The Chapter 30 Diner (12)

 

“Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar.” Proverbs 30:5 – 6.

 

Why is every word of God tested? Or perhaps better, why does God put His own Word to the test? Is this not for His great glory, and is it not so that we will be encouraged to trust Him with our very lives, both for now and eternity?

 

Paul writes that eternal life was promised by “God, who cannot lie” (Titus 1:2).  

 

In Psalm 12:6 we read, “The words of Yahweh are pure words; as silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times.” In this passage, Yahweh’s pure words are contrasted with the words of those who “speak falsehood to one another; with flattering lips and a double heart.”

 

The KJV renders a portion of the above, “in a furnace of earth.” I have found this image helpful in that I see the furnace of earth as our own “earthen vessels” of 2 Cor. 4:7. As God’s Word is tested, our hearts are tested. As God’s Word is refined, our hearts, minds, souls, and bodies are refined. This is not to say that God’s Word actually needs purification or refinement, for His Word has been pure forever just as God is pure. Neither God nor God’s Word is subject to change, and Jesus Christ, the Word of God, “is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). The language of the refinement of His Word is language that God condescends to use to accommodate our understanding in order to draw us into koinonia with Himself.

 

God wants us to trust His Word, He wants us to trust His promises, He wants us to trust His love and grace in Jesus Christ. We have an example of how deeply God wants us to trust Him in Hebrews 6:13 – 20:

 

“For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear an oath by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “indeed I will greatly bless you and I will greatly multiply you.” And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. For people swear an oath by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath serving as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way God, desiring even more to demonstrate to the heirs of the promise the fact that His purpose is unchangeable, confirmed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to hold firmly to the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and reliable and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”

 

Here is how F.F. Bruce interacts with the above:

 

“Our author emphasizes the fact that when God repeated his promise to Abraham after the offering up of Isaac, he confirmed it with an oath. When human beings swear an oath in order to underline the certainty and solemnity of their words, they swear by someone or something greater than themselves. “As (surely as) Yahweh lives” was the supreme oath in Israel. Abraham himself swore by God and made others do the same (Gen. 14:22; 21:23f; 24:23). But, says our author, God has none greater than himself by whom to swear, so when he wished to confirm his promise in this way, he swears by himself (we may compare the recurring “as I live” in divine oracles throughout the Old Testament)…”

 

“The bare word of God is guarantee enough in all conscience, but by confirming it thus he ‘makes assurance double sure.’” (The Epistle to the Hebrews, F.F. Bruce, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, page 154).

 

God gave Abraham reassurance that His Word can be trusted, and He gives that same reassurance to us through His timeless and eternal Word. David says, “As for God, His way is blameless; the word of Yahweh is tried; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him” (Psalm 18:30). Paul writes, “For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed…” (2 Timothy 2:12).

 

Is not life a matter of whom we trust? Of whose word we trust? Of whose understanding and perception we trust?

 

Jesus Christ is the ultimate Word of God, He is the deep Word of God, He is the exact Word of God – and He can be fully and completely trusted.

 

How foolish for the creature to think that he or she knows more than the Creator. How arrogant for a man or woman, born a sinner, born in spiritual death, born with deficient intellectual, emotional, and spiritual capacity to think that she or he can sit in judgment on the Word of God; for to sit in judgment of the Word of God is to sit in judgment of God Himself.

 

If we would judge God’s Word, then let us, with Agur, judge His Word to be true and tested; let us submit ourselves to His Word and allow His Word to judge us so that we might be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. As saints in Christ, let us place ourselves under the authority and power and working of His Word so that we might know the glorious rest we have in Jesus Christ (Hebrews 4:11 – 16).

 

It is really the height of arrogance to judge and question the Word of God, that Word which has been tested in all generations. This does not mean that we “check our minds at the door” as some would suggest, it is rather an informed decision in which we choose to believe our Creator, our Father, our Lord Jesus – as opposed to all other claims of truth, beauty, and goodness.

 

Tell me now, when you breathe your last breath, do you want to have lived life trusting in God and His Word…or in the changing words of changing men and women?

 

The Chapter 30 Diner (11)

 

 

“Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar.” Proverbs 30:5 – 6.

 

What does it mean that, “Every word of God is tested”? If every one of God’s words is tested, indeed, if the Word of God is tested, then why?

