Wisdom and Warnings

Proverbs chapter 30 features counsel from someone named Agur: “The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, his utterance.” Prov. 30:1

This chapter gives some vivid warnings and illustrations that are relevant to freedom from sexual immorality. Here are relevant wisdom statements with added commentary.

Consider the value of God’s Word:
“Every word of God is pure;
He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.” Prov. 30:5

A warning to not change God’s standards based on personal preference or the changing opinions of culture:
“Do not add to His words,
Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar.” Prov. 30:6

A warning about a society that accepts sin as normal and excusable:
“There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes,
Yet is not washed from its filthiness.” 30:12

A illustration from nature:
“The leech has two daughters— Give and Give!” 30:15a
Likewise, sexual immorality leeches a person’s resources: money, time, testimony, family, spiritual vitality…

A wisdom list
“There are three things that are never satisfied,
Four never say, ‘Enough!’:
The grave,
The barren womb,
The earth that is not satisfied with water—
And the fire never says, ‘Enough!’” 30:15b,16

The idiom, “three things…, four” indicate that this list is suggestive and can be added to. Sexual immorality also never says “enough”.  But the believer in Christ, in light of these biblical wisdom statements, can and should pronounce “enough”!

A warning about the seductress
“This is the way of an adulterous woman:
She eats and wipes her mouth,
And says, ‘I have done no wickedness.’” 30:20

Her conscience is seared; she assumes that whatever the body desires is OK. Animals may function according to nature (though, since the fall of Genesis 3, that also can be harmful and contrary to the Creator’s original design).
But people are made in God’s image (Gen. 1:26, 27) though this image has been damaged by sin.  This likeness to God includes living by the standards of His design law and morality. Conscience is a witness to our accountability, but one’s conscience can be ignored; the adulteress (and adulterer) turns a deaf ear to it.

The wisdom of God is developed further in the New Testament. Through a personal relationship with God we can experience true wisdom, applying truth to life. “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord” (1 Cor. 1:30,31).

-J.B.W.