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!”