Chapter 30

Verse 1 – “The words of Agur the son of Jakeh.” The word Agur in the Hebrew means a collector or an assembler. This is probably Solomon who collected the proverbs. Remember that the background to the book of Solomon is the fact that David failed with his son Absolom. Absolom was minus doctrine. David failed the Lord in a terrible way when he refused to punish one of his sons and therefore Absolom punished that man instead. Absolom slew Amnon for raping his sister. As a result of that David banished Absolom. When Joab finally persuaded David to bring Absolom back into the land David refused to see his son’s face, which is a half-forgiveness. A half forgiveness is no forgiveness and as a result there was bitterness in the soul of Absolom, one of the great mental, attitude sins. The difference between David and Absolom was the David came out of the Absolom revolt a stronger believer whereas Absolom came out of it dead and a complete and total failure. When the catastrophe and the tragedy occurred the difference between them was Bible doctrine.

When David came back after Absolom had been eliminated he began to look for a son who would succeed him. That son was Solomon who at this point was a teenager, and David began to teach Solomon. So Solomon took notes and from these notes he wrote certain proverbs. These were the notes from his father’s teaching. Where David had failed with Absolom he succeeded with Solomon. About one third of the book of Proverbs is a father teaching his teenage son Bible doctrine.

Now Solomon is down to the end of his life and he uses the word Agur. He simply passes on to his son and to the people of his kingdom those principles of doctrine which will keep them together as a kingdom and which will give them everything from eternal salvation and blessing in time to confidence in the eternal future. While David succeeded with Solomon, Solomon did not succeed with Rehoboam, and now that Solomon is coming down to the end of his life he looks at Rehoboam who is now longer a teenager, and he realises that this son doesn’t have it. So in the oast two chapters of the book of Proverbs we have Solomon in a last desperate effort trying to take up the slack with his son Rehoboam.

Doctrine taught to Rehoboam did not take, so Solomon begins to realise that Rehoboam will not make it and that his only hope was to go to the wise men in his administration. He begins to hold a Bible class with these men, two of whom are mentioned in verse 1. We know from history that these men knew Bible doctrine but Rehoboam ignored them and rejected them, kept the advice of his young men, and a civil war finally came to Israel resulting in the splitting of the nation—the kingdom of the north and the kingdom of the south. Solomon was a success before the Lord; his son was a failure.

“the prophecy” – the word prophecy here means preaching, not foretelling. It means communication of doctrine to people who live at the time.

“the man” – the word for man is hero. Solomon in the closing days of his life became a hero because he got back into fellowship and communicated doctrine as well as living by it.

“spake unto Ithiel, even unto Ucal” – these were the two men who were leaders in the administration of Israel. Ithiel means God with me; Ucal means I shall be able. This really summarises the attitude of Solomon at the end of his life: “God is with me, therefore I am able to do anything.”

Verse 2 – he begins his Bible class by the principle of rebound. He had been out of fellowship for a long time and his administration knew it. So he begins by saying to them, “Surely I am more brutish than any man.” The word brutish in the Hebrew—bahar, which means to be stupid, not brutish. But it means animal stupidity. Solomon is saying, in effect, I have tried to train my son and I have failed. But I am going to train you, the administration, for the crisis which is coming. The principle is that a believer minus doctrine becomes stupid like an animal. There is no verb here, this describes his confession. Solomon actually rebounded before he began communication.

“I have not the understanding of a man” – i.e. I am so stupid and I have failed in my life because I have ignored and rejected doctrine.

Verse 3 – he confesses that he failed to stay with doctrine. “I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy.” He is describing those years when he stayed out of fellowship. The word holy is in the plural and refers to the essence of God. He failed to understand the character of God and therefore he failed to orient to grace.

Then he asks five questions which actually began his recovery. They illustrate his desperate condition.

