The Wisdom of the Children of the East (Part 5 of 6)

Agur and Lemauel

Of Solomon it is said,

“And Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country…” (I Kings 4:30).

Solomon’s exceptional wisdom was the gift of God, and therefore he excelled all those around him in this respect. Now his wisdom is in this verse compared with that of the Bene Kedem; we can assume, therefore, that the divine wisdom given to Solomon was of the same kind as that of some of the Arabian nomads inhabiting eastern lands.

We should, perhaps, remind ourselves that Solomon’s wisdom was not necessarily divinely given understanding which would help him perform God’s commands. His early mistakes (such as his marriage with an Egyptian princess) show remarkable lack of true wisdom of this kind. His gift of wisdom (like the Spirit gifts of the first Century) appears to have been a special ability in a certain direction; in this case, ability to judge and rule wisely. Never­theless, judgment cannot be disassociated from truth and justice, and proper standards of such can only be learned from God.

Thus we can say that Solomon’s gift of wisdom helped him to understand (in theory) the righteous precepts and basic justice by which God’s people were to be ruled, though such understanding gave him no special ability to rule his own spirit. Now, since his wisdom could be compared with that of the Bene Kedem, it follows that these too understood the true principles and precepts of the God of Israel.

The Wisdom of Solomon

In Solomon’s reign there seems to have been considerable intercourse between Israel and the Arabian kings (and queens). The visit of the Queen of Sheba is an example of this – and remember it was to hear Solomon’s wisdom that she made her State visit. The Queen of Sheba was a South Arabian, racially different from the North Arabians, the Bene Kedem of Scripture. But her visit stands as an example of the kind of exchange of wisdom which took place in Israel. The North Arabian kings visited Israel regularly paying Solomon tribute (1 Kings 10:15), and possibly it was on one of these visits that Solomon’s ascendancy in wisdom was established. (It should be remembered that the ‘kings’ of Arabia would be called ‘sheiks’ by us, being tribal leaders rather than monarchs ruling large kingdoms.)

We have already suggested that the book of Job came into Israel from Arabia in the time of Solomon, being brought by some Arabian visitor, possibly for the particular benefit of Solomon himself. The very existence of the book of Job shows that somewhere in Arabia there was a tradition of worship of a true God after the time of Abraham; the presence of Jethro and Balaam shows that this tradition continued to the time of Moses; and the comparison of Solomon’s wisdom with that of the Bene Kedem suggests that this tradition was still extant in Solomon’s day.

The Proverbs of Agur and Lemuel

There is further evidence in Scripture to support this last point. The book of Proverbs appears to contain mainly the writings of Solomon; but at the end of the book there are two interesting additions not written by Solomon – which were presumably included in the book either in Solomon’s day, or after, since they are added at the end of Solomon’s own,proverbs. These are:-

  1. The Prophecy of Agur Son of Jakeh
  2. The Words of King Lemuel

There is reasonable evidence to show that neither of these men were Israelites, but were North Arabians. None of the names mentioned, Agur, Jakeh or Lemuel, are Hebrew names, yet all three occur on ancient monuments in Arabian lands. And since there is no ‘King Lemuel’ among the kings of Israel and Judah, Lemuel must have been king of a land outside Israel; his Arabian name suggests the location of that land.

A second line of evidence to prove that these last two chapters of Proverbs were written by Arabians comes from the R.S.V. rendering of the two titles:-

“The. words of Agur son of Jakeh of Massa” (30:1)

“The words of Lemuel, king of Massa” (31:1).

If the readings are correct, both Agur and Lemuel belonged to the people of Massa. In Scripture there is only one ‘Massa’ mentioned (Gen.25:14), a son of Ishmael. This suggests that Agur and Lemuel both belonged to the descendants of Ishmael.

If this is the case, then it is clear that Job and Balaam were not the only members of the Bene Kedem to receive divine inspiration. It strengthens the case for a continuous tradition of worship of the true God among some of the non-Jewish descendants of Abraham. It shows that God was in those early times prepared to deal with other peoples outside the Mosaic structure;. and as we have said before, these could only have approached God on the basis of faith.

The Faith of Agur

We look now at the actual words written by these men, to prove that this was indeed the case, and that Agur and Lemuel were men of faith.

