Straightforward

Greetings everyone. Let’s begin the Bible Study in Proverbs with Proverbs 30:14. We ended the last Bible Study in discussing what God has to say here about a generation that lifts themselves up or they are lifted up in arrogance. And of course, that is not good. It is not Christian. God will not bless that. So we don’t want to have that attitude. And notice what He says here in verse 14 about that generation.

14 There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.

In other words, they don’t love other people. They don’t care for other people. They don’t regard or respect other people. They will attack. They will lie. They will stab in the back. They will undercut anybody and everybody if they feel it’s to their advantage. It is a selfish, mean–spirited attitude that is being discussed here in that generation.

Now, of course, verse 14 is not talking about any particular generation long, long ago. It is any generation, any time, any period of history where people are like that. And the point is that we are not to be like that. We don’t want to be a part of that attitude, a part of that generation, a part of that approach. We want to be Christians and apply God’s word in a practical way and relate to others in love and in mercy—and with strength, in terms of standing our ground on what is right as opposed to what is wrong.

But we don’t devour the poor. We reach out and help those that we can help and that will use the help properly. That’s what we are to learn. Let’s not be like that generation mentioned here in verse 12, 13 and 14. Let’s be Christians and follow the example of Jesus Christ.

15 The horseleech has two daughters, crying, Give, give.—

The point here is an insatiable selfishness. There are leeches that will get on horses and just suck the blood right out of them, and they can’t get enough of the blood. They’ll just wear their strength down, wear their health down—and then when they get done there, they’ll go to another horse and suck the blood out of that one. And there’s no fulfilling or satiating the leech.

Well, there are people who have attitudes like that. Just give, give, give me, give me, give me, give me, give me, get, get, get. I want more, I want more, I want more. I can’t get enough, I can’t get enough. Never being thankful, never being satisfied, never being happy, never giving of themselves to others, but always trying to get from others for themselves. And that’s depicted here in terms of the horseleech, and in terms of an allegory, two daughters here that say, “Give, give, give, give, give” or the attitude of get, get, get, get, get. Continuing in verse 15:

15 —There are three things that are never satisfied,—

That’s the theme. Insatiable appetites for getting things for themselves and getting them from others, and crying for more and more and give, give.

15 —There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough:

And then you’ll see comparisons of four in several sections of this chapter as we move along. And what are those four things that are never satisfied?

16 The grave;—

You never have a time when people don’t die and therefore there’s no need to dig more graves. It is appointed to all men once to die and then comes the judgment. And so graves and more graves and more graves and more graves throughout history. There’s never a time when it can be said enough graves, no more graves, no more death.

16 —the barren womb;—

The painful situation where a woman wants children and cannot have children, but keeps wanting children and keeps wanting children, but cannot have children. That’s a sad thing. It can be a real trial. And God will step in and help women in that situation because having children is a wonderful blessing. But in some cases it doesn’t happen and therefore the desire to have that continues. But it can be controlled and it can be put in God’s hands and dealt with.

16 —the earth that is not filled with water;—

A drought, and then rain comes but it needs more rain and then more rain and then more rain to fill up the lakes and the streams and the wells and the water table. And yet there never is enough in the desert. It’s always a desert and remains a desert until the Kingdom of God comes and then the desert will bloom as a rose.

16 —and the fire that says not, It is enough.

You put wood on the fire and you’ll have to put more wood on the fire, and then more wood on the fire. And you never will stop putting wood on the fire as long as you want the fire to keep burning. If you quit putting wood on a fire, eventually it will burn out and it will die out. And so the analogy is being drawn here and the example is being laid out for us to understand that we don’t want to have the attitude of not enough, not enough, not enough. We want to have the attitude of being content and being thankful and being appreciative for what God gives us.

We can’t get enough of God’s word, although we’re not frustrated or restless about that, but we’re never smug and satisfied, “Okay, we know enough about God and about His word.” We want to grow in grace and knowledge, of course. But that is a calm and worthwhile attitude of wanting to grow and wanting more knowledge and wanting more of God’s Holy Spirit.

But what this is describing here is an out–of–control selfishness where we just can’t get enough of anything and we want more and want more and want more. And there are people like that—just like horseleeches. And then it draws the analogy of things in life that never have enough. And we don’t want to be like that. We don’t want to have that attitude of never enough, like the earth can’t get enough water, we can’t get enough money or we can’t get enough attention.

God inspires these examples for us to get the point that we need to be grateful and thankful and appreciate what we have, and be content in whatever state we find ourselves in and then obey God and He will improve our state. It has to do with attitude—and the attitude of give rather than get, and the attitude of selfishness rather than generosity.

