The words of Agur son of Jakeh. The oracle.
The man declares, I am weary, O God; I am weary, O God, but I can prevail. Surely I am too stupid to be a man. I have not the understanding of a man. I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One. Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has wrapped up 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? Surely you know! Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar. ~Proverbs 30.1-6
The search for wisdom is difficult even when you are doing it right. But when a man searches for wisdom divorced from God’s revelation, it is frustrating, futile, and fruitless. This revelation-less search for wisdom is what Agur describes in the first few verses at the beginning of Proverbs 30. The man is weary in his search. He doesn’t know what it means to be a man in this world. He doesn’t understand the meaning and purpose of it all and how to put his own life in relationship with everything else because he has no knowledge of the Holy One. Divorced from God’s revelation he cannot answer the questions, “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?”
This man has searched for wisdom using human reason divorced from divine revelation. This is not an uncommon human experience. This is how man fell in the beginning and how he continues to try to put his life and the world together ever since.
Western Civilization, though great in many ways, fell prey to this vain search for wisdom in the seventeenth century with the dawn of the Enlightenment, the Age of Reason. The atheist Voltaire and his heirs believed that divine revelation as proclaimed by the church left the Western world in a “dark age” for over a thousand years. Revelation, they claimed, repressed science and the arts and led to “the wars of religion,” resulting in the bloodshed of many. The answer was to divorce human reason from revelation, exalting “reason” as the supreme arbiter of all disputes and the unifier of all people. The promise was unending progress, peace, and prosperity. The inevitable result, however, was the bloody French Revolution (and unending wars since).
The West still lives in the wake of Enlightenment “reason-over-revelation” wisdom. The search for wisdom has been frustrating, resulting in the skepticism of Postmodern theories that manifest themselves in gender fluidity, intersectionality, and Critical Race Theory. The Postmodern child(ren) born of the Enlightenment hates its mother but owes everything to her.
The search continues.
Wisdom cannot be achieved by divorcing our reason from revelation. Even apart from sin, we need revelation. We are created in relationship with God who speaks to us, who must tell the first man that he made the fruit trees for him to eat from them, to give him a mission to take dominion over the earth, and to refrain from eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. We need revelation because we are creatures; creatures who live in a world created by God who knows what he has created and why he has created it. He knows everything about it. For us to know who we are, why we are here, and how it all fits together, we must listen to him.
Not only do we need revelation because we are creatures, but we also need revelation now because we are sinners. Our thinking is distorted (Rom 1.18-23). If we are to make sense of anything in this world, again, we need to know the One who created us and all things, giving everything its purpose.
Think about this in terms of participating in American football. If you are not familiar with the game, while you can observe what is going on and recognize certain aspects of the game, you really don’t know how to participate as a player or a fan unless someone explains the rules and purpose. Why are these men wearing pads and helmets? Why do they hit one another? Why is that ball shaped so funny? Why do they call it football when they are using their hands so much? Until someone who knows the game reveals to you the purpose and the rules, all of it will make no sense and will be frustrating to watch.
Let’s add one more layer. Let’s say that you come to the football game thinking that it is a football (aka “soccer”) match. You’ve got the rules and purpose of soccer as your context. This is confusing. The ball isn’t right. The field is marked wrong. There isn’t a net. The men have pads and helmets on. If you try to participate with the rules and purpose of soccer in your head, nothing will work right. In order to participate fruitfully, you have to get on the same page with the structure of the game.
God created “the game,” its rules and purpose. If you are going to know who you are and how you fit, you need to listen to him. Wisdom can only come when you recognize that this is his game, so you must play according to the way he created it. When we do, we find that his revelation is a shield and refuge for us, leading us to life. All other pursuits are frustrating, futile, fruitless, and eventually end in death.
“There is no wisdom or understanding or counsel against Yahweh” (Pr 21.30).
