Epaggelia

Key Text, Prv. 30:1-9. 

Every disciple needs the strength of God to maintain his discipleship, or else we as disciples become slow and distracted in following God and learning more about Him. God has always provided access to His strength derived from His word or message of truth. How can Solomon or any Jewish father such as Agur expect his son to grow in wisdom and use it in his daily lifestyle without providing God’s strength to accomplish it? The answer is God’s word itself. In this case, prophecy & fulfilment, or hope & an answer. This is why so many prophecies of the Old Testament writers had a two-fold fulfilment. See Isaiah 7:14 & 8:3-4 & Mt. 1:23.Judaism has taught from the earliest times that the Messiah was pre-existent (especially in view of Micah 5:2 and Daniel 7:9-18), and the claims of Jesus in the Gospels reflect this clearly. It is best to say that there is a hint in Prv. 30:4 of the nature of the Messiah as Son, a hint that will later be revealed in full through the incarnation of God in baby Jesus. Would it not bolster the faith and feed the hope of any Jewish boy, to know that His Creator has a son? Yes of course, but why, you might ask. Because Agur’s clear implication in this passage is that His creative power is within His son’s name. 

Could we use this name? God’s name was and is used in many powerful ways, and of course should never be used in a vain, common or senseless way. Immediately following this prophecy concerning the name of the Son of God, we have a prayer from Agur which is concerned about stopping God’s name being used in a shameful way, 30:7-9.  Why is it sinful to use the name of Jesus in a sense of exasperation, frustration or even fright? Because other people hearing it, have the very clear understanding that you do not really respect Him, nor do you treat Him as being present and powerful enough to help us with whatever problem that caused you to use His name in vain.Prv. 30:4 begins questioning how we can know more about God, by learning of our expectation of his coming into our reality on earth, from his transcendent existence in heaven.  The Son of the “Holy One”, being the Creator was somehow letting Agur know that His knowledge can not grow unless there is MORE than communication from Heaven, there must be a transmigrating Presence from Heaven to earth. This gave the first readers of Proverbs hope of learning more, and since Jesus has made the fulfilment clear, it gives us today real answers and strength.

God’s strength should be used to bolster our determination to follow Him no matter what happens to us. John 3:13 is the record of Jesus making this clear and further elaborates in 6:35-39. His transmigration and presence was for the searching and finding of lost souls within Israel, and His Spirit is here for the same purpose wherever you are located now! The reason Agur was so ‘dull’ and uneducated was because he simply didn’t know how much and how long God wanted to save people worse off than him!  Do you know how big God’s love is for the lost? If yes, then how much love has he lavished on you? Does this strengthen your resolve to follow Him? If we have the faith the size of a mustard seed in the truth revealed through Jesus, we will do amazing things for Him, not ourself. His freedom is worth all costs we may need to pay in our discipleship, Mt. 17:20. His truth will set you free to move that mountain and share your faith! Jn. 8:32