 

What would we think if every word of ours was tested? Would every one of our words pass the test of truthfulness, reliability, and of good character and loving and just and holy motive? Would we be willing to submit everyone of our words to a test?

 

To be sure, whether we are willing or not, the decision whether to submit our words to a test is not ours to make, it has already been made, for Jesus says that “…every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36 – 37).

 

This should not surprise us, for we also read in Matthew 12:33 – 35, “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak of what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil.”

 

Even a cursory review of Proverbs demonstrates the importance that God attaches to our words, for the subject of the tongue and our words appears on every page; but, of course, probably the most well-known Biblical passage on our words and the tongue is James Chapter 3, a chapter (if you will pardon the unintentional pun) we tend to give lip service to rather than obedience. Let’s consider how James concludes this section:

 

“Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.

 

“But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peacable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” (James 3:13 – 18).

 

I don’t think most of us believe the above. Before I say anymore, I will share that our merciful God has convicted me many times about my words, both of what I have said and the way I have said them; more often than not, I have been convicted of the latter – for I know what it is to be sarcastic and cutting and biting. Another passage, much in line with James Chapter 3, is 2 Timothy 2:24 – 26, and I will say that God has convicted me of this passage countless times. When the Holy Spirit speaks to me from these passages, I not only confess and repent of what I have said and done, but I also ask God to show me what is in my heart that caused these things to come out – and to purify my heart; for as Jesus says, our words are expressions of our hearts. We have no excuses, our hearts must be purified so that our words will be pure and Christ will be glorified.

 

What amazes me is how professing Christians can profess to believe the Bible and yet engage in the demonic behavior described in James without a second thought. We see this particularly in the political realm. We play the role of the devil when we speak of those with whom we disagree, and yet we justify the actions and language of those we approve of even when they mirror the demonic behavior of James 3, not to mention other sections of the Bible. We become like those we politically worship, just as ancient Israel became like the idols they worshipped. We rationalize away our behavior rather than repent of it, and in so doing cause this evil to grow deeper in our hearts and minds and souls.

 

We should also be aware that the words and images that we allow into God’s temple, both our individual temples and the Temple, matter, for those words and images take up abode in our souls. This brings into view not only the political world, but all of life – education, medicine, entertainment, sports, civil organizations, and the religious world.

 

But having our words tested goes beyond James 3, for it also has to do with the quality of our words, of whether our words glorify our Lord Jesus Christ, whether they are rooted and grounded in Him. This is one reason why knowing the Bible is critical for the Christian, for the Bible shapes our minds and souls, it cultivates our hearts, it teaches us how to think and meditate, it gives us frameworks through which to view situations, it washes our minds and cleanses our hearts, it renews our souls and spirits, it raises us above the dirt of the world-system and brings us into the Light of Jesus Christ.

 

O dear friends, we are called to be witnesses to Jesus Christ and the Gospel, not to political or economic agendas. Are we speaking to people about Jesus Christ as a way of life? Is this the way we are living? Are we praying with people? Who have we prayed with within the past month within our congregations? Have we prayed with strangers lately? Have we listened to strangers to understand how to better pray for them?

 

How are we actually living?

 

Are we quick to speak of political or economic or social issues…but slow to speak of Jesus?

 

Am I?

 

Are you?

 

Make no mistake, our words will be tested.

The Chapter 30 Diner (10)

 

 

“What is His name, or His son’s name? Surely you know!” Proverbs 30:4e.

 

As we saw in the last post in this series, Agur knows the answer to the first part of his question, but what about second? Just what is His son’s name? When Agur says, “Surely you know!” is that simply rhetorical or does Agur mean that Ithiel and Ucal really know both the name of Yahweh and the name of Yahweh’s son?

 

If Agur, Ithiel and Ucal know the name of Yahweh, does it follow that they also know the name of Yahweh’s son? How might they have been thinking about this? How might we think about this?

 

Consider Exodus 4:22, “Then you shall say to Pharoah, “Thus says Yahweh, Israel is My son, My firstborn.”

 

But then we also have:

 

“I will surely tell of the decree of Yahweh, He said to me, You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as Your possession.” Psalm 2:7 – 8.

 

“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders, and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6.

