Under three [things] the earth is disquieted, and under four it cannot bear up
Agur names four things the earth cannot carry. Writers read his short list as a diagnosis of why the world never settles. Several of them quote an older translation, which says the earth is "disquieted" where the ESV says it "trembles."
after
One writer reads the four cases that follow against the two groups before them, and finds one fault in all four.
If in verses 15 to 17 we have seen no satisfaction, and in verses 18 to 20, no explanation, in these verses is the evident lesson of no rest. What a picture of the world do these three portray! But in the last of the three, the four features mentioned have in common the fact that proper order is upset, and all is thrown out of balance. If so, rest is impossible.
The first case widens once you ask who is fit to reign at all.
The rule of a servant will usually be unbearable. Pride will swell him up, he will glory in his authority, and misrule and oppression will follow. But in the fullest sense all men are servants: the place of reigning belongs to God alone. Every king of Judah and of Israel has proved that man cannot reign well. All of them failed in the end, and none could bring rest to their nation. The earth has been unsettled through all the reigns of men. Only the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ will answer this state of unrest and agitation.
Another writer traces the same fault through Israel's history and names its cure.
Holding a position without the moral qualities it calls for always produces a sense of self-importance and a disregard of true values. This is seen in the history of Jeroboam the son of Nebat (1 Kings 12:28-30). He is known throughout history as the man who made Israel to sin. He made two calves of gold and said, "Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt." In short, this was a complete denial of the sovereign mercy of God, who had delivered His people by the power of His own hand. The cure for high-mindedness is to keep a deep sense of sovereign mercy in our souls. … Resting there, "disquietude" would give way to peace.
The second case is the wrong person prospering. It distressed the psalmist too.
To see the wicked prosper caused the psalmist painful distress (Psalm 73:3-9). Yet it is common. The fool leaves God out of his reckoning and is a crude materialist. When he has all he wants (filled with food), he shows pride, violence, corruption, wickedness, oppression, and bold speech against God. Here is another cause for endless unrest in the world. But faith looks further on, and with Asaph says, "until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end" (Psa. 73:17).
Hughes finds the same picture in a wealthy man of David's day.
Nabal (the name means fool) in 1 Samuel 25 fits this verse. His attitude was one of total disregard for David, God's anointed: "Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse?" He speaks of "my bread," "my water," "my flesh," "my shearers." He does not realize how much he owed to this then rejected, yet anointed king of God's choosing. He was full of what he thought was his own, and had no thought of the man God had chosen. He gives us a striking picture of the Laodicean condition of the church in Revelation 3 — "I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing" — and yet Christ was outside!
The last two cases move indoors, into marriage and household. Both involve someone taking a place they have no right to.
The fourth case is that of the wrong person receiving honour. The servant girl here is one who dispossesses her mistress, as the Hebrew word for "heir" implies. She uses her position for treachery. This is the most revolting of all these evils, and yet who will correct it? … Only those who stand before God in pure grace are "heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ." … These three verses are a faithful summary of the reasons for the world's unrest. They are common things. No law and no education can change them, for they spring from the natural sinful condition of man's heart.
The next four verses turn to four small creatures. One writer reads that order as the answer.
When the earth is disquieted (Proverbs 30:21-23 — and was it ever more disquieted than it is now?) the answer lies in smallness: in ants, rock badgers, locusts and spiders (Proverbs 30:24-28). … "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them" (Matthew 18:20). The answer to a small position is to consider the resources of God.
- Disorder. All four cases share one fault: the proper order is upset, and where order is upset rest is impossible.
- Reigning. Every human reign has failed to bring rest; only the reign of Christ answers the earth's agitation.
- Fullness. The fool filled with food, and the church that says it needs nothing, share the same blindness — plenty without God.
- Seizing. The servant girl dispossesses her mistress. True heirs hold their place by grace, not by grasping.
- Smallness. The answer to a disquieted earth comes next: small creatures, and the resources of God.