Verse 4 – they all begin with an interrogative pronoun. The first four questions begin with the word mi in the Hebrew, correctly translated who. Each time it refers to a person. The fifth question begins with ma, and this is translated what. This fifth question actually deals with a person, so why did he change to what? Because when you cannot answer the first four, then what is about all you can say. This is an expression of complete disorientation. It indicates we are at the end of the line and, how can we be so stupid?

“Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended?” Descended refers to the incarnation of Christ; ascended refers to His glorification. So we actually have the glorification of the person of Christ. One of the first things that Solomon forgot when out of fellowship was the fact that Jesus Christ was God. He no longer understood the holy, so he has forgotten everything that is in the essence box. All of these things were completely foreign to his thinking at this particular time. “Who hath descended?” This is the humiliation of Christ, and descending has to do with Jesus Christ on the cross. When the humanity of Christ ascended to the right hand of the Father He was told to sit down. This is His glorification. The whole work of Christ on our behalf includes His humiliation and His glorification. In order to reorient to the grace of God you must go back to the person of Christ, and that is exactly what Solomon did. When he recovered his fellowship by means of rebound the very first thing Solomon did was to turn his eyes back to the Lord. On the road back he began with occupation with the person of Christ. He began at this point: the humiliation of Christ; the glorification of Christ.

“who hath gathered the wind in his fists?” He sees the Lord Jesus Christ as holding the winds of the earth in His fists. This brings up the fact that Jesus Christ controls the circumstances of life, as illustrated by weather. You can take the good weather of life, the bad weather of life, any type of circumstances in life with Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine gives you the ability to handle any circumstance of life.

“who hath bound the waters in a garment?” The binding of the waters in a garment is actually an idiom for prosperity. Water meant prosperity under an agricultural economy. Binding it up in a garment simply is a way of expressing the fact that God preserves prosperity for certain groups of people, for certain individuals, under certain circumstances. So when any believer has prosperity he owes it all to the Lord Jesus Christ.

“who hath established all the ends of the earth?” You have to remember a principle that is involved here. Jesus Christ is said to be the creator of the earth. He brought the whole universe into existence with a thought. The Bible actually records what God thought in eternity past, what He thought at creation, what He thought after creation, what He thought at the existence of man, and so on. All of this is Bible doctrine, the thought pattern of the Lord Jesus Christ recorded in the page of the Word of God. The very thought that brought the universe into existence is the same thought that puts the believer in the plan of God. Every believer has a plan and purpose in this life as a believer in Jesus Christ. That plan and that purpose can so easily be fulfilled in your life by learning doctrine. God thought these things in eternity past; you can learn them in time. When you learn Bible doctrine you are oriented to the plan of God as well as to the grace of God.

This, then, is the design of the first four questions. We have the things that He thought.

“What is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell?” God the Father is the planner, God the Son is the executor of the plan. “If you are able to tell” is determined by your knowledge of Bible doctrine. If you know Bible doctrine you can answer these questions, you are oriented to God’s plan, you understand His person and therefore you love Him. But if you do not you are like Solomon when he was out of fellowship: “I am a brutish man.”

Verses 5 & 6, a tetrastitch: a solution to Agur’s problem. How can we learn doctrine? How can we become occupied with Christ? How can we have inner happiness no matter what the weather of life may be?

Verse 5 – “Every word of God is pure [being refined].” We do not have a Hebrew word here for pure. This is a verb, a qal passive participle. The word means being refined. It is in the passive voice, the subject is receiving the action of the verb, so something is being refined. The point is that God’s Word is perfect in the book, the canon of scripture, but this word actually means that when it is transferred into the soul of the believer and used, then it is being refined. In the book Bible doctrine is in its raw material stage. The soul is the refinery, and once the believer gets it into the refinery and it becomes a part of him then he can apply it and his life can move for Him. So this should be translated, “Every word of God is being refined.” Then, under those conditions . . .

“he is a shield” – when you have Bible doctrine in the soul, then He is a shield.