 

We also have Jesus (Matthew 22:41 – 46) asking, “Then how does David in the Spirit call Him Lord, saying, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, until I put Your enemies beneath your feet”? (A quotation from Psalm 110). This question was in response to the Pharisees saying that Messiah is King David’s son.

Then there is Proverbs 8:24ff, “When there were no depths I was born, when there were no springs abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before the hills I was born; while He had not yet made the earth and the fields, nor the first dust of the world. When He established the heavens, I was there…”

 

Why did Agur ask this question about the name of the son? What was he thinking and seeing? What did he know? While in one sense we may not be able to answer these questions, we can be assured that the Holy Spirit inspired these words and we know the answer, His Name is Jesus.

 

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten fro the Father, full of grace and truth…No one has seen God at any time, the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known.” (John 1:14, 18).

 

“And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David…the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:31, 32, 35c).

 

Let’s consider how the Gospel of John begins alongside of what follows Agur’s question, “What is…His son’s name?”

 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” John 1:1 – 2.

 

“Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar.” Proverbs 30:5 – 6.

 

Since the Scriptures are inspired by God, it can be no accident that the Word and the Son are linked in both the beginning of John’s Gospel and in Proverbs 30:4 – 6. All “words of God” (Proverbs 30:5) find their source in the “Word of God,” (John 1:1). The “words” of God are an expression of God; the Word of God is the express expression of God, the fulness of God, the exact representation of God – God of very God.

 

In the words of the Nicene Creed, we believe:

 

“…in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.”

 

And to think, “God is faithful, through whom you were called into koinonia with His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,” (1 Cor. 1:9). We have been called to share His life, His love, His joy, His glory, His inheritance. In the Son, we have been called to be the expression of our Father as we are conformed to the image of the glorious Firstborn Son (Romans 8:28 – 30).

 

“What is His name or His son’s name? Surely you know!”

 

 

The Chapter 30 Diner (9)

 

“What is His name, or His son’s name? Surely you know!” Proverbs 30:4e.

 

Agur and Job both knew the Name of God, and Agur draws attention to His Name in this final question posed in verse 4. Consider the English translation (in this case the NASB) of verse 9a: “That I not be full and deny You and say, “Who is the LORD?”

 

Since the word LORD is capitalized, we know that the Hebrew word is the tetragrammaton, the four Hebrew letters that comprise the name Yahweh.

 

Job also knew His Name; “He [Job] said, Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away, Blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 2:21 – 22).

 

Do we know His Name? Probably not. Few folks in a Sunday school class or small group could correctly answer Agur’s question – and these are people motivated enough to be in such groups; imagine the responses from an average congregation in a Sunday service.

 

This is curious on a few fronts. One curiosity is that many professing Christians would have some degree of heartburn if we quit using the name Jesus, Christ, or Jesus Christ, when referring to our Lord and Savior. After all, didn’t Peter preach, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12)?

 

Paul writes in Philippians 2:10 - 11, “so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

 

Suppose we started substituting “Lord and Savior” for every time the name “Jesus” appears in the New Testament? Of course we’d capitalize these words so that the informed reader would know that they mean “Jesus.” How would this work for us?

 

If such a practice, that of not using the name Jesus, would be unacceptable and thought not faithful to the Biblical text, then why do we maintain this practice of substituting LORD for Yahweh? Should we change this practice? Is it important? If so, why is it important?

 

This is not something we think about, or if we do, we don’t think about it much, which is pretty amazing considering that the name Yahweh appears over 6,800 times in the Old Testament and carries with it the special revelation of the Creator and the Covenant God who is holy and just and perfect and who keeps Covenant with His People.

 

Consider:

 

“The name Yahweh is a strong tower; the righteous runs into it and is safe.” Prov. 18:10.

 

“In that day you will say, Give thanks to Yahweh, call on His name.” Isa. 12:4

 

“Indeed, while following the way of Your judgments, O Yahweh, we have waited for You eagerly; Your name, even Your memory, is the desire of our souls.” Isa. 26:8

 

“Therefore thus says Yahweh…they will sanctify My name.” Isa. 29:22 – 23.

 

“I am Yahweh, that is My name, I will not give My glory to another, nor My praise to graven images.” Isa. 42:8

 

“Who is among you that fears Yahweh?...let him trust in the name of Yahweh and rely on his God.” Isa. 50:10.

