Monday, June 25, 2012

The sayings of Agur (Proverbs 30)

The last two chapters of Proverbs contain writings attributed to others besides Solomon.

Proverbs 30 is an interesting writing that feels more like a contemplative poem as opposed to "Proverbs". It is less straight forward and even contains puzzles and riddles.

The chapter begins by saying it is an inspired utterance by Agur. We do not know when Agur lived or when it was added to Proverbs. Since it came after chapters 25-29, which were added by King Hezekiah, we could probably guess that King Hezekiah added chapter 30 at the same time.

Regardless of when Agur lived, its inclusion in Proverbs underscores that wisdom coming from God coming was not limited to Solomon. Wisdom is later listed in the New Testament as a gift of the Holy Spirit.

Agur shows humility throughout Proverbs 30. He shows deference to God and asks God to only give him his daily bread, lest wealth ruin his faith and lest poverty drive him to theft.

He also incorporates several riddles into the chapter. He provides several lists of 4 things grouped by a commonality, but 1 of them is different. For instance, he is amazed by the 3 of the following but cannot understand all 4 of them - a snake on a rock, an eagle in flight, a ship on the sea, and the way of a man with a woman. However, he does not state which of the four he is not amazed by, nor explain what is the difference between being "amazed" and "understanding". We as the audience are left to wonder which he meant and further to ask, are we amazed by them? Do we even understand them?

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