Welcome to Wisdom Today with Bill Kelley. Today we will be going over Proverb 30. I will then key in on verses 1-4. These verses (with commentary from my Bible - The Nelson Study Bible - answer some questions that the author of this particular proverb - Agur had are answered. On today's podcast we will continue our study of the minor prophet Hosea. Today we will be gin Chapter 13. By the end of today's lesson there are three things I ask that you consider:
1. Let the men who sacrifice "kiss the calves."
2. They shall be like the morning cloud, And like the early dew that passes away.
3. I am the Lord you God.
Call to Action - For the next five days I ask that you consider paying everyone that comes across your path a compliment. Notice the reactions of each person. I believe and declare if you begin doing this on a regular basis that your life will become a bit better.
[00:00:06] Welcome to Wisdom Today. My name is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. In this podcast we will be exploring the book of Proverbs.
[00:00:21] Let's open in prayer. Father God, I thank you for anyone listening to this podcast today. Lord, I pray that you would give everyone ears to hear and a heart to receive everything you have in store for them in this particular podcast. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
[00:00:39] This is Proverb 30 beginning in verse 1.
[00:00:44] The words of Agur, the son of Jaiki, his utterance.
[00:00:50] This man declared to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Eucal,
[00:00:56] Surely I am more stupid than any man, and do not have the understanding of a man.
[00:01:03] I neither learned wisdom, nor have knowledge of the Holy One.
[00:01:09] Who has ascended into heaven or descended?
[00:01:13] Who has gathered the wind in his fists?
[00:01:16] Who has bound the waters in a garment?
[00:01:20] Who has established all the ends of the earth?
[00:01:24] What is his name and what is his son's name, if you know?
[00:01:29] Every word of God is pure.
[00:01:33] He is a shield to those who put their trust in him.
[00:01:37] Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you, and you be found a liar.
[00:01:43] Two things I request of you.
[00:01:47] Deprive me not before I die.
[00:01:50] Remove falsehood and lies far from me.
[00:01:54] Give me neither poverty nor riches.
[00:01:57] Feed me with the food allotted to me, lest I be full and deny you, and say,
[00:02:05] Who is the Lord?
[00:02:07] Or, lest I be poor and steal, and profane the name of my God.
[00:02:13] Do not malign a servant to his master, lest he curse you, and you be found guilty.
[00:02:21] There is a generation that curses its father, and does not bless its mother.
[00:02:27] There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed from its filthiness.
[00:02:35] There is a generation, oh, how lofty are their eyes, and their eyelids are lifted up.
[00:02:43] There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, and whose fangs are like knives,
[00:02:50] to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.
[00:02:57] The leech has two daughters, give and give.
[00:03:01] There are three things that are never satisfied, four never say enough.
[00:03:08] The grave, the barren womb, the earth that is not satisfied with water, and the fire never says enough.
[00:03:17] The eye that mocks his father, and scorns obedience to his mother.
[00:03:24] The ravens of the valley will pick it out, and the young eagles will eat it.
[00:03:29] There are three things which are too wonderful for me.
[00:03:34] Yes, four which I do not understand.
[00:03:37] The way of an eagle in the air.
[00:03:40] The way of a serpent on a rock.
[00:03:43] The way of a ship in the midst of the sea.
[00:03:46] And the way of a man with a virgin.
[00:03:50] This is the way of an adulterous woman.
[00:03:53] She eats and wipes her mouth, and says,
[00:03:57] I have done no wickedness.
[00:04:00] For three things the earth is perturbed.
[00:04:04] Yes, for four it cannot bear up.
[00:04:07] For a servant when he reigns.
[00:04:10] A fool when he is filled with food.
[00:04:13] A hateful woman when she is married.
[00:04:16] And a maid servant who succeeds her mistress.
[00:04:20] There are four things which are little on the earth.
[00:04:24] But they are exceedingly wise.
[00:04:27] The ants are a people not strong.
[00:04:30] Yet they prepare their food in the summer.
[00:04:34] The rock badgers are a feeble folk.
[00:04:37] Yet they make their homes in the crags.
[00:04:40] The locusts have no king.
[00:04:43] Yet they all advance in ranks.
[00:04:46] The spider skillfully grasps with its hands.
[00:04:50] And it is in king's palaces.
[00:04:54] There are three things which are majestic in pace.
[00:04:58] Yes, four which are stately in walk.
[00:05:02] A lion which is mighty among beasts.
[00:05:05] And does not turn away from any.
[00:05:07] A greyhound.
[00:05:09] A male goat also.
[00:05:11] And a king whose troops are with him.
[00:05:15] If you have been foolish in exalting yourself.
[00:05:19] Or if you have devised evil.
[00:05:22] Put your hand on your mouth.
[00:05:25] For as the churning of milk produces butter.
[00:05:29] And wringing the nose produces blood.
[00:05:32] So the forcing of wrath produces strife.