“unto them that put their trust in him” – the word for trust simply means using their faith when it is necessary, in any experience to apply doctrine.

Verse 6 – “Add thou not unto his words.” Adding to his words is looking at life from the human viewpoint. This is actually adding words and sentences, it has to do with mental attitude sins. Human viewpoint brings up envy, jealousy, pride, and other mental attitude sins. These add to the Word of God. When you use Bible doctrine you eliminate these mental attitude sins; if you do not live by doctrine you live by these things. The choice amounts to either inner happiness or self-induced misery.

“and thou be found a liar” – the word liar here means the believer looking at life from the human viewpoint.

Verse 7 – now that he has come to the end of his life he offers a prayer in which he has two requests.

“Two things have I required [demanded] from thee” – the word required means to petition something in prayer and to know that you are going to get it. This is interesting because Solomon has been in one bracket most of his life, that of extreme riches. Now he makes a prayer request at the end of his life when his success and riches are no longer important to him; “deny me them not [do not refuse me] before I die.”

Verse 8 – the first petition concerns his soul; the second concerns his body. “Remove far from me vanity and lies.” Lies has to do with the mental attitude sins of the previous verse. The word for vanity in the Hebrew connotes three things: confusion, something that is empty, and something that is worthless. He asks that this be removed from him for the rest of his life. This petition is in keeping with his determination to learn Bible doctrine and to be occupied with the person of Christ.

It is to keep him from being confused. Life is too short to have anything to do with confused people or confused situations. Confused people do not care for doctrine, therefore they are always confused. Solomon prays to keep him away from those people. He’s saying, we’re going to run into a lot of believers who don’t care for doctrine. Life is too short. Why fool with confused people? If people reject doctrine and will have nothing to do with doctrine, phase them out. Stay away from them; you don’t have to be with them to love them. You can love them from afar but you don’t have to be with them.

The word vanity also means emptiness, and he wants doctrine more than anything else in the remaining days of his life. A person who is minus doctrine as a believer is empty.

It also means worthlessness. Everything in life which is a detail without doctrine is worthless. If you don’t have doctrine it is obvious that you cannot cope with the details of life. So this petition is to keep him away from those details of life that phase out doctrine. Lies simply means human viewpoint in the mind.

The second part of this petition concerns his body. This is the petition of a man who has gone the wrong way. Now he is back on the right path and he realises something that is so terribly important. That is, the importance of Bible doctrine as it relates to the human body.

“Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food which is convenient for me.” He says, ‘Do not give me the extremes of life.’ Poverty is an extreme of life and means to have nothing. Riches means to have everything. He says, ‘Allot me whatever it takes to keep me alive.’ It doesn’t make any difference if the circumstances are good or bad if there is Bible doctrine in the soul. It also means that if I am minus doctrine when I have poverty I will steal. When I have riches I will be proud.

Verse 9 – “Lest I be full and deny thee.” He has a tendency when he has too much money to depend on my money. He depends on it for happiness, for security, for everything. Money is really a detail of life. If I have it with doctrine I can enjoy it; if I don’t have it I still have doctrine.

“or lest I be poor, and steal, and I take the name of my God in vain” – in other words, I have to steal because the Lord won’t provide. That is blasphemy or taking the name of the Lord in vain. So he is saying in principle: Don’t give me too much so that I will deny thee, and don’t give me too little so that I will deny thee in another way, steal by saying you can’t do it.

Solomon says that for the rest of his life things aren’t important. All he needs is enough to keep him alive so that he can have what he should have had years ago, that great love affair with Bible doctrine.

Verse 10 – “Accuse not a servant unto his master.” Accuse not is in the hiphil stem which brings in the concept of sour grapes. The causative concept means to be caused to accuse. The reason for being caused to accuse someone is because of mental attitude sins. Jealousy causes a person to malign or gossip or to run someone down. It is frustration or sour grapes or bitterness that are the things that cause one to malign others. Mental attitude sins not only cause self-induced misery but they turn you into a monster around whom no one cares to be. The servant is a fellow servant; the master is the Lord Jesus Christ.