17 The eye that mocks at his father, and despises to obey his mother,—

Or scorns obedience to his mother. Here are his father and mother. The mother gave birth to the child. The father provides for the child. They bring up the child. They would protect and even give their life for the child, and yet the child gets older and begins to scorn and rebel and disregard, and even hate the father and mother. This is not something that is pleasing in God’s eyes.

Mocks at his father, makes fun of him. Despises to obey his mother. Here’s the result of that. There’s going to be disaster and tremendous pain and suffering come on that individual who treats his father and mother that way because it is breaking the fifth commandment.

17 —the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.

That’s describing the results of that sin in a graphic way. That may not literally happen, but similar things that will bring pain and suffering will take place. You know, if you study a little bit about birds, you know that birds of prey especially attack the eye. If they’re going to attack an animal or they’re going to attack a human being, they will especially go for the eye. They will especially attack the eye, or if it’s a carcass, they will especially pick out the eye. And so that’s a very distasteful thing to consider. It’s sickening to consider. And that’s why it’s mentioned that way so that it will be sickening to contemplate or consider mistreating our fathers and our mothers.

18 There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not:

or which I cannot fully comprehend.

19 The way of an eagle in the air;—

It’s a beautiful sight. If you ever take time to watch an eagle fly, you’ll notice that they fly upward without turning like other birds turn when they fly upward. And they soar so high that the eye can’t trace where they go to. Pretty soon, they’re out of sight. And it’s just majestic and powerful and magnificent the way an eagle can handle itself in the air and can go at lofty heights and then fold their wings and claws underneath them and make tremendous pinpoint dives from hundreds of feet up in the air and hit their target and get their food. It’s just a magnificent display if you ever have a chance to see how an eagle can fly and do what it does. You can’t really comprehend fully how the eagle is able to do that. Flying hundreds of feet in the air and yet because they have such incredible eyesight, being able to spot a salmon swimming along in a river below and then dive and pluck that salmon right out of the water with pinpoint accuracy.

19 —the way of a serpent upon a rock;—

Have you ever watched a snake crawl along a rock? He doesn’t leave tracks. He doesn’t have feet and claws, and yet he can stick to that rock and go over a very tedious trail and hang on a precipice and not fall. It’s amazing the talent and the ability, the design, the instinct that’s been put into these animals that they can do what they can do. It’s an incredible tribute to their creator. And when you see what they’re able to do, it leaves you amazed and at a loss of words.

19 —the way of a ship in the midst of the sea;—

How can you take a huge, heavy ship, sometimes tons and tons and tons and tons and tons of weight inside that ship—the gross displacement of weight of that ship is into the megatons—and yet it floats? It doesn’t sink. How is that? You take a rock and pitch it out in the water, it goes to the bottom. You put this big, huge, heavy, loaded–down ship out in the water and it floats and it goes along effortlessly. Sailing ships under the wind can go along quietly and effortlessly, tons of weight and just going right through the sea, leaving a wake. And then the wake disappears and there’s no trail, there’s no track, there’s no way to trace that ship. It’s over the horizon and out of sight. It’s just an amazing thing, and that’s what he’s talking about here.

19 —and the way of a man with a maid.

Or a virgin. Now, it could be done in the wrong way, this matter of courtship and developing love and then getting married. But if it’s done the right way, it’s a beautiful thing to see a man and a woman meet and then begin to be interested in one another, attracted to one another, and out of respect begin to cultivate and develop a love for one another. And over a period of time, they become deeply in love and then they want to get married. And how do you figure that out? That same man might have come in contact with another woman and that doesn’t happen. And that same woman, hopefully that virgin, might have met another man, that doesn’t happen. But when that man and that woman meet, there’s an attraction that can develop into tremendous love and that can develop into a wonderful marriage and wonderful family.

It’s a wonderful thing to see, and it’s a tremendous credit to our creator God that He has made all these things and He’s put in motion laws that govern all these things, and when they’re respected and handled properly, wonderful results come. It’s great.

It helps us worship God and stand in awe of God and fear Him even more if we’ll take time to meditate on these things and to talk about these things to our children and to our friends, and learn lessons from them. That’s what we can do as we read through this book of Proverbs. Verse 20, here’s a contrast:

20 Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eats, and wipes her mouth, and says, I have done no wickedness.

In other words, she’s able to sear her conscience and block out her feelings to the point to where she can commit adultery and then commit adultery and then commit more adultery with more and more and more men and yet just blow it off and block it out and say, “Oh well, it’s nothing to me. I have not done anything. I’ve not hurt anybody.” And yet in fact it is wicked and it does hurt everybody including her. And it can be deadly to her and to others because of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, but it also can destroy marriages and destroy emotions. And it’s not innocent and it is not harmless. It’s deadly and horrible and wicked—adultery is, and fornication and immorality.

