #5. Here’s some more ancient wisdom from Agur. And it has to do with…

5) The Beauty of Sexual Intimacy (30:18–19)  

Look at verse 18.

18 Three things are too wonderful for me; four I do not understand: 

19 the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a virgin. 

This is one of those numerical sayings that emphasizes the last thing. Yes, the way of an eagle in the sky is impressive. It’s mesmerizing to watch. Yes, a serpent on a rock is impressive. The way that snakes slither over the surface of a rock is extraordinary. It looks like the snake is defying the laws of physics. Same with a ship on the high seas. That’s impressive. That’s beautiful. 

But the real rhetorical punch of this statement isn’t delivered with serpents or ships or birds in the skies. This proverb is about sex. And how beautiful it is when a man has sex with a woman. It’s almost as if God created the male and female body parts to go together. It’s almost as if a man having sex with a man, and a woman having sex with a woman defies God’s creational intent!   

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 And speaking of creational intent. Write this down as #6. 

6) The Disgrace of Sexual Sin (30:20–23) 

Right on the heels of verse 19, and the beauty of a man with a virgin, Agur writes in verse 20,

20 This is the way of an adulteress: she eats and wipes her mouth and says, “I have done no wrong.” 

This is an homage back to the adulteress woman of Collection I (see Prov 6:20-35; 7:22-23). There are innocent men out there and there are guilty men who do shameful things. Also there are innocent women out there. Sometimes those women are victimized by evil men. But there are also guilty women in our world that do shameful things. And both men and women need to protect the goodness of sex as God intended it. 

The way of the adulteress leads to sin and denial. And notice how Agur builds on that statement. Look at verse 21. Some scholars think that verses 21–22 are unrelated to verse 20, but I don’t. I think there’s a theme of sexual impropriety that runs through this entire section.  

21 Under three things the earth trembles; under four it cannot bear up: 

22 a slave when he becomes king, and a fool when he is filled with food; 

23 an unloved woman when she gets a husband, and a maidservant when she displaces her mistress.

Once again, I think the emphasis is on the final statement. Why would a maidservant displace her mistress? The sordid answer to that is because the man of the house was helping himself to “the help.” Which, by the way, is not an uncommon or rare situation throughout human history!

In Agur’s mind this is disgraceful. It’s as disgraceful as an adulteress who has her way with a man and then wipes her mouth and says, “I have done no wrong.”

Let me say this about sex. The book of Proverbs has a lot to say about sex. And when you add to this book, the book of Song of Solomon, we have more Scriptural content on sex in these two books than all the other books of the Bible combined. The Lord is not silent on this topic. And I’m thankful that God has given us these truths concerning what he expects. 

But here’s the truth about sex. When it’s done properly, it’s beautiful. And it’s God-honoring. That should be the goal for every person in this room. Even if you’ve failed in this in the past, there’s no reason for you to not pursue this in the present. 

Because here’s the other truth about sex. Yes, when it’s done properly, it’s beautiful. But when we defy God, and embrace sexual sin, the consequences are horrific. More horrific than almost any other sin that we can commit! And we’re seeing the evidence of that in our modern-day society. 

Sexual sin destroys marriages. It destroys families. It hurts children. It hurts society at large. And we can’t say, “Nobody told us about this!” Agur told us about this centuries ago. King Solomon told us about it centuries ago too, and then he showed us how to royally screw up the goodness of God’s ideal for marriage and for sex.

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Write this down as #7. Let’s move on to a happier topic. Let’s talk about…

7) The Goodness of Unexpected Wisdom (30:24–28) 

Look at verse 24.

24 Four things on earth are small, but they are exceedingly wise: 

25 the ants are a people not strong, yet they provide their food in the summer; 

26 the rock badgers are a people not mighty, yet they make their homes in the cliffs; 

27 the locusts have no king, yet all of them march in rank; 

28 the lizard you can take in your hands, yet it is in kings’ palaces. 

This sounds like one of Aesop’s fables, not like Scripture. What’s all this about? And how can these creatures be called “exceedingly wise”? Because the only creature in this proverb that has half a brain is a rock-badger, and half a brain might be too generous for that species. None of these creatures would score high on an IQ test. So how can these creatures have wisdom? 

