“Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man.”—Proverbs 30:2.
Sometimes it is necessary for a speaker to refer to himself, and he may feel it needful to do so in a way peculiar to the occasion. When Elihu addressed himself to Job and the three wise men, he commended himself to them saying, “I am full of matter, the spirit within me constraineth me”; but when Agur instructed his two disciples Ithiel and Ucal, he spoke in the lowliest terms of himself and declared that he was “more brutish than any man.” Wisdom is justified of her children. Neither of these men was to blame for his opening words to his hearers. Elihu was a young man talking to elderly men of great note for learning: he saw that they had blundered terribly; he felt convinced that he had the right view of the matter under discussion, but he thought it discreet to introduce himself by modestly stating the reasons why he thought he should be patiently heard. Agur was probably a man of years and honor, and possibly his two young friends looked up to him more than was meet, and therefore his principal endeavor was to wean them from undue confidence in himself. He passed the gravest censure upon himself that his hearers might not suffer their faith to stand in the wisdom of men. I can suppose that both Elihu and Agur were equally humble—the one so modest that he felt that he needed to commend himself to gain a hearing; and the other so lowly that he feared the hearing he should win would place his personal influence in too high a place.
But did Agur really mean all he said? I cannot doubt it. Forcible expressions are not always to be understood in their strictest sense, yet I have no doubt Agur meant to describe himself as he felt himself to be apart from the grace of God. Or better and more likely, he felt thus brutish and foolish after he had been enlightened by the Spirit of God. One mark of a man’s true wisdom is his knowledge of his ignorance. Have you never noticed how the clean heart always mourns its uncleanness, and the wise man always laments his folly? It needs holiness to detect our own unholiness, and it needs wisdom to discover our own folly. When a man talks of his own cleanness, his very lips are foul with pride; and when a man boasts of his wisdom, he proclaims his folly with trumpet sound. Because God had taught Agur much, he felt that he knew but little.
Especially I think the truth of our text relates to one particular line of things. This man was a naturalist. We have nothing of his save this chapter, but his allusions to natural history all through it are exceedingly abundant. He was an instructed scientist, but he felt that he could not by searching find out God nor fashion an idea of him from his own thoughts. When he heard of the great discoveries of those who judged themselves to be superior persons, he disowned such wisdom as theirs. Other men with their great understanding might be fishing up pearls of truth from the sea; as for himself, he knew nothing but that which he found in God’s Word. He had none of that boasted understanding which climbed the heavens, bound the winds, and swathed the sea, and so found out the sacred name; he was content with revelation and felt that “every word of God is pure.” Not in any earthly school learned he the knowledge of the Holy: all that he knew he had been taught by God’s Book. He had in thought climbed to heaven and come down again: he had listened to the speech of winds and waves and mountains; but he protested that in all this he had not discovered God’s name nor his Son’s name by his own understanding. All his light had come through the Lord’s own Word; and he shrewdly gave this caution to those who thought themselves supremely wise above what is written: “Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” Philosophy had failed him and revelation was his sole confidence. As for himself, he did not claim that degree of perception and profundity which enabled him to think out God; but he went to God himself and learned from him at first hand through his revealed wisdom. This I take to be his meaning; but I shall not use the text in that way this morning.
Here was a man, who, whatever he really was, held himself in his own opinion and judgment to be an inferior person; and yet nevertheless was a firm believer in his God. He was not only a firm believer, but he was an earnest student of the sacred oracles. All the more because of his ignorance he pressed on to learn more and more of God. Nor was this all, he was a willing worker; for he spoke prophetically in the name of the Lord. Nor do we even end here; for from this short writing it is clear that he was a joyful truster in God. Brutish as he judged himself to be, he rose into supreme content at every thought of God. Those four points I am going to handle at this time, as the Lord may help me by his Holy Spirit.
I. The first is this—a sense of inferiority must not keep us back from faith in God. I will suppose that some one here is saying, “Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man”: our text brings before us a wise man who said this of himself and yet had firm faith in God. If we have to say what Agur said, let us also trust as Agur did. If only wise men might put their trust in God, what would become of nine out of ten of us?
I hope there is nobody here so foolish as to say, “I could trust in God if I were a man of mark.” Ah sirs! to be a man of mark is no help in the matter of faith. I hope no one is so silly as to say, “If I were possessed of great riches I could then come to Jesus.” “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!” Nor may you say, “If I had great gifts I could trust in the Lord Christ.” Talents involve responsibility, but they do not help towards salvation. Gifts may even drag a man down: only grace can lift him up. The gifted man may be so full of pride that he may never submit himself to the free grace gospel of our Lord Jesus.
I shall deal with more sensible objections than these. There are some who seem as if they could not trust Christ and believe in God because they cannot go with other men in their heights; and there are others, strange to say, who have the same difficulty because they cannot follow others into their depths.
I will have a word first with those who say, “We cannot hope to be saved because we cannot reach the heights of other men.” You have marked the holy conduct of certain godly men, and setting your own imperfections side by side with their excellences you have not only been humbled, but greatly discouraged. You have concluded that you could be saved if you were like these gracious men; but that, since you fall so far short of their noble character, you must be lost. You have seen them in sickness, and marked their patience and joy, and their acquiescence in the divine will, and you have been greatly humbled, which was well; but you have also fallen into unbelief, which was not well. Since you cannot play the man under fire as these champions do, you fear that you may not hope for eternal life.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”