[00:05:37] Friends, today I'd like to take a closer look at verses 1 through 4.
[00:05:44] And since that is rather lengthy.
[00:05:46] I am going to hold off until right before the end of this podcast.
[00:05:52] But we will be going over each of these verses prior to closing our lesson today.
[00:05:58] But what I'd like to do is to continue our study in the book of the minor prophet Hosea.
[00:06:05] Today we will be beginning chapter 13.
[00:06:09] But before we begin today's lesson, I would like to review the three points that I brought up on Monday's podcast.
[00:06:18] Now Monday was podcast number 671.
[00:06:21] And if anyone did not get a chance to listen, I invite you to do so either now or after listening to this particular lesson.
[00:06:31] And friends, always keep in mind that every podcast will stand on its own.
[00:06:38] But sometimes I think it's good if you do kind of review the prior lesson just so you kind of know where we're beginning.
[00:06:47] So let's begin today's lesson.
[00:06:50] Today we'll be beginning chapter 13 of the book of Hosea.
[00:06:55] Let's begin with verse 1.
[00:06:58] When Ephraim spoke trembling, he exalted himself in Israel.
[00:07:05] But when he offended through Baal worship, he died.
[00:07:09] Now friends, I am reading out of the Nelson Study Bible.
[00:07:14] And I'd like to go over the commentary for that verse.
[00:07:18] It says,
[00:07:19] The tribe of Ephraim has gained a prominent position in the northern kingdom and could strike fear into the hearts of the other tribes.
[00:07:32] Trembling probably refers to the effect that Ephraim's speech had on the other tribes.
[00:07:40] Now, I am going to refer back to Monday's point.
[00:07:46] Number three was Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly.
[00:07:53] So what that tells me is that God realizes the impact of Ephraim and the power they have over the other tribes of Israel.
[00:08:07] So he is really blaming Ephraim for all that is going on.
[00:08:15] I think he believes that Ephraim is the culprit in getting all the other tribes of Israel to do Baal worship.
[00:08:25] And they are paying a price.
[00:08:27] And I think that is what Hosea is referring to here when it says,
[00:08:33] When he offended through Baal worship, he died.
[00:08:36] So basically he's saying that the power or the influence that the tribe of Ephraim had is basically now going away.
[00:08:48] Let's go to verse two.
[00:08:50] Now they sin more and more and have made for themselves molded images, idols of their silver, according to their skill.
[00:09:01] All of it is the work of craftsmen.
[00:09:04] They say to them, let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves.
[00:09:11] So friends, that is my first point of the day.
[00:09:16] Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves.
[00:09:22] Now what I'd like to do, it says, let the men who sacrifice.
[00:09:26] Now there's a little note in my Bible.
[00:09:29] It says, or those who offer human sacrifice.
[00:09:35] So the implication here is that these men have sacrificed their own children on the altar of Baal.
[00:09:45] That is what that is saying.
[00:09:48] Now let's look at the commentary for verse two.
[00:09:51] Kiss the calves refers to the idolatrous practice of kissing images as a sign of homage.
[00:10:03] So they are really deep into the sacrificing of idols.
[00:10:10] And more than likely, many of these people had these own idols in their own home.
[00:10:16] Now, scripture doesn't say that.
[00:10:18] I'm just implying if that is what they're doing,
[00:10:21] there's a good chance that they had some of these images in their own home
[00:10:26] and they would sacrifice to those idols in their own time as well.
[00:10:30] Let's go to verse three.
[00:10:33] Therefore, they shall be like the morning cloud and like the early dew that passes away,
[00:10:41] like chaff blown off from a threshing floor and like smoke from a chimney.
[00:10:49] Let's look at the commentary for verse three.
[00:10:52] God's judgment would sweep Ephraim away quickly,
[00:10:59] just as the sun dispels fog and dries up the dew,
[00:11:04] or as the wind blows away chaff and smoke.
[00:11:09] Now, friends, what this reminds me of is when something new comes into our world today.
[00:11:18] It might be a new band.
[00:11:20] It might be somebody.
[00:11:23] It might be a star football player,
[00:11:25] but they come on like gangbusters and everybody is attracted to them
[00:11:31] and they see something and they go,
[00:11:33] I want to follow this person.
[00:11:35] And then all of a sudden things melt away and little by little by little,
[00:11:41] you never hear from these people again.
[00:11:45] That is what I believe is happening here to the tribe of Ephraim.
[00:11:52] Now, let's go to verses four and five.
[00:11:56] Yet I am the Lord your God ever since the land of Egypt,
[00:12:02] and you shall know no God but me, for there is no savior besides me.
[00:12:11] I knew you in the wilderness in the land of great drought.
[00:12:16] So here he's referring to the wilderness that the Israelites went through for 40 years
[00:12:23] after they were delivered from Egypt by the prophet Moses.
[00:12:30] So my third and final point of today's lesson is I am the Lord your God.
[00:12:37] So let's look at the commentary for verses four and five.
