The last two chapters of the Proverbs are remarkable as giving us the words of Agur, the son of Jakeh, in a prophecy, and thus fitly closing up the proverbial wisdom of Solomon to his son according to the flesh. Historically, God was in the end displeased with this wisest of men, and the king in Jerusalem, the glory of whose person and throne had won the heart of the Queen of Sheba, became an idolator. Solomon was turned aside by "the strange woman." against whom he had warned his son Rehoboam, and Rehoboam was led away by false counselors, notwithstanding the proverbs of his father. A wise king, a righteous throne, and a prosperous nation governed in the fear of the Lord, in which all true greatness consists, was not found in Solomon's successor. Rehoboam forsook the counsel of the old men, and answered the people after the advice of the young men, saying "My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions." 1 Kings 12:1414And spake to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. (1 Kings 12:14).
Agur (a stranger), the son of Jakeh, who is ungenealogized-without father and without mother, so to speak-gathers together the words of this chapter, and, like Elihu to Job, takes the place of God. As Melchisedek displaced Abraham, so that the less was blessed of the better, so this unknown Agur utters his prophecy, and in this sense, supersedes Solomon and the Proverbs. This stranger (Agur) spake unto Ithiel (or God with me), even unto Ithiel, and Ucal (or the Mighty One-God for me), and these two persons, with their respective names and characters, as they pass out of prophecy and the book of Proverbs, become to us, in New Testament revelation none other than Jesus -Immanuel, or the Savior-Ithiel, while God for us, or the Ucal-the Mighty One-who can be against us?-takes this place after the death and resurrection of Christ as His Iamb and our substitute.
The incarnation of Jesus introduced our mystery; the Ithiel, or God manifest in the flesh, and His resurrection from the dead made the Mighty God known as the Ucal, or God for us, against all that was against us, consummated by the mighty power which He wrought in Christ, the ascended One, now sitting on the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens.
The man Agur, who spake in prophecy unto Ithiel and Ucal, must have had the anointed ear to hear of the new and hidden wisdom of Solomon's greater son-the true and divine source of life and light. This stranger (the son of Jakeh), who demanded "What is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell?" must, in spirit, sit at the feet of Jesus-Ithiel-to hear the descended One from heaven say, "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent. and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." And again. "No man knoweth who the Son is but the Father; and who the Father is but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him." Luke 10:2222All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. (Luke 10:22).
Our Ithiel (Jesus) when on earth, in the midst of His Agur (disciples), and before the gift of the Holy Ghost, had also His own proverbs and prophecies, as, for example, in John 16. “These things have I spoken to you in proverbs, but the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father." Nor was it till, as the descended One, and the ascending One. He said to them, "I came forth from the Father, and ant come into the world; and again, I leave the world, and go to the Father." that the disciples said unto Him. "Lo! now speakest Thou plainly, and speakest no proverb." He had spoken to them also in parables, but the time was then come for the true Ithiel, and the one living and true Ucal, to pass out of parables and proverbs, so that in the full disclosure of the Father's name, and the Son's name, the disciples said. "Now are we sure that Thou knowest all things, and neediest not that any man should ask Thee: by this we believe that Thou cattiest forth from God." On their part, too, they drop the proverbs and parables, which concealed the Father and the Son's names, and tarry in Jerusalem for the descent of the Holy Ghost from heaven, under whose anointing they passed into the higher mysteries which mark our present fellowship, in the light where God dwells, with the Father and the Son!
This Agur, who had no understanding, and was in his own eyes more brutish than any one, yea, who had neither wisdom nor knowledge, when he viewed himself in the presence of the Creator God, turns from all else to the revelation that makes Him known by the Holy Spirit, and says, "Every word of God is pure: He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him. Add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.”
Thus the Word of God with its authority over us comes into its proper place after the declaration of the Father's name and the Son's name have been made known and accepted.
In the proverbs which Agur spoke unto Ithiel and Ucal, the man of God today is taught by the Spirit and the Word of God to see personified in these closing scenes before the coming of the Lord, the casting of Satan into the bottomless pit, with the horse-leech and his daughters, and the generations of the wicked.
We may observe, as regards these two last chapters of this wonderful book (Proverbs 30-31), that they introduce to us the man and the woman of old in new forms. The Agur of Proverbs 30, and the virtuous woman of Proverbs 31, whose price is "far above rubies," and in whom "the heart of her husband doth safely trust," are more familiar to our minds when they pass out of the obscurity of a proverb, and its mystic language, into the Song of Songs which is Solomon's.
There they are recognized as the bridegroom and the bride in the intimacies of living thoughts and loving affections, which all can understand. The Adam and Eve of Eden, or the first man and the first woman, have given place to this Agur (or stranger in this world), and the virtuous woman, who "will do him good, and not evil, all the days of her life.”
In the Song of Solomon these are seen in "a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon. Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and cat his pleasant fruits. Until the day break, and the shadows flee away. I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense. Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.” Song of Sol. 4:15, 16, 6, 715A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon. 16Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits. (Song of Solomon 4:15‑16)
6Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense. 7Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee. (Song of Solomon 4:6‑7).
We, whose happy lot it is to be waiting for the Lord's coming, the day of His espousals, and this marriage of the Lamb, can see how these bridal celebrations have only cast their shadows before them, whether in the Song of Solomon, or, as in Proverbs, where the illustrious, though hidden stranger. Agur, came to seek the virtuous woman, "whose candle goeth not out by night.”
The unveiled mystery in the Ephesians gives us, in complete revelation, the chaste virgin espoused to one husband, or the Eve that is being formed, passing out of type and figure, Proverbs or Song of Solomon, into the living reality of Christ, as the Head of the Church, and the Savior of the body.
May the Lord give us entire satisfaction and rest of heart, in the known revelation in which His love has set us, till the glory and the nuptial day shall make manifest that Christ "loved the church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." Eph. 5:25-2725Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:25‑27).