21 For three things the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot bear:

It’s troublesome. The results are bad.

22 For a servant when he reigns;—

Someone who is supposed to be following, all of a sudden has power to lead and he’s not equipped to do it. He doesn’t know how to do it and he doesn’t have the savvy to do it. And he doesn’t have the welfare of those he’s leading in mind. And it creates havoc for everybody.

22 —a fool when he is filled with meat;

When he was hungry and when he didn’t have anything, he was more on the quiet side. He still was a fool, but he couldn’t do a whole lot of harm. But when you fatten him up and when you give him a comfortable situation, he becomes totally obnoxious and just turns into a harmful, painful individual toward others because now he’s got energy and he’s got food and he’s got things. And so now he becomes overbearing and a bully and unbearable really.

23 For an odious woman when she is married;—

Someone who should be loved and cared for and respected and appreciated, and yet she’s hated and she’s not taken care of and she’s not appreciated and she’s not honored. She turns into a bitter woman and one that can end up being a very hateful woman because she’s hated by her husband and disrespected and neglected by her husband. It’s an unbearable thing.

23 —and an handmaid that is heir to her mistress.

Here she’s been serving this woman, this head of the house under her husband. She’s been there as a help in the house to the wife of the owner of the house. And now perhaps the wife dies, and now the handmaid becomes head of the house, subject to the owner of the house or in charge of what the wife was in charge of before. That can end up being very awkward. It can end up being very, very troublesome. It can end up being a situation where the maid is not equipped to handle that, and mistreatment will start to be meted out in every direction and she will let it go to her head. And what before was a workable situation because everybody knew their place and stayed in it, becomes an unbearable situation because she’s out of her place and in a situation that she just doesn’t know how to handle and doesn’t handle well.

Once again, there’s a time and place for everything and there’s an appropriate way to do everything based on God’s law and following in God’s way. And when we get out of those parameters and those boundaries and forget about His way of doing it, and people get out of where they ought to be and start doing what they shouldn’t do and carrying responsibilities they’re not equipped to carry, it becomes unbearable, it becomes troublesome.

24 There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceedingly wise:

Can we learn from these examples and from these lessons? Yes, we can if we will.

25 The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer;

And yet, you know, when you study an ant, if you take their weight and compare it to the weight they can carry, then they are stronger than human beings are in terms of their body weight and the weight they can carry, and our body weight and the weight we can carry. It’s an incredible thing to see an ant that looks so weak and yet can move such big things and do such amazing work, tireless work. So we can learn.

They’re called people here. Of course, they’re not people. He’s just giving us an example. These little ants, these little beings, they’re weak. You barely can see them sometimes. But boy, what they’ll end up doing is building huge ant hills, and moving a huge amount of leaves and grass and sticks, and storing up all kinds of provisions so that when the winter comes, the colony survives beautifully.

Can we learn from that? I mean, if a little ant can do that, shouldn’t we as intelligent people be able to take care of our responsibilities with the same kind of industrious busy attitude or approach that the ant does? There’s the lesson.

26 The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make their houses in the rocks;

They know where to put their houses so that even though they’re weak and little, they’ll still be safe because God built into them the instinct that we’ve got to get up and out of harm’s way here and be safe up here in these rocks, and so they’re able to do that. Notice verse 27:

27 The locusts have no king,—

or leader

27 —yet go they forth all of them by bands;

Or in ranks. Have you ever seen locusts fly? A swarm of locusts, they’re not flying into one another and they’re not going around in circles and they’re not disoriented or discombobulated. They all pick up off the earth together and they fly along in order and they land together. It’s as if there’s some kind of rank and file and some kind of plan and some kind of hierarchy and leadership among the locusts so that they know when to take off and fly, they know when to land and where to land, and then when to take off and fly again. They don’t turn into chaos and disorder. Well, if a locust can do that, why shouldn’t we as human beings be able to do things decently and in order? And the answer is, we can if we will—if we will cooperate, if we will think about others, if we will have paths and regulations and parameters and dos and don’ts, without overdoing that, that we will follow.

In other words, there are ways to do things and there are rules to follow, and if the locusts can go in order and can stop when they want to and fly when they want to, shouldn’t we as human beings be able to do things decently and in order by having a plan and by having cooperation? The answer is yes, and that’s the point. Do we get the point? Do we understand what God is telling us here in His word? Can we learn from creation? If these little creatures can do these things, how much more should we be able to do even better as intelligent human beings.