On the face of it, the words of Agur in Prov.30 appear to be somewhat disconnected. We might summarise them thus:-

  1. Confession of his own deficiency (v.2,3)
  2. Reference to God as Creator, and to His Son (v.4)
  3. Praise of God’s words (v.5,6)
  4. Plea for help (v.7-9)
  5. Practical advice and comments (v.10-33)

We shall see shortly that these themes are not at all disconnected; but first we would like to take v.4, and show how this remarkable utterance proves Agur to be a man of faith.

“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?”

Here God the Creator of the earth is spoken of as ascending and descending; and His name is asked for, and His Son’s name. It should be realised that the whole of the Old Testament hardly contains another statement as plain ls this concerning the Fatherhood of God, and the position of the Lord Jesus as part of the name of God. This great truth is what the Jews of Jesus day so signally failed to grasp – that God could have a Son, named with His name, “My Lord and my God”, as Thomas confessed. Yet this ancient son of Ishmael had seen and understood this truth – and not only seen it, but connected it with his own brutishness, surely understanding that this was what could save him in spite of his own deficiencies. For this, surely, is the reason for the earlier statement, the confession of his own inadequacy. It is as if Agur is saying,

“I am in total ignorance of all divine things by nature. These can only be revealed by God Himself ascending and descending, through a Son who shares His name.”

And, of course, the theme then runs straight on into the next verse. Agur himself has no divinity, no intuitive inner light sent from the holy ones. Only God the Creator reveals things, through His Son, and how?

“Every word of God is pure…” (v.5)

That is, God reveals Himself, and His Son, by speaking about these things to men, by sending them His Word, which Word is manifested in the Son. This is why the question about the Son’s name is immediately followed by the statement about the Word.

You may think that too much has been read into these words. We would like to show that this is exactly the way in which the apostle Paul deals with a very similar statement by Moses – and Paul’s understanding should help us to advance a little in our appreciation of Agur’s words.

Salvation by Faith

The words spoken by Moses in Deut. 30 bear a remarkable similarity to these of Agur, having to do with ascending and descending:-

“For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.

It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?

Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?

But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.” (Deut. 30:11-14).

You will notice that the idea of ascending and descending (here put as going beyond the sea) is closely connected with the Word, just as the two ideas are connected in Prov.30. Here in Deuteronomy, however, there is the statement that men are not to ascend, for the word is not in heaven, etc., but near, in the mouth and in the heart. There is no real difference between the two ideas. Agur suggests that it is God Who ascends and descends, while Agur himself has no divine understanding – i.e., he has not himself ascended or descended; it has been sufficient for him to receive the pure word of God. Similarly, the Israel­ites were told by Moses that they had no need to send a messenger to heaven, etc. because God’s Word had already been given to them on earth.

Let us now go to Paul’s comments on this verse from Deuteronomy (Rom.10: 6-8). Paul declares that the “righteousness which is of faith” says.

“Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)

Or, who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)

But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

You can see why we insist that Agur was a man of faith. In Paul’s day, the Lord Jesus had descended into the deep of death, and ascended up into heavenly places. And divinely inspired apostles went out into the earth to preach this word of faith. To confess this word with the mouth, and to believe it in the heart (which meant to do it – see Deut. 30:14) was the means by which men of faith could find salvation (See Rom.10:9,10). Yet so many years earlier Agur had spoken of precisely these same things, coming to the same conclusions, and seeing that the word concerning the Son was that which brought salvation to men.

As far as Scripture is concerned, this argument ends here. Yet there is one question which perhaps needs to be answered, which is not altogether an­swered by Paul’s interpretation of Deuteronomy. Did the Israelites of Moses’ day understand Moses’ words in the same way in which Paul expounds them? And if so, why should they ever think of asking, “Who shall ascend for us…?” That is, why should Moses have to warn them not to ask this question, though according to Paul the question referred to Christ’s death and resurrection?

Our own belief is that Moses is emphatically rejecting current pagan practices here. Most of us know that almost all pagans believed in a ‘divinity’ in man, an immaterial soul or spirit which could be released from the body at death, and which could in the lifetime of a man receive from its divine origins a cleansing or regeneration which would absolve the earthly body from all its past sins, and from its imperfect state. Almost all pagan religions taught salvation by some kind of mystical cleansing, rather than by forgiveness of sins through a mediator, and belief in a word.