“lest the master curse thee” – the curse is threefold: self-induced misery, discipline for the sin of judging, and whatever you mention about someone else the discipline that goes with the sin mentioned is passed on to you instead of the person you mention.

“and thou be found guilty” – this word for guilty means guilty of gossip, maligning, slander, judging, and everything that is negative. So Solomon recognises a great danger to putting doctrine first and the details taking their proper place. He sees the great danger to occupation with Christ—the mental attitude sins that lead to maligning someone else.

Verse 11 – This next section is four verses in length, made up of eight lines. It has to do with how teenagers can destroy their country. These were all addressed to teenagers originally to teach them principles of doctrine. In each case we have a generation of teenagers which will becomes adults, and when they become adults or citizens they will have a type of characterstic which will weaken their nation. This will go on until four generations have elapsed, at which point the nation is destroyed completely from within. The first quatinary, then, is the quatinary of generations, verses 11-14.

“There is a generation” – this is the generation of teenagers who do not have any respect for authority. Either do not respect authority or they have no concept of authority. Yet, life and survival depend upon the recognition of various types of authority. It may be the authority of the common law, as illustrated by a traffic signal. It may be the authority of the parent, the authority of one’s own personal decisions, the authority of human volition. It may be the authority of a national entity, of a teacher or a coach. Whatever the authority is that authority is necessary for the survival of the human race and for the continuation of the angelic conflict.

Here is a generation which has no respect for authority. This begins in the home and it continues throughout their lifetime until authority is downgraded in every possible way. Here we have the first generation cursing the father—“that curseth their father.” The word for “curse” in the Hebrew is in the piel stem [intensive] and it means to habitually reject the authority of the parents. They have no respect for their parents’ authority and they carry this non-respect with them. They carry it into the classroom and reject the authority of the teacher. They carry it on the athletic field and reject the authority of the coach. They carry it into military life and reject the principle of authority there. They carry it into life in general and they have no respect for common law in the land, no respect for anything that in anyway speaks of authority. Therefore this loosening of the authority destroys a great deal of the strength of a national entity. The “cursing” is a mental attitude here. It is a mental attitude of refusal to accept the authority in the home.

“and doth not bless their mother” – the same mental attitude is displayed here.

Verse 12 – in the second generation this leads to a self-righteousness. When all other authorities are rejected the person then looks to himself, and self then comes up with some system which is called self-righteousness. The person accepts his own authority and rejects all other authorities in life. They are “pure in their own eyes.”

“and yet are not washed from their filthiness” – the word filthiness here refers to two concepts. They are connected with the plan of God. Not washed from their own filthiness refers to phase one of the plan of God. They have actually rejected the Lord Jesus Christ as their saviour. Basically, filthiness here is their old sin nature and what it produces. As a result of their not being cleansed from their filthiness their self-righteousness keeps them out of the plan of God a weakens the entire national entity. The rise and fall of a nation can be measured in attitude towards the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is also a secondary concept for the believer who is self-righteous, but the basic principle is given with regard to the cross.

Verse 13 – the third generation has pride. As a result of setting up one’s own righteousness it produces in the soul the mental attitude sin of pride. So the third generation is a very proud generation. “There is a generation, oh, how lofty are their eyes! And their eyelids are lifted up.” The lifting up of the eyelids is simply an idiom for pride in the Hebrew language.

There is a logical progression here. Rejection of authority in the first generation leads to self-righteousness in the second generation, which leads to arrogance or pride in the third generation. Then the fourth generation, as a result of pride: pride has to be fed. Pride is in the soul and it demands feeding. Pride is connected with the lust pattern of the old sin nature, but the only way to feed pride on the outside it to have status symbols. These require wealth, and therefore we have the fourth generation coming along with its lust pattern and with its desire to feed pride.