 

There is a difference between reading the above using “LORD” and reading the above using “Yahweh.” If this difference is not readily apparent, I think it will become apparent with practice, that is, if we train ourselves to read “Yahweh” when we see “LORD” we will, I think, begin to see the weight of glory and revelation that His Name carries throughout the Old Testament. After all, the name Yahweh is on virtually every page of the Old Testament and He is anything but a nebulous god indistinguishable from the false gods of both ancient and modern times.

 

And let’s remember, when Yahweh comes to earth in the Incarnation, He comes with the name Jesus, which means Yahweh-saves.

 

Let me try to make a few more points.

 

The Septuagint (LXX), the ancient translation of Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, did not transliterate Yahweh, but substituted the word “Lord.” Also, at some point, Jews stopped pronouncing the name Yahweh and used the word “Lord.” To argue that we should follow these examples is unsatisfying, for after all, if Yahweh has revealed His Name to us, ought not we to use His Name? On page after page of the Hebrew Bible we see the tetragrammaton, and on page after page of our English Old Testament we see the tetragrammaton written as “LORD” – how can we intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually ignore this glorious Name with its rich covenantal heritage, a heritage of which we are heirs as the seed of Abraham and Messiah (Christ)?

 

But here is a warning, there is nothing “magical” about this Name, and there is nothing in using this Name that makes the person who uses it special or apart from the People of God who may not use the Name or who may be unaware of its Glory. I have to write this because we have a propensity to think, “I know something you don’t. I have a special practice you don’t. I am living at a higher level than you are.” Yes, such things are childish, but if we aren’t a childish people then I don’t know what we are, so we need this warning. It seems we will create divisions and sects at the slightest opportunity. Therefore, if you feel any inclination to be “special” vis-à-vis the People of God, please forget you read this and go read about sports or find a Peanuts comic strip – you’ll be better off…and come back when you grow up in Christ.

 

Also, note that the New Testament writers, who wrote in Greek with the likely exception of Mark’s Gospel, which was likely in Latin, did not use “Yahweh” but rather used “Lord,” following the style of the LXX. Why did they do this? Or better yet, why did the Holy Spirit inspire them to do this? Well, of course I don’t really know, but here are a couple of possibilities. The first is that since the LXX is what people were familiar with in the Greek – speaking world that it made sense to communicate in the form of the familiar. The second is that when communicating with those who did not know the LXX, that using “Lord” instead of “Yahweh” made getting the Gospel message across much easier.

 

On the latter, consider Paul’s challenge to communicate in Athens (Acts 17) to educated audiences, if they were confused about the True and Living God and the name Jesus and the resurrection, how much more confusion might there have been had Paul introduced “Yahweh” into his message?

 

(I think we may have a communication model in Genesis chapters 1 and 2. In the first chapter we see “God” creating the heavens and the earth; then in the second chapter we see that this God has a name, “the LORD [Yahweh] God” in 2:4.)

 

Let’s remember, that Yahweh has revealed Himself in Jesus, in “Yahweh-saves,” and that our message is one of holistic and complete salvation in Jesus Christ, about living in koinonia with the Trinity – we must never lose sight of the Gospel and the Cross. Let us also recall that we have received the Spirit of sonship, which causes us to cry, “Abba Father” (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6), ushering in a New and Living Way (Heb. 10:20). It is our Father who is Creator, our Father who is the God of the Covenant, our Father who appears in the Burning Bush – and so when reading “Yahweh” we see so much more than was generally revealed to the Old Testament saints…including the mystery of the Trinity.  

 

I trained myself long ago to read “Yahweh” when I see “LORD.” This has become natural to me when reading to myself and when reading aloud. When I read OT Scripture to congregations and come to “LORD,” I usually point out what the capitalized word actually means and then I use the word “Yahweh” in my reading. This has been especially true in pastoral ministry for, after all, are not pastors called to educate their people? On the other hand, when preaching or speaking evangelistically I use the English word “Lord” because I want to keep the audience focused on the core of the Gospel message, once unbelievers become part of the Family we can move on to other things.

 

Now I realize that most people will not care about what I’ve written, or they will think it impractical…but really, if that is the case, then why don’t we simply remove the name “Yahweh” from our Hebrew Bibles? Why don’t we stop capitalizing it in English?

 

There is nothing quite like reading, “Yahweh is my shepherd…and I will dwell in the house of Yahweh forever.”