According to such pagan beliefs, the ‘regeneration’ or salvation from sin was frequently bestowed from above once a year, at special ritualistic festivals. Different peoples held such rituals at different times, some at the winter solstice, some at the spring equinox, some at the summer solstice. Here we are speaking of the Tammuz festival of the east, usually held in the spring. This festival was connected with the fertility of the earth, the idea being that the old growth died and rotted, and could be replaced by new-born life; and in a similar way the old year of a man’s life could be wiped out, and a new-born spirit renewed within him. (Such beliefs eventually corrupted the Christian Church, and can be found expressed in many carols which speak of the ‘advent’ of the Christ-child into the heart during the Christmas season.)

But before such renewal could take place, the gods had to be pleaded with. Therefore, a messenger had to be sent – and in early Tammuz.worship, a human sacrifice was burnt, or otherwise slaughtered, in order that his soul might ascend to heaven to beg the god to return to earth as a new-born spirit f both growth from the earth, and sinlessness in the human heart. If the god ere thought to be in the nether world, the sacrifice was drowned in order that he spirit of the man might ‘go over the sea for us’. In Syria, the Tammuz sacrifice was most commonly burned, while the similar sacrifice to Osiris was drowned.

You can see how the words of Moses apply. There is no need for a human sacrifice in order to cleanse man from his evil ways. All that is necessary for cleansing will be done by God Himself, in ascending and descending – and He will forgive you and cleanse you, if only you accept His Word into your hearts, .e., believe it and do it. A simple request – yet how difficult men find it, today as always! It seems so much easier to find relief from one’s conscience in the mystical way of anguished emotional pleading, followed by a supposed rescent of a spirit of regeneration into the heart – just as Tammuz-worshippers allowed in an orgy of weeping, to feel cleansed in the morning when they sung carols to the new-born year, and went out to see the new growth springing. Ask any Pentecostal how he found conversion, and he will give you an account psychologically similar to the experiences of many pagan cult-worshippers.

And so Agur’s words end with simple precept-teaching. Do this – this s the good way. God only can save – but man can believe His word of salvation, and do what God requires to the utmost of his ability.

The Words of King Lemuel

The words of this final prophecy were told to Lemuel by his mother. Thu even among the Bene Kedem there were prophetesses, just as there were in Israel.

Throughout the Old Testament, the evidence of true worship of Yahweh was shown by the way in which Israel treated their weaker members. The prophets bore eloquent testimony to the fact that, as Israel became more and more idolatrous and apostate, so they became more and more unjust and oppressive, crushing the poor, the widows and fatherless, and greedily seeking their own material good. (The same is true of our society, in which the strong continually demand or take more and more, leaving widows and pensioners struggling for existence.) In this chapter Lemuel is exhorted to plead for the poor and needy if he wishes to be a righteous ruler; this is the mark of the true man of God.

Not only so, but this chapter puts a woman in her true place, a place of respect and dignity. Just as ungodly societies tend to oppress their poor, so also they tend to push their women into total slave-subjection. Eventually the women either rebel and seize what should not belong to them (as commonly in the Western world) or dissociate themselves from the men and set up their own little worlds (as in many eastern societies).

In God’s ways women are junior partners, giving help and respect to their menfolk, and receiving in return love and honour. So it was in the early Church where deaconesses and widows helped the elders and deacons. So it has been in all pioneer churches, where women worked alongside their men. It is only when a body begins to grow old and corrupt that it forces its womenfolk into slave-status. Here Lemuel, true worshipper of God, praises the true woman, who always seeks the good of her husband.

Let all sisters read and understand the words of a godly woman. For it is by no means always the fault of the men when women are oppressed. Women who fail in their high calling can bring upon themselves the oppressive reaction of the men. True, men can be proud and selfish – but women can be foolish and arrogant, and earn a position in which they are allowed to do nothing but make tea and darn socks. Yet what a great work this woman does, showing initiative, courage, love and duty. The key to her position surely lies in these two things

  1. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her (v.11)
  2. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life (v.12)

That is, the key to the true relationship of male and female in God’s Church lies in both the virtue of the woman, and the trust of the man. Both are necessary if a woman is to hold her true, dignified position. This is the ideal for all sisters in the ecclesias, which are part of the ‘house’ of God doing good to the brethren, and trusted in turn by them.