Verse 14 – “There is a generation, whose teeth are like swords, and their jaw teeth are like knives, to devour the poor from off the land, and the needy from among men.” These people take advantage of the poor and the helpless in order to further impoverish them. They do it to gratify their lust pattern, to satisfy their pride. They need more things and they are therefore devouring those who are incapable of handling their own affairs.

The principle behind this first quatinary is, it is possible for a national entity to destroy itself from within. This destruction is based upon four principles. Each generation passes something on to the next generation. The first generation rejects the authority of parents, and therefore all authority. The second generation is self-righteous, the third generation is arrogant or proud, the fourth generation is grasping and self-seeking. The words “sword” and “knife” is an illustration from killer lust. When a person has the lust to kill they are completely disoriented to certain principles in life, and the lust to kill is based upon a mental attitude sin – hatred, jealousy, implacability, or vindictiveness, or bitterness. Therefore the desire, the killer lust, has its relationship to the mental attitude sin. The principle involved in all four quatinaries: they all involve a mental attitude. So we have four negative mental attitudes in four generations. Mental attitude, then, is the most destructive factor in a national entity.

The second quatinary is reduced to two verses. We take the principle which is found with the fourth generation which is grafting and self-seeking, they are insatiable in their lust for things, their lust for status symbols. So this second quatinary introduces the four insatiables.

Verse 15 – the first part of this verse describes the character of the fourth generation, and then in the last half of the verse begins the principle of the insatiables. The whole key is with the word “horse-leach”. There is such a thing but the Hebrew word here does not describe the horse-leach. There is no word in the Hebrew language for a horse-leach [Heb. alukah]. This is the Hebrew word for a vampire. There is a concept for vampire—something that sucks blood. This word has two meanings: vampire and demon. These have something in common. The vampire desires the blood isatiably; the demon is insatiable to indwell the body of a human being. The vampire illustrates the fourth generation which is insatiable in its materialism lust—desire for money, and therefore cupidity and voraciousness. Money is the god of the fourth generation.

“hath two daughters, crying Give, give”—piel imperative. The vampire is insatiable for the blood of a human being; the demon likes to possess the body of human beings. So we have four insatiables which illustrate principle of the fourth generation. “There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough:

Verse 16 – the four insatiables which illustrate materialism lust. “The grave” – never gets enough of dead bodies; “the barren womb” – never gets enough of children. This must be interpreted in the ancient world where it was considered to be a great status symbol to have a lot of children. A woman was in disgrace if she was barren. So the barren womb constantly desires more children.

“the earth that is not filled with water”— the desert is insatiable, it always desires more water; “and the fire that saith not, It is not.” The fire is insatiable, it desires more wood, more fuel.

So these four insatiables are illustrations in the field of materialism lust. When a generation finally arrives in the manner we have noted, whether the nation survives or not depends entirely upon Bible doctrine. If there is a revival, a resurgence of Bible doctrine, this off-sets it. If not, the nation destroys itself.

Verse 17 – the lone proverb. This goes back to what started it all where the first generation had teenagers who had not respect for authority. This lone proverb shows us what happens to teenagers who have no respect for the authority of their parents—they die violently.

“The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out.” A raven picking out an eye is an idiom for dying horribly by violence. Every now and then God breaks up this four-generation destruction by simply taking that generation. In order for a nation to survive this particular generation has to be wiped out.

“the young eagles shall eat it” – they lives off of carcases.

Verse 18 – the eagle. It was responsible for keeping the wilderness clean in the ancient world. This leads to the third quatinary, vss. 18,19. When ever there is a generation which despises authority it is also bored. What does an eagle in the air, a serpent upon a rock, the way of a ship in the sea, and the way of a man with a maid have to do with boredom?

We have here the quatinary of the four perilous attacks. When people are bored they are in trouble and in danger. When a teenager is bored he is at his most dangerous point. To offset boredom people do crazy things. They have no respect for law, and if they have no respect for the authority of their parents and any of the systems that keep a nation successful then immediately they get involved in something rather serious.