28 The spider takes hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces.

Well, you know, different translations say that this is a spider. Some say it’s a lizard. It’s probably more like a lizard, and there are certain types of lizards that do end up in palaces. They have little feet that will allow them to crawl upside down on the ceilings and on walls and in crevices. And it’s amazing how people might want to go into that palace, but they’re not able to, but a lizard makes its way into that palace and is able to thrive in there because of the design of the lizard and because of the instinct of the lizard. They’re able to get things like that done. Well, if these lizards can manage to accomplish things like that, how much more should we be able to accomplish what we need to accomplish.

29 There be three things which go well, yea, four are comely in going:

Majestic in going, stately in their presence and in the way they conduct themselves. So can we be coordinated? Can we be appropriate? Can we be stately? Can we set a good example in comportment, in how we carry ourselves and in the way we move and take care of our responsibilities? We should be able to. These creatures do. Notice this:

29 There be three things—

They go well. They are majestic in pace. They are stately or comely in their walk.

30 A lion which is strongest—

or mighty

30 —among beasts, and turns not away for any;

It’s interesting when you study a little bit about lions. They will not flee or retreat or tremble in the face of trouble. If they are forced to retire because there’s overwhelming numbers that they face, they retreat slowly, step by step. They don’t just turn and run. They are fearless and they are fearsome. And so if they are actually caught in a situation where they’re so outnumbered, they know that they’re not going to be able to handle the situation, they don’t turn tail and take off. They retreat slowly and they go step by step and they take their time. And they move with a stately majestic kind of comportment because of the fact that they are a lion and that’s just the way they are and that’s their instinct.

Well, we can learn from carrying ourselves properly and being able to handle ourselves in situations without being cowards and without turning tail and run. Now, of course, there comes a time when we do need to move out of situations because of the danger, but not be cowards. You certainly don’t see a normal lion that is a coward. Although they will retreat but they do it in a dignified way.

31 A greyhound;—

Once again, some translations say that this is not a greyhound, that it’s something else. Some say it’s a strutting rooster. Others say it’s some kind of animal that is rare. Even a greyhound, once again, it has tremendous speed and it has tremendous carriage in the way that it runs and bounds and jumps. But the point is, there is a certain majesty about it.

31 —a he goat—

The he goat is in charge of the herd and so he’s out there and he’s standing upright and he’s aware of things and he’s alert and he’s doing his job and he’s going about in a businesslike way. That’s what we need to do. Look sharp, feel sharp, be sharp and take care of business.

31 —and a king, against whom there is no rising up.

A king, because he’s been just and because he’s done his job well, is firmly ensconced and firmly established. And to see him move through his realm or to see a leader move through the office or to see someone in charge take care of business, do it in a humble way, do it in an efficient way, do it in a confident way—it’s a wonderful thing to see. It gives you a feeling of security, and it makes you want to rally and follow if it’s a good cause and he’s a good leader. You tend to want to back up someone like that, just like you admire all of these animals that we just read about.

32 If you have done foolishly in lifting up yourself,—

in exalting yourself

32 —or if you have thought evil,—

or devised evil

32 —lay your hand upon your mouth.

Don’t do it if you haven’t done it. Don’t say it. Just put your hand on your mouth and keep from saying it. But if you have said it or have done it, apologize for it or repent of it and stop it before it gets worse. And if you have to literally just put your hand over your mouth or walk away or bite your tongue, so to speak, do it because otherwise it’s going to get worse and worse. Notice verse 33:

33 Surely the churning of milk brings forth butter,—

And you’ve probably seen that process. I’ve seen it many times and have done it.

33 —and the wringing of the nose brings forth blood:—

You stir a stink pot, it only stinks more.

33 —so the forcing of wrath brings forth strife.

The lesson here is: Don’t stir up wrath. But if it’s started, then cool it down, defuse it. Be a peacemaker because if you keep on pushing it and you keep on stirring it up like you churn milk and turn it into butter or you wring the nose and you get blood, it’s going to get so bad, you’d wish you never started it. You force it and you’ll be sorry. That’s the lesson.

Defuse it. Be a peacemaker and settle things down, then you can get a lot accomplished. But if you force it to where people lose control, they get all emotionally involved and they get mad, the results are going to be an ugly mess. And what God is telling us here is: Take a look at yourself. Pull yourself up. Rein yourself in. Check yourself back and cool things down. And everybody will be better off as a result of that. Don’t stir it up because everybody will suffer from that and that’s not what a Christian wants to do. We want to be peacemakers.

Okay, we’ll stop there and we’ll start the last chapter of the book of Proverbs next time. We’ll start with Chapter 31.

This is Charles Bryce with the Enduring Church of God.