Proverbs 31a

 Throughout these devotionals from Proverbs, right up to this last chapter in the book, a recurrent theme has been the difficulty we have in understanding the proverbs. It is easy to think we can take Scripture verse by verse as if every utterance was directly from God; but it is a dangerous and deceptive way to go. Remember Amos 4:4, “Go to Bethel and transgress,” which cannot stand alone.

The last two weeks we have taken a few lessons from Chapter 30 which purports to be the proverbs of Agur; but we had to admit up front that we do not know who Agur was, other than that his father was Jakeh. There are plenty of guesses. Maybe Agur is a nom de plume for Solomon, whose name is associated with the bulk of the book. Maybe Agur is a foreigner; by his name he may be a man from one of the north Arabian tribes. Truth is, we don’t know. 

 Another problem has to do with the choice of subject and the brevity of words. These are not stories like most of Scripture. You might notice that I was only able to write a devotional on two sections of Chapter 30. That left out verses 10 through 33 for which, at this point, I would be pushing it to find a devotional in their midst.

 Proverbs, or witty sayings, often do not translate well from one language to another. For example, consider these proverbs embedded in other European cultures: 

 In German: Tomaten auf den Augen haben, ‘You have tomatoes on your eyes’. Meaning: ‘You are not seeing the world like everyone else’.

 In Swedish: Det är ingen ko på isen, ‘There’s no cow on the ice’. Meaning: ‘There is nothing to worry about’. 

 In Polish: Bułka z masłem. ‘It’s a roll with butter’. Meaning: “It’s really easy.”

 In Lithuanian: Eina kaip žemę pardavęs, ‘They are walking like they just sold the earth’. Meaning: They seem very sad.

 Now, imagine the difficulty interpreting proverbs from Asian or African languages, or the language of a people who lived 2500 years ago.

31: 1-3. The words of King Lemuel. An oracle that his mother taught him:

No, my son!                                                                                                               No, son of my womb!    No, son of my vows! Do not give your strength to women,    your ways to those who destroy kings.

 Do we know who King Lemuel is? No. Some people guess that the word means ‘Devoted to God’ and thus is a pen name for King Solomon. However, there are several problems with this guess. First, Solomon’s name is on all the proverbs from chapter 1 through 29, so why change now? 

Second, if it is Solomon, the oracles are ones that his mother taught him. His mother is Bathsheba. Instead of being a model mother and wife, she is the one who committed adultery with King David which led to the deaths of her husband and of her first born son with David (II Samuel 11). 

Third, if this was the advice that Solomon received, he certainly did not heed that advice. Instead, it is said of Solomon that, “Among his wives were seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned away his heart” (I Kings 11:3). So, why would he be saying that his mother warned him but he did it anyway?

 We will have to fall back, again, on the idea that God was working through the Jewish scribes and Christian scholars who decided to include the Book of Proverbs in the Holy Scriptures. Such a belief is called faith, faith that through the Holy Spirit, God will still have something to say even if we don’t understand parts of Scripture. 

 First, we note that this whole chapter is the advice of a woman, a queen mother, for her son, and indirectly for us. There are many valiant and faithful women in the Bible, but we often forget the direct voice of this woman. 

 Second, this woman has a strong tie to her son. She gave birth to him, and she made vows over him. What might the last imply? Perhaps a private prayer. Perhaps a public ceremony, as we do today during a dedication or baptism of a child. We respond to the pastor’s questions, we give the scripted answers, and these are vows. These vows are promises to look after the welfare of the child and to contribute as much as we can to the growth and development of the child. 

 I would think at least that would include providing a good Sunday School and Youth group experience for the child. If the child’s family has troubles or sickness, we have vowed to be there with prayer, resources, healing, and comfort. Are our churches set up for member care and neighbor care? Or, are we focused elsewhere, engaging in culture wars or partisan arguments to protect what we claim to have while excluding others from fellowship?  

 Finally, her advice is good. When cared for by a faithful Christian community, no desire, no obsession, no addiction should lead a child off the path of single-minded devotion to God and God’s mission here on earth. We have a job to do.