Under a servant when he reigneth, and a churl when he is filled with meat;
The writer ends his list of four unbearable things with two figures who unsettle everything around them. One is a slave lifted onto a throne. The other is a fool with a full stomach. Older versions read "a servant when he reigns" and "a fool when he is filled with meat." Neither man was ever fit for what he now holds, and the earth cannot rest under them.
This saying belongs to a series. One commentator reads verses 21 to 23 as a picture of a world that can find no rest.
In verses 15 to 17 we have seen no satisfaction. In verses 18 to 20, no explanation. In these verses the clear lesson is no rest. What a picture of the world these three portray! But the four features in the last of the three share one thing: proper order is upset, and all is out of balance. If so, rest is impossible.
The first figure is a servant who ends up on the throne. One writer looks at what power does to a man who is not fit to carry it. He then widens the point to every ruler.
The rule of a servant will usually be unbearable. He is likely to be puffed up with pride that glories in his authority, and misrule and oppression follow. But in the fullest sense, all men are servants: the place of reigning belongs to God alone. Every king of Judah and of Israel has proved that man cannot reign as he should. All were failures in the end. They could not bring rest to their nation. Only the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ will answer this state of unrest and agitation.
A related saying elsewhere in Proverbs sets the same two evils side by side — comfort handed to a fool, and rule handed to a servant.
Luxury is good for none; but it is above all unseemly for the fool who makes it his enjoyment and his god. The wise man was given to add that worse still is it for a servant to have rule over princes: who is so vain and tyrannical?
If the disease is self-importance, there is a cure. One writer traces it through Jeroboam, a king of Israel.
"For a servant when he reigns." Holding a position without the moral qualifications for it always leads to a sense of self-importance and a disregard of true values. This is seen in Jeroboam, who made two calves of gold and said, "Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt." In short this was a complete denial of the sovereign mercy of God, who by the power of His own hand had delivered His people. The antidote for high-mindedness is a deep sense of sovereign mercy in our souls… Resting there, disquiet would give way to peace.
The second half of the verse moves from misplaced power to misplaced plenty.
But if first we have seen the rule of the wrong person, next is the prosperity of the wrong person… The fool leaves God out of his reckoning, so he is a base materialist. When he is filled with all he wants, he shows pride, violence, corruption, wickedness, oppression, and bold speech against God… But faith looks further on. With Asaph it says, "Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end."
The Bible gives this fool a name.
Nabal — the name means fool — in 1 Samuel 25 fits this verse. His attitude was one of total disregard for David, God's anointed. "Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse?" He speaks of "my bread," "my water," "my meat," "my shearers." He does not realize how much he owed to this rejected yet anointed, God-chosen king… He was full of what he thought was his own, with no thought of the man of God's choice. He gives us a striking picture of the Laodicean condition of the church seen in Revelation 3 — "rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing" — and yet Christ was outside!
Is there a servant whose rule the earth could bear? One writer answers by pointing to Christ, the Servant of all.
He has displayed in all His service His fitness for ruling… The wise man in Proverbs 30:22 tells of three things that disquiet the earth. The first is "a servant when he reigns." Position by itself does not make a man fit to rule. In our blessed Lord we learn the beautiful marks that fit a person for righteous rule. The Servant of all shall be the Lord of all — "Therefore God has highly exalted Him"!
One writer turns all this into a personal choice.
Let us be content to be small, having no high thoughts of self and seeking no position of greatness. Then we will have the wisdom and grace needed for the pathway of verses 29 to 31. We shall move through this scene of moral ruin with a stately step that will honour God.
- Disorder — The four things of verses 21–23 share one trait: proper order is upset. Where order is upset, rest is impossible.
- Power — A servant on a throne turns authority into self-importance. Every king of Israel and Judah failed to bring his nation rest.
- Plenty — The fool filled with food is prosperity in the wrong hands. Nabal says "my bread, my water." Laodicea says it needs nothing, and Christ stands outside.
- Antidote — A deep sense of God's sovereign mercy keeps a person from high-mindedness. Resting there, disquiet gives way to peace.