The phrase “are two wonderful” in the KJV is no correctly translated. It should be, “There are three things most difficult to resist.”

“yea, the fourth one I don’t understand at all” – so there are four attacks which are irresistable. The reason is because of boredom. Boredom is a mental attitude. When a teenager is under boredom or bitterness or any other negative mental attitude then we have these subtle attacks.

Verse 19 – “The way of the eagle in the air.” The eagle attacks in the air. He leaves no tracks, doesn’t warn of his approach, he suddenly swoops. The snake is on a rock, and apparently he blends into the rock. These are dangerous attacks because you don’t see the eagle until he hits you; you don’t see the snake until he hits you. The ship here is a pirate ship. But he doesn’t look like a pirate ship, he looks like any old ship. So he comes up alongside and then he attacks.

“the way of a man with a maid” – this is the warning to the teenager involving heavy necking where there is no stopping place and they are in trouble. Teenagers can make decisions that will ruin their whole lives, and the application here is to the teenage girl who is bored.

Verse 20 – the warning is continued but the situation is reversed. This time it a girl going to snag the man. “Such is the way of an adulterous woman.”

“she eateth” – the woman takes in food, and this food is the same concept as the woman taking the man’s seed; “and wipeth her mouth” – no tracks.

“and saith, I have done no wickedness” – but she has just wiped out some teenager! This was written to teenagers and is a warning that these situations destroy the ability to discern, and the teenager could make the rest of his life miserable because he has no perspective. Many teenagers have become married for one reason or another because they did all of their heavy necking before they knew what life was all about. They ruined their lives from that standpoint.

The fourth quatinary, verses 21-23: the four trouble-makers.

Verse 21 – “For three things the earth [land/nation] is disquieted [disturbed], and for four it [the nation] cannot bear up under it.” All four refer to people who get into positions of authority and cannot take the responsibility of that authority. Every teenager must learn to assume the responsibility for his own decisions, good or bad. Some people never learn to assume this responsibility and therefore they never have the ability to assume authority. Therefore all of their lives they are babies.

Verse 22 – the first trouble-maker: “For a servant when he reigneth.” The word “servant” here is a common worker, it sometimes refers to a slave and he is not qualified to assume the authority of leadership in a nation. He may be a nice person but he doesn’t have what it takes to succeed—not ability, no confidence, no doctrine. So he comes to a place where he rules—has a position of high responsibility in the nation. So a nation is in trouble when its leadership in not qualified to assume this authority. He depends upon the advice of others.

The second person is one who succeeds in business—“and a fool when he is filled with food.” To be filled with food here is simply to become rich. People often look up to rich people as though somehow they earned it or made it on their own by their ability. That is true of many people but there are many who are rich who didn’t earn it and, as it says, they are fools. They are minus doctrine, they are stupid, arrogant and proud. They fulfil the first quatinary and, again, we have a dangerous situation. Such a person becomes troublesome and dangerous to a nation.

Verse 23 – the women who are trouble-makers. The first is the “odious woman,” a woman with a bad disposition. The word “odious” is in the feminine gender.

“when she is married” – a man can pick a woman and be miserable for the rest of his life just because he looked at how she looked, or because he was attracted to her in some way, when he did not really know what she was like. The Hebrew word for “odious” sana, which originally meant to be ugly but not physically ugly. It meant to be mentally ugly. It was used for a bad temper, for a hateful disposition, for a person who was spiteful. So an odious woman was a woman who was guilty of mental attitude sins. Habitually jealous. Habitual mental attitude sins.

“and an handmaid [serving girl] that is heir to her mistress” – the mistress dies and leaves all of her money and estate to her companion. The minute that happens the handmaid has no ability to cope with the situation. The lower her social status the more arrogant she becomes and she replaces her mistress. This is talking about a rank-happy woman! As a result she is trouble.

Verses 24-28, the fifth quatinary, the four small things analogous to grace.

