Proverbs 30

I concur with Agur.    

What he said …    🙂

Here’s what I noticed in this reading of Proverbs 30.

We hear speakers and pastors refer to the warning at the end of the Bible, “don’t add to this, don’t take away from it, or else.”  (Rev. 22.18ff*)

     (*and following.  In music it stands for fortissimo – loud)

We forget about this less-frequently used warning, but the truth is it was here first.

Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. 

Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.   (vv 5-6)

I think I’d rather find myself at odds with Jim Croce’s  “Leroy Brown” than violate this warning!

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Two things I ask of you, O LORD; do not refuse me before I die:

Keep falsehood and lies far from me;

Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.   Otherwise I may have too much and disown you and say ‘Who is the Lord?’  Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.  (vv 7-9)

That, friends, is a prayer repeating!

Can you imagine a life without lies, misrepresentations, falsehoods and attempts to deceive?   (Half our commercials would be gone, for one!!)   Can you picture the confidence and peace that would develop over time?   I can.   Keep falsehood and lies far from me; both incoming and the ones I can formulate on my own.

I can relate to the second request too.  I know people who have too much and don’t need God anymore —or think they don’t—and I know a few who’ve been desperately poor.  Neither are good.  Agur’s prayer for just today’s supply is a noble prayer.   I find it interesting that Jesus uses the same term “Daily Bread” in his example of how to pray (Matthew 6 and Luke 11).    Today’s pay-day for me and I have plans for that money. Most of us watch for weekly, bi-weekly or monthly paychecks, but it’s not always been that way, and the term “daily bread” encompasses more than the forty years of manna every morning in the wilderness wanderings.    Imagine going to work, putting in a full day, and receiving a smile and today’s wages at quitting time.  That’s the idea behind “daily bread”.   Today’s work, tomorrow’s sustenance.

Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.   Otherwise I may have too much and disown you and say ‘Who is the Lord?’  Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.

I concur with Agur!

—Selah

—PLR—