Fountains of Wisdom-A Study in Proverbs Part 51- Never Enough
In chapter 30, we have seen Agur awed by God’s Glory, overwhelmed with grace that God would consider him for these revelations, acknowledging his own inability to climb his way up to God, and there it was he made only two requests of God. The one being a request that God keep him from vanity and lies while the second would be to give him only what he needs; nothing more and nothing less. Then, he turns and looks around him with sadness as he realizes that the generations are filled with pride, self-exaltation, and sin. A generation that is lost in the deceit that they have created. Indeed he leaves us with the graphic picture of the horror of this kind of self centered pursuit of one’s human desires when he compares it to a horseleech that sucks the blood of another creature relentlessly with no care or concern for the life they are taking.
photo courtesy of istockphoto.com
We should never walk through this life with blinders on ignoring the wisdom that God has surrounded us with in nature. We must take a closer look at the common day objects and situations that are around us so that we might gain wisdom to continue on this pilgrimage journey with expectant hope, boundless joy, divine strength, and living faith.
This is where Agur is taking us as he continues on in this chapter.
He continues to write about distinct groups of common things of nature. Through these he is urging us to gain wisdom from God’s creation and thereby to find God. The groups are each one divided into 3 plus 1 with the exception of the group of small things known to be wise. The first group is filled with three things which can never be satisfied and the fourth that can never say, “I have enough.” The second group refers to three things that “are mysteries to me and a fourth which will always remain a mystery.” His third group consists of three things that disquiet the earth’s harmony and a fourth of which the turbulence is unbearable. The fourth group is comprised of lowly creatures that seem small upon this earth and are thought of little worth; but demonstrate wisdom above the higher species around them. The final group represents three creatures which are majestic in their pace and a fourth which lifts one’s heart to gaze upon with awe and wonder.
So, let us look at the first group of four. (Proverbs 30: 16) This first group is filled with situations that are insatiable. The grave—death while upon this earth is never satiated. Every day death touches our families, our friends, our classmates and our lives. In this earthly form so touched by sins stains, death is always present, even imminent at times. Our hearts grieve. The barren womb cries forth to be filled; but, the sorrowful cries are all in vain as the womb remains empty. The dry and parched land can never be filled with enough water to satiate it forever. The sun comes forth again and the land cries out once more for water to satisfy it. The fire leaps ever forward to take in everything that surrounds it. Its flames are ever consuming, always taking everything in its wake.
Are these not the picture of our own hearts without God’s presence? We are forever in the state of dying with no hope to escape eternal death. We are like the barren womb searching for that which would fill our heart with joy; yet, none can be found. Dry, parched spirits needing the living water to quench our insatiable thirst. Just like the fire we are always being consumed and consuming everything around us, trying to find something, anything to satisfy our soul.
There is where Christ has found us. There is where He offers us a drink of the living water that will bring us life everlasting. He fills the barrenness of our souls and giving us joy—His Joy that our souls might be satisfied. There is nothing that satisfies our insatiable need apart from Him. We were made with hearts that need Him intimately a part of our life. He stands and bids us come, freely by faith in Him because of who He is and all that He has done.
C. S. Lewis once wrote in Mere Christianity:
"If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death…" ~ C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)
I found this song which I think best says this: Only You Can Satisfy.
© 2014 Effie Darlene Barba
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