[00:12:41] The Lord reminded Israel of who he is, what he had accomplished for his people,
[00:12:49] and what he expected from them because he alone was Israel's God and savior.
[00:12:57] The Lord expected the people's undivided loyalty.
[00:13:02] No and new.
[00:13:04] The repetition of the verb to know correlates God's demands with his grace.
[00:13:13] Because he knew or cared for Israel in the wilderness,
[00:13:17] he had every right to expect them to know or to be loyal to him.
[00:13:27] Friends, something to think about.
[00:13:29] It's a great lesson today.
[00:13:31] But before we close our lesson, what I'd like to do is go back to our proverb of the day.
[00:13:38] And today is October 30th, which means Proverb 30 is our proverb of the day.
[00:13:45] And I selected verses one through four.
[00:13:49] Because this particular proverb is not written by Solomon.
[00:13:55] It is written by a man named Agur.
[00:13:59] And so let's revisit verse one.
[00:14:03] The words of Agur, the son of Jaiki, his utterance.
[00:14:08] This man declared to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ukal.
[00:14:14] So let's listen to the commentary for Proverb 30, verse one.
[00:14:20] An entirely new section of the book of Proverbs begins with the words of Agur.
[00:14:28] Like Lemuel, who wrote the first nine verses of the last proverb, which will be tomorrow.
[00:14:36] Agur was a non-Hebrew contributor to the book of Proverbs.
[00:14:41] He came to faith in the God of Israel in a foreign land.
[00:14:46] We know nothing about his father, Jaiki.
[00:14:49] But the word translated, his utterance, may be a place name.
[00:14:56] Ithiel and Ukal were probably Agur's pupils.
[00:15:01] Since the back-to-back repetition of the name Ithiel is unusual.
[00:15:06] Some construe the Hebrew letters differently and translate the text,
[00:15:12] I have wearied myself, O God.
[00:15:15] I have wearied myself, O God, and am consumed.
[00:15:21] This would fit the text of the following verses.
[00:15:25] Now let's look at verse two.
[00:15:28] Surely I am more stupid than any man, and do not have the understanding of a man.
[00:15:35] I neither learned wisdom nor have knowledge of the Holy One.
[00:15:40] So let's look at the commentary for verses two and three.
[00:15:47] More stupid than any man.
[00:15:51] Agur means he was at a loss.
[00:15:55] Similarly, his denial of knowledge of the Holy One, meaning God, is a rhetorical flourish as well.
[00:16:04] Agur was stating with dramatic irony that he could not explain the puzzle before him.
[00:16:12] Now let's look at verse four.
[00:16:38] Now let's look at the commentary.
[00:16:40] This verse gives the riddle that perplexed Agur.
[00:16:46] The questions are enigmatic.
[00:16:48] They culminate in, what is his name?
[00:16:51] And what is his son's name, if you know?
[00:16:54] At this point, the riddle has no answer.
[00:16:58] The Old Testament would answer that his name is the Lord God,
[00:17:03] but did not have a name for his son.
[00:17:06] This riddle was to remain unsolved until Jesus answered it for Nicodemus in the Gospel of John, chapter 3.
[00:17:16] These verses form one of the most straightforward messianic texts in the Bible.
[00:17:25] So friends, the reason I brought these four verses up today is because many times, as I have read Proverb 30,
[00:17:33] I was often a little bit confused as to exactly what Agur meant in these four verses.
[00:17:42] I hope I cleared some of that up for you today.
[00:17:46] So my call to action is a little bit different today.
[00:17:51] What I'd like for you to do is to go out of your way and pay someone a compliment every day through the end of the week.
[00:18:02] So that's Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
[00:18:08] And really make a point of this.
[00:18:12] Any person that comes across your path, find something to say that would be a compliment to them.
[00:18:21] You know, I like the way you have a smile on your face.
[00:18:24] It looks like you're having a good day.
[00:18:26] Just say something nice and just see what the reaction you get is.
[00:18:32] I believe and declare that it will be positive.
[00:18:36] And friends, if you get in a habit of doing this on a regular basis,
[00:18:41] I believe that you can begin to demonstrate the love of God and become Jesus in the flesh,
[00:18:51] which we are all called to do.
[00:18:53] Friends, I will never end a podcast without giving anyone an opportunity to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
[00:19:02] If there's anyone listening today and you've never taken that step,
[00:19:06] I invite you to repeat a simple prayer after me today.
[00:19:09] Jesus, I confess that I am a sinner and in need of a Savior.
[00:19:14] I ask that you come into my heart.
[00:19:17] I make you my Lord and Savior.
[00:19:20] Friends, if you repeated that prayer, welcome to the family of God.
[00:19:25] You now are a member.
[00:19:29] Congratulations.
[00:19:31] Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you.
[00:19:34] The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
[00:19:39] The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
[00:19:44] Friends, please join me again tomorrow as we further explore wisdom today.
[00:19:50] Thank you.