Well don’t think literally about what the author is writing here. Think literarily. Think poetically and artistically and creatively. Each of these little creatures has an admirable trait that we should emulate. 

The ant works hard. The rock badger makes his home safe. The locust is a self-starter and doesn’t need a commander. And the lizard is resourceful. He’s docile and easy to kill, but he finds himself in the palace of a king.

So here’s the moral of the story. Work hard (like the ant). Protect your home (like the badger). Be a self-starter (like the locust). And be resilient (like the lizard). 

And maybe the bigger moral of this story is don’t underestimate the power or the wisdom that can be demonstrated by something small. These animals are wee but wise. Remember what David said—what is man that you are mindful of him? You made him a little lower than the angels (Ps 8:4–5). And yet, wee little man can still fear God and be wise. 

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Finally, write this down as #8. Agur closes this chapter of Proverbs by illustrating… 

8) The Foolishness of Unfounded Pride (30:29–33)

Verse 29 says, 

29 Three things are stately in their tread; four are stately in their stride: 

30 the lion, which is mightiest among beasts and does not turn back before any; 

31 the strutting rooster, the he-goat, and a king whose army is with him. 

A king with his army… that’s impressive! That’s as stately and impressive as a lion walking around as king of the beasts. That’s something that is worthy of pride and honor and a display of grandeur. 

But now, Agur pivots. And he describes something that is not worthy of pride. Look at verse 32.

32 If you have been foolish, exalting yourself, or if you have been devising evil, put your hand on your mouth. 

By the way, that statement “put your hand on your mouth”… That’s what Job did in God’s presence (see Job 40:4). This is the Hebrew equivalent to “Shut up!” Don’t verbally exalt yourself. Don’t foolishly self-aggrandize before others. You’re better off putting your hand over your mouth! 

And remember how this chapter started. Agur said at the beginning of this chapter, “I am too stupid to be a man. I have not the understanding of a man” (30:2). 

And here’s the result of misguided, unfounded pride. What happens when we don’t put our hands to our mouths in a moment of weakness when we are exalting ourselves?

Look at verse 33.

33 For pressing milk produces curds, pressing the nose produces blood, and pressing anger produces strife. 

In other words, “Those who make trouble get into trouble.” Pride leads to strife just like churning milk produces butter. Human pride and anger leads to conflict, just like the turning of a person’s nose produces blood. 

So, what’s the moral of this proverb? Humble yourself. Don’t be prideful. Don’t be angry. Don’t press your anger. Don’t think more highly of yourself than you should. 

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And speaking of humility, let’s go back to verse 4 and that statement that I told you to log away till later. It’s an amazing statement. 

4 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, and what is his son’s name? 

God has a son? How could that possibly make sense in an OT context? And if God does have a son, then what’s his name? Is Agur being sarcastic here?

There’s a great moment in the NT when Jesus alludes to this passage of the OT. Which goes to show that Jesus knew Agur’s writings, and he valued them as Holy Scripture. 

It happened in John 3, when Jesus was conversing with a synagogue leader named Nicodemus. It’s Jesus’s famous “born again speech.” He told Nicodemus that he must be born again, and that just about blew Nicodemus’s mind. Nicodemus was already struggling with what Jesus was saying when Jesus said something else.   

Jesus also said this in John 3:13. He said, “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” A few verses later, John the Baptist said about Jesus, “He who comes from above is above all… He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true” (John 3:31–33).

So Jesus, piggybacking on Agur in Proverbs 30, says something like this, “Someone did ascend into heaven. Someone did descend from heaven. Someone does have access to both realms! And that person can give you access to both realms.” 

And who is that person? Who is the Son of Man? Well, that’s Jesus’s favorite self-referential title. The Son of Man is the Son of God. 

And John says about him in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” 

The truth of the matter is this. God does have a Son, and we know his name. And God sent his only son, Jesus, into this world to die for our sins so that we might have eternal life. And it’s in that Son’s name that we pray. Pray with me.