Day 173: More Agur, Please

The words of Agur son of Jakeh. Proverbs 30:1

Through the Bible: Proverbs 30-31

If you’ve been tracking with our Through the Bible reading plan this year, you may remember Elihu from the book of Job.

Elihu is the bonus friend that shows up beginning in Job 32.

Job already had three friends giving him bad advice. Then, out of nowhere, Elihu shows up near the end of the book. He talks more than anyone except God Himself, and spends most of Job 32 explaining how wise he is, how everyone else has gotten it wrong, and why they should all listen to him.

Then there’s Agur.

Like Elihu, Agur appears unannounced near the end of a wisdom book. We know almost nothing about him. He doesn’t have Solomon’s royal pedigree. He doesn’t have Isaiah’s dramatic call story. He simply shows up in Proverbs 30, says what he has to say, and disappears.

But unlike Elihu, Agur begins with these words:

“Surely I am too stupid to be a man. I have not the understanding of a man. I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One.” (Proverbs 30:2-3)

Now that’s an introduction.

Like Elihu, most of us spend our lives trying to convince people we’re smarter than we are. Agur begins by confessing he knows less than he ought.

Then he asks a series of questions that sound remarkably like God’s questions to Job:

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?

In other words, “Who actually knows enough to explain everything?”

Certainly not Agur.

And that’s what I find so refreshing.

I’ve spent enough time around church politics, theological debates, and denominational controversies to know how easy it is for sincere people to become absolutely certain that their interpretation is the only faithful interpretation. Before long, opinions become doctrines, preferences become principles, and traditions become tests of fellowship.

Agur refuses to play that game.

He begins with humility. He acknowledges the limits of human understanding. Then he points us to the one source of certainty:

“Every word of God proves true.” (Proverbs 30:5)

Agur doesn’t trust his own wisdom. He trusts God’s Word. And because he trusts God’s Word, he immediately adds a warning:

“Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.” (Proverbs 30:6)

That verse has been haunting me lately.

The danger isn’t only rejecting God’s Word. The danger is speaking beyond it. The danger is confusing my voice with God’s voice. The danger is claiming certainty where God has not spoken with certainty.

Agur knew the difference.

He knew the difference between what God had revealed and what he merely thought. He knew the difference between divine wisdom and human speculation. He knew the difference between confidence in God’s Word and confidence in himself.

Maybe that’s why I find myself so repelled by Elihu and so drawn to Agur (Full disclosure: I didn’t realize how much i’ve expressed my dislike for Elihu until I was compiling the “related content” section for this post!).

You see, the older I get, the less interested I am in teachers who seem to have an answer for everything. Mainly because I get daily reminders of how little I know. I think about the pastor who said, “When I was younger, I had no kids and seven ideas about what parents should be doing. Now I have seven kids and NO idea what I’m doing.”

So give me someone who tells me that he’s tired and worn out from the jump (verse 1).

Give me someone who tells me right away that he feels like the least qualified person in the room to give wisdom.

But don’t make the mistake of thinking Agur completely disqualified himself from dispensing wisdom. Because verse 3 has an important nuance. Agur says he has not learned wisdom. He doesn’t say he hasn’t received it. God, in His wisdom, has shared His wisdom with us. In the New Testament, James called it “the wisdom that is from above” (see James 3:17-18). True wisdom doesn’t come from earning a PhD. True wisdom is received from our loving Heavenly father.

Wise teachers know the difference. Wise teachers don’t follow up every “Thus saith the Lord” with “But shucks, what do I know?” Wise teachers point us back to Scripture.

Give me someone who stands firmly on God’s Word—not strutting as though he knows everything, and not shuffling his feet as though he knows nothing.

There’s Elihu, and there’s Agur.

Give me more Agur, please.

Related Content:

• Day 012: Introducing Elihu (Job 32:2-3)
• Day 013: What Elihu Got Right (Job 35:9-11)
• Day 013: Really, Elihu? (Job 36:1-4)
• Day 173: Neither Poverty Nor Riches (Proverbs 30:7-9)

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