Daily Devotional – 1469 – Agur the Evangelist
Some thoughts for today by Papa “J”
For the older generation, the Keystone Cops
are just a memory of the past and yet the past would not be complete without
that memory. What then will complete the memory of a ten year old sixty years
from now? The wisdom of his or her father!
Comments and Challenges
Agur (harvester or gatherer) the writer of
Proverbs 30 who is the son of Jakeh (obedient ((symbolic name for Solomon), who
having wisdom speaks a declaration to a couple of his friends, Ithiel (a godly
person) and Ucal (devoured or consumed one). Of course what I am leaning on to
say this morning is simply conjecture and there may be someone who reads these devotionals
with better insight to Proverbs 30 and if so please feel free to send me an
email.
As I have said many times, I love words but
I am by no means linguistic or a polyglot (able to speak or write fluently in
other languages) in fact, I need a “handicap” sticker to hang on my English jargon
“a disclaimer that is” whenever I speak or write. However, Proverbs 30 has
always stirred up questions without answers every time I read it.
While most of us are not farmers and know
very little about harvesting crops, we are gatherers. Some of us gather
information and others gather things. I know a man who has the answers to my
questions before I fully complete the question. He gathers information like a
vacuum gathers dust. Myself I gather lawn equipment. I have a piece of
machinery for every kind of lawn care. My yard looks terrible but I have the
equipment to fix it… someday.
And this is how I see Agur as he has the
ability to collect the dust of the air from Ucal who is all consumed with the
details of life and all eaten up with the materials of life. He also is capable
of extracting godly information from Ithiel. Agur knows the questions to ask
since being raised under the authority
of his father whom can easily be Solomon, Agur has learned to ask questions
that spawn answers as in “iron that sharpens iron” as in Proverbs 27:17.
“Surely I am most ignorant, or more stupid”
says Agur to his friends. “I am a brute” or as Sargent Schultz might say… “I
know nothing!” but like Schultz; Agur does know some things, he is simply
gathering more information and this too is what you and I should be doing daily
since we do not have the understanding needed in conversations, nor do we have
the wisdom and knowledge of godly people as we ought.
Proverbs 30:4 - Who has ascended into
heaven or descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has bound the
waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His
name and what is His Son’s name, if you know?
Proverbs 30:4 has six major questions that
all of us should be asking daily. Agur has wisdom of who God is, otherwise He
would not have asked Ithiel and Ucal what is the name of God’s Son. Evangelists
of today must be able to ask the right questions. Questions, which can wake up
the godly one who can be lost in religious globally gook; and questions that challenge
the one who has consumed his or her life with “life’s” darkness and sin.
In the reading of Proverbs 30 there are
many topics; the purity of God and the impurity of man’s mouth and the temporal
needy life that only God can satisfy. The generations that have no respect for
parents, those who are lofty and proud and yet have sword teeth; not ones who
have tooth decay, but those who have learned to use their mouth as the fangs of
a serpent and who know how to destroy the poor and needy.
Also Agur is aware of the beautiful things
of life; an eagle in the sky (just a visual thought brings tears to the eye)
the serpent warming itself on a warm rock and the one that always grips my
heart; a ship at sea; for me is as majestic as the Olympic Mountains on a clear
day in Washington State. Another thing that Ucal understands (sometimes easier
for a woman) is the way of a young man with his virgin bride.
Well you can read on your own the rest of
Proverbs 30 but I see Agur as a wonderful evangelist who is ready to give the right question to
provide the right answer; such as the apostle Paul charges Timothy with 2
Timothy 4:1-5.
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