Verse 24 – “There are four things which are little upon the earth.” Man is the recipient of the grace of God because he is useless and hopeless and helpless, and everything depends upon the provision of God. God’s plan is greater than any problem, disaster, heartache or difficulty which we will ever have. It is greater than any situation that we face in life and the utilisation of God’s plan and the divine operating assets that accompany it depends upon understanding and applying Bible doctrine to the situation.

The adjective for “little” here means little in the sense of hopeless and helpless.

“but they are exceeding wise” – they survive because of something they know. The whole point is that the greatest virtue in the Christian life is to know the plan of God. The plan of God is defined categorically in doctrine so the greatest virtue in the Christian life is the knowledge of doctrine. Two enemies of doctrine are legalism and emotionalism. A third is sincerity. People think it doesn’t matter what you know just as long as you are sincere. Never anywhere in the Word of God does it command the believer to be sincere. He is commanded to be filled with the Spirit, to know doctrine, to walk by the Spirit and to operate on the principle of grace, but there is no place for sincerity. A fourth great enemy is human viewpoint, the absence of doctrine. So the great virtue is to know Bible doctrine. This is the principle which is constantly emphasised. As we know Bible doctrine we understand the plan of God, we orient to the grace of God, and we begin to operate in the manner whereby He does the work. It is the principle of “Stand still and watch the deliverance of the Lord.”

The emphasis at the end of this verse is on wisdom. Wisdom means to know doctrine and to apply it to experience.

Verse 25 – first of all we meet the ant. An ant is very vulnerable to others. “The ants are a people not strong.” He is called this to illustrate the believer. We are born into the plan of God, we are spiritually helpless, we have nothing to recommend us to God. But God has provided a perfect plan, and this plan and orientation to it depends upon knowing Bible doctrine. The last word in verse 24 is “wise,” the application of doctrine to experience. You cannot apply what you do not know.

“yet they prepare their food in the summer” – they do something that causes them to survive. The summer represents the period of prosperity in your life. Everyone has a period in their life which is free from disaster and catastrophe, a period of success, a period of prosperity. These are really the concentrated learning periods of life. Winter is the picture of the time of pressure and adversity. The believer must prepare his spiritual food, his doctrine, in the summer before the disaster occurs. The believer must learn Bible doctrine under normal conditions in order that he might use it under abnormal conditions. Just as the ant in the summer gathers his food for the winter so the smart or wise believer gathers Bible doctrine under normal conditions. So the ant is used as the illustration of wisdom, the importance of having Bible doctrine in the soul.

Verse 26 – the second illustration. “Conies” are a little desert rabbit that lives in Palestine and they are very vulnerable creatures in the desert. They are called here “a feeble folk,” small helpless and not much in the way of defence. But the rabbit does have one ability—speed.

“yet make they their houses in the ricks” – this isn’t exactly what the Hebrew says. What he actually does is live in the cleft of the rock where the predatory animal is too large to follow. He is always safe in the rock. The rock is the principle of doctrine. This doctrine must be in our souls.

Verse 27 – the believer spiritually self-sustaining. The locust is the perfect illustration of this. “The locusts have no king” – no leader ruling over them and yet they move as a coordinated team: “yet go forth they forth all of them by bands.” The principle here is very simple. The weakness of the locust is the fact that he has no leader, yet they are all alike, they all form up into an organization. They get their orders apart from any leader. This is the impact of Bible doctrine. Once you as a believer learn Bible doctrine you move as a coordinated team with other believers on the basis of Bible doctrine rather than on the basis of some leadership. The believer, like the locust, does not have a king; he receives his orders actually from Bible doctrine. It is true that the pastor of a church does have authority but that authority is in the communication of that doctrine and actually the king is Bible doctrine and the ruler of your life should be Bible doctrine. When this is true then you are truly spiritually self-sustaining and you move as a coordinated part of the divine team. The believer has an organised impact on the human race through Bible doctrine in the soul.

