Saturday, October 18, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Proverbs 29-30
Key Verse
Proverbs 30:4 — “Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell?”
Devotional Thought
Agur son of Jakeh is an obscure figure—we know nothing of him beyond this chapter—yet he opens his prophecy with a confession that should stop us cold: “Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man.” Here is a man honest enough to admit his own limits. And what does he do with that honesty? He asks questions no human wisdom can answer: “Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment?” Then he answers his own riddle: “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.” The man who knows he is brutish is the man who runs to the pure word of God.
This same humility shapes his one recorded prayer, tucked into verses seven through nine. Two requests, and he begs God not to deny them before he dies. First: “Remove far from me vanity and lies.” Second: “Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me.” Agur understands something we often forget—that both abundance and want are spiritual dangers. Riches tempt us to say, “Who is the LORD?” Poverty tempts us to steal and take God’s name in vain. The middle ground, the daily bread, is the safest place to walk with God.
Proverbs 29, which precedes Agur’s words, keeps pressing the same theme from a different angle: the fear of man versus trust in the LORD. “The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe” (29:25). We see it in the ruler who hearkens to lies until all his servants are wicked (29:12), and in the many who seek the ruler’s favour when “every man’s judgment cometh from the LORD” (29:26). We see it in the fool who utters all his mind while the wise man holds his tongue till afterward (29:11).
It is mid-October now, and the year is turning toward its close. The leaves are letting go, the harvest is being gathered, and the days grow shorter. There is something in this season that teaches the fear of the Lord—the frost that comes without asking, the stores that must be laid up before winter. The ant in Agur’s list “prepareth her meat in the summer” (30:25), and the conies make their houses in the rocks, safe because they have chosen an unshakeable refuge. Our refuge is not our own wisdom. Agur confesses he has none. Our refuge is the pure word of God and the God who shields those who trust in Him. Let this autumn find us humble enough to say with Agur, “I have not the understanding of a man,” and wise enough to add, “but every word of God is pure.”
Reflection
- Agur asks God for “neither poverty nor riches” but only “food convenient for me.” If you honestly examined your desires, would you be content with daily bread—or are you secretly asking God for more, or fearing He will give you less?
- “The fear of man bringeth a snare” (29:25). Where in your life right now are you shaping your words or choices around what people think, rather than around what God’s pure word says?
Prayer
Lord, You are the God who has ascended and descended, who gathers the wind in Your fists and binds the waters in a garment. We confess that we are brutish and lacking understanding, prone to vanity and lies, prone to fear men more than we fear You. Remove far from us falsehood. Give us neither poverty nor riches, but food convenient for us, lest in fullness we deny You or in want we dishonor Your name. Be our shield as we put our trust in You. Make us wise as the ant and safe as the coney in the rock, content with daily bread and confident in Your pure word, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.