So I love reading through proverbs and it's nice because it has 31 chapters so it works out well to read in a month. And I think Proverbs 30 is one of my favorite chapters. It has a lot of symbolism and poetry in it which really makes it memorable. I would encourage you to read the whole chapter but I am going to just put a few verses that stood out to me below.
There are three things that are never satisfied,
Four never say, “Enough!”:
16 The grave,[a]
The barren womb,
The earth that is not satisfied with water—
And the fire never says, “Enough!”
17 The eye that mocks his father, And scorns obedience to his mother,
The ravens of the valley will pick it out,
And the young eagles will eat it. 18 There are three things which are too wonderful for me,
Yes, four which I do not understand:
19 The way of an eagle in the air,
The way of a serpent on a rock,
The way of a ship in the midst of the sea,
And the way of a man with a woman.
First, I know these verses are true. And you do too. If anyone has ever just watched people interact with each other (which I love doing), or watched the wind blowing the water, or any other of a 1,000 things in life that are incredible, you know there are things that don't make sense. But why is this?
These verses I've always liked, yet really didn't understand until looking at them today. I loved the poetry in them. Not that I understand them completely, but it makes more sense now. I didn't understand if the writer meant he didn't understand 3 things, or 4, or if he just couldn’t make up his mind! It bothered me. However after studying some commentaries on Proverbs I found that a way of writing, and of saying a list was incomplete back when Proverbs was written was to say: "3 things.... yes, 4..... " . This type of writing was used to show that there were things that are hard, or impossible to understand and that there are more of these things being found all the time. Therefore where should this point us? Well, if you look at the first few verses in this chapter, I believe you can find at least a partial answer. The first few verses say :
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?
5 Every word of God is pure;
He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.
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| "Who has bound the waters in a garment?" |
Again, this is great poetic writing but more importantly I think it helps to answer the other questions in this chapter. There are things about God that we don't understand because of our own imperfect minds. It's just the way it is. I think that there are things in this world we don't understand and it should cause us to search for answers.... but ultimately realize that God has made some things in nature to point us to Him and how great he is. "Who has gathered the winds in His fists...." These types of phrases show us how great the God we serve is and is why I think verse 5 is so comforting. "Every word of God is pure, He is a shield to those who trust in Him." The thought that the God of the world, who holds the winds in His hands, cares about us and is willing to be our shield if we'll let Him is really humbling. So I guess that is my challenge and the thing that challenged me this morning. Will you be willing to trust Him when you encounter those things in life you don't understand?
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