Verse 28 – we do not have the spider here. The Hebrew word is not the word for a spider but a lizard. The lizard you can catch with your hands: “The lizard taketh hold with her hands” – so the lizard is also very vulnerable, he is easy to catch. This reminds us again that within each one of these illustrations we have something that is helpless and they emphasise a principle of God’s grace. God’s grace always begins at the point of human helplessness, therefore God’s grace means that the believer is dependent upon what God provides. The lizard is easily caught, is vulnerable, and yet he lives in a kings palace. The king’s palace is a place of great happiness. The believer is weak in himself, and yet as weak and as helpless as the believer is he lives inside of a king’s palace.

Verses 29-31, the sixth quatinary. These are four great things related to great character or great essence and this is a logical progression. Once you orient to the grace of God and begin to utilise divine operating assets you become strong in grace.

Verse 29 – “There are three things which go well.” The words “go well” means do well a step by step: “There are three things which do well step by step [consistently fine, wonderful in life], there are four things which are beautiful in action.” This is a reference to the believer with Bible doctrine. Notice the break-down in this quatinary: three are animals, one is a person.

Verse 30 – “A lion which is the strongest among beasts.” This is not what the Hebrew says: “The lion is the hero among the animals.” The thing that the Bible emphasises about the lion is courage, and this is what happens to the believer with doctrine. He is not afraid of life, he has courage, he no longer walks around being worried and frightened and anxious. The conditions historically of the world around him do not frighten him. He doesn’t move into panic palace. The lion is courageous and illustrates the believer with Bible doctrine; “turns not away from any” – he is not afraid of anything.

Verse 31 – “A greyhound” is not a greyhound at all. This is the Hebrew word for a war horse. The war horse is famous for one thing: he can wear all kinds of equipment and he responds beautifully in battle conditions. So the believer with Bible doctrine responds beautifully under adverse conditions.

“an he-goat also” – known for his aggressiveness, he will charge anything and doesn’t care what it is. Doctrine provides the basis for the believer to go into action as far as this life is concerned, he is always on the offensive, always aggressive.

“and a king, against whom there is no rising up [revolution]” – here is the king who keeps the nation together. There is no revolution because this king is a believer, like David. There is no revolution because there is Bible doctrine, there is stability in the land. A king is able through Bible doctrine to provide conditions whereby a nation is stabilised.

In each one of these four we have a condition which is analogous to a believer in phase two. The courage of the lion [he doesn’t worry he isn’t upset], the equipment of the war-horse [Bible doctrine is disaster situations], the aggressiveness of the he-goat [the aggression of the believer in witnessing by life and by lip], the stability of the successful king [provided by means of Bible doctrine].

Verse 32 – application. “If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself [arrogance or pride].” Here is the emphasis on the mental attitude sins, the believer’s greatest enemy.

“or if thou hast thought evil” – our greatest enemy is not in the field of overt activity, it is the mental attitude. This is the place of self-induced misery, the place of perpetual discipline, the place of the believer out of fellowship, and the believer guilty of mental attitude sins has negative volition when it comes to Bible doctrine.

“lay thy hand upon thy mouth” – the Hebrew way of saying Shut up! Don’t witness. Keep quiet. This is why to effectively witness for Jesus Christ the believer must be filled with the Spirit and mental attitude sins are eliminated.

Verse 33 – another condition where we should keep quiet is the condition where we promote strife. “Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter.” This is an interesting picture of mental attitude sins. In other words, these mental attitude sins churn around in your mind—jealousy of someone, pride bitterness toward someone, etc. “Butter” is strife. A person with habitual mental attitude sins is a trouble-maker, a strife causer, a person who divides people.

“and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood” – a way to start a fight; “ so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife” – forcing of wrath means you have a mental attitude in the soul. You dislike people, you are hostile. The wrath is forced out of you by gossip, by maligning, etc. The result is strife and misery.