- Rest — Position never makes a man fit to rule. Only the Servant of all is fit to reign, and His reign alone answers the earth's unrest.
under an odious [woman] when she is married, and a handmaid when she is heir to her mistress.
This chapter's list of unbearable things ends with two pictures from the household: a marriage and an inheritance, both turned upside down. Why should such private reversals shake the earth itself?
One writer finds the same unrest all around him.
How true these words are today! In every circle unrest and uncertainty seem to persist. They bring with them a pressure that is almost unbearable. Home life has broken down. Work relationships are strained almost to breaking point, and so are national and international affairs. Sadly, even those who claim the Christian name are not free from these troubles.
The ESV calls her "an unloved woman." The older wording quoted below calls her "odious" — hateful rather than merely unwanted. Scripture supplies the example.
"For an odious woman when she is married." The history of such a woman is clear in Jezebel, the wife of king Ahab. In 1 Kings 21 we have the account of Ahab's desire for Naboth's vineyard. Naboth's movements and words in that chapter carry deep meaning for us today. He treasured his inheritance. The wicked scheming of the odious Jezebel cost him his life. Even so, he would not give up what he called "the inheritance of my fathers."
The marriage itself was one of Ahab's sins.
One of Ahab's many sins was his marriage to idolatrous Jezebel… God had plainly forbidden the Israelites to marry into the corrupt nations of Canaan… Here there is no suggestion that a God-fearing husband or wife might win a godless partner for the truth. The very opposite result is certain. The influence of a woman over a man is considerable. So it matters enormously that everyone who knows God should be matched by God.
The second half turns rank upside down. The ESV says the maidservant "displaces her mistress"; the older wording quoted below calls her "heir to her mistress."
"And a handmaid that is heir to her mistress." Hagar is surely in view here. She was the mother of Ishmael — the son of the slave woman. The letter to the Galatians shows what a crushing burden it is to accept the principle that Hagar and Ishmael stand for. God's purpose and plan are tied to one blessed Person — Christ… In God's mind and ways the "second Man… the Lord from heaven" sets the first man aside completely. Much of the breakdown and failure around us today comes from the prominence given to the first man. A lack of appreciation of "the Lord from heaven" follows.
Sarah's own plan turned back on her.
Both Abraham and Sarah "multiplied their sorrow" by turning to Hagar. As soon as Hagar knew she was pregnant, she looked down on her mistress. That was only the beginning of the many sorrows that flowed from rushing after nature's resources. An Egyptian slave woman trampled down Sarah's dignity, and Sarah found herself in a place of weakness and contempt. The only true place of dignity and power is the place of felt weakness and dependence.
But the household does not stay that way.
There must be liberty in the house for all who are of God, and no one tangled again in the yoke of slavery. Every remnant of law, world and flesh must go. Only what is of promise stays… Then comes the decisive moment. What is of the flesh persecutes what is of the Spirit… but then, and not till then, the slave woman is cast out with her son.
The same writer draws his advice from the verses that follow.
Is it not worth noting that the next verses in Proverbs 30 speak of "things which are little"? Let us be content to be small, thinking no high thoughts of ourselves and seeking no position of greatness in the church. Then the wisdom and grace needed for the path of verses 29 to 31 will be ours. We shall move through this scene of moral ruin with a "stately step" that honours God and bears witness to Him before others.
- Unbearable. The verse names two reversals the ground itself cannot carry. Writers see the same unrest in homes, workplaces and nations today.
- Reach. Ahab's marriage to idolatrous Jezebel was one of his sins, and her scheming cost Naboth his life. A woman's influence over a man is considerable.
- Rank. The maidservant made heir pictures Hagar. Behind her stands the first man, given the place that belongs only to "the second Man… the Lord from heaven."
- Ruin. Sarah turned to Hagar and multiplied her own sorrow. Her slave trampled her dignity, for the only true place of dignity is felt weakness and dependence.
- Remedy. The chapter turns next to "things which are little." Be content to be small, seek no position of greatness, and the wisdom and grace for the path will be yours.