This is Spoken Gospel.

We’re dedicated to seeing 
Jesus in all of scripture.

In each episode, we see what’s 
happening in a Biblical text  

and how it sheds light on
Jesus and His Gospel.

Let’s jump in.

Proverbs 30 and 31 are the only chapters 
of Proverbs written by non-Jews.

They’re evidence that God’s wisdom
is not confined to a particular people.

God’s wisdom belongs to
anyone who fears the Lord.

Agur, our first Gentile philosopher, wants you to walk
away from his chapter understanding the inevitable
consequences of misplaced pride and the
ironic success of the truly humble.

Agur begins by humbly listing what he 
doesn’t know in a series of rhetorical  

questions before admitting that God’s words 
are the only words that will prove true.

Any prideful attempt to add to God’s 
wisdom will be shown for foolishness.

So Agur, in the only prayer in Proverbs, asks God to make him
content with a humble life—a life of neither poverty nor riches.

Agur knows that either too much or too 
little will bend his heart away from God,  

so he asks God to spare 
him from either temptation.

The rest of the chapter lays out for the reader the
consequences of pride and the ironic rewards of humility.

Pride leads people to slander wait staff, 
curse fathers, and take advantage of the poor.

Pride blinds people to their own faults.

Pride also enables people to 
justify cheating on their spouse.

Like a desert or a barren womb, pride is never satisfied
and always wants more of what it doesn’t have.

And as expected as a nosebleed is for a 
boxer, the proud get what’s coming to them.

Humility, on the other hand, is mysterious—like an eagle
that soars even though he doesn’t move his wings.

Nature is full of similar surprises: the tiny ant 
and his vast network of underground storehouses,  

the leaderless locust who marches in formation, the
unimpressive lizard who eavesdrops in the king’s palace.

Agur’s wisdom is that while pride inevitably
leads to a fall, humility is mysteriously
and ironically rewarded.

Agur agrees with the apostle Paul who said 
that “God chose the foolish things of the  

world to shame the wise; God chose the weak 
things of the world to shame the strong.”.

Our world does not believe this.

Our world values strength, power, and competence
(or, at the very least, the appearance of those things).

But God has determined to 
destroy the wisdom of the world.

He’s chosen to use things like badgers and ants and crucified men
“to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.”

Agur’s wisdom is that, as ironic as it seems, there are
rewards waiting for those who humble themselves.

In Jesus and his cross, we see 
God himself completely humiliated.

The world will look at that 
and say it’s foolishness.

But while the “message of the cross is foolishness to
those who are perishing, but to us who
are being saved it is the power of God….  

For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom,
and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength”.  

For anyone willing to accept Jesus’ foolishness
and abandon their pride, the mysteries and
powers of humility will become theirs.

While an ant’s storehouse, 
a locust’s organization,  

and a lizard’s stealth are impressive, 
they are nothing when compared to the  

resurrection power of Jesus in 
the life of those who are humble.

While we might feel unimpressive, the Gospel of Jesus’ humble
death makes us into a mystery that angels stand on tiptoe to see. 

May the Holy Spirit open your eyes to see the God who has hidden in his
world the wisdom of humility and Jesus Christ as proof of its ironic power.